by Tracey Rich

Crises As Opportunity

It's hard to see crises as opportunity. Yet, the diamond emerges from the pressure exerted on coal. Hard times, limitations, even stress, can be the catalyst for creative solutions and transformation. I prefer the creativity that arises out of stillness, but we work with the environment we are actually in. "Loving what is", as Byron Katie teaches, is the facing of things as they truly are. This is the soil where insight can take route. This is where crises can lead to opportunity.

Manage Your Stress with One Breath

If you turn your attention to a single breath, you are on the cusp of possibility. One breath has the potential to change your stance. One breath can change your mind. An individual breath can derail your stress. A breath brings you into the perpetual now. One breath leads to another, and each conscious breath is the next breath in the infinite chain of breaths that are your life.

Joy and Gratitude

How many times a day do you smile? How often do you meet a stranger's eyes? Are you amazed, or astonished, or filled with awe, regularly? How many sunsets or moonrises do you notice? Can you find a place to see the stars and do you remember to look up? What unexpected gift do you bring, and what is the latest surprising insight you have had about yourself? What small action has pushed you beyond your comfort and what did that bring? Joy is in the small, profound moments, and gratitude is always waiting to fill you.

Simplification

I love the name of this recent Kentucky Derby racehorse, Simplification. Great name, great reminder. Like the current trend to de-clutter our homes, what an excellent idea it is to do the same with our minds, and thus, our lives. Notice the ways in which you over-complicate things, and just like Ganga's recent piece, Getting Rid of a Habit suggests, begin to pare things down a bit at a time. Refine thoughts, words, and actions. Simplification had long-shot odds at the Derby, and that's how success in this task often seems when faced with implementing change. What may start as a burden with impossible odds, may end as a blessing.