Personal Growth Planet Blog

What does your inner fire feel like to you? It’s different for us all.

There are definite sensations in the body, mind and spirit.

My inner fire feels like wide awake, energized, excited about whatever I am doing, pumped up, full of ideas, fully alive and open to possibility. It might not last too long, but those fiery moments are intense and uplifting.

The whole notion of “inner fire” might initially seem trite or cliche, but it’s absolutely essential. Think about a life of dullness, boredom, apathy, no feeling and nonexistent drive.

I didn’t plan on purchasing a brand new car at the start of this new year, but this is what has happened. I’m grateful for my well-being after a car wreck that totaled my old car and also for the ability to purchase a new car.

You may have never owned a brand new car, but perhaps you’ve ridden in one. You know that smell? It’s a sort of rubber-fabric-plastic smell that you encounter in a new car (possibly due to some hideous chemicals that, frankly, I don’t want to think about).

The look of determination and focus. The sheer will to get something done…even if it’s something that’s a huge challenge or seemingly impossible.

That is being in “The Zone.”

If you look at the face of a basketball player about to shoot a free throw, you’ll see it.

If you watch a preschooler crossing shoelaces while learning to tie a bow, you’ll see it.

If you get up close to a performer on stage who is singing, dancing, playing a guitar or another instrument, you’ll see it.

You’ll see that person (or those people) in the zone.

I recently read about one woman’s challenge to not look at herself in a mirror for a full year. Kjerstin Gruys, a sociologist, wants women to re-think body image and to question portrayals of women’s beauty in the media.

What made this challenge even more daunting is that Gruys planned and prepared for her own wedding during this year of no mirrors. Gruys and her fiance were married recently, by the way.

While I applaud the statement that Gruys is making with her year of no mirrors, I have to wonder…

Is the mirror really the problem after all?

My heart soars when I see video footage of the masses of people who are raising their voices and making their presence known on Wall Street in New York City.

For almost two weeks now, activists and regular folks, union members, airline pilots, celebrities and more have used non-violent resistance to occupy parts of New York City to call for systemic changes in our country’s financial and political systems.

Have you ever had a double exposed moment? Perhaps it feels like you’re living a double exposed life!

“Double exposure” is a technique used by some photographers. The result is the superimposing of two images on top of– or to the side of– one another. It is usually done intentionally to gain a particular effect. Pretty cool art!

There are far too many times in my own life when I feel as if I am having a double exposed* moment. It is as if I am speaking and reacting to some person or situation from the past and NOT speaking and responding to what’s going on right here and now.

The 4th of July is an important date in the history of the United States. It marks the anniversary of our founders adopting the Declaration of Independence. This was the date when it was officially declared that this collection of states (former colonies) were now a free and independent country.

Setting aside the fact that on July 4, 1776 not every person living in what was becoming the United States of America was truly free…

I’m going to talk about what freedom doesn’t mean to me and also what it does mean to me…

The word “unconditional” is thrown around quite a bit. It is often assumed that parents love their children unconditionally. Lovers are expected to love one another unconditionally. To boost self esteem, a person is encouraged to accept him or herself unconditionally.

I don’t know about you, but truly accepting or even loving unconditionally is not as easy as it sounds.

If any of us are completely honest with ourselves, we’d probably discover that there’s not a whole lot of unconditional loving or accepting going on.

Okay, okay, I’ll admit it…

There is not one way to be empowered. There are countless ways.

There really aren’t “right” and “wrong” ways to be empowered either.

But…

There are many, many ways that a lot of us spend our precious time and energy that are flat out dis-empowering and we don’t often realize it.

I’ve been listening to a fabulous collection of audios by Buddhist nun Pema Chodron*. If you are turned off by either (or both) the words “Buddhist” or “nun,” give this a listen anyway. Chodron’s teachings are accessible, easily relatable and for anyone regardless of religious or spiritual beliefs.

First of all, I don’t know what– if anything different than the usual– will happen on Saturday, May 21st. What I do know is that we humans (no matter what our religious beliefs are) tend to prepare for the worst.

Whether it’s preparing for a “Judgment Day” in which our “sins” will be counted up and assessed, preparing for our country’s economy to go belly-up or even preparing for the ones we love to let us down and leave us…

We humans seem to have a propensity to steel ourselves for an inevitable, horrible, gut-wrenching, carpet-ripped-out-from-under-us kind of life.