Mommy hood and Present Moment Awareness

May 17th, 2011 § Comments Off on Mommy hood and Present Moment Awareness § permalink

For several years now I have been practicing Present Moment Awareness.  Eckhart Tolle has been a huge facilitator of this in my life along with many other present moment awareness gurus.  Meditation is another resource that can bring me back to the NOW.  If I meditate every morning, before anyone else gets up asking for stuff, I do well.  Or. . . as well as can be expected for a mom that home-schools and has her 23 year old daughter back at home.  But I try.  I really try.

I have had the great realization that NOW is the only reality.  Now is where we experience life.  But somehow I lose hold of this truth during my busy days-schooling, chauffeuring, healing, counseling, cooking, grocery shopping, taxiing kids to practice and helping out elderly parents.  Somehow, I seem to lose sight that there ever was a present moment to begin with.

Sometime in the hectic chaos of the day I will stop to notice my 5 senses (that is if I can remember what my 5 senses are).  This helps a lot when I can remember that we experience life through sight, sound, smell, touch and taste.  But a lot of the time I find that I have forgotten my 5 sense all together.  I suck the blood off of my cut finger steaming forward with the flash card drill for my oldest son.  I gulp down the breakfast as I drive my kids to this activity or that.  I tune out the beautiful song of the bird outside my window as I rush to finish the lemonade day sign for my youngest.  I don’t even notice that it is a beautiful day outside as I take down my elderly fathers grocery list over the phone.  I don’t notice the fragrant flowers growing in my back yard as I try to figure out the problem with my squash plant shriveling up.

Why is it that I can’t seem to just stop and smell the roses?  With Mommy this and Mommy that (at the same time no less) how am I to be present with each child.  They deliberately compete for my attention.  How do I stay present with each one, giving them their due full attention?

But . . . sometimes I do.  Yes, sometimes I do.  Sometimes I remember that I have 5 senses and I stop and check in with what is happening NOW in this moment.  It is bliss.  Nothing else matters in the world when I am able to do this.

My search for enlightenment is deterred at times by Mommy hood it seems.  But maybe Mommy hood is brought to me to give me practice.  When I practice this (and I have been able to for a whole day at time) everything around me seems to change.  Everyone else slows down as well.  It makes me wonder if they are just acting off of my energy.  Maybe they are looking to Mommy to gage how they should spend THEIR present moment.  When I stop and notice, stop and enjoy, stop and breath it seems that everyone else does too.

I want to do this more.  Life is richer when I am here and now.  Life is more fun when I am not thinking about my next step.  And you know what?  The next step always presents itself without my thinking about it.  It always does!  When I am living in the present, the future always takes care of itself and usually much better than I could have planned it.  It seems that things kind of rearragne themselves in order to conspire to the good for all.

Today, I plan to be here NOW.  I plan to consciously choose to be present to the life that is presenting itself NOW.  No fears about tomorrow or even later today for that matter.  To be present with me and those around me.  And to see that the children and my busy life are here to provide practice.  Practice at living my life through the five senses that provide my experience of life.  I plan to question the thoughts that arise telling me it should be anything different than as it IS NOW.  It is all perfect in this moment.  It is precious really.  Because it is the only guarantee that I have for life.  There are no guarantees that I will still be here 5 minutes from now, so I seize this moment to be present, to be happy and to enjoy what is around me and to turn my experiences, ALL of my experiences into  joy.  I can do that with my mind.  I can do that with my thinking.  And I can do that by being present to and in acceptance of what IS.

 

 

Master Cleanse – Day One

May 17th, 2011 § Comments Off on Master Cleanse – Day One § permalink

Day One – Master Cleanse

May 16, 2011

Today was fine.  I started out with the salt-water flush and then drank the lemonade and water throughout the day.  I caved at lunchtime, making my son pasta salad and automatically popped a bite in my mouth.  Aside from that I followed the Master Cleanse to the letter.  The key was not to beat myself up after that little habitual popping of my kid’s food into my mouth.  I forgave myself quickly, then guzzled another glass of lemonade.

I think to do a cleanse of this caliber requires more mind management than anything.  After reading several blog posts of people doing the cleanse, I realized that we do not die if we don’t eat for a few days.  Moms are doing it.  Over weight people are doing it.  If they can go 10 days without food, so can I. . . or at least I think I can. . . here on day 1.  Check back at around day 5 or 6 and see what tune I am singing at that point. . .Ha!

But seriously, I believe that it is only our THOUGHTS about what our body is doing during a cleanse that causes major problems and leads us back to our toxic eating and drinking habits.  We “think” we can’t take it.  We “think” it’s too hard.   We believe that the temptations around us are too great. And if we THINK it, it becomes our reality.  We can’t take it and it does become too hard and the temptations are magnified in our experience.  But if we can turn our thoughts around to beneficial thoughts, if we can love ourselves enough to KNOW how good we can feel if we release not only the toxic body fluids and who knows what else from our physical bodies but also the toxic thoughts from our minds, we become whole.

I think I have my mind around this.  I made hamburgers, chips and pasta salad for my kids for dinner and I took my mind elsewhere as I cooked, smelled and served the luscious meal to my boys.  My mind was on healing.  My mind was on the benefits that I AM ALREADY FEELING from this cleanse.  And guess what?  I wasn’t even tempted to smell the food, much less eat it.

I have read about many people who struggle the first few days on the cleanse, but I feel great tonight already.  Great energy.  I feel as though my body is lighter.  I feel the whole, natural benefits of a body that is cleansing itself.  How miraculous that with a little help from the mind, our bodies will heal themselves.  My mind is focusing on the abundant energy that my body wants to produce for me and not on the lack of food.  I’m counting on this attitude to sustain me during this cleanse.  It’s all in my mind in the first place.  My experience will be whatever my mind wants it to be.  Hopefully I will choose healing.

Day Two

Why I’m Doing it

 

 

Heavenly Chocolate Pie

October 15th, 2010 § Comments Off on Heavenly Chocolate Pie § permalink

Crust

1/3 cups plus 1 tablespoon Crisco

1 cup all-purpose white flour plus extra for rolling

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 to 3 tablespoons ice water

Mix flour and salt.  Cut in Crisco.  Add water a tablespoon at a time till crust is soft and pliable.  Roll out into 9 inch circle.  Place in glass pie plate and flute edges with fingertips.  Prick crust with a fork and bake in 325 degree oven till golden brown.

Filling

2 eggs separated

½ tsp. vinegar

¼ tsp. salt

½ cup sugar

1 Cup semisweet chocolate bits

¼ cup water

1 cup whipping cream

¼ cup sugar

dark chocolate candy bar (optional)

Beat egg whites with vinegar and salt till stiff.  Gradually add ½ cup sugar and beat until very stiff.  Spread meringue over bottom and sides of baked pie crust.  Bake at 325 degrees until golden brown.  Cool completely.

Melt semisweet chocolate bits.  Blend in the 2 egg yolks and water.  Spread 3 TBL of this mixture over the cooled meringue.  Chill until thick the remainder of the chocolate mixture.

Beat the whipping cream with the ¼ cup sugar.  Spread exactly ½ of this mixture over the meringue and chocolate topping.  Put in refrigerator to set.  Mix the remaining whipped cream with the remaining cooled chocolate.  Spread this chocolate whipped cream on top of the regular whipped cream on the pie.  Take shavings from the dark chocolate bar and sprinkle on top.  Keep refrigerated.

 

Read my story about this recipe here:   http://www.michelleconaway.net/2010/10/a-slice-of-heaven/

Newer Entries »