I’ve enjoyed a practice of working with slogans or reminders throughout the day, that help open things up when I start to get stuck in a rut.
These are some slogans that have been especially helpful for me.
We are all still learning.
None of us have it all figured out yet, each of us is still growing, experimenting, learning from mistakes. There is no real benefit to placing blame on someone else or myself for a mistake, we are all just winging it and hopefully learning as much as we can along the way.
Everything is subject to change.
Reminder that nothing is stuck. Everything is fluid, moving. Reminiscent of “This too shall pass,” when things feel solid, stuck, if you feel trapped in a situation.
Everything leans.
A favorite from Elizabeth Mattis Namgyel. Reminder of interdependence: everything is leaning on everything else, we are one big house of cards. As such, what we do matters! And also, everything is fluid, flexible, relational, inseparable.
This is all a work in progress.
Life is a work in progress! Everything is under construction. Nothing is final, perfect, absolute. See “we are all still learning” above :)
What is happening here, in this moment, in this current situation?
Helps to widen my perspective and bring in curiosity if I am feeling reactive in a given situation.
This is what’s happening right now.
Reminder to acknowledge and befriend what is going on right now so I can work with it, rather than fight it. By freeing up energy spent resisting the reality of a situation, it can be used instead to address & respond to what is happening.
These are human problems.
From a friend! To be used when facing challenges, to recognize that the problems we are dealing with are human problems, faced by all humans. And through this recognition we can connect with others, knowing we are not alone in facing these difficulties of human life.
The Serenity Prayer
Perennially helpful! My rendition:
May I have the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
See also: Letting go is not giving up
Two (or more) opposing concepts can both be true.
Life is full of contradictions! Two things can be true at once that seem to contradict. This has been my experience, anyway.
Awareness does the work.
This is a current investigation… I’m finding that simply by bringing conscious awareness to my experience in a given moment, much has already been “accomplished.” A shift is already complete. The pause, the opportunity to change course has been established. Is there any more to be done other than to rinse and repeat? Exploring this now…
Feel how you feel.
If there’s a strong emotion occurring in my experience, acknowledging it and sitting with it, letting it be there and fully experienced, not trying to push away, ignore, or fuel it. Rather, giving it space, feeling its energy and allowing it to be there without acting upon it. This process has been very revealing.
It’s complicated.
Just about sums it all up.