ARRRGGGH &/or WOWZAH! In the midst of all that is goin’ on today in our country and world right now, I’m comin’ to you with a 2-fold nudge smack dab in the middle of the raw and real of this week: Take regular Places of Pause (PoPs) and be vigilantly grateFULL. (We need these ways of being as surely as we need to breathe in these wildly challenging days!)
Maybe you’re thinking, Yeah, yeah, Sarah – grateFULLness and pausing to BE are important. But, right now, life is hard … too hard. This election … school for kids … jobs and financial stress … the state of the world … it’s all too much. I don’t have time or bandwidth for either of these nudges right now. (If that’s in part what’s going on for you, I feel you. I’m right with you. Oof.)
Consider for a moment what recent research in the field of neuroscience has shown us: whatever we focus on gets bigger. It grows. This is where taking time for PoPs, gratitude, and looking for the good comes in. These are simple, but not easy, practices.
I am persuaded when you take time to BE, cultivate the habit of looking for the good, and practice thankfulness in more bits of life, you change. (Dare I say this is more true and important amidst the hard, the painful, and the challenging days? I believe this with all my heart and have experienced the grace of these practices in some of my own real moments of struggle in this season of life.)
The funk and difficulties may not be gone, but you are different and the world seems different. When your heart fills up and gets more jam-packed with grateFULLness, you begin to see the vastness, the plenty, and the abundance of gifts within your life and in the world around you.
For more, take a 10 min PoP about this very thing, called “Robust Rhythms” – taken from the book, Soulfully Ablaze. | READ or WATCH | Cultivate peace, breathe, be still, and surrender. Ahh. If you’re short on time, take a few moments to check out the quick GIF-PoP and a wise word from Maya Angelou on gratitude in the images above.
Today, my friend, may your times to pause and BE bring peace
and your cultivation of looking for the good and gratitude
lighten your load.
May you see ripples of beauty
and possibility all around you.
May you know the things
to which to say yes and no,
making plentiful space
for a life that blossoms beyond
your biggest dreams and greatest fears.
May courage and conviction
eclipse anxiety for your next steps and leaps.
May your vision be deeply rooted and
grow expansively beyond what you ever thought possible.
May you live bold and brave
among your tribe of your mighty human family and the Sacred.
May your heart be both soft and fierce,
fueling you to hope and love big.
You are loved.
You belong.
We belong to each other.
Let’s standTALL together and light up the world!
xo, -Sarah DT ❤️
PS – My “chronic Covid” or “long-hauler” Covid journey continues with lingering fatigue, “brain fog,” and generally feeling unlike my typically energetic self. (=Lots of opportunities for practicing those PoPs and gratitude!) I listened to this NPR story today, which cited research that estimates 10% of Covid cases result in this “chronic Covid” syndrome – that’s no small number! In case you or someone you know is also struggling with these symptoms, I wanted to share a few articles I’ve found informative: Wall Street Journal | Harvard Health Publishing. Also, please feel free to reach out, so I can keep you (or the one you care about) in my heart and prayers.
