KEEPING LIFE SIMPLE ~ WAKE UP!
March 3, 2010 by Lorraine
Filed under Growth, Spirit, • Headline
Over the past several months I have met many people who inherently know there is a path other than the one they have been walking for most of their lives which is calling for their attention.
It’s the path of peace that is calling and that which is available to all of us when we consciously make a decision to wake up and stop living our life in a story about who we think we are or what our life should or shouldn’t look like. It’s waking up to realize life is living you – you are not living life. When you come to this realization you witness that life becomes the driver of life itself ~ the mind along with its endless thoughts about who you are, what you should or should not be doing is now taking a back seat.
I feel very blessed to have come to this realization and although life challenges continue to come in this direction they just appear to move through this body in whatever way and in whatever time frame is required. Once we are caught by the flame of consciousness and honor the calling to wake up and be mindful of what is occurring in our life in any given moment and do so without resistance, we begin to witness that there is an ease to living our life when we remain open. Open to what is showing up in our life, open to the experience, open to how long it wants to remain in the body and open to the feelings and emotions that arise. All that is required is to simply say YES – yes to what is, as it is.
Make a conscious decision over the next 30 days to wake up each day and be mindful of how life is moving through yourSELF. Notice when you are not open, notice when your heart feels closed and your body tense. Notice if you can relax into the feeling without putting a label on the experience. Become the observer of life moving through you and let it move, or let it sit ~ just let it be, and then see what is true or not. Don’t forget to share your insights with us.
Honour your spirit and walk towards the journey your heart desires.
In love, Lorraine
VividLife.me Contributor
About Lorraine:
Lorraine Wilson has been on a journey of self discovery for many years. She openly shares her experience with others and offers hope, inspiration and an invitation to “Keep Life Simple” through self inquiry. She lives on the West Coast with her children. Lorraine has been influenced and is incredibly grateful for the teachings of Gangaji, Adyashanti, Eckart Tolle, Pamela Wilson, Muni and His Holiness, The Dalai Lama.
She has worked in the field of communications and broadcasting for over 30 years and utilizes her communication skills as a program facilitator and provides one on one support to others who desire to investigate their life journey. Stayed tuned for ‘Keeping Life Simple’ on VividLife Radio. The program will be an opportunity for everyone in the community to come together to discuss and be supported in the never ending discovery of who we truly are.
Keeping Life Simple – Accepting reality
How do you consciously meet the reality of your life? Do you tell the truth to yourself about your reality or do you resist it? Are you willing to be open to the reality of your life 100% and notice what it triggers in your being? Each day the landscape of our life changes and we find ourselves in a new place of reality. More often than not we tend to resist the aspects of the realities of life that are unpleasant to deal with, and as a result, we find ourselves in a place of suffering.
So what is reality, really? Let’s keep it simple, if it’s raining, it’s raining, if you car has broken down, the reality is your car isn’t working. Or in this moment, your reality may be somewhat deeper than that, perhaps you have lost your job, you’re sick, you’ve lost a loved one and you’re grieving. These situations are very real, they are here NOW, in this moment in our lives – it is our reality.
So what to do? The truth is, we cannot argue with reality – it’s futile to try to do so, it is what it is. We can’t change the fact that someone we loved has died, we can’t change the fact that perhaps we are suffering with an illness of some kind but what we can do is make a choice of how we will simply be with that reality and loving ourselves in this place. When we become mindful about what is occurring in our life and accept the reality of our situation the suffering created from resisting it appears to subside. If you are not surrendering to your reality it will most probably be causing you suffering of some form. Remember, what you resist persists and what you embrace you erase.
I am not suggesting that any of us like the feeling that loss and pain can bring into our lives but acknowledging that it is present and letting it be is an option. My experience has been that when we speak the truth about our reality it begins to have less power because we have consciously acknowledged what is.
Be mindful to meet your reality as it arises, let go of time frames about when it should change or disappear. Let go of expectations, just let it be, let it have its time with you it will dissipate on its own accord anyway. Keep your life simple ~
Some words of wisdom from Gangaji www.gangaji.org about reality.
“To meet reality is ruthless. To meet it without the mediation of the thought “I can control this,” is to face death. Really to face death, here and now. This is Ramana’s awakening. Papaji said, “Stop.”
If your life is about going, becoming, getting or escaping—stop. The invitation is to let the life that is living this life, live it. When you let life live itself, you are actually surrendering to yourself.”
Honour your spirit and walk towards the journey your heart desires.
In love, Lorraine
VividLife.me Contributor
About Lorraine
Lorraine Wilson has been on a journey of self discovery for many years. She openly shares her experience with others and offers hope, inspiration and an invitation to “Keep Life Simple” through self inquiry. She lives on the West Coast with her children.
Lorraine has been influenced and is incredibly grateful for the teachings of Gangaji, Adyashanti, Eckart Tolle, Pamela Wilson, Muni and His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. She has worked in the field of communications and broadcasting for over 30 years and utilizes her communication skills as a program facilitator and provides one on one support to others who desire to investigate their life journey.
Stayed tuned for ‘Keeping Life Simple’ on VividLife Radio. The program will be an opportunity for everyone in the community to come together to discuss and be supported in the never ending discovery of who we truly are.
Keeping Life Simple Through Times of Transition
Keeping Life Simple Through Times of Transition
At some point during our lives we find ourselves going through some form of transition. Going through transition often puts us in a place of not knowing what lies ahead, or even if we do know what lies ahead, we may not have a reference point of what it is going to look or feel like and that can create fear and doubt.
Transition can show up in the form of changes in relationships, jobs, leaving one home to embrace another, moving to another country with a new language and culture or reinventing yourself to honour your passion in life with a whole new career path.
Whatever the circumstance, for some of us, transition can appear to be challenging, but if we are conscious and remain in the moment with what is, as it is, and not label the way we feel, transition is just that ~ transition from one moment to the next.
Even when we do have a compass of where we are going in life most of us have experienced that the best laid plans can change in an instant.
Whenever life appears to be challenging as we move through times of transition begin to notice if your thoughts are made up of scenarios from past experiences or are they related to expectations of the future? When we live our life in the moment and surrender to everything as it is, in that moment, there actually is no problem. Look into that statement deeper, if you will, and see for yourself what you discover.
When we label our circumstances and feelings our mind begins to tell us a story of our life situation but it’s the way we choose to perceive our life challenges that make them appear as if they are difficult or not. And, when we surrender and welcome everything in our life as it is and trust that this moment is perfect and there is no resistance present, it’s then we can discover ourselves in a place of freedom – freedom from the mind and stories it tells us . Welcome to keeping your life simple.
Honour your spirit and walk towards the journey your heart desires.
In love,
Lorraine
VividLife.me Contributor
About Lorraine
Lorraine Wilson has been on a journey of self discovery for many years. She openly shares her experience with others and offers hope, inspiration and an invitation to “Keep Life Simple” through self inquiry. She lives on the West Coast with her children.
Lorraine has been influenced and is incredibly grateful for the teachings of Gangaji, Adyashanti, Eckart Tolle, Pamela Wilson, Muni and His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. She has worked in the field of communications and broadcasting for over 30 years and utilizes her communication skills as a program facilitator and provides one on one support to others who desire to investigate their life journey.
Stayed tuned for ‘Keeping Life Simple’ on VividLife Radio. The program will be an opportunity for everyone in the community to come together to discuss and be supported in the never ending discovery of who we truly are.
Keeping Life Simple – Make a choice and let it go
January 6, 2010 by Lorraine
Filed under Growth, Spirit, • Headline
Think of all the choices you make and I’m sure you’ll be surprised at how many decisions you actually make in a day. Some of them are simple choices and some of them have more of an impact on life, but if we look closely at the difficulty we have in making some choices it may be that there is an underlying theme or an element of fear connected to them.
Fear of making the wrong choice can freeze us into doing nothing; simply out of fear of thinking we may make the wrong decision. Some of us really struggle with making choices in our lives but each decision we do make is a choice which leads us to the next step in our journey of life, and another experience to discover more deeply who we really are. Every choice we have made to date has been a constant unfolding that has led each of us, to who we are today. The decisions we make open the door for new experiences filled with joy, fear, stress, peace, vulnerability and love and at the end of the day, they are all choices towards a movement of expressing our way through life.
When we surrender to the fears that come along with making choices there’s a sense of freedom that arises in the knowing that you can’t make a wrong decision, it’s just a choice which will provide an experience. It’s all in the way we choose to view our life circumstances through our mind that makes it appear as if there is a problem with a specific choice we make or not.
If you listen to your heart when making choices and not let fear be the ruler of your decision making, you will discover there is no problem with making a choice. Decisions which are not driven by ego and fear have a particular feel to them. Take a moment to reflect back over the times when you have made choices in your life that resonated with your heart, the decisions that were not made out of fear – how did your body feel? I know mine feels free and joyful with an undeniable energy that runs through it that simply says ‘yes’.
Keep your life simple by knowing that the choices you make in your in life in this moment are perfect and there is no problem with choice when we live life in the moment – that too, is also a choice.
Honour your spirit and walk towards the journey your heart desires.
In love,
Lorraine
VividLife.me Contributor
About Lorraine
Lorraine Wilson has been on a journey of self discovery for many years. She openly shares her experience with others and offers hope, inspiration and an invitation to “Keep Life Simple” through self inquiry. She lives on the West Coast with her children.
Lorraine has been influenced and is incredibly grateful for the teachings of Gangaji, Adyashanti, Eckart Tolle, Pamela Wilson, Muni and His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. She has worked in the field of communications and broadcasting for over 30 years and utilizes her communication skills as a program facilitator and provides one on one support to others who desire to investigate their life journey.
Stayed tuned for ‘Keeping Life Simple’ on VividLife Radio. The program will be an opportunity for everyone in the community to come together to discuss and be supported in the never ending discovery of who we truly are.
Keeping Life Simple – The gift of silence
December 17, 2009 by Lorraine
Filed under Spirit, • Headline
Over the years as I searched for a deeper meaning and purpose in my life I kept coming across teachers that would point me towards silence. When I first began meditation the thought of being still and silent was difficult because I had never done this before. When had I ever stopped and just consciously been still with myself? I can tell you never. It took a tragedy in this life for me to come to that place. As I began to sit and be still with my thoughts, my mind would race, thought after thought , but eventually I settled and became the observer of my thoughts. It was then I noticed that thoughts were coming and going in this silence and eventually there was no thought, just this magical space of stillness.
What is the meaning of silence? Webster’s dictionary describes it as “the absence of any sound or noise; stillness.”
I wanted to know more about this stillness and began attending silent or weekend retreats over several years with various teachers such as Gangaji, Adyashaniti, Muni or Pamela Wilson to investigate the depth of awareness and the gift of silence. If you have never attended a silent retreat I highly encourage you to do so. These amazing teachers have the ability from their own experience to point you to the silence that is always present. You see, I was of the belief that being silent was boring and that nothing happens in silence, but in reality it’s quite the contrary.
Most people are reluctant to enter silence for long periods of time, or for any period of time for that matter. I’ve actually had conversations with people who tell me they are scared of being silent and would do anything not to arrive at that place. And why might that be? Perhaps there is the true knowing that when we enter into silence, we enter into a place where there is nowhere to go but to meet ourselves. We are so conditioned to the external stimulation of voices, television, radio, our mobile phones and thoughts of what we should be doing, that we rarely experience ourseleves in a state of silence. But when we eventually enter into silence with awareness, we enter into a place where we are meeting ourselves at a deeper level.
I love silence and it doesn’t mean that I have to be by myself to enter into it. As human beings, many of us are not comfortable when a conversation lags and silence enters, there is a natural tendency to move towards speaking to fill the gap, but if you allow silence to be present in your exchange with another, you will notice that it can have a very powerful effect in the absence of conversation.
When we intentionally enter into silence we get to be with ourselves without any external influence and it helps provide perspective on the true simplicity of life. Let me warn you though, the more you do this, the more you will want to hang out with your ‘self’ – what a concept! Notice how nature is always in silence, the trees, the mountains, the ocean, the flowers, the sun, the moon, they all exist in silence, take a look at their beauty. I would like to suggest you take one day and commit to ‘being’ in silence and take a walk out in nature and see for yourself, pay attention to the stillness . If you’re in a relationship ask your partner to enter into silence with you for a day and become aware of you both notice without using the mind and words to communicate with each other. Let your communication take place in the silence. It truly is a beautiful way to be.
Adyashanti says “There is a great space in which this moment takes place. There is a great silence that is listening to the thoughts”. May you discover the gift of silence this holiday season and may you live your life in love always.
Honour your spirit and walk towards the journey your heart desires.
In love,
Lorraine
VividLife.me Contributor
About Lorraine
Lorraine Wilson has been on a journey of self discovery for many years. She openly shares her experience with others and offers hope, inspiration and an invitation to “Keep Life Simple” through self inquiry. She lives on the West Coast with her children.
Lorraine has been influenced and is incredibly grateful for the teachings of Gangaji, Adyashanti, Eckart Tolle, Pamela Wilson, Muni and His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. She has worked in the field of communications and broadcasting for over 30 years and utilizes her communication skills as a program facilitator and provides one on one support to others who desire to investigate their life journey.
Stayed tuned for ‘Keeping Life Simple’ on VividLife Radio. The program will be an opportunity for everyone in the community to come together to discuss and be supported in the never ending discovery of who we truly are.
Keeping Life Simple – Living life in love
We’re all on a journey together in this lifetime to discover who we are. We can choose to let go of the clutter that clouds our minds and focus our attention on always acting or reacting from a place of love. Love of oneself, love of one another or love of the situation our lives may be in at any given moment.
When we live our lives authentically and from a place of love we may find that life does indeed become simpler. Where there is love there is freedom, because nothing is excluded, all situations and all beings are welcome.
Sometimes throughout the day we can all encounter someone who is not having a good day and they may choose to project their feelings towards you. And, it’s not about us needing to know why that person is speaking or acting towards us in such a manner, what is more important though, is how we choose to engage in the situation.
We all have our trigger points and if we stop and bring awareness to who we are and how we are feeling when these trigger points arise it’s an amazing opportunity, or it’s a gift, really, for us to meet the experience at a deeper level and inquire what has been triggered, how it is serving us and what is wanting to be discovered.
Make a point of paying attention next time you’re in such a circumstance and choose to keep your heart open and respond from a place of love, instead of reacting in the way you might usually do. See for yourself what happens. When you remain in a state of awareness and let love be the guide, it’s difficult for the ego to survive in that.
Give yourself a challenge over the next month to move from a place of love no matter what. We are all on this life journey together and as Gangaji says ‘mwe are one heart lighting candles all over the world’. Start lighting the candles in the places where you live and please post your experience here for others to witness.
Honour your spirit and walk towards the journey your heart desires.
Always in love,
Lorraine
Featured Contributor
About Lorraine
Lorraine Wilson has been on a journey of self discovery for many years. She openly shares her experience with others and offers hope, inspiration and an invitation to “Keep Life Simple” through self inquiry. She lives on the West Coast with her children.
Lorraine has been influenced and is incredibly grateful for the teachings of Gangaji, Adyashanti, Eckart Tolle, Pamela Wilson, Muni and His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. She has worked in the field of communications and broadcasting for over 30 years and utilizes her communication skills as a program facilitator and provides one on one support to others who desire to investigate their life journey.
Stayed tuned for ‘Keeping Life Simple’ on VividLife Radio. The program will be an opportunity for everyone in the community to come together to discuss and be supported in the never ending discovery of who we truly are.
Keeping Life Simple
November 18, 2009 by Lorraine
Filed under Growth, • Headline
Life challenges ~ paying attention to gratitude
What role does gratitude play in helping to keep our lives simple? Let’s face it life can be challenging at times, but when we take a moment to inquire what the challenge is really all about it provides an opportunity for us to be grateful for what is, as it is.
I’m not suggesting life challenges are the easiest situations to move through when we are faced with money, relationship, health issues or some form of loss. But what I do know to be true is when you make a choice to truly be open and surrender to these circumstances instead of resisting them, peace arises, and fear stops running the agenda.
When I reflect on the challenges I have encountered throughout my lifetime I can say without a doubt I am grateful for the experiences that have cracked this heart open. Mind you, at the time it’s occurring, we can all say ‘this doesn’t feel that great,’ and that is also true, but as we allow the heart to crack open during these challenging times it reveals the peace that is always there for us. We have been conditioned to avoid letting the heart break open at all costs but have you ever noticed when you have been through a very emotional experience in your life what tends to follow after the release of the heart cracking open is a sense of peace or stillness?
Have you ever begun your day and for no reasons at all you feel an amazing sense of joy, peace or love and there is absolutely nothing to attribute it to? You didn’t win the lottery, you’re not on vacation, your challenges haven’t disappeared, yet you feel free or at ease with life. This is what is calling for our attention, this is what is available to all of us in any given moment and, this is what helps to keep our life simple. This is what I am so deeply grateful for. And it’s that, which we can’t seem to name, but we know it intimately without a doubt when it arises.
Next time you feel this presence in your life, do yourself a favour and really stop to acknowledge it. I always take my hand and put it on my heart and say ‘yes, this is it ~ thank you, thank you. I am grateful for this’.
Honour your spirit and walk towards the journey your heart desires. Always in love,
Lorraine
VividLife.me Contributor
Lorraine Wilson
Lorraine Wilson has been on a journey of self discovery for many years. She openly shares her experience with others and offers hope, inspiration and an invitation to “Keep Life Simple” through self inquiry. She lives on the West Coast with her children.
Lorraine has been influenced and is incredibly grateful for the teachings of Gangaji, Adyashanti, Eckart Tolle, Pamela Wilson, Muni and His Holiness, The Dalai Lama. She has worked in the field of communications and broadcasting for over the 30 years and utilizes her communication skills as a program facilitator and provides one on one support to others who desire to investigate their life journey.
Stayed tuned for ‘Keeping Life Simple’ on VividLife Radio. The program will be an opportunity for everyone in the community to come together to discuss and be supported in the never ending discovery of who we truly are.
Keeping Life Simple website coming soon!
Keeping Life Simple – “I AM NOT MY THOUGHTS!”
November 4, 2009 by Lorraine
Filed under Editor's Pick, Growth, • Headline
My experience in life has been that when we live in the moment and remain conscious of our thoughts, feelings and actions, there is a natural flow to our life.
We have been conditioned to believe in everything our thoughts tell us – our mind is a very useful tool for helping us to live the practical parts of our life each day. The thoughts that fill our mind throughout any given day about who we are, or who we will become or cannot become, are just not true. Did you know the human brain produces approximately 70,000 thoughts on average per day? (ref: www.wiki.answers.com) Imagine if we attached ourselves and believed in every thought we had, we’d be exhausted.
More about our thoughts!
Thoughts are just thoughts, they come and go and there is no need for us to get on the thought train and actually become the thought, but it does take a certain vigilance to be conscious of not becoming the thought.
Wake up each day and make a commitment not to jump on the ‘train of thought’. Instead, make a choice to begin watching the stories your mind tells you and become the observer of your thoughts. When you begin to let these stories be present without action, they will come and go just like the moment they arrived.
As you become the observer of your life you’ll begin to discover and honour what rings true for you. Start making a conscious effort to let go of the judgements and the expectations not only of yourself, but also of others. It takes so much energy when we resist what is present in our lives. Have you ever heard of the saying ‘ what we resist persists, and what we embrace we erase’ ? When we welcome everything into our heart and let it be, there is no struggle. John Lennon said it beautifully, ‘when I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, let it be’. Everyone can have their own interpretation of what these words mean, but it’s the ‘let it be’ that brings about the peace. Try this next time your faced with a challenging situation in your life, and see what happens. It may be uncomfortable to begin with because we are used to taking control towards an outcome, but it is very interesting to watch what happens when you just let go, and let be, before reacting.
Discovering freedom
We can also discover more freedom in our lives when we start taking responsibility for who we are and stop holding others accountable for our behaviour, including our words and our actions. If anyone makes a comment or judgement about our lives and it triggers a reaction in us, it is our responsibility to go within and investigate what is wanting our attention. We all have the ability to choose how we will engage in any given situation and we have the ability to choose compassion over conflict.
Words of Wisdom
The Dalai Lama says “we all share an identical need for love, and that it is possible to feel that anybody we meet in whatever circumstances is a brother or sister. It is foolish to dwell on external differences, because our basic natures are the same. The key to a happy and more successful world is the growth of compassion”.
How do I begin to keep my life simple?
Our hearts are filled with enormous potential, there is no end to the love that is available to all. Where there is love, there is freedom. Make a conscious decision today to Keep Life Simple ~
Always in love,
Lorraine
Contributor
Lorraine Wilson
(C) 604-351-9205
www.callmediaworks.com
