WISDOM WITHIN - May 2015 - Kansas City

Those Tricky Beliefs!

By Suzette Scholtes

 

February 2015: One of those strange KC snowstorms hit as I drove to the airport. The weather forecast warned late snow in the evening. I left the house at 11 am. I hit the brakes on the 635 Interstate when a tornado-like snow swirled around my car. I slowed to a snail’s pace. “No way is my plane on time,” I said to myself. 

 

On time it was! I settled into my LA hotel in an “upgraded” suite. Go figure!  Awakening refreshed, arms around this new day, we focused upon a guided imagery called yoga nidra. My intent was clear as a mirror: Clean out old beliefs that hold me back, such as “plane will be late.” We work to discover how we think, how we choose, how we act or behaviors that may limit our success. The teaching was weaved with love, tremendous love. I can lean on this love, I know and trust. Old stuff rises. Time to clean it up. I wish

to open my heart, no matter what pain remains within and heal. I want the love and peace.

 

The four days uplifted and changed me. I felt like a hot-air balloon soaring above the clouds. At LAX, folks began talking to me for no reason at all. Good talks. Good visits. This made the trip home fun.

 

Early March 2015: Dr. Christine Northrop, OB/GYN airs her new show on PBS. She authors many books on her groundbreaking work on holistic health. Her new book is called Glorious Women Never Age!   I grabbed a pen:

 

1. Reframe the term “aging” from decline and deterioration to aliveness and energy. 

2. Monitor your language and never say you have a “senior” moment or criticize self. Why does this start when one turns 40? Or 30? Do you hear how afraid of aging our young ones are?

3. Forget making “milestone” birthdays a big deal. One study revealed positive beliefs about growing older added twelve years to one’s life.

4. Keep your blood sugar stable and it counters stress hormones such as cortisol. 

5. Know how to counter stress. Define your methods. Use them.

6. Develop your network of friends and family for fun and support, what she calls “your tribe.”

 

Late March 2015: I received news of the death of a family member. In front of my students, much to my chagrin, I began to cry. The call came and there was no time to process the news.

 

Later that day, Henry Thoreau’s quote gives me comfort: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

 

My new focus:

 

1. Practice and learn to VALUE SELF by creating more self esteem, more dignity, more confidence, more respect, more awareness and more compassion. 

2. We all ping-pong the ball from love to fear. Keep the ball in love’s court.

3. My computer posts my updated beliefs so I read them daily.  

4. Choose to weed old beliefs. Then fill the holes with gratitude.

5. Be patient with self, meaning to pay attention to details of your thoughts and feelings.  As I type here “I feel the gift of a new breath.” I am here. I am present.

6. Give generously with no measure of return. Just give.

7. Become “power filled” as you choose, act and become comfortable to author your life. Let go of “domination” and create “dominion.” 

 

Keep it fun. Even if dreams are not yet realized the more fun you have the more they will come.