No Pushing

I find I cannot push, even in a good direction.

I mean, of course I can, but I won’t anymore.

I pushed and pushed.

I did all the right things I could.

I prayed for more strength to push.

I did it.

Until it took its toll.

Now, I listen.

And I cannot push even in the direction that it looks like things are flowing.

Things happen as they need to.

Even on my path, I cannot push.

I am walking, walking, walking.

I am thinking.

I am listening.

And then, things come to pass.

They just are.

With no pushing.

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Garden Engagement

I was totally engaged in my garden yesterday.

Crawling around to pull up grasses at their roots, I brushed up against the rosemary (three kinds), and later, a lavender plant.

The smells, the sensations of dirt in between my fingers, the different postures for getting close to the earth, all transformed my perceptions.

Instead of unsavory news stories, I was engaged in living, breathing beauty.

Instead of barren sameness, I examined minute design and burgeoning growth.

The panorama of new leaves, crowding and supporting one another was exciting.

The different colors of greens, from pale new leaves to forceful deep rich Mexican petunia soothed my unknown need for delicate sensory variety.

Working with two plants whose roots travel underground, made me aware of their tenacity and determination to grow.

Working with other plants to expose them to more sun, made me aware of tender protection.

Although I know it makes me feel good to be in Nature, this was on a more intimate scale.

I can slow down and sit among the plants and feel the presence an entirely different Universe.

I am glad I can be part of it.

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

SELF-Respect

Respect for self.

Respect for ideas that come to me.

Respect for taking action on these ideas.

Respect for carrying out my desires.

Honoring my desires.

Honoring my opinion.

Living in respect, not blind obedience.

I think it spills over when we have been leading disciplined, obedient lives, and then, one day, we just can’t anymore.

We try to clean up the mess.

But more just pours out.

I have been cleaning and cleaning and trying to talk myself into more and more cleaning.

But the only cleaning which I am really willing to do, is cleaning out.

I don’t want to do the old stuff anymore and I can’t, and now apparently, I won’t.

I’ve go to respect myself.

I am living in “her” body.

“She” is bringing me ideas I really love and want to do.

I’ve just got to do them now.

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Practice Happiness

It has taken a long time for me to learn how to be happy on demand.  

What I am working on now is happiness all-the-time.

But having an alternative to turn to happiness is pretty great.

I began practicing happiness because I was tired of practicing mad.

I decided to get out of the being mad habit.

As I noticed the times I would get mad, I would evaluate whether it was worth it, or if it moving me in a productive direction.

Usually the answer was “no”.

So I decided to catch myself and turn to happiness instead.

It has been so interesting to watch this take place.

Transitional times can be quite interesting.

As I start to go for the familiar reaction, instead I consciously choose to do somethng new.

Dr. Joe Dispenza talks about how to rewire your brain in his book Evolve Your Brain.   

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Dr+Joe+Dispenza+Evolve+Your+Brain

So I have been building the habit of turning to happiness.

The event that triggers my response does not have to make me happy at all.

But I can choose not to have the mad feeling permeate my mind and body.

I can choose to have the happiness feeling permeate my mind and body and then I can choose what I want to do about it.

It is amazing.

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Filled Up With Wonderful

This is my new way to begin my day.

I used to think of what I needed to get done and plan it in order, and then get up and do it.

Now, I take the time to fill myself up with wonderfulness.

Instead of just planning the things I need to do, I now plan how I will feel for the whole day.

I will move from wonderful activity to wonderful activity.

I will take my feeling with me and transform the experiences.

I noticed that I was just gearing up to carry out a large project which I started yesterday, and then I paused to change my approach.

I realized that I can live anyway I want to as long as I am aware of what I am doing.

I will take the time to feel wonderful all along the way.

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Every Day is Mother's Day

If you are a mother, you know that every day and every night is your time.

You take care of your children by all the thoughts that you put into raising them.

Mine usually went along these lines.

What are the things which will give my child what he or she needs in order to grow up to be safe, to be a contributor to society and civilization, and to appreciate the arts?

So we worked on good manners.

We worked on good grammar and patterns of speech.

We worked on moral character.

We worked on daily housekeeping and cooking skills.

We went to dance concerts and symphony concerts.

I helped with homework until the children were good readers and whenever they needed extra explanations in math, as long as I was able to follow what they were learning in school.  And then I got them tutoring.

I gave them lessons - karate, dance, music, sewing, cooking.

I transported and fed and clothed them.

I invited their friends over.

I encouraged them to spend time with their friends.

I was picky about their friends.

I was picky about their hygiene.

I was picky about their education.

I was picky about their vocabulary.

And we did daily spiritual study to give them a vocabulary for understanding themselves in terms of infinity, immortality, eternity, and divinity and how those translate into compassion, consideration, uplifting, and contribution.

All in all, I think it has been a pretty good run.

I get feedback from time to time in various ways that lets me know this is so.

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Little Steps

I notice when I am not doing something over and over again.

I have now learned that there is some kind of past connection that is usually in the way.

I don’t worry about what it could have been anymore.

I know that if I take my time and gradually break it down gently, that I will be able to do it.

Maybe not so fast, but it will get done.

I am grateful to discover this other route.

It makes me aware of other routes that may exist in other situations.

I am discovering that there are ways of doing things that I like, but are not necessarily, in fact not usually, in the accepted norm.

But they are acceptable ways, just not standardized.

And why should everything be standardized?

Everything should not.

Just things that truly serve in a way that benefits and uplifts all parties.

All participating parties should always benefit.

Little steps are one of those ways.

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Newness and Terror

If you do not leave your current situation because of fear, your fear will block out the ideas that will come to you when you let go and move.

Give yourself an imaginary leave of absence.

Find out what you would do if everything you are used to was no longer in your view.

Go ahead and be scared to death.

Then, find out which direction you would move.

Forward.

Or sideways.

Or upside down.

It will be a refreshing, if not terrorizing adventure.

But even so, do it.

You will set up a different set of vibrations.

These will take you into different paths.

If they are not the paths you would normally take, so much the better.

This exercise will build a new set of connections in your mind.

You will be able to return here and build even more new paths.

When you begin doing this as a habit, you will able to see that there are many new possibilities for you.

You may even find yourself returning to something which sparks your interest and imagining how it would develop.

Then you are on your way to fulfilling a daydream and making it a reality.

Your wild jump into newness and even terror will turn out to be a liberating exercise which could become your new life.

Ready, go, wheeee!

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

Growing and Blooming

It is Spring and I am watching many of the flowers in my garden bloom and release their seeds.

One plant which took three years to mature from seed released its first bloom with a struggle.  I saw it when only half of the surrounding enclosure was open and only half of the petals had sprung to their full length.  Later on, the whole bloom showed all of the petals.

I had never seen a bloom midway in the process of being released.

In thinking about other plants, I realized there are many different ways of releasing blooms and seeds.

With a gathering of four of our adult children coming up, I am reminded of how all of our children launched themselves.

Some entered the job market directly or through part-time jobs while living at home.  Some got college degrees and interviewed.  One was “persuaded” to leave home and then got a job and education.  A couple served in the military and used their benefits for education.

Each one connected with what was needed in order to grow and bloom.

From core “nutrients” and experiences, they all jumped in or transitioned into the next new phase of their lives.

I love seeing the variety of plants in my garden.

It is even more fascinating to see how all our adult children are growing and blooming.

2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com

How I Now See Myself

I am loved, cherished, and adored.
I am finding my direction.
Oh my.
It is heavenly.
To feel so full and even overflowing.
To see ideas take shape.
I can protect myself.
I can stand up for myself.
I can see issues settled in my favor, without depriving anyone else.
I can and am giving generously.
I am one who has solved her problems.
I can give encouragement to others.
I know I can solve anything that comes up.
I have found the key.
I can listen, listen, listen.
I can receive what I need to know.
I am blessed beyond measure.
I am so wealthy with love, trust, recognition and appreciation.
I am valued.
I love me.


© 2013 Kathryn Hardage
www.InspiredPractices.com

Currency Exchange

When you cross a border into another country, you have to get used to a new currency.

Instead of dealing in dollars, you are exchanging pesos, rubles, yen, euros.

In your own thought processes, you are working in positive or negative energies.

What do they bring you?

If we get off a money currency, what do we have left?

We have kindness, compassion, sharing, and uplifting thoughts and actions.

This is a kind of currency that can never be taken away from us.

While the events of the world are being manipulated by whoever is “in power”,

we can direct our own lives and benefit the lives of others by using our own currency.

Imagine if everyone treated their own ideas and thoughts as actual currency.

This is the basis of several non-profit organizations.

We would be motivated to give to others our best thoughts and actions.

Our best thoughts inspire what we do best.

Once we started trading in what we do best, and others did the same, we would have an entirely different economy.

This economy would lift everyone up, and keep showing more and more possibilities in outgoing waves of expression.

People receiving that kind of uplifting value would realize, they, too, have something to give, and that they, too, could be kind and helpful.

It would be a type of kindness campaign.

The more we practice it, the more it will become a kind of common exchange.

What skills, techniques, abilities do we each have that we can share?

Let’s change the kind of currency exchange we have right now today and spread it widely.

© 2013 Kathryn Hardage

www.InspiredPractices.com