My mom sent me this… advice for living (some relevant stuff here)

Not to sound too preachy… but I think one of the goals in life is to be internally happy, healthy, fulfilled, wise, at peace etc. and perhaps this ‘advice’ can help you attain inner freedom. With all of the crazy issues that we think are important to be conscious about, we can’t forget that freeing our soul, body, and mind are extremely important in our quest for inner fulfillment and purpose. Neglecting our personal health and happiness should not be compromised for any reason. If you can find relevance in your own life to these suggested ideas, and if they benefit you, then try implementing some of them in your own daily life….feel free to share with others too!

Peace and Love,

D-F(ng)s

1.  Take a 10-30 minute walk every day.   And while you walk, smile.   It is the ultimate anti-depressant.
2.  Sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day.   Buy a lock if you have to.
3.  Buy a DVR/TIVO, tape your late night shows and get more sleep.
4.  When you wake up in the morning complete the following statement, “My purpose is to ______today.”
5.  Live with the 3 E’s:  Energy, Enthusiasm, Empathy.
6.  Watch more movies, play more games and read more books than you did in 2007.
7.  Make time to practice meditation and prayer. They provide us with daily fuel for our busy lives.
8.  Spend more time with people over the age of 70 and under the age of 6.
9.  Dream more while you are awake.
10. Eat more foods that grow on trees and plants and eat less food that is manufactured in plants.
11. Drink green tea and plenty of water.  Eat blueberries, wild Alaskan salmon, broccoli, almonds & walnuts.
12. Try to make at least three people smile each day.
13. Clear your clutter from your house, your car, your desk, and let new and flowing energy into your life.
14. Don’t waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control.   Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.
15. Realize that life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum that appear and fade away like algebra class, but the lessons you learn will last a lifetime.
16. Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a college kid with a maxed out charge card.
17. Smile and laugh more.   It will keep the energy vampires away.
18. Life isn’t fair, but it’s still good.
19. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
20. Don’t take yourself so seriously.  No one else does.
21. You don’t have to win every argument.  Agree to disagree.
22. Make peace with your past so it won’t screw up the present.
23. Don’t compare your life to others’.  You have no idea what their journey is all about.
24. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, and wear the fancy lingerie.   Don’t save it for a special occasion.   Today is special!
25. No one is in charge of your happiness except you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words: “In five years, will this matter?”
27. Forgive everyone for everything.
28. What other people think of you is none of your business.
29. Time heals almost everything. Give time, time.
30. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
31. Your job won’t take care of you when you are sick. Your friends will.  Stay in touch.
32. Get rid of anything that isn’t useful, beautiful or joyful.
33. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
34. The best is yet to come.
35. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
36. Do the right thing!
37. Call your family often.
38. Each night before you go to bed complete the following statements: “I am thankful for __________.  Today I accomplished _________.”
39. Remember that you are too blessed to be stressed.
40. Enjoy the ride. Remember that this is not Disney World and you certainly don’t want a fast pass. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy the ride.

Does nature experience love?

I think it does….  a few of us went down to the beach today when the rain stopped and the clouds kind of cleared, and we brought along a camera. As we started taking some sweet shots of the sunshine breaking through the dark clouds and reflecting off of the wet sand, we noticed a seagull that was just chillin. It was standing in a shallow pool and his (her?) body remained completely still for at least 5 minutes. Was he merely taking a moment’s break in his ongoing quest for safety, security, and satisfying his basic needs? Or was he pondering, perhaps contemplating the meaning of life? Perhaps he was as awestruck as we were at the amazing symmetry found in nature. As we stared out into the water, we noticed a family of ducks just chillin out in the water. They were bobbing up and down, back and forth,  completely in rhythm to the lull of the ocean. Completely at peace….

The pace of life of nature is wonderful. How different our lives are…. perpetually rushing through the hyperactive business culture lifestyle that we feel is natural, yet in reality is completely out of touch with nature.

The incredible beauty found in nature and in life is anything but ’simple’… but the ’simple’ life (as our society loves to derogatorily call it) is so much more vibrant, gentle, compassionate, organic, and fulfilling than a life clung to material desires.

Peace and Love,

D

D-fungus on spirituality

I challenge you to become spiritual; I want you to believe in Bhudda, I want you to believe in Allah, I want you to believe in Jesus. More importantly, I want you to believe in love, believe in the power of humanity, I want you to believe that you have God in you, I want you to believe that I have God in me. I want you to feel the power of nature, to feel the power of living in harmony with that nature. I want you to believe in magic, in miracles, in forgiveness, in divinity. I want you to learn to discover the inherent beauty in everything in life, I want you to believe in the sacred balance of the universe, the beauty of the stars and the galaxy, the beauty of the diversity of the life existing in the blue seas, the magic of each new dawn, and each new evening.

Does your spirituality allow that you be happy, be free, be beautiful, be loved? And does your spirit truly allow you to LOVE everyone and everything in this universe?. Does your spirituality allow you to connect to the Earth? Does your spirituality allow you to totally remove your desire for greed, for power, for injustice, for hatred, for dominance?

why we consume (in very blunt layman’s terms)

Quite simply, I think over consumption is a result of the emptiness of our culture… The notion that there is a correlation between consumption and fulfillment, wealth and happiness, is deeply embedded within our culture. I think individuals have a very tough time feeling fulfilled when many work in a job they hate for 8 hours, come home to a microwave supper low in nutritional value , watch reality t.v., read a fashion magazine that tells them they need to buy this cream and that lotion to feel beautiful, and then fall asleep on the couch to the 11:00 state funded network news. On the weekends they spruce up their lives by watching football and drinking a case of budweiser, and call themselves spiritual beings by trying hard not to fall asleep during Sunday service. The interesting thing is the advertising agencies of budweiser, of the microwave dinners, of the football game, etc. would have you believe, through the brilliance of their marketing campaigns, that consuming their products will help to make you feel like you’re happy and fulfilled. We’ve bought in, believing in the misnomer that drinking excessive amounts of budweiser on a friday night will help you feel happy, accepted, attractive, invincible…. just like the image the tv commercials so aptly personify. And so in order to fill the void of living this cultureless life comprised of empty cultural calories, we reward ourselves with an unnecessary new pair of shoes, or the latest cell phone, or a new car, because it makes us feel good, it makes us feel like our peers will accept us, but yet we are totally oblivious to the effect that this purchase has on the ecosystems of the world. Our appetite for consumption provides the markets for ‘the machine’ to exist and so ‘the machine’ will make every effort to ensure that you comply and be a good citizen and continue to consume. Immediately after 9/11, George Bush, in his address to the people, informed citizens that the best way they could help America was to go out and shop!!! (reference still being sought after). The machine desperately requires your non questioning compliance to consume, and as a result spares no effort to ensure that you are inundated with messages to buy shit. Probably more frightening than this is the realization that many aspects of our culture have been set up to ensure that we feel unfulfilled in order to create a desire in us to buy shit. Or that much of our consumption stems from the fact that our lives are so busy with the responsibilities of a 40 + hour work week that we will spend our hard earned money on convenience products that promise to free up more time in our day so we can watch more t.v. They are selling the product of ‘convenience’ because it is so desperately desired in our hyperactively hectic lives.

I think the solution is simple, but will not be easily attained: shopoholicism is a major problem, with devastating ecological, political, and social consequences that we need to be aware of…. rather than continuing the trend of mindlessly consuming, we need to find healthier, more natural ways of seeking happiness and fulfillment. Perhaps an emphasis on play, on relaxation , on exercise, on socializing, on reading, on pondering, on thinking, on wondering, on loving, on truly LIVING is what we need to reduce our ecological footprint. Our current emphasis on competition, on material wealth, on consumption, on vanity items, on social status, on PROFIT AT ALL COSTS, is leading us in a very dangerous direction , both individually (highest ever recorded rates of depression, anxiety disorders, low mental health) and collectively (global warming, growing gap between the rich and the poor, a very likely World War 3)…… Open your eyes, open your hearts, open your mind, open your soul….

Peace and Love,

D