The Grace of Change

Your Big Yes

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This aliveness is what’s most important to me, and what I most wish — from the very core of my being — for us all.

I don’t know about you, but I regress to toddlerhood when my life falls apart. Those times when the cherished whatever that defines me and gives my life meaning — healthy body, interesting work, kids at home, relationship with someone I love — falls away, usually wrested from my fist tightly wrapped around said cherished whatever.

Noooooooooooo, I say to life/God: no, you can’t have this, it’s MINE. Nooooooooooo, this CAN’T be my life. My life, my good life, my best life, HAS to have (fill in the blank: health, wealth, primary partnership, your own cherished whatever).

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh lordy. This primal NO sucks the juice right out of me. It obliterates both the “wild” and the “precious” from my wild and precious life.

Enter the Big Yes: the no-holds-barred Yes to your own life, with or without your cherished whatevers.

Your Big Yes doesn’t depend on your health, your bank account, or your age.

Meditating with Chocolate

So here we are with Valentine’s Day chocolate erupting everywhere, and you’re wondering how to sashay that fine line between deprivation (ick!) and overindulgence.

Have I got a treat for you! Here’s a way of – get this – meditating with chocolate. Ladies, how good can that get?

The exercise — or play, as I like to think of it — is to develop mindfulness, awareness of the present moment without judgment. Mindfulness is one of the cornerstones of pleasure, deepening our capacity for it in all its forms. After all, if we’re stressing about the meeting tomorrow, or beating ourselves up for forgetting to return that phone call, how can we relish the grace and pleasure of this moment?

Mindfulness is traditionally developed through meditation. I say, how about developing mindfulness and cultivating pleasure at the same great time?