Friday, 28 September 2018

Educate

Never reject anything 
without educating yourself about it first.
 - Gary Vaynerchuk

Wednesday, 26 September 2018

Passion

Passion is your backup generator 
when all your other energy sources 
start to sputter.
 - Gary Vaynerchuk

Monday, 24 September 2018

Realist

There's the extreme optimist 
who thinks things are just about solved;
 there's the extreme pessimist who sees no progress;
 and thirdly, there's the realist, 
who agrees with the optimist
 that we have come a long way, 
but agrees with the pessimist
 that we have a long way to go. 
- Martin Luther King Jr.

Friday, 21 September 2018

September 21, 2018 Chautauqua


Beth's Ponderings

   Do you have items in your home that you have been given as gifts, or perhaps that you bought, that you just can’t bare to use because:
  • they are too good
  • you don’t want to wear them out
  • you don’t want them to get broken
  • if you use them, you might not be able to get a replacement
  • they are only for special occasions
  • they have special memories that you don’t want to forget
  • opening the packaging will lower the (perceived) value
or any other excuse you may have for not using them.

   Yet, just hanging onto these items doesn’t really preserve them in a brand new condition.  Over the years, the items could still end up:
  • broken
  • dried up
  • faded
  • melted
  • obsolete, if replacement parts are needed
  • expired, and then it could becomes a health risk
  • devalued, even if in its original packaging
  • subject to weather events (ie flooding) or insects
or any other condition that could render the item useless

   The other day I heard a comment along the lines that the belongings in our lives WANT to be used by us right now, or they wouldn’t have come to us.

   What is one item that you have been saving that you could use today?  What one item could you take out of its wrapping, or box, and put to the use it was originally intended?

   Because items are without value if they aren’t being used - or appreciated - in some tangible way. 


   And we have no way of know what might be coming to us next, and it could be even better than what we’ve been holding onto, but we won’t know, until we use what we already have.

Beth


Contact The Chautauqua vai email: thechautauqua@gmail.com or via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheChautauqua

Wednesday, 19 September 2018

Future

When the future...looks back with love, 
small things never come up...
Ask your future self what matters most. 
- Jessica DiLullo Herrin

Monday, 17 September 2018

Show Up

Why would you expect someone to show up and help you
 when you are not really showing up for yourself?
 - Jessica DiLullo Herrin

Friday, 14 September 2018

Maintenance

You can literally change your life in an instant 
by making a single decision  never to go back
 to the way you have been living – no matter what. 
What takes months, years, and sometimes decades 
is the maintenance required to live by that decision. 
- Robin Sharma

Wednesday, 12 September 2018

Paths

Many possible paths to our best lives 
have been written for us. 
- Robin Sharma

Monday, 10 September 2018

Start

Just start, do anything, and keep on doing it 
until something better comes along.
 - Mike Dooley

Friday, 7 September 2018

September 7, 2018 Chautauqua


Beth's Ponderings

   I don’t know about you, but I’m just not a very flexible person physically.  While I can remember as a child being able to touch my big toe to my nose, the truth is that when I started attending yoga classes in my mid-20s I could not bend over and touch my toes.  In fact, I thought it pretty amazing that I could bend over and touch my knees!

   Needless to say, I have not passed a basic flexibility test in ages.  Even now, despite doing yoga for years, I am not really a lot more flexible than I was that first class - though I can touch my toes now (well, if I bend my knees a bit).

   So, I was intrigued when I recently heard a person describe body flexibility as nothing more than “energy extending out.”  She went on to say that everybody, and every BODY, is flexible.

   The example she gave was a yawn.  We all yawn, and more often than not, we do a little stretch when we yawn, but even if we didn’t, we are extending our jaws in the yawn, and thus extending energy outward.

   So, okay, that’s one flexibility test even I can pass.

   Other examples she gave included spreading our fingers, reaching out with our arms, lifting our feet up while sitting, and then more complex examples involving moving our bodies more.  Yet, not one example included touching your toes, or other body contortion.

   The contrast to flexibility is when we hold ourselves, and our limbs, tight to our body.  This posture can be seen most readily when we are hunched over a keyboard or other electronic devise.

   While there are times when it is healthy, and safe, for our bodies to be in a tight position, it isn’t healthy if that is the ONLY position we place our bodies in.  Our bodies tell us - even if just with a big yawn - that they want to move and expand.


   More than just the ability to touch our toes, we all need a flexibility based on extending our energy out and allowing ourselves to really take up the space we are in, because a flexible body makes it much easier to experience a flexible mind, heart, and outlook.

Beth 


Contact The Chautauqua via email: thechautauqua@gmail.com or via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheChautauqua

Wednesday, 5 September 2018

Monday, 3 September 2018

Brave

You can, you should, and
 if you're brave enough to start, you will.
 - Stephen King