As if this wasn’t enough to deal with, we could hear a woman flailing in her bed, crying and wailing in the room next to us. It was obvious that she didn’t have all of her faculties about her and she was also in great pain. And she was there alone.

We glanced at each other, wincing with each of her cries. We wanted to escape her pain. Dad even commented that no matter what we are going through ourselves, there’s always someone else that’s going through something worse.

In the moment of wanting to contract and run away, I remembered Tong Lin Meditation. I imagined that I was breathing in all of her pain and breathing out comfort, love, healing, peace, and ease. I focused on her for a bit. The I focused on my father, breathing in his pain and breathing out expansion and release. Then focused on other patients I would see pass by. And then everyone in the hospital that day. And then everyone in the world who was in pain.

Here’s a video from Pema Chodron explaining the practice…

Luckily, my father is well. They think that the chest pains were caused by something gastro-intestinal, which is a big relief. After an angiogram that found no signs of heart problems, he was released.

I wanted to share this with you because in the moments that we want to escape from pain, there might be more to be gained from leaning in. To breathing it in. To leaning in to life even when it’s hard. Something opened up in me that day. A deeper connection with my father. A wider perspective on suffering. A greater love for all that is.

I wish this for you.

Blessings,
Kim

I know on one hand the Buddhist philosophy that desire is the root of all suffering. I can see that. I can see that the desiring of a thing emphasizes the not having of that thing, and we can create pain for ourselves in that wanting.

And on the other hand, Dooley reframes it to say, “Our desires are gifts, not curses, and they should be honored. They’re the spirit of life dancing through us. Pointing us in directions that will inspire us and hinting of our true potential… We’re not here just to meet our needs so that we can merely survive; the original grand wish that gave birth to time and space was not for us to have some kind of break-even experience; we’re here to have fun and be happy, to thrive and grow, and these objectives can only be met by pursuing the unique passions we all individually possess.”

So… I’m for pursuing our passions. If for no other reason than just because we can. (Especially those of us with food in our bellies, warm homes and abundance out the wazoo.) I actually see it as a responsibility. It’s the NOT following of our passion that’s selfish. When we hold ourselves back from that, we squelch our energy, our unique expression, our aliveness, our juice!

Find YOUR unique desires. Find the calling in your heart. Not what anyone else says it should be. “To thine own self be true,” as Shakespeare put it. And let the juices flow!

Dear Friend,

As I come to the end of the year I love looking back and looking forward. But I’ve gotta say, I’m not a huge fan of resolutions. Frankly, the statistics are that over 80% of people don’t follow through on their resolutions anyway. So, what I like to do instead is take inventory of what I’m TOLERATING in my life that no longer serves me, and create a plan to tackle those things in the next year.

Free Your Tolerations and Get Your Energy Back:

1) Write every little thing down that you’re tolerating (Here’s an example list of 1001 tolerations)

2) Get creative about how you can eliminate them. (Hint: You can complete it, accept it, or forget it.)

3) Make a commitment to cross off 3 things per week and post your list where you see it every day. (Yep, I said every day. Put it on the fridge, nightstand, taped to the bathroom mirror so you can’t avoid it.)

4) Celebrate! When you’ve taken care of a toleration, you’ve freed up a whole lot of energy! Enjoy!

I’ve provided more details on this “Live a Toleration Free Life” exercise as well other complimentary worksheets and recordings as a gift to you below.

Have a wonderful holiday!

Blessings and love,

Kim

COMPLIMENTARY GIFTS FOR MY VIPs

I’ve created a little webpage here for you with worksheets, visualizations and teleclasses that I gave this year. There are resources for visualizing a powerful future “you”, for mapping out the wheel of your life for the next year, and recordings from my teleclass on Doing The Work You Love. I hope you enjoy these and pass them on.

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