a powerful week ahead.
How can we make it work for us?
1. Empty ourselves completely and totally of all thought--preconceived or as they arise, of all kinds of judgmentalism, of all planning, of all promises to be this, that or the other kind of person, of all the notions we have acquired, of all bias, of all negativity, of all that we claim to know, of all that we think we are... totally empty ourselves. It's what the Zen Master told a student who had come to meet him for the first time: I cannot teach you until you empty yourself of all that you think you already know.
2. Remove all negativity...indeed, ignore all the prods from within to be negative. One can find negativity in just about everything and everyone. STOP. Don't do this. This is actually counter to life. Just see the Creator's hand in everything. If you are not a believer, remember that all things...people...circumstances...have good in them. Concentrate only on the good.
3. Build self-esteem. Remember that what others say or believe about us actually says a lot about them than about us. Likewise, what we say about others actually says a lot about us..... So, good time to do a little checking up on ourselves!
4. Keep the capacity to learn open. We have to guard ourselves into getting locked into any one kind of thinking. It could be something that happened to us at some time, it could be an idea, it could be a notion we have acquired, it could be a lesson some personal experience taught us. Never mind. Just push them out and view whatever comes our way with fresh, clean eyes......We may learn something about ourselves that we never knew.
5. Go to the trees: The trees are the Elders of the Earth. Find a young
tree. Spend some time with it. Then find an old tree and sit by it and listen to the thoughts that come into the mind. Native American wisdom says that just by being in the presence of an old tree we will feel calm. Our thoughts will contain wisdom and our answers will be deeper.