Mindfulness Monday – animals

Wendy — your artwork is amazing!
Animals are special — and Eckhart Tolle has it right. Cats are zen masters, but dogs are very special too.

Picnic with Ants

“When I look into the eyes of an animal
I do not see an animal.
I see a living being.
I see a friend.
I feel a soul.”

~ A.D. Williams

“Petting a dog can be one of the most
mindful,
peaceful,
and spiritual
moments you can have.”

~ Nicholas Montemarano

“I have lived with several Zen masters –
all of them cats.”

~ Eckhart Tolle

*all artwork created by W. Holcombe.  Please do not use without permission.  All rights reserved.

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A Weekend Getaway

I am so proud of Wendy — Queen of the Warrior Princesses!
She is spreading her wings and flying higher and higher.

Picnic with Ants

Tuesday was my husband’s 50th birthday, and as I write this he is sitting on the floor putting together a Lego helicopter, he is so cool.

Kiki thought she would help.

Early last week I realized that this was his 50th birthday!  Oh my goodness!  I hadn’t planned anything really.  Yes, I got him the Legos, and I planned to make him dinner, but that wasn’t enough for this milestone.  I was determined to do something special.  I was on a mission.

This mission was impeded by the fact that I can’t talk on the phone or drive.  Hmm, so what could I do?   What did I do?

First I decided I wanted to take him away, not far, just away from our house.  I wanted to spoil him, so I started looking for a hotel that also provided massages.  First I did a lot of looking on line and…

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Mindfulness Monday – Relax

Wendy has chosen well. These quotes remind us of the spaces between our breaths.

Picnic with Ants

“Relaxation means releasing
all concern and tension and
letting the natural order of life
flow through one’s being.”

~ Donald Curtis

“Meditation is all about the
pursuit of nothingness.
It’s like the ultimate rest.
It’s better than
the best sleep you’ve ever had.
It’s a quieting of the mind.”

~ Hugh Jackman

“And sometimes
the most important thing
in a day is
the rest we take
between
two
breaths.”

~ Etty Hillesum

*photo by S. Holcombe, please do not use without permission.  (Tumacácori National Park)

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Mindfulness Monday – Dizzy

Wendy deals with vertigo. Her Mindfulness meditation reflects this eloquently, as does her photo illustrate the experience.

Picnic with Ants

“Looking up gives light,
although at first it makes you dizzy.”

~ Rumi

“I am trying so hard to live in the moment and
enjoy it while it’s happening,
because it feels like a moving freight train that I just got on,
and I’m trying not to look back and get dizzy!

~ Laura Bell Bundy

“To be alive is to be dizzy
and not to know exactly where to go.”

~ Ander Monson

*image by W. Holcombe, please do not use without permission.

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yeah, I didn’t get that done…

Wendy’s experience with on line counseling has been good to date. Thought I would share her journey with you.

Picnic with Ants

You may recall my post back in December where I talked about my fear of gaining weight.  I felt like I was handling that better, and things were going well.  I was trying to focus on nutrition and not on weight.  I have been trying to eat more mindfully, more intentionally (appreciating the food, accepting it’s nourishment, paying attention to my hunger cues….)

I say try on all of these because I haven’t been doing a very good job recently.

I promised I’d write a post about mindful eating last week, and well….. yeah, I didn’t get that done.  I started getting very obsessed with food this week.

The fight with food is strong in this one (ha, I sound like Obi Wan..or Yoda).

I was doing well when the scale was staying the same, and even went down a little.  Yes I still want to lose that last…

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Mindfulness Monday – Eating

We forget to be mindful in all things. Looking forward to her post on mindfulness eating.

Picnic with Ants

“Food reveals our connection with the earth.
Each bite contains the life of the sun and the earth…..
We can see and taste the whole universe in a piece of bread!
Contemplating our food for a few seconds before eating,
and eating in mindfulness,
can bring us to much happiness.”

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

“Mindful eating is about awareness.
When you eat mindfully,
you slow down,
pay attention to the food you’re eating,
and savor every bite.”

~ Susan Albers

“Mindful eating is a way
to become reacquainted
with the guidance of
our internal nutritionist.”

~ Jan Chozen Bays

** be sure to check out my upcoming post on Mindful Eating.  I’m working on it and hope it will be out in a couple of days.

*photo taken by W. Holcombe, please do not copy without permission.

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I did this!! A reflective look at 2017

I am so proud of my friend, Wendy. She is truly a Warrior Princess — and a social (media too) one at that.
Just had to share her wonderful year. May her 2018 be even better.

Picnic with Ants

January is the time that people make resolutions to do things differently (better) than the year before.  My theme for this past year was “Just Stop”  (just click here and you can read that post), I will continue to “Just Stop” in 2018 and beyond, but for now I want to look back.

This year, I’ve decided not to make resolutions, sure there are things I want to change, things I plan on doing, things I want to do….The whole Bucket List, you know, however, there is something we often don’t do, we don’t look back and see what we have accomplished.  I think we need to do that more often.

When we get sick we often look back on our “old life” and can’t see how much we’ve accomplished since we got sick.  We keep thinking about how we can’t do what we used to, I see…

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Some things are hard to talk about. Pocrescophobia

A name for my fears — Wendy is again brace and an shining icon, a light house in the dark of self-doubt, self-loathing, and the need for self-love.
Thanks Wendy, I am so proud of you!

Picnic with Ants

I’ve been struggling with something for a while and I’m not actually sure I feel comfortable talking about it, but there may be someone else out there struggling with the same thing who needs to know they aren’t alone.   I have an intense fear of gaining weight.

*****this post talks about eating disorders, this may be a trigger for some of you, please take care of yourself and read (or not) accordingly*********

As many of you may know, I lost 45 pounds in 2017.  This is something I have been trying to do for a long time.  I gained a lot of weight when I first got sick, on top of losing my independence, suddenly my body no longer felt like mine.  I weighed 225 pounds at my heaviest, and I didn’t recognize myself.  (I’m barely 5’5″ tall)  A few years ago I found out that I have Fructose Malabsorption…

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Mindfulness Monday – New Year

I think Aristole got it rigt.
All the best of 2018 — the year of kindness and magic; magical kindness manifested in all that we do, big or small

Picnic with Ants

“She made a revolutionary idea:
She would make more time for
life’s truly important things

First on the list:
breathing.”

~ Amy Rubin Flett

“You are never too old to
set another goal
or to dream a new
Dream.”

~ Aristotle

*artwork by W. Holcombe, Please do not use without permission.

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