Insights – Melannie Thomas

Archive for the ‘Dreams’ Category

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”  ~Thich Nhat Hanh

The 9 Superpowers of Your Smile, Psychology Today, May 25, 2016 lists the 9 as:

• Smiling can make you look younger.
• Smiling can make you look thinner.
• Smiling elevates your mood and creates a sense of well-being.
• Smiling induces more pleasure in the brain than chocolate.
• Even a forced smile can lead to a mood boost.
• Smiles can predict fulfillment in marriage.
• Smiling makes you seem courteous, likable, and competent.
• The span of a person’s smile can predict life span.
• Smiling is contagious.

“What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity.  These are but trifles, to be sure, but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is the inconceivable.”  ~Joseph Addison

Many blessings, many Smiles!!

Friends are a priceless treasure throughout a lifetime.  From early childhood until our golden years, friends share our joys and sorrows, our intimate thoughts and secrets and support us through the vicissitudes of life.  To have a good friend, we have to be a good friend.

“I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy.  Let’s face it, friends make life a whole lot more fun.”  ~Charles R. Swindoll

“One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and be understood.”  ~Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“Remember that the most valuable antiques are dear old friends.”  ~H. Jackson Brown Jr.

This week I invite you to connect with your beloved friends.

Blessings!

Last week’s equinox marked the change of the season.  It is said that change is the only constant.  There are things we can change, and things we cannot change.  Wisdom is knowing the difference.  Growth comes when we commit to the process of change.

“Growth is painful.  Change is painful.  But, nothing is as painful as staying stuck where you do not belong.”  ~N.R. Narayana Murthy

“We cannot change our past.  We cannot change the fact that people act in a certain way.  We can not change the inevitable.  The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.”  ~Charles R. Swindoll

Blessings!

The autumnal equinox ranges from the 21st to the 24th. This year it occurs on September 23.  Although there is some debate about the exact date, an equinox is about balance…12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness.  It is a time of releasing burdens, ‘letting go’ of what no longer serves us, hurts or restricts us.  Finding our balance is finding solid ground upon which we can stand.

“At no other time does the earth itself let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honey sweet where you feel it touching the first sounds, containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost.”  ~Rainer Marie Rilke

Equinox blessings!

“Withstanding the tension between opposites until we know it is “enough” releases us from the swing between one extreme and the other.”  ~Helen Luke

Many blessings

My happy hiatus has ended, leaving me with some refreshing and valuable insights.

I seriously considered ending my blog-posting, however I found myself unwilling to pull the plug.

In a prayerful meditation I asked for direction and guidance about what to do; an answer came in a couple of days.  Hence beginning Monday September 16 and continuing weekly, I will be posting a quote, a poem or message of inspiration, which will be accompanied by a complementary picture.

I want to take a moment here to thank my Webmaster for the amazing photos/pictures she adds to the weekly blog.  And, I am thrilled that she has agreed to continue.  It is a very special gift she will continue to share.

I want to thank all of you who have supported my blog-posting, and will continue to do so.  You are greatly treasured!

Many Blessings for your week to come.

Melannie

…a temporary pause or absence; a break from routine.

My first blog-post, Intuition, was published in February 2010.  I have been publishing weekly since then.  The time for my six week hiatus has come.  I will resume posting on September 16, 2019.

During my hiatus, I invite you to visit the archives, which are listed by month and year, not title.  Exercise your intuition!  And if you are inclined, share your experience with me, send an email to melannie@melannie-insights.com.

Looking forward to being back with you in September!

Blessings!

A client gifted me with this wonderful book.  It is written by Mark Nepo, poet and philosopher.  Author of several books, he has been teaching in the fields of poetry and spirituality for more than 40 years.

The Book of Awakening is subtitled, Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have.  It is arranged as a daybook.  The author says, ‘In truth, over the last twenty-five years, the daybook has been answering a collective need and has become a spiritual sonnet of our age, a sturdy container for small doses of what matters.’

Each of the 365 pages begins with a topic/title like Sabbath Time, The Hearts Blossom, Outlasting the Fog, Against Our Will, One Drop of Truth at a Time, and Giving Up What No Longer Works.

Next is a quote by various authors, including Nepo, expressive of the topic.  For example the quote for Giving Up What No Longer Works is:

‘Burning your way to center

is the loneliest fire of all.

You’ll know you have arrived

when nothing else burns.’

A brief text follows, concluding with meditation instruction allowing us to digest…”small doses of what matters.”

I am so blessed and grateful for this gift, an amazing introduction to Mark Nepo and his work.

I invite you to check it out,  it is well worth the effort!

Blessings!

‘…limiting laws, rules or circumstances, boundaries, caps, confines and controls.’

All life forms and processes have limitations.  There are the fundamental limitations of natural physics; the law of gravity, for example.  And there are the imagined limitations of the psyche; like fear of success or fear of failure.

There are outstanding and inspirational examples of people who have challenged their limitations:  Helen Keller, Stephen Hawking and Temple Grandin are some that come immediately to mind.  Their stories are well known to most of us.

Then there are everyday people like Rob Mendez, a successful high school football coach who received the Jimmy V award at the ESPY’s last week.  Born without arms or legs he said as part of his acceptance speech…”I am here and if there’s any message I want to give you guys tonight, it is look at me…when you dedicate yourself to something…and focus on what you can do instead of what you can’t do, you can really go places in this world.”

All the people mentioned above still had limitations that required, indeed, demanded that they live within their physical boundaries.  What they all have in common is a strong belief that they could live a full, satisfying, rich and abundant life in spite of those limitations.

“We all have things that limit us and that challenge us.  But really, our real limitations are the ones we believe.”  ~Amy Purdy

We all have our personal limitations and challenges.  This week I invite you to inventory your limitations, separating out those that are fundamentally implacable from those that are intellectual and/or emotional fabrications.

“The human body has limitations.  The human spirit is boundless.”  ~Dean Karmazes

Blessings!

Swamped is where I am at the moment, flooded by demands on several fronts.  My ship is not sinking and I am attending to making sure it does not.  Just finished having my house painted.  Busy putting things back in order; and preparing for a big family gathering as well as pondering the imponderability of daily living.

As I prioritize my time and activities, today’s blog post becomes what you are reading.  We all have these moments.  It is so important to manage our energetic output so that we stay healthy.

Blessings!