Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Awakened Gift Giving

Today I am writing from Istanbul:

For many people around the world this is a time for planning the gatherings of families and friends. A lot of this energy is focused around the Christmas time celebrations.
The irony is that we often allow ourselves to get so stressed out over the details that the point of this time all gets lost in the mail.
Exchanging gifts has long been established as a custom for the Christmas time. Every news broadcast is talking about the spending reports of shoppers each day and forecasting the season like a sporting match that we must win by spending more. The message is to spend lots and save the economy. – ouch!

Here are a couple of other ways to go rather than getting caught up in the consumer game.
Donate money to a charity that represents something you believe in and then give out cards to the the people on whose behapf you did that for instead of gifts.
Here are a couple of possibilities:
Red Cross – Always doing good work out there
World Vison – Look for the gift catalogue and give a goat or a well for water.
US Campaign for burma - http://www.uscampaignforburma.org/ needs your support

Let your gift dollars create important social change on the planet.

Be well

Monday, November 12, 2007

Clean and clear agreements

Agreements?
We are in many agreements with everyone that we have relationship with. Every time we make a promise or an intention with another we have created and agreement. This applies to the agreements that we have made with our selves as well.
How many times have you promised to yourself that you would exercise or read a book or some other thing only to let it slip away?
If a friend of yours kept promising to meet you somewhere and never showed up you would stop trusting their agreement. Well this is the same thing that you do to yourself. Every time you make an agreement another part of you hears it and may doubt you according to your record.
What can you do?
1) Clean up incomplete agreements with people around you including yourself.
2) Re-evaluate the promises that you have been making and not following through on. It may be that it is time to release yourself from those, “good ideas.”
3) If upon reevaluation you still feel that the promise is important to you then get help from someone around you to support you in following through.
4) Get real about what you are going to do and then do it.
5) Reward yourself for your successes, have compassion for your failed attempts, and keep clear and clean about what is needed.

Patrick Ryan
www.AwakenedWisdom.com