~ Daria’s Wednesday Wisdom column ~

How do you begin your day? For most of my life, I jumped right into a task as soon as I walked in my office. I felt like I was getting more done that way! When that task was done, I zipped on to the next one. Then I took lots of little (or not so little) breaks because I was working so hard. (Well, it made sense at the time, lol!)

In dealing with my increasingly busy days now, however, I am reminded of a joke. It says that Ghandi meditated for one hour at the start of every day, without exception. Discussing a particularly demanding day that was coming up, he told his assistant that he would have to meditate for two hours to start that day.

When the joke is told properly (sorry), you expect Ghandi to skip his meditation to better jump into his busy day. The absolute last thing you would expect is to spend even MORE time meditating!

Yet meditation has been proven in studies to calm us, relax us, and improve our thinking and effectiveness. It also can benefit your physical health. If you can get more done in less time because of it, then you certainly have time for meditation.

Start today with just 5… no, how about streeeeeetching into 6, 8 or 10 minutes a day! All you have to do is sit comfortably and feel your body or watch your breath. As sounds, thoughts, and life’s craziness rise around you, notice it, name it (thinking about my meeting, noisy kids, big worry, ankle still hurts, truck in street…) and let it go. Breathe it out if you like.

Just for a few, blissful minutes. Close your door. Take the phone off the hook and enjoy having NO responsibilities for a few minutes. When does THAT ever get to happen?

The Secret about Meditating

Beginners are often relieved to hear that there is no way to answer, “What should meditation feel like when I get it?” It feels like you, sitting quietly, naming the craziness of life and over and over, returning to the calm center that IS inside you. The masters never get to a magical point where they “have it.” You probably aren’t doing it wrong. Meditation is a practice, like playing soccer or lifting weights. You just keep getting better and better at it.

The more you practice, the faster you return to calm after interruption. The more you meditate, the faster you can return to calm when you are not meditating, for instance when the baby is crying, your boss is phoning, the pasta is boiling over, and the doorbell rings.

How can you commit to living an easier life, right now, by starting your day with a few minutes of meditation? Put it in your calendar. Do this at home before you go to work, on the train or bus in the morning, or first thing when you get into your home office.

Try it out for just 10 days and let me know how it goes, and whether you have any questions. (Hint: Which days are more productive for you, the ones that start with meditation, or the days you forget or “don’t have time”? Yeah, me too.)

(c) 2012 Daria Boissonnas

One fine day, a person just like you is out for a pleasant walk, pondering why you feel a kind of emptiness at the same time you are putting in overwhelming effort into making your life work.  Thus distracted with your struggles, you suddenly find yourself falling into a huge, deep hole!  It is quickly apparent you can’t get out, so you begin to yell for help.

Luckily, a religious leader walks by and hears your pleas.  He writes down a prayer for you and drops it in the hole.

Then the doctor hears you calling and responds: she writes a prescription and drops it in the hole.

You are starting to get a little frantic, since nobody seems to understand your situation or is able to really help you.  But then your friend’s friend Daria walks by.  (That’s me.)

“Help!” you call.  “I’m stuck in this hole and I can’t get out!”

Daria hears you, and she knows exaclty what to do.  She jumps down into the hole with you.

“What did you do that for?!” you sputter. “Now you’re stuck too!”

“Yes, but I’ve been here before and I know the way out.” she says, winking. “Follow me.”

Q:  Why did the chicken jump off the cliff?

A:  It wanted to get to the Other Side.

Hello friend!  I’m just back from a wonderful inspirational and business conference in Los Angeles, and am enjoying a day goofing off with my kids.  Enjoy your day too!
xoxoxo,
db

At a 10-day spiritual work retreat, volunteers from all over gathered to build a village in a poor country.  

One young man enjoyed showing his strength and was put in charge of the wheelbarrow.  As the first day progressed, he began bragging.  The next day he began challenging people to competitions of strength. 

One woman noticed the volunteers around her getting frustrated with the young man’s attitude. 

At lunch she loudly called the young man over to her and said, “Hey, I know you think you are super strong, but if I can haul something in your wheelbarrow over to that first house that you cannot haul back, will you work in silence for the rest of the retreat?”

The young man guffawed loudly and took the bet.

With a crowd of onlookers gathering, the two of them walked over to the nearby wheelbarrow.  The woman put her hands on the wheelbarrow’s handles and looked at the grinning young man.

“Ok, muscles,” she said.  “Get in.”

Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

Beelzebug (n.):  Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

Coffee (n.): The person upon whom one coughs.

Reintarnation (n.):  Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

Karmageddon (n.): It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.

Frisbeetarianism (n.):  The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.

Sarchasm (n.): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

(These puns are from one of those emails that goes around and around, purportedly from Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational which asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.)

So this guy goes to a healer for help. Right away, the healer notices he has a banana sticking out of one ear.

A carrot is poking out of the other ear.

Green beans, wheatgrass and celery protrude from his nose.

The healer puts her clipboard down.  “I think I know what your main problem is,” the healer says.

“Really? That was fast!” the man says.

“Yes, well, it looks like you haven’t been eating properly.”

Use this joke as a lighthearted reminder to take a look at your own diet.  Choose to change just ONE thing today.  Either eliminate something you know is not good for you, or add something that is.  You can change your life and body ONE step at a time! 

The world needs you.  Thanks for nurturing yourself.

A student visits the old Master and asks him “Do you know the Secret of Life?”

“Oh yes,” he says, “I know what that is.”

Incredulous, the student exclaims, “You DO know the greatest Secret ever!?”

“Of course!” the Master replies, nonplussed.

“Well then please tell me, Master, what IS the Secret of Life?”

“I’m sorry, I can’t tell you that.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s a secret!”

Comment:  In truth, there are no secrets.  Be a spiritual detective: seek Truth, and you will find as much as you are willing to see.  Share your gifts freely, empower and inspire others, appreciate yourself and your life, explore Potential, and observe the results carefully with an open mind… And you, too, will master the so-called Secret of Life.

An angel heard his plea and appeared to him. “Sorry, but your earthly wealth cannot come with you,” the angel told him.  But the man implored the angel to speak to God to see if He might bend the rules just once.

A few days later, the angel reappeared and informed the man that God had decided to allow him to take one suitcase with him. Overjoyed, the man immediately sold all his properties, stocks, bonds, cars, jewelery and much more, converting every bit into pure gold. He carefully filled his largest suitcase with the gold bars and placed it beside his bed.

Soon afterward the man died.  When he showed up at the Gates of Heaven, St. Peter, seeing the suitcase, said, “Hold on, you can’t bring that in here!”

But the man explained to St. Peter that he had special permission, and asked him to verify his story with the Lord. Sure enough, St. Peter checked and came back saying, “You’re right. You are allowed one carry-on bag.  But I’m supposed to check its contents before letting it through.”

St. Peter opened the suitcase to inspect the worldly items that the man found far too precious to leave behind him.  Upon seeing its contents, however, St. Peter exclaimed in surprise, “You brought pavement?!!!”

A very intellectual couple felt it important to own an equally smart pet.  So they went shopping.

At a kennel specializing in their favorite breed, they found a dog they liked quite a lot.  When they asked the dog to fetch a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from before 1980, she did it in a flash.  When they instructed her to recite pi to 100 digits, she tapped her paw on the ground, correctly and quickly completing the sequence.   She could fetch any book from the bookshelf and passed other tests as well.

They were pleased, purchased the animal, and went home.

That night they had friends over.  They were so proud of their new brilliant dog and her skills, they called the dog in and showed her off a little.

The friends were impressed, too, and asked whether the dog was able to do any of the usual dog tricks, too.  This stopped the couple cold, since they hadn’t thought about ‘normal’ tricks.

“Well,” they said, “let’s try it out.”

Once more they called out to the dog.  The woman stood up and clearly pronounced the command: “Heel!”

Quick as a wink, the dog jumped up, put her paw on the man’s forehead, closed her eyes in concentration, and bowed her head.