Mood and exercise are related. If we feel ugh, we move around it doesn't take much to shake off the funk. Same with food and mood, move a muscle change a thought!
Move first and the motivation will follow!

There's always some beauty in extending one's boundaries. And I guess it’s quite random what feels naturally fun for whom and which boundaries need to be pushed next.
Suppose seeing your whole body develop under your actions and feeling your strength-potential increase is a valid motivation too and can make people feel happy for quite a while.
It's self-efficiency.
After all... if you take "working out" seriously its quite a challenge... you got to understand a lot about your body, you got to develop intelligent training methods, you got to learn how to push your boundaries without harming yourself by wanting too much, etc...
But yeah, natural flow from an organic movement which carries its meaning in itself is kind of next level. but after all, you always want a "reward" for moving your ass - be it the apparently humble the reward of a runners flow or the a-little-weird-reward-of-standing-in-front-of-a-mirror(object/pseudo-subject)-and-appreciating-what-one-sees after an intense workout.

Being this body is easier than believing I am inside it, I’ve never seen me...



love light and peace
ps/smoh

It's okay to answer questions with questions. That rule that says we can't is nonsense.

Isn’t that the mark of a good education (even if not acquired in school)?
To know how to ask good questions instead of giving "confident" answers.

I find new questions often far more useful than answers anyway.
Good questions are often more useful than any answers. Every time a more beautiful answer, that brings up a more beautiful question.

My favorite answers are good questions. Love being sent back within to find something I couldn’t see out.
I don’t remember ever getting frustrated with someone who answered one of my questions with another question.
 I don’t remember ever having a demand that someone else feed me an answer. I appreciate being pointed in a direction.

If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't.
And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would.

You see?

love light and peace
ps/smoh

This is today

I was somewhere today listening to a few people speak and at one point a man said, "Reckless unawareness" in response to a question about what triggers him.

"Reckless unawareness."

It struck me as such a common problem wrapped into a vibrant phrase.

"Reckless unawareness."

I couldn't really begin to picture what it was even as I could feel it happening all around me.
On the freeway.
In the markets.
In front of television sets.
Perhaps even face-to-face with family members, or lovers, or bosses, or animals.

"Reckless unawareness."

I couldn't find fault or judgment or shame in that way where I could accuse someone of it.
"You there, being recklessly unaware."
No.
Not like that.
Just more like a secret of the world that was in plain sight suddenly.

I don't think it means much to try and fix it with prescriptions and commands and to-do's as much as to simply repeat it here, his phrase so eloquent and concise:

"Reckless unawareness."  I also call it "Willful Obliviousness

love light and peace

ps/smoh

This Might Be a Common Muddle

I don't know what I am doing sometimes and it's not awkward until somebody else asks me, 

"What are you doing?" and then I have to come up with something.

I could ask them right back, 

"What are you doing?" and they'd have to admit they are using me to find purpose and meaning in their lives through inquiring into what I am doing but probably less likely to do that as much as say something like, 

"I asked you first."

Then we'd both have to stand there and stare each other down, waiting for one of us to come up with an answer and explain, indeed and matter of fact, what it is we are up to besides looking at each other.

Seems many of us, I assume you included, have done so much we can't imagine we are still alive yet again trying to find something more to do. 

It's like we could, if we could, sit back and relax into the amazing life we've to lead so far with all the ups and downs and ins and outs and side trips and oversights and what not and just bask in the wow of how'd that all happen so fast without any hint of having to fill yet another day with yet another whatever we can figure out to stuff it with.

Maybe the next time somebody asks 

"What are you doing?" I can say something like "avoiding questions for now". That might be a thing I could be accomplishing and save us both from having to prove that otherwise we aren't really doing anything at all.

It’s just a dance of words that float away.

love light and peace

ps/smoh

This is A Personal Bill of Rights for ALL!

1. Have the right to ask for what I want.

2. Have the right to say no to demands I cannot meet.

3. Have the right to express my feelings, positive or negative.

4. Have the right to change my mind.

5. Have the right to make mistakes and not have to be perfect.

6. Have the right to follow my own standards.

7. Have the right to say no to anything when I feel I am not ready, it is unsafe, or it violates my values.

8. Have the right to determine my own priorities.

9. Have the right not to be responsible for others' behavior, actions, feelings, or problems.

10. Have the right to expect honesty from others. (I might add an addendum... while accepting that I won't always receive it. Know that people lie and it's inevitable that they'll lie to you. That way it's not a surprise and there's no need to get mad when it happens. It will happen.)

11. Have the right to be angry at someone I love.

12. Have the right to be uniquely myself.

13. Have the right to feel scared and say "I'm scared."

14. Have the right to say "I don't know".

15. Have the right to not give excuses or reasons for my behavior.

16. Have the right to make decisions based on my feelings.

17. Have the right to my own needs for personal space and time.

18. Have the right to be playful and frivolous.

19. Have the right to be healthier than those around me.

20. Have the right to be in a non-abusive environment.

21. Have the right to make friends and be comfortable around people.

22. Have the right to change and grow.

23. Have the right to have my needs and wants to be respected by others.

24. Have the right to be treated with dignity and respect.

25. Have the right to be happy.

love light and peace

ps/smoh

Other Notes From the Field

My ignorance is greater than my intelligence by the size of the things I cannot know to not know about. Dumbly peaceful in me.
Maybe it could be that one does not need to know to be intelligent.
Maybe intelligence is a quality that appears no matter what I know about.

I have no contact with 90% of my bloodline and it has been the most healing choice I have ever made to cut those cords. At some point, one's own sanity and peace must prevail. The joy of setting boundaries and sticking to them is now called: Cactusing. "I had to cactus them."

You have every right to preserve your emotional integrity.

Despite the trials and chaos of our times, we still have a choice. We can choose our daily emotions and reality. We don't have to let the negativity of our times become the emotions of our character.

I grew up with many who were quite happy to take their shit out on others. They were quite capable of yelling, blaming and talking behind one’s backs, but when it came time to be accountable and to process their actions, they always had an excuse:

they weren’t “feeling well,”

they weren’t “up to it,”

their “nerves were shot.”

Perhaps you can relate to this manipulative pattern the perfect set-up for one-sided abuse.

Bottom line- If you have the energy to initiate a conflict, you have the energy to work it through.

All those excuses equal one thing - running away.

Don’t wait until your death bed to finally open your heart, safe in the knowledge that your vulnerability is time-limited. Better to in wakening now. .Let it go, be in the present, heals the blindness of humanity and lives peacefully. 

That's it, that's all that is it. 

Back to the present times, we need to be. 

The world needs peace, not conflict, not propaganda, not more evil. 

I wish more people had the insight and courage to heal their broken souls there are far too many in the world, what a more loving world we would be...

I wish I could stop evil. 

I wish I could have protected friends that got hurt but I know life has gotten so much harder with the amount of racist, hateful and homophobic people in the world. 

I wish I knew how to talk without it being condemned by people with different and changing ideologies that are often not compassionate.

More than anything, we long to be seen. To be held in a safe, all-accepting presence, and be seen through loving eyes.

The way the spontaneous meets the inevitable...

The way a smile isn't always a weapon.

The way each memory also haunts the yet-to-be-remembered.

The way a door hinge does all the work.

The way people who work with their hands understand textures.

The way the universe loves stars and insects.

The way a love walks in and just sits down as is and the whole world comes over and feeds it.

The way it pops up at the right moment only.

The way the universe is missing something kinder than us.

So

love light and peace

ps/smoh

You are your story, just like a book is a book.

The saying, "you are not your story," is trying to say that we are more than what happened to us. While that may be intrinsically true, any form of bypassing doesn't work and is not healthy. You have to work this stuff or it never leaves you. People seem to find the kind of religion or spirituality that will reinforce, rather than heal, their defenses.

I wanted to flee my past, so I conveniently bought into that.

Beware the transcendence bypasses who deny the significance of our stories. They are often deeply unwell. 

It’s one thing to say that we should not get trapped inside of our stories, but to suggest that all of our stories are without value and merit, is to deny our existence. I understand that they believe there is something greater awaiting us beyond the self but they are wrong. Whatever greatness awaits us must thread through the heart of the self, so that our experience of the “beyond,” is rooted in something real: our precious humanity and that is the only path home.

The story bypassing troupe has forgotten that their non-story shtick is a story, too. It’s always a story. The question is what we are going to do with it? 

Are we going to dive into the heart of it and expand in karmic stature through the learning of the lesson, or are we going to drown in our unresolved, floating numb and detached down in denial?

Do not deny the veracity of our suffering and distract us from the deeper issue: that which sources our thoughts. 

Turn toward our stories, and find our true-path right at our heart. I agree with the underlying philosophy, that we are so much more than our thoughts.

This philosophy seeks to find the rest of who we are beyond the self and seek to find it right at the heart of the self itself. 

We human being with emotionally integrated, richly nuanced, and full-bodied vital and robust.

Simply choose to live simply and work on being honest about our experience a little more each day. Just remember the only person you can truly believe in is yourself. 

We all are searching for our true purpose and our story is part of us if we ditch the story we ditch our very soul. 

Our story is our very being in human and spiritual form.

It’s what we have and have not learned our mistakes, our loves, our happiness, our joys, our sadness, our fear, our anger, our hatred and our peace of mind.

It includes the whole spectrum of feelings, deeds, and emotions. 

It’s not about the positive or negative...it’s about the purpose of the journey itself in its entire entirety in authenticity.

love light and peace

ps/smoh