~*~
To dwell in shadowed thoughts of dark unknowing?
Or, embrace the light my deepest truth reveals?
Have a beautiful day …
Dorothy
~*~
©Dorothy E. Chiotti … All Rights Reserved 2020
Aimwell CreativeWorks
~*~
To dwell in shadowed thoughts of dark unknowing?
Or, embrace the light my deepest truth reveals?
Have a beautiful day …
Dorothy
~*~
©Dorothy E. Chiotti … All Rights Reserved 2020
Aimwell CreativeWorks
~*~
This past year has been a lesson in thrival. Yes, I have just invented a word. From survive and survival we go to thrive and “thrival.”
You’re welcome.
This time last year instead of setting new year’s resolutions as I would normally, I set the intention to thrive. 2019 was going to be the year I stepped out of my kick-ass survival boots and replaced them with comfortable thrival shoes.
It’s been interesting, because in setting that intention all my survival moves have been challenged.
February proved a jumping off point, first because I was re-introduced to the work of neuro-scientist and author, Dr. Joe Dispenza, who challenged me, through video and the written word, to fire and re-wire neural pathways in my brain. Basically, to replace old thought habits with new ones so I could create my desired reality based on new, more holistic information, rather than continue to struggle (a survival mode strategy) doing it based on old patterns of being. So illuminating!
He then challenged me to raise my awareness by starting each day with a 20-minute meditation. (“Rest and Renew” on YouTube). I’d meditated before but not with the commitment I now felt to thrival. So,I turned my Ikea footstool into a meditation spot and made it a practice to go their early every morning to quiet my mind and connect to my heart. With each passing day it became easier. In fact, I looked forward to it and enjoyed it so much that it very quickly it became a habit, one I’ve committed to every day to help establish and maintain equanimity. It has served me well. Getting into thrival mode has created a good deal of chaos as the people and feelings that were a product of my survival scurry out of my life. It’s like I just don’t have room for them anymore and somehow they know it.
Believe me, it’s a thing. Look at the people around you. Are they a crutch in your desperate need to survive and let you down when you don’t fulfill their agenda, or do they lift you up to a higher understanding of yourself and support you in your quest to thrive, no strings attached? There is a difference, and I learned that in spades this year.
Part of my learning has been understanding the part indignation has played in my survival strategy. Indignation, or reacting in the heat of the moment, is rarely our friend. How often has someone or something annoyed you so much in the moment that you’ve risen to defend yourself against a perceived injustice and then regretted it? Or it backfires on you?
For me it was another moment last February when my husband and I were walking on our property and watching one of the current trainer’s horses making a meal of a spruce tree in its paddock. Horses don’t eat trees unless they’re hungry. It was mid morning and as I looked around the snow-covered paddock I noticed there wasn’t a speck of hay to be found. My back was instantly up. Horses need access to hay when there is no grass. Without realizing it I started ranting at my husband about winter turnout and how horses need hay and why don’t these horse people know this, and on and on. When he’d finally had enough, and after I’d texted the person in charge in as calm a voice as I could muster (please give this horse some hay so she’ll stop eating our tree) he forced me to look at myself and my reaction. Why was I so quick to react instead of simply observe and then respond? Why was I so hot under the collar about something that a simple conversation could fix?
This new awareness gave rise to a personal commitment to get ahead of this triggered reaction. Over time I realized that my indignation was born of a sense of injustice and this was related to the survival mode in which I’d been living my entire life. With years of therapy under my belt I already knew the whys and wherefores, now I needed to deal with the ingrained coping mechanism ~ the propensity to lash out to protect my personal and emotional space.
So, it’s been interesting. With lots of triggers on and off the farm this year, never mind out in in the world-at-large, I have had to learn to get in front of my reactions. To take stock of the moment and choose my response rather than get lost in my reaction. Wow, is that ever hard. But it’s been such a valuable lesson. I now know the moment my indignation is about to rise. I can feel it first in my chest like a thud. And then my mind clicks in and the wheels start to turn and my heart rate elevates and my mind spins and … and … and … if I don’t get ahead of it BOOM! it’s out there. And the funny thing is, it’s no kind of release, it just ramps things up even worse so that in the end I’m actually doubting what I did and then beating myself up for being reactive. In the end, I lose!
Getting ahead of my reactions means observing, breathing and waiting. When I wait I give myself time to even consider whether or not I want to dignify the perceived offense or injustice with a response. I give myself the choice of ignoring it or responding to it later from a more solid, less volatile place. One of my strategies is to write everything down to get it out of my system. Journaling. A personal record from the heart that I can then put away and not think about again unless given a very specific reason, say, as evidence. (It also provides great resource material for other writing projects.)
You see, to live in thrival mode we must release all the survival instincts that have kept us stuck in old patterns of behaviour and re-program our vast intelligence to function more efficiently and dynamically. Interestingly, living in thrival mode is less energy sapping than survival. In survival mode we’re always alert and waiting for the other shoe to drop and believe me, that’s an exhausting and debilitating way to live. The Complex-PTSD and adrenal issues I’ve experienced did not appear by accident. However, in thrival mode we have the option to live a more edifying and enjoyable life without placing conditions on everything and everyone to be exactly as we need them to be so we can survive. Isn’t that the bane of our world right now? The fact that many of our leaders are so burrowed down in survival and fear that they must control everything to the point of utter destruction in order to make themselves feel better and more in control?
Thrival is impossible as long as we allow ourselves to be influenced and buried in the deep fear and survival mentalities of people we can’t control. This has proven a difficult challenge for me. Survival mode made me a terrible control freak and I’m still working on letting this part go, but at least I’m aware of it. At least I can get ahead of my negative momentum and stop it before it impacts another. I can thrive on my own terms, in my own happy heart, and there’s nothing you or anyone else has to do to make it happen.
In thrival mode, we claim our power at no one’s expense. In survival mode our power flails to the detriment of all.
As we head into 2020 I set my intention to Thrive 2.0. The next, more advanced level of living a full life ~ flourishing, growing, prospering. Even more comfortable thrival shoes.
May I wish you the same. Happy New Year!
Be well and thanks for visiting …
Dorothy
©Dorothy E. Chiotti … All Rights Reserved 2019
And if the view’s not to your taste …
Don’t blame the mirror.
~*~
Image: Dock relic in large pond … Tylney Hall, Hook, Hampshire, England
~*~
©Dorothy E. Chiotti … All Rights Reserved 2019
Aimwell CreativeWorks
Upon life’s billowing seas
My vessel is swept
Windward. I am
Storm-tossed
And swell-swallowed,
Brine-stung
And surge-whipped.
I steer my battered
But unbroken ship
Upon the crashing waves ~
Afloat I remain.
My vessel salt-stained
And wind-lashed,
Yet a survivor.
In calmer waters,
Renewed in purpose,
Resolved, am I, to press on.
The map is charted
And though off course blown
Yet will I arrive.
It is my destiny.
~*~
The truth is, tall ship or small, we’re all just doing our best to get to the opposite shore.
Thanks for visiting …
Dorothy
~*~
©Dorothy E. Chiotti … All Rights Reserved 2019 … Aimwell CreativeWorks
Goodbye, we say again, goodbye,
Beneath a sad and sullen sky.
A year has passed
Since you drew breath;
Surrendered to untimely death.
My judgment, for I miss you so ~
I was not ready to let you go.
Still, life goes on as well it must,
So I release your dust to dust.
Your spirit soars while tears I cry
Beneath a sad and sullen sky.
~*~
©Dorothy E. Chiotti … All Rights Reserved 2018 … Aimwell CreativeWorks
Be authentic;
know who you are.
Understand what’s
buried beneath those
mountainous feelings of
inadequacy,
fear,
suffering,
depression,
despair,
grief.
Be prepared
to walk deep into the
cave of your misgivings;
to poke the monster,
Vulnerability, and
hear its high-pitched
squeal that shuts you down
or sends you running.
Be prepared
to punch the monster
in the nose and say,
“No more!
No more will I be
ruled by the unseen
terror that lies
dormant within.
No more will I
allow it to undermine
my truth and sway
me toward the lies
that feed
its hungry belly.”
Be prepared
for the struggle that is
that step from the dark
pit of toxic unknowing
into the light of pure truth.
Be the David to your inner
Goliath; slay the monster
and rise victorious. It is
your right to be
authentic.
~*~
When we have no understanding of who we are, or what makes us tick, we cannot be authentic. It’s just not possible. All the fears, anxieties, and other negative feelings that keep us stalled in a debilitating life pattern are driven by what we don’t know about ourselves. It takes courage and shining a light of curiosity into the cave of our unknowing to unearth our truth, remove the obstacles that prevent us from living it and be authentic. It’s a heck of a journey and worth every moment.
Thanks for visiting …
Dorothy
~*~
©Dorothy Chiotti … All Rights Reserved 2018 … Aimwell CreativeWorks
Glimmer,
hope.
Be there
for me.
Uphold my
faith in
what might be.
Help keep
my focus
on the prize.
Keep me
humble;
make me
wise.
Glimmer,
hope.
Be there
for me
so I, for
others, there
might be.
~*~
In a world of despair and disappointment a glimmer of hope helps to keep the heart light and the mind open. The source of that hope can be anything or anyone that speaks to our soul through encouragement, love, empathy. A simple “I believe in you” is often all it takes to help someone through a difficult time. It’s a glimmer of hope that says “everything will be alright in the end and if it isn’t alright, it is not yet the end.*”
Thanks for visiting …
Dorothy
~*~
*Patel, Hotel Manager, Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
©Dorothy Chiotti … All Rights Reserved 2018 … Aimwell CreativeWorks
To churn
is to change,
our life
re-arrange.
Like butter
from cream,
to rise from
a dream.
A process
profound,
turns our lives
upside-down.
To change
is to churn ~
one-way ticket;
no return.
~*~
When we make desired changes in our lives or take steps to live a dream we often forget that for a time there will be some discomfort; some churning of our inner world as we move into a new level of consciousness. Every transition brings uncertainty as we process and let go of what has been and make room for what might be. And once we’ve made that shift in awareness there’s simply no going back.
Be well,
Dorothy
©Dorothy Chiotti … All Rights Reserved 2018 … Aimwell CreativeWorks
I am a work in progress.
The canvas of my life
Stretches across the easel
Of time, anticipating each nurturing
Brush stroke by the Masterful Artist.
I am a landscape ~
An ever-unfolding vista of colours,
And shapes and light.
The shadows of clouds
Float in, and out,
Dispersed by bright sunshine,
Irreverent and true.
The Masterful Artist reveals
Mysterious patterns and
Miracles with a
Flick of the conscience, or
A long, deep stroke of thought.
The brush of a shadow ~
The sweep of radiant light ~
Depth to denote character,
And dappled sunlight to
Delight the soul.
~*~
The Masterful Artist’s strokes
Are sure, each measure
Of the art-child completed
In its time ~
Contemplated and recorded.
Mistakes are washed away,
Remembered no more.
Flaws are embraced to
Profess a perfectly natural appeal.
I am a landscape ~
Time rolls across my verdant fields,
Tickled by morning dew drops ~
Each tender blade of
Life reaching beyond
Tomorrow ~ to grow ~
To stretch toward the measure
Of its creation.
I am a work in progress.
The canvas of my life
Gradually reveals a story
Spun by the Masterful Artist.
I am a Masterpiece.
~*~
If only we could be patient with the creative process of living …
Thanks for visiting,
Dorothy
©Dorothy Chiotti … All Rights Reserved 2018 … Aimwell CreativeWorks
Shakespeare
June 23, 2001-November 21, 2017
~*~
Dedicated to those loved and lost
Dearly beloved …
How can you have gone?
One minute living your life,
The next ~ no life to live
And in my life
A gaping, lifeless, dark hole
Where once shone your living light.
Oh, how I miss you ~
Your touch, your presence, your grace.
Such tangible moments
A sorrow sore borne.
Alas, dearly beloved,
I must go on
Minute by minute living my life
In tribute to your wisdom, love and dignity.
Gradually filling the darkness again
With the light of
Your beloved memory ~
Your beauty, your essence, your face.
For such intangible comfort
I can scarce dream.
Dearly beloved ~ I miss you.
~*~
Thank you for visiting …
Dorothy
©Dorothy Elizabeth Chiotti … All Rights Reserved 2018 … Aimwell CreativeWorks
Weekly Photo Challenge: Beloved