Articles tagged with: life purpose

Making the Most of Your Life

Making the Most of Your Life

August 24th, 2022

My friend Curt died a couple of weeks ago. I learned about it on Facebook and was stunned.

Curt was a heart-centered, caring soul and helped me in many ways over the years. He was a person I could trust to be honest, authentic, and to listen deeply. He could also be quite funny.

A few weeks before that an important person in our local music community died quite unexpectedly, a real shock. He wasn’t old. Then, my friend Amy’s mother died, also suddenly.

All of this death and loss is having me consider mortality and how I want to live, how I want to spend whatever time I have left, which may be very little or perhaps many years. There’s no way to know.

What if I only have a few years left? What if I have ten? Or just one? What do I most wish to do with that time? How can I live my best life now?

Death is so clarifying.

“Dying requires that we take the step without proof. We walk through the door. We cannot turn around and go back, so we walk through. The end. No guarantees, no certainty, no assurance. We walk, taking each step not from fear but from love, because a great mystery is blessing each footfall. Our hearts understand that mystery and feel the joy. It is the mystery returning to itself.”

Rodney Smith, Lessons from the Dying as quoted in Daily Wisdom: 365 Buddhist Inspirations

What rises up for me is the desire to do even more of what I love, to make even more time for creativity in my life, to make it even more of a priority. I want to study it more deeply, be in creative community with peers and mentors, sharing with others and dialoguing about art and making.

And I want to enjoy my daily life, the small moments, each act of doing, each interaction with another. And continue to heal or release what hurts or haunts me, so I can be most joyful, alive, expressed.

All this uncertainty and upheaval in the world brings losses, endings, and letting go of various kinds. We can contract in fear or we can open in love to the mystery and wonder.

I’m choosing to make the most of my life now, to shape the most beautiful, rich, meaningful life that I can.

I choose to spend my resources of time, money, energy as much as possible on the things that are closest to my heart, bring me the most joy, and help me live well.

And that’s scary because my fear says I should spend all my time, energy, resources on preparing for a changing world—I’m doing that too—and on making more money. But I might not be around to enjoy that money. Whereas, if I make more time for making art now, I know I’ll be loving my life.

What are those things for you that bring you joy, fulfillment, love, peace?

I invite you to explore this in your heart, your thoughts, and in your journal. Answer, as best you can, from your heart, not your head.

If you only have three years left to live, how do you wish to spend them? What rises as a priority? What would make for the best life?

  • And then, how can you honor those priorities through your choices now?
  • What actions can you take this week, this month, this year?
  • What might you need to let go of or stop doing to make more time, space, and resources for what you most love?
  • What might you need to invest in?
  • What supports do you need to put in place to make more space and time for what matters most?

So much is changing in the world in radical ways. We don’t know what the world will look like tomorrow or next year. This makes it hard to plan. Even crazy-making.

For this reason, I feel there is no better time to focus on what your heart feels most drawn towards, what fills you with delight, or meaning, or love, or joy, even if you are full of doubt and fear about taking those next steps. Whenever something is on our heart path, there tends to be doubt and fear.

There are no assurances, no guarantees, but the path of heart is the best path I know. And it’s the one you are called to for a reason. If you long to dance, then dance. If you long to make music, make music. If you long to paint, please paint. And if you long to study marine biology, do that.

Perhaps you want to play music and study marine biology. Trust that. There may be a beautiful interweaving of the two that wants to come uniquely through you.

The dreams of your heart and soul were given to you for a reason. We need you to follow your dreams.

And if you are longing for support with finding and following your heart’s dreams and desires, check out my Creative Life Coaching & Mentoring.

To your heart-centered life with love,
Maxima

Structure vs. Spontaneity

Structure vs. Spontaneity

August 13th, 2020

What constitutes a good day?

One in which everything on the to do list is checked off as planned? Or one in which I went with the flow and did whatever I most desire?

Which one leads to a day in which I fully lived, tasted, loved?

The answer might seem obvious, but let’s look deeper at the question.

Which is better—a day in which I listened to the tides moving in me and in the world and let those tides be more essential than my goals and dreams? Or one in which I stayed true to my nurturing routines and carefully shaped plans?

Are they mutually exclusive? Or aren’t my cherished dreams carried on those self-same tides?

I know “going with the flow” can be a slippery slope and a cop-out in which we avoid what challenges and beckons us for a life of numbed complacency and comfort. I know how easy it is to avoid what we most long to do, especially creativity, which demands so much of us.

But I also know being an automaton, following all the plans and routines to the letter with no flexibility or space for life to show up with surprises, is not fully living. That can easily become dull habit or obsession with control.

To live the balance is not so easy, or rather to go off balance one way then the other and keep swinging, keep moving.

I wrestle within, wanting to get it right, wanting to be free and wanting to achieve things of which I’m proud. To have joy, to dance and sing and make beauty every day. Yet some days I find no time or energy once the daily tasks and the business of making a living are over.

I want to be fully alive and to have made a real contribution to our world. To make those contributions requires focus and structure and a certain doggedness. To be fully alive requires fluidity and grace and attentiveness.

These kinds of questions aren’t easy to answer. And I don’t want to resolve them with easy answers. I want to live the questions, as the poet Rilke said.

But then the world comes in with its crushing demands, its hard work and harder news. And I falter, lose my way, make stabs at things, fritter time away, neglect my heart and soul.

Most of the time I’m trying too hard, doing too much, expecting far too much of myself. But I don’t want to have nothing to show for this life. Nor am I happy and fulfilled when just drifting. Almost everything I do with my time is something I love. That’s pretty remarkable.

Joy, beauty, peace, love and freedom. I desire these. But also a deep bedrock fulfillment. Wholeness.

What brings these? Or, are they there all along, if we just look for them?

I know there are gifts in us that won’t rest until we live and share them. They will destroy us, if unused. People fall ill, become depressed, or self-destruct because they refuse the dreams of their heart and the calling of their soul, because they don’t find adequate outlet for their gifts. And our world suffers for it too.

“If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”

—from The Gnostic Gospels, Elaine Pagels

The ambitious part of me wants books published, great art made, and yes, recognition. The animal part worries about having enough to eat, a roof overhead, to pay my bills. Another part wants only to commune with the Divine in nature and ritual.

Should I give up all this struggle and strain, all this effort and involvement, all my dreams and ambitions? Are they just creating suffering, unhealthy striving, attachment? These questions nag at me.

But, would my soul be satisfied if I gave them all up? I couldn’t even do it if I tried. I know this. And, as a teacher, coach and mentor for others, I hear every week the longing in the people I work with for more structure, focus, forward momentum in their lives, and the thrill when they begin to have direction and make time for what most nourishes them.

So, maybe “going with the flow” is surrendering to who I am, how I’m wired, what I love and need, even my restless striving and ambition. Listening to and answering the call of my soul, but staying open all the while to new information and signs, to the livingness and unpredictability of life, to the gifts each day brings.

I make my plans and schedules. I have my stabilizing, supportive routines that help me create what I long for in my life. But I have to not hold to them too rigidly or life becomes frozen. And yet not be too lax either or there are no strong riverbanks to hold my flow.

For each person, the balance will be different, and at different times in our lives we must adapt to differing needs and demands.

I long to relax and just be far more often than I let myself. But more, I long to shine, to create, to live. If I had to choose, I’d choose the latter. Knowing this, I can be more at peace with my structured life. But also not turn away from the one in me who just wants to play lightheartedly, to have adventures, to lie in the grass and gaze at the sky, who needs this sometimes.

How is it for you? How do you navigate the balance of being and doing, of reaching for your dreams or going with the flow, of structure vs. spontaneity? Share in the comments below.

To your flowing creativity, lovingly held in the strong banks of helpful structures,

Maxima

Seeking Your Heart’s Guidance

Seeking Your Heart’s Guidance

March 13th, 2018

A simple but powerful exercise to help you hear your heart’s guidance. 

Your heart is here to guide you to your best life. Not the easiest, but the best. The fullest expression of you. The richest, most beautiful, rewarding life.

Your heart has answers your mind could never devise. Astonishing in their wisdom, rightness and simplicity.

But how do you hear the voice of your heart? How do you access that guidance?

Here is a process to cultivate connection to the wisdom of heart.

1) Set the scene

Find a place and time where you will not be disturbed. Turn off your phone (really) and close your computer. Have a notebook and pen or pencil. Light a candle or sit somewhere beautiful in nature.

2) Open the flow

This step is preparation, to get your controlling mind out of the way, to open inside. You aren’t yet seeking any guidance. You are clearing the channels to receive guidance.

Grant yourself full permission to write anything at all without judging, doubting, or expecting anything of it. Write for two full pages without pausing to think or edit, starting from the words “In this moment…”.

Write whatever comes, whatever you think, feel, notice around you or in you. Just keep the pen moving the whole time, without pausing, even if you think it is nonsense.

3) Make a request

writing heart's guidanceNow, write a short paragraph to your heart, asking for its guidance and promising to listen.

You may ask about a specific challenge or situation, or you might just ask, “Oh my heart, what do I need to know, be, or do now?” or something general like “How can I live a more joyful life?”

Make a promise to set aside doubt, second-guessing, or your mind trying to figure things out and control the process.

4) Write your heart’s guidance

Drawing on the feeling of freewriting that you did in step 2, simply relax and let the pen flow, writing whatever answers seem to come from your heart.

Keep your promise to yourself not to judge, doubt, second-guess, analyze or edit the answers while you write. That will stop the flow. You can use your wisdom later to discern what feels right or to interpret it.

If your heart tells you anything you feel you cannot do or do not understand, ask follow-up questions. Express your feelings and concerns. Dialogue with your heart about them.

5) Take action

If it feels true and right—even if it also feels scary, hard or silly—follow your heart’s guidance, taking action on what you were told. Keep the faith with your heart by not ignoring its precious wisdom.

What steps will you take? What changes will you make? How will you act in accordance with the guidance you received?

Keeping the Channel Open

magical heart path

by JR Korpa on Unsplash

If you ask for guidance, receive it and then ignore it, you close down your connection to this most valuable inner resource. And your life will feel out of balance.

If, on the other hand, you learn to discern what your own heart voice sounds like, what it feels like when it is speaking to you, you will strengthen your access to this guide within.

Learn how your own heart speaks to you—which may be in images, sensations, impressions or emotions, more than words. Learn to trust and follow the guidance. See what happens as you do.

As you refine your ability to hear your true heart guidance, as you cultivate your deep trust in it, your willingness to follow it into the challenging, scary and wondrous places it is leading you, you will begin to create a life of extraordinary richness and beauty for yourself and for our world.

We want our souls to be fed in the heart’s great pool. Sit with your pen and wait. Sit. Listen. There, it is whispering. There, formless but real. Like wind.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy: Cultivating Intuition and A Return to Heart and also What I Know.

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My Deep Why

My Deep Why

November 7th, 2017

Last week I sent you a beautiful, inspiring, 10-minute exercise to discover your “deep why,” what you are here on earth for, what you’re all about.

This process is a way to tap your deep heart-knowing of what lights you up, inspires and moves you, what matters deeply to your heart and soul.

One student asked me: Why bother asking these questions? Why bother doing these exercises?

Because this is your guidestar to creating a deeply fulfilling, soulful life. A life that matters to you and makes a difference to others. A life of joy.

Practices like this one tune you into listening to your deep heart wisdom, your heartsong, so you can steer your life by that song. To me, nothing could be more important.

If you missed that post, you can read it here and try the exercise yourself. It’s fun and easy. It takes only 10 minutes. And it just may astound you!

Last week I promised to share with you what I got when I did the practice myself. Here it is, off the cuff, unedited:  My deep why, what I’m here for.

I, Maxima, Am Here To. . .

I am here to write, to be creative, to celebrate and honor life, to care, to live from heart, to give and share.

I am here to have joy and spread joy, to love, to be playful and silly, to heal, to grow, to play, to be in wonder, to touch and be touched, to dwell in grace.

I am here to be an artist, to make beauty and magic, to dance, create, sing and make music, to imagine.

I am here to praise God, Goddess, Divine, One, and embody that, dance with that.

I am here to tend to the beauty of the world, to care for growing things, to walk the path of Heart, to walk in the footsteps of the Divine, to honor the Sacred in others and in all things and call it forth, to conduct ritual, ceremony, to be a leader, a healer, a magician, a teacher, a lover, a mystic, a muse.

I am here to give thanks for the creation and work to mend the tears and injustices. I am here to gather the divine sparks.

I am here with my love, my vulnerability, my heart, my spirit and spark and light and fire. I am here to not be ashamed, to love and be loved, to stand in the light and the darkness, to love it all.

I am here to listen to the wind and the ocean, the rocks, trees, birds, streams, animals, plants, to sing their songs.

I am here to elevate, to inspire, to make music, magic, art, song, to be one with the One, to come home, to belong, to help others belong. To believe, dream and reach for the stars.

**************************

It’s empowering to know your Deep Why, to stand in it, to proclaim it and live it.

Share some of your Deep Why in the comments below. And/or share what comes up for you as you read this. Let’s inspire one another!

Why the Heck Am I Here?

Why the Heck Am I Here?

November 1st, 2017

In this post, I share a fun and inspiring practice to help you discover your “life purpose” by tapping into your own deep wisdom and intuitive knowing.

That way, you can live in alignment with that which brings you deepest meaning, joy and fulfillment in your life. Sound good?

Let’s begin.

I Am Here To

  1. Get a pen and paper. (Many studies have shown, writing long-hand is way more beneficial and powerful than typing on a computer. Writing by hand connects you to your heart and body wisdom in a way that typing on a keyboard cannot. If you are physically able to do so, I strongly recommend you do this practice by hand.)
  2. Set a timer for 10 minutes.
  3. Start with the words “I am here to.”
  4. Write everything and anything that comes to your mind in response to those words. Keep returning again and again to “I am here to” to begin many of your sentences.Some ways you may interpret the question include (but are not limited to):
    • What are you here on earth for? Why did you come?
    • What is your life purpose, your passion?
    • What are your gifts?
    • What do you love?
    • What matters to you? What do you stand for?
    • What can you give with joy? What do you already give?
    • What do you want your life to be about?
  5. Keep your pen moving as you write in response to the words. Don’t pause to think, plan, question or edit. Don’t worry whether what you are writing is accurate, true or complete. Don’t worry if it’s nonsense. Don’t worry if it’s terrible writing or great writing or whether you’ve wandered too far afield. Just write. Let it all flow out.

Write From Your Heart

Young child with airplaneGive yourself permission to be grandiose, to dream, imagine, play on the page. To say what you think you’re not allowed to say. To speak with authority and wisdom, humor and grace and heart. Resist the urge to belittle yourself, to say “I don’t know.” What if you did know?

If you have more to say than 10 minutes, keep going. If you think you have said everything before 10 minutes is up, keep going until the timer sounds, even if you have to repeat yourself. Let yourself be surprised by what else comes when you think you’ve said it all.

If there’s something you write that you find helpful or inspiring, you might want to post it where you can read it from time to time and remember why you are here.

I’d love to hear your responses to this practice. Post in the comments here.

Next week I’ll share some of what I wrote when I did this exercise.

To your shining being,

Maxima

To read more on the topic of “life purpose” and finding your unique brilliance, start here.

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A Return to Heart

A Return to Heart

October 11th, 2017

Fires, floods, earthquakes, violence, intolerance, divisiveness, greed. It’s easy to see our world is in upheaval. These are intense, challenging times.

We are being called to return to heart.

As a human race, we have been living in severe imbalance for so long that the re-balancing is requiring some radical and painful shifts in our world.

We cannot continue living as we have been—ignoring and dishonoring the livingness of our world, disrespecting and doing violence to the creatures, the waters, the earth, the air, to women and children and people of color, people of all kinds.

We cannot continue to promote the values, the way of life, the beliefs that have brought us to this crisis. We cannot cling to our possessions, our security, our fear, our cynicism, our isolation.

All of Life is Alive

Autumn scene

by Aaron Burden

All of life is calling to us. The wind is alive. The trees are alive. The rocks are alive. The clouds are alive. All of life wishes to be in deep, sacred relationship with us. In holy communion. In partnership. As it was always meant to be.

The original peoples of all cultures were given instructions in how to live in right relationship on the lands and waters where they dwelled. Rituals, ceremonies, prayers, practices, offerings, recognition of the cycles of life. These kept the peoples living in harmony and balance with the world around them. These kept the people in balance within themselves.

When they forgot these life-giving ways, either temporarily or later completely, trouble occurred. Not as a punishment, but as a reminder of the natural order of life, as a call to return.

Life has an order that is inherently good and whole and workable. When we move with it, our lives tend to flow well. We find acceptance and peace, even in challenges. We find true joy.

We Must Live From Our Hearts

Nothing is more important than that we live from our hearts now.

We need to quiet our incessant minds, our clamoring egos, our false sense of separateness from others. We need to tune into the still, small voice within.

Meditating person

Photo by Dingzeyu Li

We need to learn to calm the voice of fear, the addictive habit of fear, that has been built up in us by our contemporary culture and listen instead to the voice of heart, of love, of peace. We all carry this voice. All of life carries this voice. The ocean carries this voice. The flowers do. The animals do.

Sacrifice and Surrender Will Lead to Joy

This is going to ask a lot of us. We will have to sacrifice cherished comforts, ways of tuning out and disconnecting, our sense of superiority, and much that is familiar or once felt secure.

We may have to leave the 9-to-5 job and follow our passion for art. Or take a steady job in order to support our art. We may have to downsize and band together. We may have to reach out and ask for help, instead of trying to go it alone.

We will not be able to rely on how things worked for us before. We will not be able to hide out and play small. It simply won’t work. We will meet with more chaos, disruption and suffering. Until we relent.

Now, we are asked to step beyond our wounded selves, our limited desires and preferences. To step into our extraordinary gifts, cultivate our capacities, and shine in our full Beingness.

Nothing less will do.

If you have a calling in your heart that you’ve been ignoring or neglecting, a calling that comes from love, it is time to follow it. If you have a longing to reach beyond the pain that has held you captive, it is time to heal it. If you have been ignoring the livingness of the world around you, it is time to get into right relationship with it.

Life is calling. Let us join together and answer the call.

To your Beingness,

Maxima

On Devotion to Creativity: A Life, A Path

On Devotion to Creativity: A Life, A Path

September 27th, 2017

I Am Devoted to Beauty and Creation

Some days all i can truly do is write. It’s all i can do truly, with a whole heart, with devotion. This is what’s given to me, and it’s a lot.

What jewels have been laid in my hands—I am awestruck, fascinated, dutiful, grateful. How could i possibly organize my life any differently than around these jewels?

Writing is my listening, how i tune my ear to the worlds, all of them—or whichever chooses to haunt me now.

Beauty is incredibly important to me. To actually capture beauty in the hand for a moment, more than once, more than just a lucky break, that takes deep work, to devote your life to something.

I’m interested in devotion, that profound movement of the heart—offering, sacrifice, surrender. How much it takes and how much it gives us in return. You can’t force it or fake it. It has to arise organically in the heart. But you can commit yourself to it consciously, once you feel it start.

Devotion is like a small, worthy boat that holds and carries us across waters now stormy, now calm, so that we can see astonishing lands, become salt-worn, washed whole, a part of sea and sky.

Creativity Is Not a Chore

by Averie Woodard

Creativity is not something i make myself do. It’s something i open myself to do.

I tend the garden, create the right conditions, the proper soil, show up lovingly, and work with my hands in the dirt, grateful for rain when it comes, grateful for sun, for blossoms and ripe fruit. I’m happy to tend to the slow care of picking caterpillars off the stems, cutting away the dead heads and stalks, mulching with the unused portions, watering daily. I know the seeds will flower in time.

Why would i complain about the work of creating? I’m honored to be given these seeds, this plot of ground, this longing. And entranced by the miracle of growth, new life—every time. Entranced by the process of growth and the care it takes to create art. Entranced to be in my garden of creativity, feet muddy, knees in the soil, dirt under my nails.

This is the place i feel most home, most right, at peace, one with all, belonging—even in the struggles. Outside my garden of creation there are precious few places i feel as well. Ritual is one of them, any kind of communion with the All, being in nature, around a fire, and often when i am teaching.

But, that garden of creation and communion is my first home, my path of devotion, my sacred work, my divine play.

Explore Devotion, That Magic Power

What are you truly devoted to in your life? What do you give your whole heart to, sacrifice time, money or other opportunities to follow?

What are the rewards of that devotion?

What do you care about or want more of in your life that you could be more devoted to? How would you express that devotion?

You may wish to journal about these questions, to dive deeply into them and see what arises for you. Remember, devotion is a movement of the heart. It’s not another “should.”

Please share your responses in the comments below, so we can continue the conversation.

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To your devoted life,

 

 

Creativity Is Your Birthright

September 6th, 2017

Creativity is not something we have to stress and strain after, contort ourselves into shapes over, feel terrible about, measure and fail.

Creativity is our birthright, our blood. It flows through us and all things, giving them life and growth, drawing forth unique expression, blossoming, beauty, gifts.

flower bud

photo by Pascal Chanel

Consider the Flowers

Just look at a flower, bursting from seed through soil, pushing past pebbles that must seem like boulders to the tiny, vulnerable sprout. Courageous, determined, seeking the light, it perseveres through darkness and difficulty, with no guarantee of success, to break through into opened ground.

Gulping in light, drinking water and nutrients through its roots, the flower grows into its unique, implacable form—giving color, beauty, fragrance to all who happen by. Not needing affirmation, assurance. Not comparing itself with other flowers, nor with trees, birds, rocks. Happy to give its gift openly to those who will receive it. Not forcing itself on anyone. Happy to allow them to make of that gift what they will.

The flower doesn’t feel guilty or undeserving of its plot of ground, the water it thirstily drinks, the sunlight it absorbs. It doesn’t worry that it is taking too much. It takes just what it needs and no more. It doesn’t question the value of its blossoms, if they are beautiful enough, if they matter. It gives what it came here to give, what is within its power to give.

The flower doesn’t try to be something else, more or other. It doesn’t strain. It perseveres and grows toward what it loves. It doesn’t hide its beauty, nor hide from the light. It has no need to.

Creativity is Life Force Energy

Creativity is the life force energy flowing through us. It is “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower” as Dylan Thomas wrote. [Read the poem here: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/force-through-green-fuse-drives-flower]

Creativity is unstoppable, unless we put up blocks within, paving over the rich soil in which we are meant to grow. And those blocks to our creativity only have as much power as we choose to give them.

You Have a Choice

We are at choice in our lives, in ourselves.

Do you feed the false beliefs, the perceived limitations and lack, the bad habits, and the wounded self?

Or do you feed the power of the Life that flows abundantly through you and all things?

Do you nourish healthy habits and positive self-belief? Or do you dwell in your past, your fears or seeming failings?

Do you grow like the flower steadily toward your heart’s dreams? Or do you allow every pebble and root to stop you cold?

Do you nurture the Essential Self—radiant, infinite, powerful, knowing—or do you wallow in old wounds and helplessness?

It’s up to you.

You Can Do It

poppies

by Skitter Photo on Unsplash

Yes, it takes perseverance, practice, repetition, faith and patience. Yes, it takes courage and support. We are not meant to go it alone.

And you can do it. You can be the unique flower you came here to be. You can let your creativity flow unabated and unabashed. You can blossom and let us see your beauty.

To your blossoming,

Maxima

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The Gift of Silence and Solitude

The Gift of Silence and Solitude

April 25th, 2017

I recently gave myself a glorious, and much-needed, gift. I took a weekend away in a quiet place for a self-guided retreat. I left on Friday at noon, was home by 8:00 p.m. on Sunday night, and in that short span of time my inner world shifted radically.

I had been writing in my journal and naming in my dreams for the year that I needed just such a weekend away by myself, and finally I really listened to myself, stopped postponing what my soul was needing, stopped making everything else a priority. As soon as I decided to honor this need and committed to taking a weekend away this month, everything fell miraculously easily into place.

I asked friends for suggestions of where to go, told them what I was looking for. What I wanted and needed most was time and solitude and silence. I didn’t want to be anywhere social, like the hot springs, where I might feel a need to interact with others. I didn’t want distractions of any kind. I didn’t want to have to drive far and thereby lose too much of the precious time to driving. And I didn’t want to have to plan for, shop for and prepare meals. I just wanted to be alone, in silence, in a beautiful place in nature, within 3 hours drive of home, where I could walk, read, write and meditate on my own schedule.

I quickly found the perfect place to go, a simple monastery two hours from my home. And in the way that the universe supports us in our heart’s dreams and soul’s needs, they synchronistically had a room for me just a couple weekends away, despite the fact that the website said they are often booked months in advance.

The place was so quiet, almost no people around, very lovely, and I was left entirely alone. I was in heaven. I spent long hours reading, took multiple walks a day, meditated and prayed, wrote repeatedly in my journal, read some more, napped, followed my own rhythms, listened to my heart and spirit, and spoke to no one until my final hours there.

Within an hour of being there, I found myself dropping easily into a very deep peace and calm joy, and that peace and joy never left me the entire time I was there. I felt profoundly connected to the Divine through the beauty of nature. I could hear my own heart and soul speaking to me, dwell in my own Essence.

In two days time I was deeply rested and restored to balance. Everything in my life has felt easier and more flowing since then. And I realize I need to do this at least twice a year.

I write this to encourage you to give yourself the gift of silence and solitude. We all need this regularly to be able to come into deep communion with ourselves, restore ourselves, restore balance in our lives.

man with journal-ben-whiteIf you feel you can’t take a weekend away, give yourself what I call a “down day.” Schedule a day on which you have no appointments, no obligations, no to-do list. Turn off your phone and computer completely for the day. Spend a day alone, simply listening to and following your own rhythms, needs, desires, doing what you want to do, not what you feel you should do, answering to no one else but yourself, letting go of everything that has been pressing on you for attention. Just be open, curious, and grant yourself total permission to do whatever you are drawn to, to rest as much as you need to, to follow your own needs and desires. Trust and allow.

Your heart and soul will thank you.

To your peace,

Max Signature no back

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