Hideous Cellulite Humiliation, by Grace Bell

May 21, 2013

in Byron Katie's Work, Confusion to Clarity, Inquiry, Questioning the Mind

by guest blogger Grace Bell, workwithgrace.com

CelluliteThink of your “worst nightmare.”

One of mine was having people see, be disgusted by,
know the truth about, or laugh at my jiggling thigh cellulite.

And if I really capture the worst …
… and go deep … right to the heart of the worst imaginable,
internally-squirming, cold-sweat humiliation …

Or as Byron Katie sometimes says, “What’s your worst nightmare?”
The real “knife-in-the-heart” reaction? Click for Full Article

Tagged as: Aging, Awakening, Body, Getting Unstuck, Inquiry, Investigating the Mind, Questioning the mind, Reality, Self-care, Stories

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Happiness, The Blue Arrow, and This Body

May 14, 2013

in Aging with Grace, Approval, Getting Unstuck, Questioning the Mind

Yoga in Blue Rays

I recently heard about signs scattered around New York. Big blue arrows, pointing to one word. Happiness.

Sound familiar? It does to me. Pretty much the way I’ve lived a whole lot of my life in this body. The loop goes something like this: If I get this (name the ailment or condition) taken care of, THEN I’ll have happiness in and with this body.

A whole avalanche of conditions could fill this page. You have your own, but here’s a sample from my mind:

 

Something is too big (Fat knees, big thighs/hips, belly. Depends on the day).

I’m too sore from exercising. I’m not sore enough.

I could injure myself.

My feet hurt.

My knees are creaky.

I have to pee. Now. Click for Full Article

Tagged as: Aging, Awakening, Body, centered, Coming home, grace, Gratefulness, Investigating the Mind, Meditation, Presence, Self-care

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The Hour I First Believed

May 6, 2013 Aging with Grace
My body for so long was my secret shame, the taboo subject. I remember lying on the couch, looking at my seven-year-old legs and declaring to myself that they were too fat. I had become a believer. In that specific moment, all the judgments I’d absorbed from the world around me just popped into my [...]
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Still. Here. Now.

May 3, 2013 Inquiry
It’s been a wild ride the last six months. By that I mean that it’s one I don’t want to repeat. Lots of unexpected challenges coming from the outside world that I didn’t choose. Things like being hit head-on at a high speed, followed by my daughter being hit by a drunk driver two months [...]
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Feeding

May 2, 2013 Poetry
Today for breakfast I ate talk It was a grazing breakfast, In the locker room Offered up casually by Silvered women as varied as fruit or vegetables   With their clothes off, just after their water class. Surrounded by tall locker towers, In the shower, drying, dressing, putting on their faces
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Poop and Spring Breakthrough

April 15, 2013 Lessons of the Seasons
thawing snow on grassy fieldA few years ago I was lucky enough to be in Anchorage during Spring Breakup, when the thawing of all those feet of snow brings a whiff of hope and possibility. Along with a whiff of something else: the dog poop that has accumulated during the winter sometimes permeates the spring breezes.

It’s like that, isn’t it?

There’s the fragrance of freedom as we melt old painful patterns to meet life as it is. And there’s some smelly stuff, too.
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Restoration from the Place of Unknowing

January 17, 2013 Confusion to Clarity
Thumbnail image for Restoration from the Place of Unknowing
“There’s freedom in hitting bottom. In seeing you won’t be able to save your daughter, her spouse, his parents, or your career, relief in admitting you reached the place of great unknowing. This is where restoration can begin, because when you’re still in the state of trying to fix the unfixable, everything bad is engaged: the chatter of your mind, the tension of your physiology, all the trunks and wheel-ons you carry from the past. It’s exhausting.”  ~ Ann Lamott, Help Thanks Wow: The Three Essential Prayers


Last year contained a series of surprises and physical injuries, which are still healing and nearly healed, assuming there aren’t any setbacks. I was hit head-on. Two months later my daughter was rear-ended by a drunk driver. My mother and brother were hospitalized far away shortly afterward and it was my job to get on a plane and take care of matters. I could go on and on about the heroic tasks required of me.

This is how Fixer and Rescuer identities got the toe-hold once again. Then a strangle-hold. What began as an innocent response to urgent and real needs turned into a (false) belief that I COULD fix whatever is broken. For everybody. Now. Or (better yet) yesterday.
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Epiphanies Come Right On Time

January 6, 2013 Byron Katie's Work
“Epiphanies come right on time, not too early or too late.” ~ Byron Katie, 2013

Epiphany is today. Jan. 6th. It’s a holiday that has long been my favorite time to clear out the clutter of the past and stay in the present. A holy day where the future hasn’t happened yet. A happy new moment where I invite insight and clarity to emerge.
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On Being a Sandwich

December 18, 2012 Questioning the Mind
Life has been recently been inviting me to explore a new practice: the art of being a sandwich.
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The Only Prayer: Thank You

November 14, 2012 Seasonal Reflections
Gratitude is what we are without a story. These words of Byron Katie sprang forth from my reading this morning and resonated deeply in my being
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Winning “The I Don’t Know Quiz Show”

November 1, 2012 Confusion to Clarity
Thumbnail image for Winning “The I Don’t Know Quiz Show” I’m convinced that I know a lot of stuff. After all, I’ve lived a good long while and made lots of mistakes, faced many gob-smacking situations and somehow done okay. Learned from it all. Have wisdom to share. Sometimes lots of it. I find it pleasing to believe I know most of the answers to Life’s Big Quiz Show.
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Impulse or Guidance? Start with Reality

October 24, 2012 Confusion to Clarity
Living a Summoned Life begins where right where you are, with the reality all around you. Right in the smack dab middle of it. In the cluttered bedroom, the sounds of the barking dog, the gray dawn, the body or the mind that needs to stretch.

That’s where current reality squats, waiting for you to answer its summons. The trouble is that often our listening focus is elsewhere.
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Trying to Control What Cannot Be Controlled

October 15, 2012 Navigating Crisis
” I am tired of trying to hold together things that can’t be held. Trying to control what cannot be controlled.” These words took on a glow, a forgotten treasure of truth,
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Counting on the Diane Sawyer Within

October 4, 2012 Confusion to Clarity
Diane Sawyer once said her job was to “be a powerful witness” where people are suffering. Even though my life assignment so far hasn’t included Afghanistan or Syria, I can’t help but notice that people are suffering all around me. So her job description is the same as mine.
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Surrendering the Big Girl Britches

September 20, 2012 Coming Home
A little late? The car was totaled, I was hurt and in shock, surrounded by the flashing lights of emergency vehicles, and I’m going to be a little late? For body work? Make that “a little late, but we now have a pemanent relationship. An uber-responsible reaction is one sure sign I’ve pulled on my [...]
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Tired of Wired

August 29, 2012 Coming Home
“I’m tired of being so wired,” I wrote in my journal a couple of months ago. At that time, writing a blog about the topic of being too technologically connected seemed just a tad hypocritical.

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The Metube in my Mind

August 13, 2012 Questioning the Mind
Thumbnail image for The Metube in my Mind Unless I’m totally caught in procrastination or I absolutely must have a cute kitten experience, I don’t watch Youtube. My own personal Metube keeps me plenty enthralled.
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Of Brains & Egos @ 3:00 a.m.

August 9, 2012 Confusion to Clarity
“We have been given brains that enable us to figure some things out, and egos that lead us to believe we can figure everything out.”
Therein lies a big problem.
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Independence from My Inflatable Bully

July 3, 2012 Questioning the Mind
Independence from My Inflatable Bully: This could be the most memorable Independence Day celebration ever. Because I’m getting deadly serious about smoking out bullies in my life.
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Living A Summoned Life

June 26, 2012 Confusion to Clarity
There comes a time when the life that you’ve carefully planned and engineered just isn’t enough. Instead of treading on all the carefully planned and planted stepping stones, you find yourself knee deep in a swamp of uncertainty, plagued by a feeling of stuckness. Even your best strategies seem to fail at producing the anticipated results. Or sometimes you discover, as you grow and change, that what once fit like a shoe has begun to pinch.
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