It is Up to You to Create Your Beautiful Story

The power of your story will dictate how you act
and react to the environments around you.

Whether you have a meditation practice or not, remind yourself to pay attention to your thoughts as you act and react to situations. You will find that you replay over and over the same narratives to describe your experiences and interactions. 

The power of your story will dictate how you act and react to the environments around you. 

Are you are living the life of hard knocks? Or are you living a life that is polishing you from coal to diamond?

Today, turn your attention to the language you use and the thoughts you have that explain your life and the world around you. Story is so embedded in our experience that it’s often invisible, but this is where we can truly make a difference. 

Our personal stories impact our emotional wellbeing and human experience. Our thought processes follow the same training principles that we use to train our bodies. 
In other words, stories are “muscular.” Each telling is a repetition, whether out loud or in our mind. With repeated tellings, the story becomes more powerful in our experience, leading the way for our observations, expectations, attitudes and behavior. 

Once we understand the true depth and power of narrative in our lives, we become a lot more mindful of the stories that we tell and listen to.

Winter Solstice 2010: Deep into the Darkness of Winter

Reconnecting with your innermost
self can open the doors to an
entirely new and unpredictable path.

Tailoring A Personal Retreat
This winter solstice, I won't be traveling, so I intend to spend time attending to my home and creating a sacred space. I'm deep into intention to create a personal winter solstice retreat.

* Prepare my meditation space * 

* Set intention for solstice celebration

as earth makes the gentle rotation from darkness to light. *

Winter Cold Fastens its Grip : Inner Retreat

Every winter solstice I find myself meditating to a different vibration than from the year before, allowing myself to listen to the quite voice within.

Make Your Own Retreat: 
If you don't have the time for a retreat get-away that is organized outside of your home, you can still find retreat within your own home.

1) Find A Room, or a Spot Intended for Meditation
In our guest bedroom, I re-arranged the space so that I have quite spot in the corner of the room. I've placed a little rug and a meditation mat in front of a small table. I put a few candles and significant photographs on it. All of it can be easily tucked away when guests stay in the room.

2) Set a Time for You and No Excuses to Cancel
For the next few days, set an intention and a time to step away from routines, relationships, and environments. Sit with yourself for 15 minutes, or longer. Practice silence.

If you have difficulties getting away from others, then let your family and friends of your intentions. Set the stage and let everyone know what you want makes it easier to drop into stillness and examine the undercurrent of your life. Once you do, you can plug into a connection with your divine nature.

Full moon over the Red Sea at Wadi el Dome Marina, Egypt

SIGNIFICANT Winter Solstice 21 December 2010

A most providential time as moon energy will be very extraordinary

Start to bring your awareness to this very auspicious time and begin to prepare yourself for the winter solstice. As the daylight is shorter and the days are cooler, the space around us creates an environment for reflection, prayer, and quietness. In Cairo, the December solstice occurs at 01:38 AM on December 22, 2010 (11.38pm UTC, December 21, 2010). The next day, another second of daylight lingers to bring a little sliver more of sun into our waking hours.

The Full Cold Moon

We will also have a full moon that begins at 10:13 AM. This December full moon is called Full Cold Moon. Sometimes this moon is referred to as the Full Long Nights Moon and the term "Long Night" Moon is a very appropriate name because the nights are now indeed long and the Moon is above the horizon a long time.

This particular full moon makes its highest arc across the sky because it's diametrically opposite to the low Sun. The moment of the Winter Solstice at 1:38 a.m comes just over 15 hours after full moon .

Last, but certainly not least, this will also be the night of a Total Lunar Eclipse. Observers in Western Europe and western Africa will see the opening stages of the eclipse before the Moon sets.

Sometime give a talk to yourself, 'How I can be great'
Fifteen minutes, thirty minutes on how you can be great.
Make it a secret tape, and then listen to that electronic voice as a meditation;
it will work 100 times better."
~Yogi Bhajan

Spring cleaning

I am deeply cleaning the apartment today, all the way to my closets. As I clean, here is what I'm training my mind to think about instead of all the other crap that usually swirls around inside:

Never take more than we need;

Thank Creator for what we have or what we will receive;

Use all of what we have;

Give away what we do not need.

Everything on earth is alive;

Everything on earth has purpose;

Everything on earth is connected;

Everything on earth is to be embraced.

Talk to the Animals.

## do yourself a favor, create a sacred space today ##

Step into those thoughts and go through them

It's the shortest day of the year and the longest night of the year. I'm preparing my sacred space for the next few weeks of my own personal workshop. As I have been mopping the floors and dusting my meditation area, I have been chanting with "Destiny" a recording of Yogi Bhajan.

"Love is Love"

"I have no body, I have no mind, I have no spirit,

I am just the breath of God, the breath of life,

breath of life, breath of God."

The sun is setting behind the mountains and the sea is looking beautiful and calm.

I stumbled upon this entry from yogicwisdom.blogspot.com -- quotes from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

"When something bothers you too much in the mind, you want to talk. This is in between. I tell you, when something bothers you in the mind, get into action---work. You will see that gives a bigger relief."

Action. <<--->> Work. <<--->> Chant.

++++++


**