Tag: mindful

20 rules for dreamers

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  1. There is no right answer.
  2. Start with options.
  3. Choose flow over force….
  4. …but force if necessary with value-driven action.
  5. The first two hours are a warm up.
  6. Anything can be done ten minutes at a time.
  7. Accept the possibility of making no progress, or a mistake, or a shitty first draft.*
  8. One thing at a time.
  9. Even the greats don’t know what they’re doing half the time.
  10. If you’re not facing your fear, you’re not working.
  11. Limitations are opportunities for creative solutions.
  12. This isn’t about feeling good.
  13. It’s about getting on with your life.
  14. Negative thoughts can be written down, tape recorded, or otherwise set aside so that you can get back to work.
  15. Leave room for what you can’t imagine.
  16. It doesn’t have to make sense.
  17. You don’t have to achieve anything.
  18. Final grades are based 50% on effort and 50% on self-honesty.
  19. It’s okay to take it slow.
  20. Make your own rules.

* See Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.

pleasure/pain

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what would it mean
to take it in turns

to take it all
in stride

not waiting for
the perfect vacation
beach breeze, palm trees
to relax

but to pause
here and now
amidst the chaos

stand still
watch it whirl
watch it all come and go

if you can’t help but want
the pleasant things

if you can’t help but prefer
pleasure to pain

you’re not alone

but i invite you to imagine
just for a moment

what it would mean
to let go of preference

if it made no difference
whether the next moment
brought pleasure or pain

if you believed you stood to gain
and stood to lose
equally from both

can you let go of needing
to feel a certain way?

i know it’s a lot to ask
and i am no master

these are just things
i’ve decided to consider

i’ve decided to ask
what if.

to the artist of spirit

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your art is the roots.

let it lie dark
and rich like the mud.

your breath
is your navigator.

show others the way through their breath
their limbs
their movements
make them like trees
make them bright as stars.

let go of “purpose.”
do it because it moves you.

someday is not your concern
for your time is now.

in time
your shallows shall swell
with the tide.

what you have so heavily resisted
shall become your bread and butter

and the heaviest burdens upon your back
shall become your ballasts.

go.
move.
it is the only way
if you are to light the way forward.

a handful of water

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Time is like a handful of water slipping through your fingers. One moment your hand is full, and the next, it’s gone. Fleeting though it is, its touch is familiar, and curiosity gets the better of you. You watch it for awhile, eluding you. Feel it, cool, trickling over your skin. Listen to the tinkling of it dripping into the sink, the pond, the ocean. Only reluctantly do you turn away and return to the task of living.