Be Impeccable With Your Word

Happy November!
 
It's a new month which presents exciting opportunity to begin anew. Today is extra special because it's daylight savings which offers us an extra hour to get after our lives, even if that means simply an extra hour of sleep. Goodness knows we all could use a little more rejuvenation to our days. As the light decreases, let this be our call to turn inward, reground, and reflect. Let us, like the season, embrace this time of change. With leaves flying, temps cooling, and preparing for the onslaught of the holiday (commercials are already on tv selling us everything our lives SHOULD look like). I want to challenge that outward focus on more bling and guide it inward to where the true treasure lies. The gift of YOU in preparation for the holidays. 

Our inner exploration will begin with our first EmbodyGR book study aligned with our weekly gatherings. For the next four weeks, we will weave The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz with our yoga, meditation, service, & day to day lives. I find these simple teachings profoundly helpful & vital to living a life that is beautiful & sustainable. Do not be fooled... just because they are simple does not mean they are easy. Wrestling, experimenting, succeeding, failing, and getting up over & over is the name of the game. Let us do it together in community and know we are not alone in the work.

This week we will explore Agreement #1- Be impeccable With Your Word. At first glance this can be as easy as do what you say you will do. It is that yes, and so much more. The words you speak to yourself or aloud have created the life you have right NOW! Think about that for a moment... the words you have spoken up to this point have delivered you into the life you are living this second. What do you say to yourself over & over? Is it positive or negative? What messages do you put into the world- ones that add value or not? What vows have you made to yourself or another- AND have you kept your word or broken it? These questions are not to give more reason to be hard on ourselves. In fact, they are to deliver us into more life that we CHOOSE, not just accept or stumble into by simply existing for another 24 hours. 

In a personal development training I attended two years ago, our leader said repeatedly, "Your word creates your world." I did not like that; no not at all. I did not like those green eggs Sam I did not. Up until that point, one of the care teachings I based my life upon was Maya Angelou's "People don't remember what you said but how you made them feel." My life's foundation was rocked. My mind repeated the question over and over: 'If your word creates your world yet people don't remember what you say but how you make them feel- which is correct... how do I reconcile the two?' After many tears & much anxiety, I thought I must have gotten it wrong and switched to the word & result model. Less about feeling. That didn't work out so great either because I detached more from feeling & leaned into the more concrete, literal, linear focus. My personal focus became more on the results & living up to my word, commitments, and action oriented ways of being. I did get things done well & with results yet I also did not allow myself the space to really feel, believing it was not worthy of my time & that it wasn't really valid or helpful anyway. I even told myself that 'being emotional' is a waste of my time & energy. Pretty enlightened strategy, eh? Not so much. So two years later I still wrestle between the balance of word/action & feeling/being. 

What have I learned besides that I still have a lot to learn?  Both are valid and crucial. Choosing words & commitments mindfully while also respecting intuition, gut feeling, & acknowledging the small still voice that first whispers then will scream if not paid attention to, is our duty. Emotions are not weakness; they are the body's response to what your word is creating in your world. They work in tandem, not in opposition. That my friends is the yoga of life. The yin & the yang. Finding symmetry in the asymmetry. Weighing & sifting. Aligning & realigning. Again & again.

Come practice making your world more of what you love this week at EmbodyGR. If you can't read the book, no worries. There is no test. Only the gift of breath, stillness, movement & community with more life on the other side.

Yours on the path,
Dana

Upcoming Events

November 7, 2018

Who: YOU and friends
What: EmbodyGR & 4 Agreements w/ Dana
Where: Social Hall - Fountain Street Church 
When: Wed Nov - 6:30-8:00pm 
Why: Feel Better Do Good 
Ask: To give yourself back in service to your community 4+ hours/month

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Let's celebrate & DO GOOD!​

Ongoing event! UPDATED NEEDS:
We are collecting donated goods for Dégagé! Please bring the following to a Wednesday gathering if you are able *please note, all items must be new*:
Current needs - Body wash (can be large bottles), rain ponchos, and belts!


November

Nov 6th - ELECTION DAY!
Get educated on the candidates and proposals and go VOTE!!! Your voice is important!

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“Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know more.” 

~ Confucius