Posts tagged as:

power

In nature

by Brooke Leigh Sheldon on December 15, 2009

I am one who seeks my self outdoors.
Nature is gracious in its sharing with me. And, I am appreciative.
Its gentle spontaneity, capricious temperament, easy conversation and ceaseless energy offer me respite.
When wandering in fields and meadows, through forests and deserts, along shorelines and foothills I know I will hear inner sounds of my own.
I have learned when I am in the open spaces I can see beyond my physical world to my internal world.

For it is here the quiet journey of a breeze tripping through leafy tangled branches causes me stop. There is so much to know in catching the play of that tiny breeze — a whisper, a rustle, a languid hush.

The nimble tap dance of the talented creek along the pebbly stones. If I close my eyes for a moment too long I have to push down the urge to applaud the performance, every time….

Last night though, it took a long, long time for a grin to leave my face. You see, a fat raccoon decided maybe he needed to wrestle me for just whose piece of apple it was he was scamperin’ away with, his or mine. Well, I’ll tell ya’, I looked at his clear-eyed determination behind his tailored ebony mask and had to chuckle. ‘Cuz, dang! I knew I’d lose that wrestlin’ match, even if I’d wanted that ol’ apple!!! So, he’d better just hurry, scat off and have his snack. But, as he left, I offered him a little smile of respect for his wily ability to make his way in his rangy world.

But, I’ll tell ya’ there’s nothing in this whole world that pulls me

closer to center than looking up at the sky through the majestic magnetic silhouettes of huge powerful trees spiring upwards. Taking in the vision of the tops of an immense forest scraping the sky allows me to breathe with the peace of knowing how large and small is my passage on this voyage we are all taking; it reminds me how quickly it docks and helps me remember we will each disembark….

Oh, but that same sky at night, well now, that’s just such a different space. A huge shadow land above, deep, dark, black, blue and that inky canvas is freckled with tiny illuminated dots we call stars. From our very first mesmerizing childhood gaze at them they sparkle our imagination and light our dreams. And, on these fireballs, so far away, we lovingly wish for all manner of magic we long to twinkle in our lives.

I guess sometimes we forget our lives are the magic.

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Power in the sea of change

by Brooke Leigh Sheldon on November 12, 2009

The dramatic moments of our lives cause instantaneous and sometimes cataclysmic change. But even without drama, even in our calm we carry with us the power to create change in our world. Just as the ocean changes the surface of the entire globe by calmly and rhythmically lapping against the land, we carry with us our powerful ability to change life around us with slow consistent rhythms.

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Are you living on purpose?

by Brooke Leigh Sheldon on October 18, 2009

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:45 — 18.9MB)

Are you living on purpose?

October 18, 2009

It’s important to stay present in your life by living in the moment, but what are you doing with that moment?

Are you living it or is it living you?

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A Leader ?

by Brooke Leigh Sheldon on October 1, 2009

Are you a “Leader”?
I don’t ask you the question as a challenge.
I don’t ask you the question as an insight.

I’m simply asking you a question.
And, I don’t know whether or not you have your own answer.

But, I will ask you to consider my question with honesty.

If you are a “Leader” you are tremendously necessary to this world of ours.
We are a gifted and an empowered planet.
We need leaders.

We need conscientious and informed debate and problem solving.

The answer to my initial question will be “no”, for many of you.

To those of you who in pride or in hesitation choose “no” as the most honest answer to that question allow me to hand you an observation to twirl around in the elegant light of your consciousness.

Your current truth of yourself may be changed by an act that moves you,
an idea that motivates you,
a horror that challenges you,
an adventure that educates you,
a crisis that alters you,
a milestone that compels you,
a phenomenon that excites you,
an emergency that galvanizes you,
a life that inspires you,
or,
a love that defines you.

I am not attempting, in anyway, to deny your understanding or belief in your “self” or your concept of your “self”. My point is simply, our life redefines us in ways we never expect. When this happens — we change. It is as if the energy swirling within us and around us marshals forces of movement, impelling us to engage capabilities, skills, powers and understanding seemingly greater and/or more directed than we’ve retrieved before.

And I offer you this additional thought. Trust the change.

But, until it comes, if it ever comes….. I ask you to be the leader of that, which by its very definition, ONLY you can be the leader of – your INTEGRITY.

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Stepping Off The Curb

by Brooke Leigh Sheldon on August 6, 2009

I stepped off the curb this morning and in a moment I heard the sickening scream of brakes crushing to stop.SteppingOffTheCurb

In the next moment I felt my world freeze inside me.

I was, in that moment, all I had come to be.
Every breath, every touch, every story,
every smile, every mystery, every wink, every role,
every joy, every adventure, every song, every tear….
I realized in that one moment I was, my history.

As if in a race, the next few moments began colliding on the stopwatch in my cognition; the car came to hard, tense rest, breathing heat inches from my taut, ready breath-caught form.

Now, as I sit here, with you near my page,

I write with the peace of mind I am intact, able to offer my complete body, mind, heart and energy to these thoughts.

Each of us steps off curbs of life’s offering each day.
We do this constantly unaware of what fate may hold for us.
What we do know, always, is we have no guarantee what’s coming around the corner.
All we can do is live as consciously as we are able.

Do we survive or do we strive?

Do we watch out or do we reach out?

Are we afraid of being hurt or are we open to love’s possibilities?

Will we only allow the outcomes we can foresee or will we accept the horizon’s amazing color changes as the day ages?

As I sit here, with you near my page,
I feel a deep and resonant space within me.
I experience it as the “well” of my experience.
It echoes.
It has, at times, a cavernous lonely sound.
How often we are surrounded by so many and so alone within ourselves.
Then other times, we long for this same space within us to be calmed by the quiet comfort of another with whom we can be still, hushed and safe.
Just longing for a space in time, when perhaps, the simple beauty of the eyes of another is the voice within our own inner landscape.

The “well” of my experience is vast.
Different in its diversity than your own, of this I am sure.
But the profundity of your life and my own is without question.
I speak with conviction unmovable.

I have in my various careers and roles, as a psychotherapist, a consultant, a CEO; the list goes on and on, worked with all types and demographics. The gamut of populations and the variations within them has been extreme. I’ve been lucky enough to have the double doors of my world rammed open wide by the breadth of ceaseless diversity that is the reality of our world. I have driven to the cliff of Knowledge and while I teetered on the edge I’ve seen the Truth:
DAMN, WE ARE PROFOUND!!!

Strangely, it is not unusual in presentations and trainings I give, for people to raise their hands and question, even refute my statements asserting the profundity of them and/or their lives.
I have to admit this saddens me.
To have people actively argue with me with a seemingly urgent need to convince me that they and their lives are “not profound” leaves me with an abysmal sadness.

But, this is not a light topic for me.
So I will not allow anyone to easily dismiss the quality and power of their own life.
We ARE profound, every one of us.

I will not refute that we CAN absolutely choose to neglect or reject our responsibility to ourselves and one another and therefore deny our profundity, but this does not make us any less profound.
It only makes us one who has placed our profundity on the shelf of inactivity.

But at any moment we can take our personal power off the shelf, dust it off and state with assertive initiative, “I’ve got important things to contribute. I’m necessary. I’m needed. I matter.”

We can be that person who accepts their “profound” truth:

Accept the truth of your own insight.
Accept the truth that you extend far below the surface of what others see of you.
Accept the truth of your personal intensity, which may or may not be hidden from others.
Accept the truth that you are more than what the world knows of you.
Accept the truth that the world has yet to see all you have to offer; you have more to give, more to share.

With my truest conviction, I implore you! Embrace your profundity.
After all, I have already embraced it for you.
It’s simply waiting for you to claim it. (I’m lovingly smiling at you right now……)

So, take it from me, you don’t need to wait for the moment when fate foreshadows your life’s finish line to make the choice to strive, to reach out, to be open to love’s possibilities or to accept the horizon’s amazing color changes as the day ages.

You only need to:

Choose to strive.

Choose to reach out.

Choose to be open to love’s possibilities.

Choose to accept the horizon’s amazing color changes as the day ages.

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