Life is a rush for most of us. Often our daily routines may look something like this: wake up, work, to do lists, chores, eat, sleep and repeat. And so it goes with the days becoming weeks, then months and finally years.
This morning as part of my gratitude practice, I wrote that having time and living a flexible lifestyle is one of my joys in my life. I am very blessed to be able to do this and realize it is a huge gift, which I try not to take for granted.
Whether you are flexible or not, I really believe that life is in those tiny now moments. If we can find the time to enjoy a tiny pleasure or make little changes in our life, each has a ripple effect on our bigger whole. Like a drop of water into a pond, the ripples spread out and touch the entire body of water.
Take time. Open up. Enjoy tiny now moments.
I have found some simple ways to enjoy tiny moments in my everyday life. The happiness each brings to me far outweighs the time I take to do it. Perhaps one of these sparks an idea to bring a tiny ripple into your own life:
- Each and every morning I make time to practice gratitude. Research suggests that practicing gratitude makes you happier. I feel happier when I spend a few moments writing a list in my journal. Coming from a place of gratitude, life is feels so much easier, don’t you agree?
- My inner child loves to play; whether I am browsing a craft shop for goodies, collecting feathers for my next dreamcatcher, watching Notre Dame through the bubbles or simply going on a photo walk; she joins me.
- I focus on taking that hard first step, but only the first tiny step, and with time I find myself being more active and the steps become bigger. My body feels healthier and I have fun along the way.
- Coffee is one of my obsessions, in a good way. In fact, it is probably best to hand me a cup of coffee before you try to have a conversation with me in the morning. I have slowly adapted my morning ritual over the last few months to include a warm cup of lemon water first. My body likes this revitalizing way of waking up and I can feel the ripple effect.
- On my walks, I often stop at the same flower over and over to see it in a different light. Both literally and figuratively. Each day has its own nuances that create a new view on the same object. And with my olloclip macro lens, I can see the tiny magic so much better. Each raindrop on a spring flower reflects all the available light back to me on a grey day, just like magic!
- My biggest lesson from Tammy’s writing e-course, which I recently completed for the second time, is the tiniest and simplest one. Be consistent and write every day! I learnt many new things on the course, but this tiny reminder had the biggest impact on me. I am grateful that writing is part of my morning ritual again. And it fits so well with exploring my creativity more, one of my words for 2014.
- Life does get hectic. Things do get tough. It isn’t always roses and moonbeams. I always try to remember to breathe first. Sometimes I need to count to ten. Sometimes I don’t make it past 3. Sometimes I don’t even start counting. 😉 However, taking a conscious breath in and out, tiny as it is, helps to refocus my attention and allows me to view things in a different way. Go on, give it a try next time things get tough! Or don’t wait, do it right now. It only takes a few seconds. Breathe in through the nose and, for more effect, loudly out through the mouth. Feel anything?
Time. Open. Now.
So just for today, yes right now, take a tiny moment. Find something tiny to do, perhaps a tiny joy in your everyday life or a tiny step towards a new ritual that could grow into a life change. All you need is to start small. Do one tiny thing with big presence everyday and watch out for the ripples in your life.
Which tiny step are you going to take today? Share your spark here and let your ripples inspire someone today.
with gratitude, Delicia
Delicia! What an uplifting and insightful post!
I so agree that life is all the about the ‘now moments’. It is something that is becoming more and more apparent to me – finally! Yay! : )
And it is so true what you say about the tiny things having a ripple effect on the greater whole.
I am off to have lunch now – definitely a tiny pleasure (but hopefully not a ‘tiny’ portion as I am starving!!)
Thank you Soul Sister for sharing this wonderful post!
Lots of love and gratitude to you.
Thank you Indika, for stopping by and sharing your spark. Hooray to living in the now moments! And to being a fellow happiness addict.
I have the feeling that it sure does take time to work out some of the simple things sometimes. I wonder, to my self, why that is. Perhaps we like to believe it is all so complex, when really it is quite simple. And as we expect it to be complex, we miss the simplicity of it all. Thank you for prompting these musings.
I hope lunch was simply HUGE and it gave you lots of pleasure.
Love, light and gratitude to you.
Hi mdssD
Thanks, for the reminder on gratitude, life does get crazy at times. As you know I call it the Hamster Wheel, and sometimes the only thing that you see in front of you is the backend of the hamster on the wheel just in front of you. Not a pretty sight, but at least you know you are only being chased by another hamster not a tiger.
I think I will just have to be grateful for that.
With much gratitude and love mdssD
YssGilli
X
Hi mdssGilli,
I love your hamster wheel and I almost mentioned it in my post today. But I had a good feeling that you would, and I am learning to trust my intuition, so I left your wheel to you to share. 🙂 I love your hamster wheel expressions that I receive every now and then, although I don’t like hearing that you are on the hamster wheel. On the positive side, I have to agree, at least it is not a tiger behind you but another friendly hamster. I had a lovely hamster called Hamish as a pet when I was a child, so I am rather fond of hamsters.
Thank you for taking time out from the wheel to share your gratitude here. I love your stories!
xxx
Beautiful! There is so bright light and wisdom in this post Delicia. Thank you for your awesome ripple 🙂
It is great that you have time and live a flexible lifestyle, and that you are grateful for this. As we wrote in ‘Tiny heart moments’, having time helps, but what counts is the quality of life, and this depends on ourselves and the way we make use of our time. Here you are giving us some very beautiful examples of tiny little things we can do to make the ripples spread out and give our whole life a new dimension. You are really good at this and should be grateful to yourself for making such wonderful use of the time you have – remember to include this in your morning gratitude ritual! But the truth is that for most of us though simple this is not easy. We are kind of comfortable with living our routines complaining we have no time, or that we are too tired in the little time we have left. This provides us a ‘good’ excuse for our dissatisfaction. Feeling victims of restless and unenjoyable routine we pretend to be less accountable for feeling so miserable. But what if all of a sudden everything is in our hands? Would we be able to enjoy and do all what we previously said we would do if only we would have time?
Well, I received this gift of time, and I can tell you it has not been easy to have all in my hands! Yes, I could spend time doing several things I love, but it did take a while before I could really enjoy and be happy of how I was spending that gift of time. Indeed, the major gift I received is the realisation that no matter how busy we are, how much control we have (or do not have!) on what happens to us, our life is completely in our hands because the tiny heart moments are the ones that count most and they really do not require much time. My experience also tells me that once you have created that tiny ripple, you will find the time and space simply because you will focus on what gives you joy and recharges you, and discard what is only time and energy consuming.
I already shared with you how I am trying to be a bit more in charge of my life in ‘Simplicity‘ and in ‘Back on my mat‘, but here I want to say what an authentic ripple the daily meditation practice has been! I am practicing from 10 minutes up to two hours (I have time 😉 ) on my mat. However, the biggest impact of this practice on my life comes from the mindfulness I am finding throughout the day, in those moments when I am not on the mat. The important thing is to create awareness of the Here and Now, and as you suggest just one single breath can do the work. Taking one single mindful breath every day is exactly what Chade – Meng Tan invites us to do in Search Inside Yourself. He is making enough fun of himself saying that he may be the laziest mindfulness instructor in the world. On the other hand, taking that one single breath a day that was feasible for the busy and skeptical engineer he was, quickly transformed him. Therefore he argues that this simple practice must work for anyone else. I am joining you and him in inviting our soulsisters and soulbrothers to stop and breathe, and simply add that ending with a smile to share our light would be perfect!
Stop. Breathe. Smile.
Thank you Annalisa for adding and sharing your spark here. You are so right, sometimes it is not easy having it all in our hands. I love how you are making the most of the gift of time you have received. It is indeed a blessing and I know how much you love and value it. You are really making the most of it. Well done! And take a moment to be grateful to yourself. 🙂
Thank you for adding a smile to the simple practice of stopping and taking a breath. It is a great way to end it and shine our light outwards. I love it!
Stop. Breathe. Smile.
Your photos are breath taken. I could look at them for hours and hours. I had Tammy’s course last year, and I love it. I take time to write a little every day now. The sunshine yesterday was lovely, so we went for a walk. I posted few pics now in my blog. I wanted to do like you and call it “photo walk”, of course refering to your blog as inspiration, but I decided to ask if it is ok first, so next time I do it. xo
Thank you very much Elizabeth. It brings a big smile to my face and makes me happy to know you are enjoying my photos!
Of course it is ok to use “photo walk’. I think it is a great idea. And I will definitely look out for your photo walk photos. I enjoyed sharing your Sunday afternoon walk in the sunshine. xxx
Delicia as always it is a big pleasure to read your writings that are a Gift for Us Soulsisters and Soulbrothers. I really want to thank you and of course give thanks to all Soulsisters and Soulbrothers that write to you. Your words and all feelings you write are as reminders of all Blessings our Souls have in our Humans Experience. Love, Light and Peace to Every living being in our Beloved Mother Earth 🌞
Dear Elizabeth, thank you so very much for your sweet words and thoughts. I really appreciate it and it makes me so happy to know you are enjoying your visits here. Many thanks for taking the time to stop by and write! Love and light to you.