The unique gift of Clarity

I finally made some time to watch one of Oprah's Life Class episodes on my computer. Oprah's guest Cheryl Richardson was on the show to talk about the lessons in the book she co-authored with Louise Hay titled, You can create an exceptional life. It was a highly spirited show with lots of topics covered. Cheryl shared the very interesting idea of sending herself a unique gift of positive affirmations using an iphone app called "tell me later". She suggested ideas like, "You become what you believe" and "Only good lies before me". These affirmations, which she has programmed to herself,show up on her phone every hour of the day. It was actually fun watching the interaction between Oprah and Cheryl with the dance and challenge of the word ego threaded throughout the hour. It is well worth watching and I thoroughly enjoyed it.



I did walk away with a true gem or nugget of wisdom when Cheryl answered a young woman's question about happiness. Cheryl suggested the woman try what she referred to as an adult exercise. It was framed around the word 'wanting'. Cheryl suggested that "Sitting with the 'wanting' or to sit with the 'want' more and allow life to bring it through to you."

What really intrigued me about that statement is that when I think of the entire episode, every person who spoke from the audience really wanted something. They were all very honorable desires and goals that the audience members were sharing but I could feel the angst in every single person. When Cheryl spoke of wanting she pointed out that the wanting in itself was getting in the way of your future unfolding. Wanting she pointed out was merely the unfinished connection of the desire meeting the physical world through you.


I reflected on my own wanting for the day, and decided that I was going to consciously sit with the want rather than reacting or chasing the emotion. I had a huge weight lifted off my shoulders when I made this conscious decision. By sitting with the want and not reacting to it and trusting that what I was wanting is a work in progress not actualized yet. How adult of me I mused to myself.


What is uncanny about all this is that I have started a thirty day observation of breathing every morning for five minutes before I start my day. On my first day I had some trouble as I kept wondering when five minutes was up, and that was really distracting. The second day I used my travel clock timer, and it was actually quite easy. My inspiration for this was from listening to a tape over the past weekend by psychologist Radha Sheila Conrad.


The tape was of a class that I took earlier this year. I have such respect and admiration for Radha and the knowledge that she shares. Radha mentions in her tape the importance of breathing every day because this is part of what she calls developing the muscle so you can ask yourself questions. I actually forgot about all this information but I remember vaguely telling myself last spring "I was going to breathe every a.m. for five minutes" last spring and then the idea fell by the wayside. The way that Radha explains breathe is: in through your nose and exhale through your mouth. If your mind wanders gently move your attention back to your in and out breath. It could not be simpler. Why is this so easy I asked myself?



In the same class tape Radha explains through the psychology of being a child and that our basic adult profile is pretty much imprinted by the time we are seven years old. Radha then explained how to get quiet and ask yourself a question.

When I asked myself a question about life and what I should be thinking about, the first thing that popped into my head was breathing.

On the braveheartwomen website you can access this information for free through her community that she has set up called Sisterhood of Clarity. She explains in a video exactly how to do this exercise and this is like less than five minutes of your time. I will not do it any justice by explaining it any further. I share my story to explain how I came up with the inspiration of breathing every morning-I owe it to the tele-class I took with Radha Conrad.


I told a friend of mine to check that site out this summer and when she emailed me back she said it was hard to navigate through the site and found it a little confusing. I guess it does take a few clicks to find it on the site and then to watch Radha but it is well worth the investment of your time and curiosity.


I looked through the archives of Braveheartwomen and found this interview of Radha just shortly after she had set up her community on the site. Radha has been a psychotherapist for forty years and lives in Maui, Hawaii. If you watch the attached video, you will be the recipient of some knowledge by a very educated, highly skilled healer and psychologist. In addition to the braveheart community site, she has her own website called Life Mastery Skills. On Radha's site you will find an extensive bio of the years of involvement working with the mental health community in Hawaii. Radha is a young seventy years old this year.

Enjoy the video.





Have a beautiful day,


Joy,


photo: 'clarity' PKM



Rena


www.talktotheturtle.com