Got Whoppers?

Have you ever surprised yourself with your own whoppers*? You know - when you’ve gone ahead with the choice that is opposite of what you believe or what you were so sure about and discovered that it wasn’t at all like what you have believed? I’ve had a series of those whoppers in close succession this last week. Some are believes that I was so sure are “true”. Some are memories from bad experiences that somehow over time became my perceived truth. Others started out as good intentions based on practicality and logic which later morphed into unnecessary rules and restrictions. Regardless of what they are, what matters is what they have in common; they are limiting and a lot of the time I don’t even know they are there until I went looking.

More important than pushing boundaries I think is the frequent look into my own thinking to see what am I feeding my mind with regards to “what is possible”. It’s like the periodic spring cleaning we go through with our closet. There are things in there that we have forgotten were in there, and stuff that we don’t even remember how they got in there. Without periodic cleaning out, our closet would soon become a non-functioning one. Just like the closet, the accumulating of such limiting believes, rules and restrictions would turn our mind into a non-functioning one, holding us back from fully experiencing our lives. Besides, what might once be my truth may no longer be my truth because the me now is different from the me a month ago. I am constantly growing, so is my awareness, ever expanding. While I’m excited about pushing boundaries outwards like in jumping out of an airplane, I find it just as exhilarating when I discover a limiting belief and blowing it out of the water. So yeah, those few jolts I got from my whoppers also totally made my week!

* Whopper: a gross untruth. A big lie.

Had my first swedish massage. Very little soreness afterward. yet my back is more relaxed than ever. I thought the harder the pressure = the bigger the payoff? Whopper. Tried Sam's sundae at Bi-rite: chocolate ice-cream + sea salt + olive oil. My taste buds come alive with the layers of exquisite flavors. I thought ice-cream & olive oil = gross?! Whopper. Created my own breakfast sandwich at Specialty's: Ciabatta bread + mozzarella + tomato + basil. Enjoyed every bite of it and my bill? $2.17. I thought it costs more if I order outside of menu! Whopper. Experience my first shower-bath. Cramps gone, hair's clean, I was free floating in the tropical water of Maui & I was enjoying the forbidden pleasure of out in the pool during rain. I thought shampooing while soaking = smelly hair afterward?! Whopper. My laptop roller bag was so light I thought I left out the laptop. All I did is carry my book, water, snacks, wrap and purse in my hand bag and I was effortlessly rolling my laptop around. I thought it would be easy on my arms and back if I keep to having everything on 1 roller bag. Whopper. Just purchased a cell phone after 3 cell-phone-free years. LG 220C flip phone - $39.90, pre-paid plan of 1000 min - $30/month. I thought I had to trade high phone cost for the cuff of a 2-year contract to the service. I thought committing to a cell-phone = adding a ridiculously high monthly phone bill. I thought pre-paid plans = obscenely expensive per-min rate.
Whopper. Whopper. Whopper.

A Touch of Decadence

I just discovered greek yogurt, oh what a decadent dessert! So rich and luxurious in taste and texture. Is it possible to experience an immediate boost to my well being that is so pure in every spoonful of this delicious goodness? Why yes, I just did, the last couple of days! My taste buds were totally singing with excitement and I definitely feel pampered all the way to the core of my being! I've been enjoying my greek yogurt with home-made blueberry topping - YUMMY-LICIOUS!

When I saw Zeena having it last Friday, I asked her what is the difference between greek yogurt and regular yogurt, she said it's decadent. I asked what does that word mean, she explained that it basically means having a quality of richness and luxury to it. That got me thinking. I decided, I'm including decadence to the quality of my life. Starting immediately. How can I add a touch of decadence to my day today? I've notice an immediate upgrade to the enjoyment of my life from day to day with very little effort. We snuck in a big slice of tiramisu ($2.99) to enjoy with our IronMan2 movie in the theater. I added a quality citrus zester ($12.99) to my kitchen tool so I can enjoy more zest in our meals (and our lives too!). Put together a ribbon to-go kit ($0 out of pocket - it's from my existing ribbon collections) to allow me the pleasure of creating a touch of luxury in presentation when gift or gift wrapping occasions come with short notice at my work. I picked up a tin of Masala Chai loose tea ($8.75) from Peet's for my morning enjoyment to start my day. I treat myself to a nice 2nd breakfast (yes I usually have 2 breakfasts on work days) by picking up a sandwich of fresh Ciabatta bread with avocado, tomato and Muenster cheese from Specialty's ($2.95). I can't wait to see what idea comes to my mind next in regard to adding more "simple luxury" to my everyday life. The $ amount in the brackets are reminders for me, since I need to visually see how little it takes to add a touch of decadence in my day. Life is rich and wonderful and it is abundant. No more sipping it through a straw, now on I'm grabbing it with both hands and slurping it right up!

I AM Life

Boat rocking, life rocking; Wind blowing, can't wait for the earth to stand still to take my shots. Life is happening right now amid all the movements. Being in communion with life is embracing its flow of movements. I am the water in the river of life.

I AM life.

My Vibration is Directly Related to the Degree of My Aliveness

I noticed I've been experiencing a higher vibration continuously for the last 3 weeks, very high spirited and happy. I also noticed something else that is consistent in me during this period - I've been continuously following my intuition and connecting with people and sharing my excitement in whichever way that comes to mind. I realized that this spontaneous do-it-now quality is rather refreshing and seems to feed into my staying in the higher vibes. When I make myself wait around unnecessarily to experience my heart's desire, it saps away energy and drops my vibration! When I find myself in lower vibration, it would be good to check in to see where in my life could I up my aliveness at that very moment.

No Effort Is Ever Wasted

Know how we beat ourselves up when we think that we have wasted our effort/time/resources? Recently I've come to realize that no effort is ever wasted. Whatever I have done up until this very moment, is all necessary to get me to this point. Sometimes I need to experience certain things a certain way and perhaps a certain number of times for me to get what I needed to get. It may be some time before this become apparent to me, just because I don't see it doesn't mean it is not serving a purpose. Trusting in this knowing allows me to love myself more, it also frees me from self-abuse.

Magnificence

Only when I realized how truly magnificent I am can I then consciously bring that magnificence into my relationships. My reawakening to my true self benefits more than just me.

We Were Born Very Rich

I was watching this big bug through my lens as I concentrate on a moment of stillness. It was feeding, not just on the pollen, it was tugging off tiny pieces of the center of the flower to munch on. I even heard the tiny "tuck" during the pause between the wind blowing!

I was finding my shots through my lens on this bush of yellow flowers and came across first an interesting bloom that has white mixed in on a few of its petals, then another one next to it that while all its petals are a uniform yellow, looks a little different in the middle. The latter is in earlier bloom stage, with its color all uniform and the tiny stems standing out in the middle of the flower like mini spears and the former is in later bloom stage where the color on some of its petals faded to white, and the tiny stem in its middle have bloomed and each split into 2 perfect curves like mini fleur de lus without the middle spears. Just like us, while in youth our beauty is supple, fresh and perhaps has a shiny sheen to it, our beauty become more interesting and characterized with age.

It is amazing what interesting details and stories we could find in the nature when we take the time to observe. It felt like I have experienced seeing the universe in a grain of sand, twice, in one afternoon. I was indeed born very rich, I truly feel that in my bones. This is what I mean in the vision statement of the New Eye Movement: Richer living through richer seeing.

A Moment of Stillness

Camera Shy

Very strong wind at Joshua Tree National Park while we were there camping last weekend. It was a trip to see and photo shoot the spring blooms in the high desert. Movement and close-ups don't do well together, and the windy condition means plenty of movement on the subject. Every time I have my camera primed for shooting, the wind would start. I got impatient, then exasperated and agitated, and then I noticed I was wishing the weather to be better, more ideal for my shooting. I couldn't help but laughed when I realized how ridiculous it is the idea of asking nature to change her behavior to suite me. Like when I was on the dive boat in Tonga photo shooting the whales and wishing the wind and the wave would stop so that the boat would stop swaying. Ridiculous yet that was what I was wishing for.
And that brought to mind my "boat rocking, life rocking" realization back then. The next thing I know, I was remembering Byron Katie and how she became the woman who made friend with the wind in her book "Loving What Is". Which led me to realize that when I wish for the nature to behave any way other than how nature behaves, I am resisting what is. And when I resist what is, I create unnecessary suffering for myself. It wasn't the wind or the ocean waves that cause my suffering, they are just doing what they always do, it is my wishing them to be different that caused my suffering!
Once I got that, I shifted, I asked instead for a moment of stillness between gust of wind. That became my focus for the rest of the trip. When I spot new blooms I wanted to shoot, I would go ahead, prime my camera, watch the bloom through my lens, ask for a moment of stillness, concentrate on my breath, inhale, exhale, taking slow, deep, full breath after breath. Then the bloom would stand still for a moment or two during the pause between one gust of wind and the next. And I took my shots.
I came home with an absolute abundant beautiful shots of desert blooms. It was a most fulfilling and rewarding photo shoot trip, in more ways than one.