Practice Flexibility

Point 5: Practice Flexibility. The Power of Recalibrating.

Adapting and recalibrating to your personal alignment is not about compromising your value or integrity. It is about overcoming irrational fears, boosting self-confidence, getting involved in change processes, setting new goals, anticipating change and stretching yourself through new challenges.

Precision tools must be calibrated to ensure that they stay true, accurate, and effective tools. Think of your life and the transitions of your life as a finely tooled precision tool. Recalibration is what happens when tools get out of alignment.

How do we practice flexibility? When you exercise each day, you most likely begin with stretching of some type. Becoming more flexibile and transitioning dynamically requires the ability to stretch...take on new challenges, acquire new skills. We also develop a spiritual flexibility, the ability to adapt and adjust to pressures.

Make Me An Instrument of Peace

People get very depressed when the world erupts in violence and hatred. Even if you don't really pay attention to the news, the feeling in the air is depressing.

I wanted to offer some words of wisdom and felt at a loss. So I turned to something that has helped me immensely in my own transitions - the St. Francis of Assisi Prayer.

This prayer echoes something I believe deep within my heart - that change and peace BEGINS WITH ME. I cannot control the events in the world thousands of miles away. I can't even control the events in my office, my community, my neighborhood. But I do have control over my own attitude, my own words, my own actions.
This prayer speaks to that and I offer it to all:

Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is darkness, light,
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,
not so much to be understood as to understand,
not so much to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
it is in dying that we awake to eternal life.
- St. Francis of Assisi

To Thine Own Self Be True

“To thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou can not be false to any man." - Shakespear, Hamlet

Point 7. To Thy Own Self Be TrueThe power of SELF TRUTH. We come full circle. We started with knowing yourself – you cannot be true to yourself if you don’t know who you are. Your integrity has been defined through this journey. Your value is clear. You want a purposeful life. A LIFE FULL OF PURPOSE. A design for living. Be true to your values, religion or spiritual practice. Be true to your family and friends. Be true to your professional ethics. Be true to your purpose. Be true to your possibilities. Be true to your social responsibilities. Be true to your financial well-being.

I found something I really like online about this point. It comes from Dr. Irene (I don't know Dr. Irene, but I like this piece) and here it is in full:

"Unless we can be true to ourselves first, we cannot be true to others.To thine own self be true…..how profound. How many of us have a hard time being true to ourselves? Those of us that gave our life to another at the cost of loosing who we are in the process will have a hard time being true to ourselves. Allowing someone else to define who we are, we lose our ability to discover and grow inwardly. We no longer are able to discern a truth from a lie. For many of us, we have accepted lies for so long, that finding out what is true takes time. Having done this very thing, I know how difficult the journey to self-discovery can be.

Truth….truth is a word that brings out such negative reactions to many of us. You see truth is really an action word. You cannot accept truth without change. Accepting truth about ourselves is difficult, especially to those of us who have been abused. Buttruth does set one free if we will allow it to; it is a crucial part of healing. It gives us the freedom to be who we are. We are able to come to terms with our weakness (without condemnation) and appreciate our strength. Truth gives strength; it naturally builds healthy boundaries. Truth is open; it is honest even at the risk of being vulnerable again. Truth is light and brings forth life. When we walk in truth, we walk in light and when we walk in light we live a healthy life. Truth is also love. The greatest act of love towards another is living a life that is truthful.

For those of us who find it difficult to love ourselves, we will find it will come more easily when we walk in truth about who we are. If we walk in truth, we walk in perfect love, and if we walk in perfect love, then we do not walk in fear because perfect love cast out fear. Because we have been honest with ourselves, we are able to love ourselves with all of our imperfections, knowing that we are in “process” and therefore need not have others approval. This is freedom indeed.The second part of this verse is a natural occurrence if we hold true to the first part of the verse. So, when in doubt as to our motives of not being truthful with someone….look inside, are we being less than truthful to ourselves?"