But, I don\u2019t like peas. They are my \u201cGreen Eggs and Ham.\u201d As a young girl, I didn\u2019t get excused from the dinner table unless I belonged to the \u201cclean plate club.\u201d When peas were on the menu, I would sit there looking at my almost-clean plate, wishing for a magic wand to make the pile of cold and forlorn peas disappear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then one day, I figured a way out. I\u2019d put a forkful of peas in my mouth, quietly spit them into my napkin, and discreetly and oh-so-secretly empty the napkin into the waiting mouth of my dog Taffy, who was patiently waiting under the table to gobble up wayward scraps. She saved me from hours of sitting and staring at food I wasn\u2019t going to eat. Thanks girl. Sorry Mom.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Childhood stories aside, neither peas nor grapes can transform your life. What my dear friend misheard is a favorite power pill, my mantra, \u201cEase, Peace and Grace.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n When I simply utter the word ease, I feel an exhale.\u00a0 Ease is about releasing resistance within to align with having that experience in my life. Ease means holding the posture of a \u201cYES!\u201d in your body, mind, heart and Spirit, and anchoring in that energy as you face whatever shows up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our ease is manifested in how we react and express ourselves when the experiences of the day are difficult. Ease is the space we save in our hearts for Divine Light and Love to be present, moving in, through, and as us. Ease can be the gift that you give yourself in the midst of what appears to be the \u2018<\/em>not<\/em><\/strong> gifts\u2019 coming to you. Ultimately, ease can be your power center, one that allows you to embrace a day full of challenges and disappointments, struggles and conflicts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I love taking long beach walks. Where I walk, there is a combination of sand and rocks of different sizes. Sometimes, the tide creates hilly areas as well. Each day and every step are full of surprises; the beach might be flat, smooth and rock-free, or the exact opposite. I can never know or predict what I will get, and that\u2019s okay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Ease is about greeting with an open heart whichever<\/em> scenario I encounter. This energetic \u201cYES!\u201d means I am open to whatever shows up \u2013 whether it\u2019s a flat, smooth and clean path, or whether I must step over rocks, pick up garbage, or pray over a dead pelican. In our lives, it\u2019s often the unknowns we resist the most. I love this quote from Eckhart Tolle:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBeing at ease with not knowing is<\/p> crucial for answers to come to you.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n This is the beauty at the heart of ease \u2013 being an energetic \u201cYES!\u201d lets you receive more possibilities because you are not disrupting life\u2019s flow with the energy of resistance. Start to consciously notice how and when you are in resistance of what is, and denying the energy of ease to be part of who you are. Remember that you outer world is a reflection of your inner state, so denying ease energy on the inside keeps it out what you are experiencing outside as well. Ease also<\/em> goes to a deeper place. Ease is the gateway to experiencing Peace. Ease is the surface layer of this deeper inner state. Peace is your State of Being beyond<\/em> resistance. It\u2019s a state worth striving for! Peace is within your Essence. It\u2019s a space of trust and openness, where there is the unmistakable knowing<\/em> that everything is exquisitely right, regardless of appearances to the contrary. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the story above of praying over a dead pelican, Ease is accepting that this particular walk includes a dead pelican (certainly not something I like to experience). Peace is trusting that however it died, ultimately all is as it should be \u2014 even while the judging self might be looking for something or someone to blame for its death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Peace comes from choosing to transcend the situational aspects of a moment, while allowing those aspects to be exactly as they are. As Mahatma Gandhi taught: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEach one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n All your fears, anxieties, anger, and sadness are not the opposite of Peace. When they grip you tightly and you feel like you can\u2019t break free, they are essentially reminding you that you have disconnected from Peace, even though it\u2019s still available to you<\/em>. When a lamp gets unplugged, its light goes out. But the power to light that lamp is still there waiting for the lamp to be plugged back in. Inner Peace is still waiting for you to plug back in when you\u2019re facing a struggle, experiencing pain and sadness, dealing with your fears. Just because there\u2019s momentary darkness in your life, doesn\u2019t mean your inner Light is not there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Remember to stay connected to the Source within; trust that you have safety, stamina, guidance, endurance, and comfort even in the midst of a life journey with hills, rocks, debris, dead creatures and big unknowns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And finally, there is Grace. When you feel like something amazing happened that you\u2019re not sure you deserve, what do you call it? Surprise? Miracle? I call it Grace. Grace is what Divinely plugs your lamp back in when you don\u2019t have the wherewithal to even reach for the plug. When you are barely connected to the Divine aspect of you within, Grace is what allows you to experience the presence of God. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Consider a time when you were trapped in the appearances of lack and limitation, and were seemingly out of time and out of options. Grace is the gift bestowed on you that provided abundance and opportunity to show up anyway. Grace shows up to remind you that you can choose how to experience what is happening, right when you may be at your absolute worst place for remembering and choosing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the midst of situations that make you ask \u201cWhere did this come from?\u201d, Grace helps you take responsibility and love yourself anyway, without judgment, guilt, or shame. It intervenes when you realize that sometimes you can neither claim nor act from your Divine Self because you\u2019re attached to the limited ideas of your human self, filled with fear, sadness, despair, doubt, shame or loneliness. As the poet Rumi says: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGive up to grace. The ocean takes care of each wave<\/p> till it gets to shore.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n What I like most about Grace is that I don\u2019t have\u00a0 to do anything to have the opportunity to experience its gifts.\u00a0 That said, to get the full measure of its presence, I must notice and give thanks for its blessings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I love to affirm Ease, Peace and Grace in my life always. I offer this mantra to you, and intend that it elevates your vibration so you can experience every way that ease, peace and grace are available in your life now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n I can often be heard talking to myself. Among the things I say are affirmations and intentions, positive \u201cpower pills\u201d I feed myself as part of my self-love practice. One of my favorites is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"category-mindfulness","9":"post-with-thumbnail","10":"post-with-thumbnail-icon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/heartlycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/heartlycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/heartlycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heartlycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heartlycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/heartlycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":787,"href":"https:\/\/heartlycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716\/revisions\/787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heartlycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/heartlycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heartlycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/heartlycenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Ease<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nPeace<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nGrace<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n Stay well and BE happy!
Valerie <\/h3>\n\n\n\n Valerie Sheppard is founder and CEO of The Heartly Center for Mindfulness and Self-Mastery. She gets rave reviews for her book, public speaking and coaching. You can learn more HERE<\/a>. <\/h6>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"