Tag Archives: Inner light

Gratitude, Presence and Self-care…a GPS for life’s twists and turns.

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How many of us now depend on devices that help us to navigate our way to a new destination? The answer is lots of us.

How many of us refuse to tune into our inner GPS to find the way to Peace and Joy? The answer is LOTS of us.

While it is easy to just put an address into your device and get directions, you still must do a few things:

-You must keep the device charged so you can use it.
-You have to learn how to input the address and where to find the app that gives the directions.
-You have to have the presence of mind to closely follow the directions and make the turns that it suggests or you will not get to where you want to go.

This is also true of our internal GPS. Yes, we all have one.
The inner GPS is called intuition. Your intuition will give you hints of Yes and No when you are turning in a direction that is not aligned with the work you were sent here to do. Your work may or may not coincide with the job you have. If it does, you will feel joyful and fulfilled even if there are many struggles in your life. If, however, your job makes you depleted and sad, then your work that you are meant to do is far from what you do daily.

There is a quick fix for this. Yes, a quick fix.

Your intuition wants to steer you into the work you are meant to do and it can if you begin to feel grateful for all the things that you have, even the challenges. Being able to stay present in the midst of challenge and being grateful for the lesson in the challenge is the quickest way to JOY. I promise you, this really does work.

Every night before bed, I write at least 5 things that I am grateful for and I go to bed with gratitude in my head and heart. The “S” in the GPS is for self-care. That means that you put yourself at the TOP of each list you have, and you must be sure you do something for yourself each day. It can be as simple as allowing the answering machine to get the phone calls for a short time while you do a special something. It can be reading a good book, taking a bath, sitting in silence, listening to your favorite music, chatting with a treasured friend, etc. These snippets of self care do not have to look like taking a whole weekend off to go to the spa, although that’s good too!

Waiting for the “right” moment for self-care is a great way to put off self-care. It is a good way to fool yourself into thinking that you have made yourself a priority.

If you are a subscriber to my newsletter, you have received my 5 minutes to Happiness tool that allows you to quickly tap into your positive traits. If you are brave enough to align your behaviors with your positive traits you will have found a quick way to follow your inner GPS.

You can get 5 minutes to Happiness here.

Give this a try for 7 days. I would love to hear how it works for you!

Love and light
Indrani

Upping our JOY Q…Our joy quotient is woefully low!

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I once took a philosophy class in college and the teacher asked us to define happiness.

I remember saying that it was an illusion and that people who said they were happy were liars. I also said that if people can find a little happiness, it would be fleeting and can never last.

Fast forward 30 years and I have completely and irrevocably changed my mind. As a matter of fact, it feels more like I have healed my mind and in the process healed my spirit.

Over the past few years I have been steeping myself in the study of and the living of Joy. Last year, I even went as far as to do a virtual joy event called Unpasteurized Joy. It was a series of conversations with many different folk from the very famous, like Dr Patch Adams, to the absolutely non-famous, like yours truly. I asked every person to speak of joy and how their work contributes to joy in our world.

Focusing so intently on joy over that past few years has allowed me to stay focused on the good in my life, even as challenges continue to flow in and through, and I am able to keep negativity at bay.

Recently, I heard from a colleague of mine who had surgery and she told me that while she was in recovery she listened to all 26 joy recordings. She said that it really helped her. Thanks Catherine, for sharing this lovely bit of information. It warmed my heart.

My challenge to you is to keep upping your JOY Q by finding the joy all around and by speaking joy as often as you can.

What are some ways that you can increase your JOY Q?

1. Stay focused on the positive aspects of your own wonderful self.
Sign up at www.indranislight.org for a tool called Five minutes to
Happiness for a way to get to your finest values.

2. Take time each day for using your eyes to see the beauty in all those who you
meet. Look for something that you can admire in each person.

3. Find the courage to forgive someone. One of my dear friends found
her courage this weekend to forgive someone who really hurt her a few
years ago. The very next day, the woman she forgave gave her some
wonderful compliments on face book.

4. Write a letter to yourself and forgive yourself for any grievance
that you feel you have committed.

5. Spend a few moments in nature everyday to notice how much intricate beauty
surrounds us.

Up your JOY Q.
We must if we want to save our world.

Love and light,
Indrani

I always wanted a cape…

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No, I never wanted a cape of wool, cashmere, or mink.
I want a cape that shimmers in the face of wrong doing.
I want a cape that shines in the instance of injustice.
I want cape colored bright in a dark world of harm.
I want a super hero’s cape!

Instead?

I got a nose.

Donned with the red nose of a clown, I recently went to Guatemala to visit children and adults who were in hospitals and institutions.
A red nose is hardly something that gives a person super powers by any means.

But that red nose gave me:
-The power to look beyond the grim, sad cinder block buildings that housed people who lived beyond the fringe of society and poverty.
-The power to face my own fears of reaching out and touching and loving those suffering people who needed love.
-The power to laugh, dance and be silly in dismal conditions to raise up a smile in a person that seemed impossible to reach as they were trapped in their ill mind.
-The power to put my judgments, preconceived notions and ignorance aside to be genuine and to look at others with love.

I want to challenge you to be someone’s super hero. No, I don’t want you to travel to far and distant places or leap tall buildings in a single bound.

What can you use as your cape to give you the power to drop your fears and judgments and to reach out to people who could use love, understanding and compassion in your life?

Kay Walten

The definition of divorce is….

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Emotional divorce as defined by me is:
Disengaging one’s energy from being entangled with the energy of another.
A shorter way to put this is:
Their business is none of yours!
Yes, I know it sounds crass and abrupt and even a little bitchy.

Bear with me a while and read the following story:
I just met a delightful woman walking her equally delightful dogs and we stopped to chat. I started to tell her about the joy event (if you missed it, send me an email and we will send you a taste of what you missed). Anyway, the conversation quickly turned to her feeling really taken advantage of by a very close family member. This person insists on smoking in her house, even though she has been repeatedly told not to. She engages in harmful drug behaviors and has people scrambling to always save her from herself. She even intentionally ruins the good fortunes of others with every trick at her disposal.
This person is an excellent teacher…. Do you have any such teachers in your life?

For example…
People who constantly borrow money?
People who continually dump their emotional bilge all over you?
People who are always complaining about their job but won’t make any changes?
People who must have all the attention on themselves because their life is the only thing worthwhile?

WHAT EXACTLY DO these people teach us? What could we possible learn from emotionally draining situations such as this?
Well the answer to this question is both simple and complicated.
The simple answer is this: They are here to teach us to mind our own business and live our own lives.
The complicated answer is this: What kind of life do you want and do you have the courage to step completely into it?

Let’s take the complicated answer first.

Take some time to answer these questions.

What would your LIFE look like if this person were NOT in your life?

How would you live differently?

What actions would you not have to take?
How would your emotional state of health look like?
Would you be happier if you did not have to constantly care take the emotional abuser?
Do you know what emotional abuse is?
Are there others in your life that you take emotional abuse from?
What wonderful projects would you invest the emotional energy that you are saving?

Now, the simple answer….
All the above answers are YOUR business.
All the above answers are the WAY YOU WANT to LIVE your own life.
NOW DO IT!
There is no time to waste.
Life is shorter than you think.
If not now, when?
If you won’t take responsibility for your happiness who will or more importantly who should?

Love and light, Indrani.

May Flowers

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Springtime in Texas is beautiful with all the wild flowers in bloom. I found this beautiful Irish blessing…

“May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day. May songbirds serenade you every step along the way. May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that’s always blue. And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through.”

I also want to invite you to this event Virtual JOY Summit: INHALE LIFE, EXHALE JOY.

WARNING!!! SIDE EFFECTS OF JOY.

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Check with your life coach if any of these most COMMON side effects persist or become bothersome to others when experiencing JOY:

Dizziness from being giddy; dry mouth from too much whistling or singing.

Other side effects include: excitement, exuberance, rejoicing, glee, elation, ecstasy, bliss, exhilaration, rapture, jubilation or felicity, loss of appetite, nausea, nervousness, restlessness, stomach pain from too much laughing (which could lead to loss of bladder control), and restful nights of sleep.

Seek medical attention right away if any of these SEVERE side effects occur from JOY:

Severe reactions include: bursting into song, jumping, dancing, skipping, hugging others, change in sexual ability or desire, irregular heartbeat, sore throat from laughing or singing, new or improving mental or mood problems (eg, relaxation, agitation, lack of delusions, happiness, being in the moment, calmness, friendliness).

This is not a complete list of all side effects that may occur. If you have questions about side effects, contact your inner health care provider. Call your life coach for advice about side effects.  Or register here.

Gifts to myself…

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I have to tell you, I do not need another SINGLE material possession!

I have enough STUFF for 10 lifetimes!

This year here is what I intend to wrap up and place under the tree… a deep remembering to

  • Use all the colors in my paint box called life.
  • Do my work without regret
  • Work with abandon
  • Take some risks with my business/life… like crossing the Capilano Suspension Bridge! and creating a non profit foundation.
  • Seek to see something else…
  • Allow my process to unfold
  • Go Big, whatever that means to ME!
  • Live with passion and purpose
  • Be a contributor when I can and a receiver when I need
  • Be unforgettable
  • Be Myself
  • Allow my mistakes to be my teacher
  • See the invisible, the what is not yet here but wants/needs to be created
  • Think out loud
  • Live out loud
  • Laugh out loud!!!!
  • Say NO as often as I need to so I can be HEARD!
  • Say Yes as often as I want to
  • Say THANKS often

Let me then say THANKS to you are for reading this and other musings. I am so very grateful that you share a little of your time with me.

If these gifts work for you… print this and keep it out in the open.

Love and light

Indrani

HAPPY DIWALI… The festival of Light

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This past weekend was the Hindu festival of Diwali. I have a dear friend who knows much about her roots (unlike me!) and I asked her to send me the true meaning of this wonderful festival ( see below).

As I was re educating myself with the True meaning of Diwali, I had many moments of awareness. Diwali is the celebration of inner light but it is the outer light that we see. We light lamps, candles, even strings of Christmas lights to show that we are inviting light into our homes and hearts. I remember as a child growing up in Trinidad, I would fill clay pots with oil and roll cotton into wicks and place them all along the edges of the garden. It was magical.

Then in later years when I went to India and saw strings of Christmas lights I was disappointed that the original clay pots were not being used.  I was told that the fire hazard was too great. OK, that makes sense.

Thank you to Bindya for the wonderful description below.

The name Diwali is itself a contraction of the word “Deepavali” (Sanskrit: दीपावली Dīpāvalī), which translates into row of lamps. Diwali involves the lighting of small clay lamps (diyas) filled with oil to signify the triumph of good over evil. During Diwali, all the celebrants wear new clothes and share sweets and snacks with family members and friends.

While Deepavali is popularly known as the “festival of lights”, the most significant spiritual meaning is “the awareness of the inner light”. Central to Hindu philosophy is the assertion that there is something beyond the physical body and mind which is pure, infinite, and eternal, called the Atman. The celebration of Deepavali as the “victory of good over evil”, refers to the light of higher knowledge dispelling all ignorance, the ignorance that masks one’s true nature, not as the body, but as the unchanging, infinite, immanent and transcendent reality. With this awakening comes compassion and the awareness of the oneness of all things (higher knowledge). This brings Ananda (joy or peace). Just as we celebrate the birth of our physical being, Deepavali is the celebration of this Inner Light.

While the story behind Deepavali and the manner of celebration varies from region to region (festive fireworks, worship, lights, sharing of sweets), the essence is the same – to rejoice in the Inner Light (Atman) or the underlying Reality of all things (Brahman).

Deepavali marks the end of the harvest season in most of India. Farmers give thanks for the bounty of the year gone by, and pray for a good harvest for the year to come. Traditionally this marked the closing of accounts for businesses dependent on the agrarian cycle, and is the last major celebration before winter. Lakshmi symbolizes wealth and prosperity, and her blessings are invoked for a good year ahead.

As per spiritual references, on this day “Lakshmi-panchayatan” enters the Universe. Vishnu, Indra, Kubera, Gajendra and Lakshmi are elements of this “panchayatan” (a group of five). The tasks of these elements are:

  • Lakshmi:        Divine Energy (Shakti) which provides energy to all the above activities.
  • Vishnu:            Happiness (happiness and satisfaction)
  • Kubera:            Wealth (generosity; one who shares wealth)
  • Indra:                Opulence (satisfaction due to wealth)
  • Gajendra:        Carries the wealth

Diwali commemorates the return of Lord Rama along with Sita and Lakshman from his fourteen year long exile and vanquishing the demon-king Ravana. In joyous celebration of the return of their king, the people of Ayodhya, the Capital of Rama, illuminated the kingdom with earthen diyas (oil lamps) and burst crackers.

If you are as amazed with the symbolism as I am here are some practical steps to make the symbolic real.

1. Know that WEALTH first means emotional and spiritual wealth. To make ourselves vulnerable enough to admit that at times we are emotionally and spiritually bankrupt is no easy thing.

2. Be courageous enough to wipe the slate clean of old hurts and toxicities in your life. This does not mean to go back to being abused or back into the path of destructive people, but to learn the lessons and allow yourself to make better decisions the next time. The holiday season is upon us, make different decisions for your self this year ones that will not drain you emotionally, spiritually or financially.

3.FORGIVE YOURSELF for everything you think you have done wrong.

4. Set an intention… a clear intention, to attract new wealth into your life. What elements in your life do you want to be different? Into what parts of your life are you inviting more abundance?

5. CLEAR out the cobwebs in your thinking so you will recognize abundance when you see it. I had an epiphany about my physical abundance during the summer when I was fussing about my fat upper arms and saw a woman who had been burnt on 70 percent of her body and she was happy to wear short sleeves. What a wake up call to me!

NAMASTE… The Light in me sees and respects the Light in YOU.