Daily Moment of Awareness [10.3.2019]

Moments of awareness shared with you

We are often told, “There is always something to be grateful for.” Some of you may agree and some of you may struggle with that. However, no matter where you stand, it’s up to you to explore it.

Dismissing it because of your current circumstances does not make it untrue. Passively agreeing does not evoke the awareness. Expressing gratitude is an act which requires your time, space, and attention. You need to call to your consciousness the people and/or things for which you are grateful. This can be your breath, a recent purchase, a sweet lunch with a loved one, an accomplishment, or having enjoyed a sunny day.

Gratitude is not about happiness. It’s about active recognition and appreciation. I realized that today. Though I felt drained this afternoon, I was still able to bring my attention to people and things for which I am very grateful.

Daily Moment of Awareness [10.2.2019]

Moments of awareness shared with you

I was reminded today of something I’ve been sitting with in my times of refection. I don’t believe we need courage to live our truth. I believe we need acceptance. We need to FIRST accept our truth. Love our truth. Once you do that, living your truth will begin to feel like breathing. It will feel natural.

Because your truth is your nature.

Our truth is in us. Always. It’s that thing we hide. It’s that thing we deny. It doesn’t take courage to do that. It’s simply a conscious choice. Therefore, you can make a conscious choice to live your truth too. Out loud.

Stop with the pep talks about living your truth and just be it.

Fear Is Not A Validation

People hear what you say. People see what you do. But people do not experience your life experiences as you do.

Furthermore, we often dial down or even hide our truth. The deep, core experience dancing in our souls and warming our hearts. For as real as it feels to us, we still try to make sense of it. We question it and doubt it. There are so many reasons why we do this and it all points back to fear.

How much do you reveal in your moment to moment? 

We tell people what we think they will accept. We show people what we think they will accept. We surrender to fear. We tell ourselves we have difficult choices to make, but what that really mean is we have tradeoffs to make. The tradeoff is our authenticity for someone else's acceptance. Why? Because we allow fear to be a validation for how we choose to live.

Fear is NOT a validation.

words on image: Michael Barata / image: Jez Timms

Your Truth

Who YOU are can only be discovered and realized by YOU. What others may think or say is their own deal.

You make choices. You make decisions. You make mistakes. You learn lessons. You dance in bliss. You grow from pain. You express your truth. You reflect in silence.

Life is your most precious gift. The journey is yours to unwrap it.

words on image: Michael Barata / image: Ravi Pinisetti

When Fear Knocks

What if you looked at your fears as opportunities? What if your opportunities are your fears in disguise?

Before you jump to the scariness associated with fears, try thinking about them differently. Imagine opportunity whispering to you through your fears. An opportunity is not without unknowns and yet, it feels different because there is a perceived benefit. A fear feels debilitating because the perceived experience is seen as discomfort, pain, or failure.

Pursuing an opportunity reveals more about it. Moving though fear reveals more about YOU.

all words: Michael Barata / image: Ricardo Retez

Be Instead of Prove

Think about your energy. Think about your time. Think about YOUR LIFE. How do you want/need to be expressing yourself? How often do you allow someone else to influence how you create and live your life? 

Your reference point for your authenticity is within YOU. Your successes and failures contribute to the path you are blazing. Burn the bridges of conformity and judgment with every step you take. 

Stop proving yourself. Love yourself. Trust yourself. Nurture yourself. BE YOURSELF!

all words + words on image: Michael Barata / image: Nick Fewings

Questions

So busy. So distracted. So tired. So frustrated. So doubtful. 

How can you see? How can you be? What should you see? Who should you be? 

Where have you been? .

all words + words on image: Michael Barata / image: Jon Tyson

Your Inner Journey

We ask for advice. We get judged. We look for signs. We take wrong turns. We heed others’ opinions. We ignore our own intuition.

Of course there are people in your life who can help you. That’s a beautiful thing. But that doesn’t mean you ignore what YOU can do for you. We are taught as children to heed, to obey, to get in line, to follow, to respect others. All of this leads to a dissolution of self. Is it any wonder why so many people don’t know much about themselves, even worse, scoff at the notion of going within to discover more about themselves AND life?

Your willingness and wonder about who you are can reveal your gifts, your talents, your passion, and yes, your strength. The journey within is lifelong. Along the way, we hit detours, obstacles, and even deadends. What do those things look like? Well, they could be family and friends, authority figures, failures, and traumatic experiences. However, as long as you have breath, the inner journey can continue.

If you’re looking for answers, for love, for direction, start within. What you discover inside of you will be YOUR truth rather than their suggestions.

words on image: Michael Barata / image: unknown

Your Energy Foundation

We allow the outside world to influence how we live. We all do. From situations to people, what is happening outside of us receives so much of our attention. 

Speaking your truth cannot be contingent on how it may be received. Choosing who or what gets space in your life does not require permission from anyone but you. Being there for yourself in every way possible is a healthy imperative. And your dreams, are your dreams to discover, pursue, and live out. 

You deserve your own attention, time, and space to create a strong, grounded, and loving foundation for yourself. It’s your energy. 

words on image: Michael Barata / image: Chetan Menaria

Empty Yourself

What are you holding onto? 

When you empty yourself of grudges, hidden pain, unsaid words, and suppressed fears, something happens. You free yourself of emotional weight. 

This requires you to be stripped down, incredibly vulnerable, and completely truthful with yourself and others. Why with others? Well, we often lose sight of who we are because we hide ourselves from others. 

To be seen is to empty ourselves of all conditioning, of all “should be’s”, of all fears, of all self-doubt, of all reservations about what others may think or say or do.  Relationship with ourselves is the starting point, but we need to overcome hiding that precious relationship when engaging in relationships with others. 

Emptying yourself creates space for truth, healing, love, and nurturing healthy, authentic relationships.

words on image: Michael Barata / image: Beata Ratusniak

Patience To Heal

Life is filled with joy and pain. And when we are joyous, we don’t want it to end. But when we are hurt, we lack patience for the healing process. We are closed off to recognizing that healing can take on many forms and be an experience of much diversity. Healing can be transformative and restorative. 

The not knowing is the challenge. When? How? 

Healing can be transformative in that your whole life changes AND your pain subsides. But healing can be restorative in that you gain a deeper understanding of the situation or person you feel hurt by. Your lessons help you  so that you can re-engage in a healthier, more grounded way. 

Pain doesn’t always lead to loss or end. Healing can reveal the pain is resulting from misunderstanding. From that lesson, healing can better equip you with compassion, empathy, patience to listen. 

Healing can lead to new beginnings. 

words on image: Michael Barata / image: Ümit Bulut

Be Seen

Your truth is your voice.

How you express your beingness is a journey from within. Too often, we focus on being accepted rather than being authentic, real, and unfiltered.

Go all in with who you are. Your life is your playground for living out loud. Connect with your essence, nourish your soul, ground yourself in your truth, love yourself, and be grateful for being YOU.

Your life is NOT about being accepted. It’s about being seen.

words on image: Michael Barata / image: Aa Novo

Your Worth

You know what is special about you.

Go. Reconnect. As often as you forget.

all words + words on image: Michael Barata / image: Jessie Bowser

Truth Is In The Present

The traditions of living can create a false sense of what is, for you. When you adopt a tradition, you walk a path already walked. Of course, there is joy to be experienced through tradition. But it’s a feeling of familiarity, of comfort, of security. The joy is not discovered or created.

Truth is ever available in each moment. When you let go of the past and unlearn your conditioning, truth is revealed. Your truth is rather than was. Lack of awareness welcomes tradition. Mindfulness is a relationship with truth.

words on image: Michael Barata / image: Samuel Silitoga

How You Frame It

Your inner dialogue greatly influences your mood, your behavior, and your outlook about life.

If you are forever re-running something painful from your past in your head, don’t be surprised when the emotions associated with that experience are what you feel. If you doubt yourself or harshly judge yourself, don’t be surprised when you feel “less than.” If you are always giving into fear and telling yourself, “I just couldn’t do that.” don’t be surprised when you don’t make progress.

If you are going through a challenge, how you think and talk about it, matters. A lot! How you frame it is how your whole being responds to it. If you refer to your life (experiences) in a negative and/or defeating way, you will attract more negativity and defeat and feel negative and defeated.

It’s not magic. It’s not being naive. It’s not ignoring the work. It’s all about taking a healthy approach to your life in every moment. Everything you could ever feel or give begins within YOU.

If you’re hurting, acknowledge the hurt, and tell yourself you are healing. If you’re lost, acknowledge being lost, and tell yourself you’re learning. Of course, reinforcing this healthy mindset with healthy behaviors in healthy environments will also help.

words on image: Michael Barat / image: Pixabay

Comfort Is Quicksand

Think about those mornings when every inch of your bed just hugs you? The sheets and blankets have created the perfect temperature, that you almost feel one with them. Your pillow is a soft cloud for your heavy mind.

What else is going here? That’s right. Your comfort is holding you back from beginning your day. Exercising. Meditating. Eating a heathy breakfast. Spending some meaningful time with someone - or even with yourself.

Comfort denies new experience. Comfort ignores creativity. Comfort stunts growth. Comfort delays learning. Comfort teams up with fear to stop you from: exploring, going further, looking more intently, being curious and courageous, and yes, they stop you from living divinely and loving deeply.

Comfort is best experienced as a flowing reminder that you are living. However, it can also be a stagnant stop.

words + words on image: Michael Barata / image: Lisa Fotios

Your Inner Badass

Inside each of us is a badass. Our inner badass lives authentically. Loves boldly. Speaks confidently. 

To our inner badass, fear is something to overcome. Pain is the teacher and healing is the lesson. Vulnerability is an opportunity for growth. Our inner badass will only express our truth. 

What stops our inner badass? We do. We quiet it. We hide it. We ignore it. We deny it. We doubt it. 

No more. Give way to your inner badass.

words on image: Michael Barata / image: Mabel Amber

Your Truth Is Enough

No need to figure out life. Your life is your gift. Your truth is the unfolding of it. 

Along the way, you will doubt your truth. You will hide your truth. Hell, you’ll even be told your truth is not enough. They are obstacles. You may trip and fall. Get up. It’s your truth. 

Your truth is beautiful because it’s your truth. It’s what makes your life, authentic. The highs and lows, the flow and the falls. 

Your truth is yours. All of it. The knee-buckling obstacles as well as the awe inspiring beautiful scenery. 

words: Michael Barata / image: MaLeK DriDi

Self-Love To Heal

We yearn for what was. We fear what hasn’t happened. And we tend to loop inner dialogues based on both.

If you’re hurting, then hurt. But also give yourself an opportunity to heal. When you relive what has hurt you in the past, you ignore what can heal you in the present. Your hurt will only last as long as you give it energy. The clear message is that you do have something or someone in your life to be grateful for. Yes you do. Remind yourself, as often as you want/need.

Accept the hurt and accept the healing. I know we can’t control every thought that pops into our minds, BUT we CAN consciously decide what to do after a thought. This is true for every moment of your life. Therefore, the beauty is you can choose healthy, healing thinking and behavior whenever you want, such as: gratitude journaling, positive self-messaging, therapy/counseling, meditation, yoga, exercise, walk, travel, a forgotten hobby, a warm bath, reading, etc. I’ve deiced to do 20 pushups whenever I consciously engage in a hurtful thought or behavior. Bonus: my pecs desperately needed the attention,

I know the ache can be debilitating which can also cloud all of your senses. In these states, we also doubt the possibility and bliss of love. So, we give even more space to the hurt and build a wall to love. Your healing can be so restorative. The journey to healing can present lessons and gifts you never could have imagined.

But first, you need to commit to self-love. To heal, you must love yourself.

words: Michael Barata / image: Designecologist

Begin With YOU

We can spend so much time and energy wondering what others are saying about us. If you’re not there, you’ll  never know the what, the intent, or even the sincerity. It’s ok to not know.

What you do have complete control over is your own self-dialogue and how you express yourself to the world. 

We tend to forget or hide ourselves in the curiosity of “the other.” Why? Because sometimes being you can be excruciatingly vulnerable and scary as hell. But it can also be magical, freeing, and healthy. Yes. It can be ALL of that and more if you choose it. 

Find yourself. Accept yourself. Love yourself. For all that is unique and beautiful about you. That all begins within you - not with the other.

words: Michael Barata / image: Leah Kelley