Soap will clean your skin and make you feel refreshed. For a moment at least. But it doesn’t cleanse your soul. I came across this Yiddish proverb and I immediately understood it’s meaning. Our body needs soap to feel clean, our soul needs laughter. A good laugh creates a deep sense of release and refreshment. When I was in Bali, I met with a local healer. He gave me a wonderful exercise that I know will pass on to you. Next time when you shower or take a hot bath and afterwards you stand in front of the mirror, take a good look at yourself. Then… smile. Just start smiling at yourself and keep looking at yourself. Make it a generous, genuine smile and notice how this somehow makes you really smile. Then, stick your tongue out of your mouth. Yeah, that’s funny and keep smiling. And then, you place that smile on the tip of your tongue, you look at it and you slowly swallow it. Now try to track your smile as it sinks in your body, down to the area known as your solar plexus (in the middle of your upper body, at the height of your heart). Now feel your smile manifest itself in your body. And notice there is no fear, sorrow or anger. Now take a deep breath and start your day!
This is my 100th post! To celebrate, here’s a colorful picture, reflecting waves of love. An energy, so subtle and clear. And if you can tap in on it, it will prove to be an unbreakable and everlasting force, always there to carry you. So here’s to the waves of love, may you find them in your life, so you can ride them, smiling.
Fear less, hope more: look at the bright side. Eat less, chew more: take your time to really enjoy what you eat. Whine less, breathe more: live in the moment. Talk less, say more: express yourself wisely. Love more, and all good things will be yours: love can transform anything into something good.
What is normal anyway? When we behave like the majority of people? Is that normal? That’s actually quite strange, millions of people behaving in the same way. I think it’s quite normal to be strange. As it is quite strange to be normal. American politician Adlai E. Stevenson (1835-1914) said: “When you look closely, people are so strange and so complicated that they’re actually beautiful”. I fully agree.
A little poetic thought I had: You can see a dessert in a grain of sand. An ocean in a drop of water. A flower is like a star, the blossom, the universe. Everything, connected. An infinite cycle of creation.
Sometimes, when you face a difficult decision, thoughts and feelings can get you all mixed up. The pressure and the importance of making the right call, make it unclear for you to know what’s best. In that case: Shssst. Be still, for silence is the temple of our purest thoughts. Sarah J. Hale said this and I think it’s really inspirational. Instead of running after your thoughts, trying to sort them out, simply take a moment to sit down and be all quiet. Then your purest thoughts will present themselves to you. Or as Ralph Waldo Emerson said: “Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods”.
