Awakening Self Blog

When You Just Can’t Explain The Suffering

How do we embrace life as well as suffering and death? This week, I began writing a blog about suffering, and I stopped myself. It felt too vulnerable… too difficult to talk about. It seems that there is always suffering in the world …

Rainbows Only Come with Rain

Few events in nature inspire us more than a rainbow. On a cloudy, rainy day, it fills me with exuberant joy when the arch of light and color magically appears across the sky. We may complain about wet days, the dark clouds, the need for umbrella…

Revisiting Carpe Diem

Like many of us in the first months of the year, I’ve been reflecting on my goals for the year and for my life. But I realize that, unlike years ago when I had big goals and aspirations for the future, I feel so much more inspired and joyful about my…

Instead of Improving Yourself

Today, I responded to a request from a major publication for quotes about “toxic thoughts to get rid of.” The thought I wanted to junk was “I need to improve myself.” Why get rid of that, you might think? Shouldn…

Be Still and Know

Almost every day, I listen to something inspirational. Downloads, audiobooks, podcasts – whatever I can get my hands on that speaks to me, listening and learning from a variety of spiritual teachers. Many of you know that one of my f…

Embracing What Is

Autumn always wrestles with me until I fall to the ground, like the leaves. It’s not a bad thing – it’s very powerful. There’s no avoiding change at this time of year. We see it all around us as our feet crunch on those dry, brown leaves, once ver…