December 2006 Newsletter
Online Issue # 14

Practice Page-It's NEW

In my ongoing quest to keep my work (including this newsletter) vital and true, I've decided to turn the Profile page into a Practice page with experiments for you to use. I love crafting ideas that prompt the gentle discovery of what already dwells within us, valuable resources and energies that we need-if we are going to be who we came here to be and give to the world what we long to contribute.  

As I did in the August issue, I'll offer a few ideas for you to think about, write about, talk about, wonder about-on your own or with a friendly companion who is not threatened by you becoming a happier, healthier, wealthier person.

If you feel that you simply don't have time right now, take it anyway, even five minutes. Read through the questions quickly, noticing if there's one that leaps out for you. Allow this question to process in the background of your imagination, while you move on to other things. You'll be using the power of imagination, to pay attention, without actual "efforting."

If you do have time to immerse yourself in this experiment, you might want to get a notebook for making lists and jotting down things that occur to you. Try not to expect yourself to figure it all out; instead, give yourself permission to record any and all impressions, including fragments.

Releasing the Energy of Expectations

Now that we've entered the end-of-year season, many of us feel the crunch of accumulating responsibilities along with an accelerating pace. Even if your own life is quite simple and relatively free of end-of-year stressors, the energy of heightened expectations is in the air. It's like a widespread virus that will affect you, either directly or indirectly. No one is immune. For some of us the stressors are primarily work related, for others they involve family, finances, health, school, the larger community, the shopping mall, or all of the above. Expectations multiply and the pace of doing speeds up, often unreasonably, as long as we allow it.

Our awareness of what is happening to us is critical. However, paying attention to your own responses and listening to what you need and want, before you agree to anything, all takes time.

Just because one calendar year is soon coming to an end and holidays are being planned and celebrated, doesn't mean you can't let go of worn out, defeating patterns. You don't have to wait until the new year begins. You can free up energy and your life, right now. You really don't have to complete everything on this year's to-do list, before you can choose to take care of yourself.

Here are four questions intended to uncover expectations and free up creative energies:

     What do others ask of you?            

     What do you ask of yourself?

     What is your soul whispering?

     How have you been responding?

Affirmation

     I feel the desire for change stirring within my soul.
     My imagination wants to explode with new possibilities.
     Yet, I hold myself back sometimes,
          returning to the comfortable patterns I've outgrown.
     This is part of my letting go and I accept it.
     But each day I breathe in courage and
          focus on why I am and what I long for.
     As I say Yes to my own life a new way emerges.
     I feel my soul singing its own song.


Laurie Mattila
© December 2006

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