Mindful Breathing Spaces

The last few days I’ve been running around to meetings, coaching, and teaching.  However, I’ve gotten pretty good at snatching a few minutes throughout the day to grab “mindful breathing space”.  We all take structured and random breaks during the day for physiologic and psychological rest, but we need breaks where we give full attention to ourselves and our spirits.  Mindful breathing space refreshes us, reset our attitude, significantly reduces stress, and engages our spirit in a way that reenergizes our passion for being our best.  Are you taking mindful breathing spaces during your day?  Mindful breathing space = one minute of full awareness or checking in, a second minute focused only on your breathing, and the last minute taking your awareness into your thoughts and emotions expanding the possibilities of being your best!

Rainbow Bubble of Love

This morning a cab pulled up next to me at a stoplight with his windows down and radio blaring “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling.  As we drove off, we traded thumbs up and the music took me back to the Laughter Yoga class I taught yesterday.  It was a small class of four women, all cancer survivors, one was very weak and had trouble standing.  At the start of the class, I always ask what role humor or laughter plays in their lives.  I was somewhat taken back for all agreed that there was little humor or laughter in their lives or cancer journeys.  Laughter yoga is one of the toughest classes I teach because attitude, letting go, and being playful is hard when scared.  But this class worked and by the end of the class we all felt the rainbow bubble of love that surrounded us.  We were all standing by our chairs with big smiles, none of us wanted to stop, for we’d shared that “lovin’ feeling”, and didn’t want to let it go.  Surround yourself with a rainbow bubble of love today and THRIVE!   

Attitude of Gratitude

Yesterday, I taught about “joy” in a class with caregivers and cancer survivors.  As I listened to individuals describe the joy in their lives, I was reminded of my own cancer journey and the importance that gratitude plays in moving me away from the fear and anger into a place where ordinary moments become special.  A 23 year, 4^th stage breast cancer survivor talked about reading at night to her granddaughter and her gratitude for granddaughter snuggles.  A young mom with thyroid cancer talked about her fatigue, daily stress, and fear because she really doesn’t have the energy for work or being the mom she wants to be for her young kids. 

We all know these feelings for life has gotten way to complex, and most of us are facing constant change in our work and home lives.  What are the daily wellness practices that help you deal with these times?  Have you included gratitude in these practices?  If not, you must for an attitude of gratitude brings a peaceful calm that resets your well-being, strengthens your resilience and increases the opportunity for you to be the best you can be!

What are you grateful for at home?
What are you grateful for at work?
What are you grateful for in life?

Remember an attitude of gratitude gives you more moments of being who you want to be! 

Teach Your Soul to Wander

I’d driven 18-wheelers all summer following the pea crops in Washington State, and it was time to head back to college, but I had dreamed all summer of surfing California.  The bus from Walla Walla took me to Portland, and from Portland to Redding California.  My flight home was out of Los Angeles, so I started hitchhiking south along U.S. highway 101, borrowing boards and surfing along the way.  My nights were filled with solitude where the only sound was the seductive whispering voice of the waves that taught my soul to wander.  When our souls wander and we are drawn into deep reflective thought, with each breath we open and take in so much more of ourselves, an intimacy only we can share with the symphony of life.  Have you taught your soul to wander?  

Expanded Sense of Life

Her husband attended a Sunday school class I taught, but I didn’t really know her.  Charlie ask me to start visiting with them, for she was dying and I was a hospice volunteer for VITAS.  Her last stages of life where very stressful for her and the family, and as I walked out into the evening after her passing I was physically exhausted, but filled with an expanding sense of life.  Most mornings I pray for the courage, faith, and life energy to be filled with an ever expanding sense of life.  It’s so easy in a cancer journey to be narrowed by fear, self-pity, and loss of hope, lessening our sense of things and shrinking our hearts.  I have learned that by sharing the seeds of my expanding sense of life in the morning with others, my heart like an opening flower touched by morning dew opens more fully to life moments.  Expand your sense of life today! 

Connecting to the Now

Almost immediately, after my body cast was cut off, and I had started to gain strength, I headed back to school.  I worked as a Resident Assistant (RA) and lived at Kerr Hall my first semester at UNT.  My second semester, I started teaching and research assistantship positions, so I left my RA job and moved to a rooming house called the Red Ghetto that was across from the College of Music.  My room had a bed, stove, small refrigerator, and a bathroom.  It did not have a kitchen sink or heater, so I washed my dishes in the bathtub, and used the stove as a heater. 

My neighbors name was Sue, and we both were involved in long-distance relationships that made life and school hard.  Our bathrooms backed up against each other, and one morning we discovered we could talk through the plywood wall.  This led to sharing suppers, and evenings sitting outside sharing our dreams.  Sue and I moved from the Red Ghetto into a garage apartment with two separate living spaces.  Life and school got easier, and our long-distance relationships thrived, for Sue and I better connected each other to the “now”.  Surround yourself with people that better connect you to the NOW!      

Veterans Day Memories

My dad flew WWII and Korea, so I was proud to sign up for ROTC at LSU.  I remember carrying the guidon my first year of ROTC.  I remember how my training as a Bengal Raider prepared me for Ranger School.  I remember my basic training at Fort Sill, and the two friends in my squad at Fort Sill that would later die in Vietnam.  I remember the day I graduated from college, had a birthday, and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant.  I remember my first parachute jump, and the first time I jumped a jet.  I remember my first ride in a Huey, and my first ride in a Chinook.  I remember shooting the M1, M16, M60, 45 pistol, and the M67 recoilless rifle.  I remember going to work every day with a flak vest and helmet, carrying my M16 / 420 rounds, 45 pistol / 21 rounds, and my combat knife. 

I have life long memories of riding in medivacs where there was too much blood and pain.  I have life long memories of holding the first soldier to die in my arms.  I have life long memories of firing my M16 at someone that was shooting at me.  I remember being promoted to 1st Lieutenant and Captain, and then Tenneco forcing me to resign my Reserve Commission in exchange for their willingness to pay for a Ph.D.  I could never pay back what the GI Bill gave me by making graduate school possible.  I could never pay back what my 4 years active duty, and 10 years Army Reserves gave me in confidence, self-esteem, resilience, belief in team, and my ability to thrive in the best and worst of times.  I am a proud very grateful Vet.  Wish a Vet, “Happy Veterans Day today!”