My little Pink Book -Write to make Right

I bought my first diary at the age of 10. I remember how special it was to me. I saved up enough allowance money and decided I would get a really snazzy one at the fancy card store.

I remember like it was yesterday. It was pink, and had a little girl on the front cover, and shiny metalic patterns all over it. I fell in love with it and bought it right on the spot. The lady behind the counter excitedly demonstrated how to use the little lock on the side so that all my 'private' messages would only been seen by my eyes. "WOW!!!" I thought. I can actually just be ME and NO ONE can stop me!

I fell in love with writing and haven't stopped journaling ever since.

In my childhood that little book meant more to me than any barbie doll, candy bar, video game, or pretty dress around. It gave me my own personal space to say, be and do whatever I pleased. Growing up I often felt very stifled and controlled being raised by a traditional Italian family. They had the best intentions and did the best they could. I admire them in so many ways. But struggles for establishing boundaries always was an ongoing issue.

That little pink book, gave me the ability to VOICE my feelings in a very safe way, especially when things didn't always feel so safe. I filled pages and pages of feelings, thoughts, emotions and ideas I had about what I saw around me and how I felt in my world. I could say whatever I wanted and no one was going to CORRECT me, or judge my ideas. or lay on any guilt trips for the words I had inside.



My little Pink book was my salvation when I wanted to talk and no one was there to listen.
When I wanted to share when no one was there to accept my gifts. When I just wanted to be silly, and create imaginative out of my world stories that no one really was interested in listening to.

I'm not sure I would have made it through as well as I did if it weren't for my little Pink book. Even today I find writing to be such a therapeutic tool. I can't leave it for too long without getting the itch to let it out on paper.

Begin a journal today. If you already have, bravo! If you haven't then really consider starting one and you will magnify your efforts of achieving greater self awareness and healing.

Journaling will give you the opportunity to let go of the past, will present you with what you are right now, and will enable you to begin the healing process in a very safe and insightful way. Through the process of putting words down on paper, you will allow that INNER voice to express itself. You will be able to effectively do self inquiry whereby you illuminate the dark areas of your life. You can come to terms with them, embrace them and ACCEPT them for what they are. Your darkness gains light and you integrate the learning you need to grow more aware, and present to your higher Self.

Here are some ideas of journal styles you can use to begin writing consistently:

1) Abundance Journal:

Begin every morning or last thing before bed with a journal entry of what you are APPRECIATIVE of in your life. I call this an Abundance Journal. Just free flow write everything you feel so gracious for. This is powerful in soo many ways. You are reminded of just how much you have in life everyday. This encourages you to stay on top of your goals, and keeps the fire beneath your desires stoked like mad!

2) Accomplishment and Goals Journal:
Everyday or night you write what you have accomplished or any goals you have reached or want to set. Its purely a tool to stay CONNECTED with your desires to manifest all the things you want in life. You can explore goals more closely and fine tune your approach in areas that need more attention. You will realize any patterns that may be limiting you or actually allowing you to forge forward. Its amazing how writing down your goals on a consistent basis can solidify your accountability to everything you want to achieve in life. Its like your own personal contract. Harder to let yourself down when its stares right back at you on paper!

3) Feelings/ Emotions Journal:

This type of journal is very useful for emotional eaters, people with addictions and patterns of self abuse, emotional trauma, mood disorders such as anxiety or depression, and much more.
Emotions like I have said in other posts, are the MOVEMENTS of your feelings in the body. They are transient. Not like scars that don't ever go away.

Writing down your feelings and emotions allows you to pour out your heart, so that you aren't HOLDING all that in. It frees you up, lightens your load, and allows you to just vent without being subject to anyone's intervention. You get to just say it like you feel it in a safe and healthy way. It's a great middle step to take before you confront others. For some confronting others is the hardest thing possible. So getting it out on paper helps begin the process of not stuffing down feelings, and denying they exist in the first place.

Write to make right!

Would love your feedback! How do you journal? How does it help you deal and heal?

Love and Light!

Namaste

Piera

How to Breath to Beat the Blues

Depression is the big D word lately. It appears that this ominous condition is reaching epidemic proportions in north American populations. In practice I would say that at least 50% of my clients have encountered some form of depression in their lives and have proceeded to take pharmaceutical medications to cope with their struggles. It also appears not to have any discretion for age or sex. I've treated young teenage girls and boys right to retired seniors.

Q: What is depression? Why is it seemingly so invasive in our western society today?

A: Loss of Core Connection Plain and simple.

Walk down the street in any downtown North American metropolis and just observe city folk. I do this often as I walk extensively everyday. There seems to be a void in many people's faces. An emptiness that is so pervasive you can't miss it and not think "Why do people look so absent, almost robotic ?". It seems people are very closed off emotionally, to the point that I have witnessed just this past month someone pass out on the sidewalk and no one even flinching in reaction to help.

We have lost our connection to our inner PRESENCE. Our source of all JOY. In essence our CORE CONNECTION has been blocked, suppressed, and neglected by our MIND'S and the conditions we have placed on ourselves. Conditions based on limitations and learned patterns of belief by our parents and society.

Your inner joy is ALWAYS present. Your CORE is the source of all your creation. All your circumstances, experiences and manifestations are dependent on your center. The circumference does not determine your HAPPINESS. The circumference does not determine how rich or poor you are, your career satisfaction, the quality of your friendships and intimate relationships, nor how much you weigh.

YOUR CORE determines all of that. When you live from the truth of your core, you manifest abundance from the core.

So yes depression is real. But primarily in the MIND and mainly from the mental constructions we build based on past conditions and limitations.

Feelings and emotions of sadness, apathy, greif, anixety, anguish and many others are also very real. But they are not PERMANENT. They are transient. To emote means to move, transition, or change. Your feelings are not YOU. You experience them, and you feel them, but they are not your CORE truth. It is when we IDENTIFY with our emotions that we suffer, feel threatened, less than, insecure and above all FEARFUL.
Eckhart Tolle is a living success story of how intense depression can be healed. He reached the point of contemplating his own life on numerous occasions. Until one day, he literally awakened to the insight that perhaps all of the depressive thoughts were not him. But were the fabrications of a mind riddled with egoic contentions, pain bodies and false beliefs based on external forms.

Your inner truth is not a tangible form. It is the living force that animates you. It gives you bliss, enlivens you, animates your whole being and never betrays you. Your mind on the other hand has another agenda. Your mind is the processor or CPU that will absorb anything you program it with. We are all prone to negative conditioning and so therefore keeping the mind free of these "viruses" is almost impossible. But if we can detach from the mind, and the conditioned thought processes then we can CONNECT to the living eternal truth within!

But how???? I can just hear you all scream.

Start with the BREATH! Your only choice really.

It is the direct link to the inner living truth and knowing we all possess. When you perform breath work you come to an awareness of your inner stillness. When we get still enough we are then able to hear the all knowing voice of our inner sage. We come to know that EVERYTHING is ok, and perfect just as it is. Because we feel the JOY of our eternal CORE being that can't be bought or substituted by anything else.

How to Breath to Beat the Blues:

• Set aside at least 10 minutes to be in complete stillness and quiet. Just before you go to bed or 10 minutes before hopping out of bed is best.

• Sit your butt down on that cushion and come to an awareness of your breath. Listen to the quality of your breath at first without changing anything. How do you breath? Where is the breath initiating? How does your upper, middle and lower abdomen move in relation to the inhalations and exhalations? Once you know how you breath, then you may explore and proceed to lengthen the breath and deepen it.
  

• In the beginning I would suggest that you choose 2 words that you mentally say , one for the inhale and the second for the exhale. I.e: In/out, Ah/Om, or calm/release.

• Pay attention to the pauses between each inhale and exhale.

• Follow the breath every inch of the way. Meaning: be aware of the full inhale, pause, then feel the full exhalation and don't rush to begin the next breath. Feel it in its ENTIRETY.

These are basic tips to assist you with mediation and your breathing practice.

In future posts I will expand on more breathing exercises and share my knowledge of Pranayama- or the yoga of breath.

For now, I wish you stillness, bliss and love

Namaste

Piera