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Personal best, no shame in that….

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I recently climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa.  The route I traveled took 6 days.  Each day took me higher and higher, over the vistas, and above the clouds.
Each day the goal to the summit became harder and harder with each breathe that I took…the air, thinner and thinner.

The night of the summit attempt in sub-zero temperatures, I donned all my warm clothes in managed anticipation.  I knew for each step I took I would lag behind the team as my body craved the needed oxygen.
Hike ten minutes, rest 3 minutes, hike ten minutes.  I gasped for each breathe.  I leaned on my climbing poles, audibly struggling to fill my lungs with air.  Each step closer to the summit made me aware that I was one step closer to my limits, as my lungs screamed and my muscles burned.  I did not want to believe that the summit was unobtainable…one foot in front of the other, slowly, slowly.

A single tear ran down my face….a sign of the struggle.

With the team waiting for me at a resting point, I sat on a cold rock, breathing hard, and asked my guides if they thought I could make it. They would not tell me no, but allowed me to make my own decision.
I had hiked over 26 miles, I was at 17,500 feet.  The summit was only 1,800 feet more but that was 4-5 hours away, and then a long stint back down.
Crying I said I had to go back.  I had pushed myself to the acceptable limit without jeopardizing my well being.  I decided to turn and descend.  A moment of elation in making a decision turned to thoughts of failure after coming so far.

I had posted on Facebook that I did not make it.
The response was cheers, encouragement and others pride in me.  I had not failed.
I did my personal best.  It may have not been the summit, it may have not been as good as others but it was my best that I possessed.
I gave it my all, my best, everything I could without risking my life…and those around me.

No shame in that.

OCCUPY your LIFE….

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We have all heard about the OCCUPY movement.
If you have not, it is easy to get information from Google.
In a nutshell, it is a protest against the “1%” by the “99%” and the fight is for more equality.

Occupy, for us means what Willie Shakespeare advised us so many years ago… “To thine own self be true.”
So many of us do not know what it means to be true to self.
So many of us look to others to find who we are.

Remember the movie The Runaway Bride with Richard Gere and Julia Roberts?
In that movie, Richard’s character tells Julia’s character that she does not even know what kind of eggs she likes. It seems that her favorite egg dish is determined by the man she currently loves. She gets really pissed off, but in the end she makes eggs all different ways and decides for herself.

This is what we must do. We must act as scientists and experiment. We must play both roles and we have to be an independent observer also.

How do we do this?
We have to be careful to not allow others to define who we are.
We have to be careful to not get caught in a pigeon hole set by others.

What can this look like?
People can try to tell us that we are not allowed to do something or that women can’t do certain things.
There was a time in the US when women were not allowed to vote!
Can you imagine that there was a time when men thought women were too feeble to vote?

I like to wonder what we will challenge today to help future generations of women.

Occupy Your Life. Now Is The Time.
Take the time, invest in self discovery and begin to lay all of your talents on the line.

Really…there is no time to lose.

 

Love & light,

Indrani

Clothes make the man….

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The quotation, “clothes make the man,”  by Mark Twain came to mind today.

I was thinking about this as I rustled through my closet looking for something to wear to work.   Since my clowning expedition, my day to day “normal” clothes look boring compared to the bright colors, blooming silk flowers, embellished hats, bows, polka dots and striped socks I wore while parading through Guatemala.

Do I want to wear this pair of pants? Then what shirt matches–tight pants and loose top, or loose pants and tight top? Flat shoes, heels, open toes, or not?
We have learned that how we dress says a lot about us.
Clothes can say I am a doctor, lawyer, farmer, banker, tribal chief, etc.
Not only do our clothes tell a story to the people around us, it tells us something as well.

Put on a nice suit or business dress and the mirror speaks to you of success and confidence, when deep down perhaps we feel less than that.
Slap on a sexy outfit and thoughts of attractiveness, beauty and love, maybe even power fill your head.

What you wear can tell you: You are successful, attractive, sexy, lovable, comfy, practical, etc.

Look it the mirror.  What is your reflection telling you?  And what does your appearance tell others?

And most importantly does your reflection reflect the truth of who you are?

What is your Raison d’être?

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What is your Raison d’être?
What is your reason for being?
What is your purpose?
What great thing you are here to accomplish?

When I say GREAT thing, I do not mean BIG thing. I mean any-sized thing.
I am on an amazing journey with a lovely group of women who are eager to do the foundation work. One of the women said,

“I’m learning that I don’t always have to save the world in a hard and heavy way. A simple gesture like nail polish and aromatherapy can make a huge difference.  Sometimes simple is more powerful.  A good reminder that fun is good!!  I guess that’s how it has impacted me personally….reminding me to play and have fun and not to take it all so
seriously.”

Those words are prophetic and wise.

Will you take the time you need to find your Raison d’être?

The world needs you to step up and into YOU!

Love & light,

Indrani

Have you lost your way?

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Have you lost your way?

I was recently in Paris at the airport.  There was only a short amount of time between my flights, and my stress weighed heavily on me.  I got lost three different times between terminals as the clock ticked away.  The signs that told me where to go were in front of me, but as I skimmed over them looking for big arrows that said “Terminal E2,” I missed the smaller details in my narrowed perception, which were meant to give me the direction of where to go.

If I would have managed my stress better I would have seen those smaller signs, and I would have found my way a little easier.

How many times in life has stress narrowed your perception where the signs, although right in front of us, go undetected?

Next time stress creeps up your spine, stop and breathe and look for all the signs of life. They are there, and once you see them your path will be illuminated. Otherwise, the most obvious of signs will go unseen.  And you too will be lost.

Let there be light!

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Let there be light!

I love sunshine! I love how the light plays on the leaves of the trees in my garden, how the sun’s rays play on the water in my pool and how the drops of dew look like diamonds when the morning light kisses them.

Can there be too much light?

I never thought that there could be until I went to Norway and Sweden.
The sun is awake almost 23 hours a day. The only way I knew I was tired was to check my watch and I would hear myself say, “dang, it’s 2:30am!” Then I would pull the black-out blinds and try to sleep. It made me wonder about biorhythms and such.

I came back home to Texas and embraced the night with the delight that a new born has when they see their toes for the very first time. I went to the window and was happy that I could see nothing. The world seemed to be at rest.
My world was at rest.

The abundance of light in Norway and the presence of dark in Texas made me acutely aware of opposites and how much we need them.
We need sour to know sweet.
We need noxious to smell pleasant.
We need rough to appreciate soft.

If we apply these opposites in our daily lives, we see that we need those challenging people for us to appreciate all the rest.
What we need not do, is allow the challenging people to define us.
We must define ourselves, we must know who we are and we must be true to that image of ourselves. We can use the opposite of who we are to appreciate all of our great qualities.
Consequently, we can explore the darker sides of ourselves and try to infuse some light to achieve more balance.

As a Quilter, I use ugly fabric to highlight the beautiful fabrics in a piece that I am creating.
We can use the ugly or dark in life to teach us how to appreciate the beauty or light.

So let there be light…and dark, and let us enjoy the sweet balance.

Love & light,

Indrani

Flourish….

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The dictionary defines flourish as: to be in a vigorous state, to thrive. To be in its or in one’s prime; be at the height of fame, excellence, influence, etc. To be successful; prosper.

According to Felicia Huppert, director of the University of Cambridge Well-Being Institute, flourish means “having high positive emotion, plus being high on any three of the following: self-esteem, optimism, resilience, vitality, self-determination and positive relationships.”

When I close my eyes and think of the times that I have felt like I was flourishing in my life…I see those times when I had goals and was driven toward them. This does not mean that there were not challenges or obstacles that tried to trip me up. I remember significant challenges that at times, kept me paralyzed. I often felt like I was sinking and had no one to support me.

It was the continual goal setting that enabled me to move, creep ahead and slowly arrive at a better frame of mind.

A few days ago someone asked me how people get strong enough to handle emotional upheaval. I admitted that I had no magical answer except that it is a little like deciding to sink or swim. By this, I mean it’s a matter of emotional life or emotional death.

Sometimes giving up in the short run allows you to save what physical energy you do have and wait for a better time to invest it.

Emotional upheaval is never comfortable. You can learn, however, how to get increasingly more comfortable in your discomfort.
Being able to accept reality without wanting “magical” solutions is par for the course.

Practice makes you better. There is no perfection in the game of life.
Giving up in the moment does not have to mean giving in to whatever happens. It simply means retreating to refuel and recharge.
Be kind to yourself…you are worth it.

Love and light,
Indrani

The GUILT belongs to the PERP….

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I had the GREAT fortune to attend the Omega Women and Power Conference last month.

The line-up was powerful enough make activists faint!
-Eve Ensler
-Isabel Allende
-Sally Fields
-Elizabeth Lesser- Co-founder of Omega

Elizabeth Lesser gave a house raising key note and one of the points that resonated most with me was this…
The guilt belongs to the perpetrator.

The GUILT belongs to the PERP.

WOW…

For every woman who has ever been violated…
For every child who has received or witnessed abuse…
For everyone who has ever been the focus of a bully…
You do not have to feel the guilt.
The guilt needs to be given back to the abuser.

Perhaps you are still at risk and cannot say this out loud. Say it to yourself as you are standing in front of them and being betrayed.
Remember to take yourself out of harm’s way and stay strong in your energetic resolve to give the guilt to the true and rightful owner…the abuser, that’s who.