Gracies Blog

I approve of myself.  I love and accept  all  parts of myself.  Loving myself heals my life. I express my feelings openly and easily.  I am a loving, positive and cooperative person.  I forgive myself and others totally. I am willing to accept love in fact I deserve love . People enjoy being with me because I am a joyful, o riginal, u nderstanding, hopeful, o pen minded, sensitive and  easygoing person. I am so grateful to have a loving, supportive partner.  I am so grateful to have loving, supportive friends. I am grateful to have loving, supportive family.  I emotionally support my friends and encourage them to be their best at all times.  I am aware of past patterns that no longer serve  me and I release them easily. I listen closely and open my heart when interacting with others. My partner and I share and talk easily with no boundaries.  My partner and I enjoy a wonderful sexual relationship. My par...

They say to love your enemies, but no one tells you how to do it. It’s easy to think nice thoughts about difficult people when you’re alone, but how do you love the annoying work colleague, you know the one who’s like a shiver looking for a spine to run up. We’re supposed to find the best in people, but how do you do it? How do find the best in a person that even telemarketers hang up on? Sometimes you can remove difficult people from your life, and sometimes that’s exactly the right thing to do, BUT, on the other hand…… Sometimes you can’t. Sometimes they’re your boss in a job you need. Sometimes they’re a brother-in-law, family members and you don’t want to lose touch with your sister. Sometimes they’re an ex and you need to co parent. Sometimes they move in next door. Sometimes they’re on the other end of an important service call. You get the point. And in any case, can’t we do better than create a cocoon of people we like? As Socrates said in Peaceful Warrior, “Those who are ...

“When you’re depressed, nothing matters. When you’re sad, everything does.” ~  Gloria Steinem I guess its a fine line, because sadness doesn’t explain itself along the way. Its only after a bout of sadness, when the fog lifts, that you gain the perspective that everything matters. When you’re sad, you’re just sad. Maybe the distinction between depression and sadness is in the intensity and how long it lasts. You still function while you’re sad, go about your day as best you can. Sadness is a weight, but depression is crushing and paralyzing. Danielle Laporte put it like this, Sadness hurts but it signals that you are very, very much alive. Depression may be the cousin of sadness, sometimes the defended response to unyielding sadness, but it makes you feel anything but alive. It dulls, weighs, and messes with your memory of your true essential nature — which is that of joy. Its important to seek to understand the difference, because the cure is likely different.  Fo...

Life is divine chaos. Embrace it. Forgive yourself. Breathe. Enjoy the ride.  We all want to control our lives, to some extent, so that we can feel safe. Change often throws a wrench in that plan, hurling curve balls and body blows that mess with the order you crave.  Change can feel chaotic. Befriend chaos, and you will befriend change. Befriend change, and you will unlock the secret to a peaceful life.  The  first truth of change  is that it happens and we are always in the middle of it.   The   second truth of change   is to allow the future to emerge within, through and around you. The third truth of change is to embrace chaos. Buckle in, stay present, know who you are and get ready to grow. The difference between a deck of cards and an iPhone illustrates the possibilities of chaos. The deck of cards is shuffled and completely disordered, a prime example of chaos. The iPhone is a prime example of order, an amazing mac...

Those little things that make you happy, those people who make you laugh and smile like a dork.  Learn from the past. Don't let it break or define you. Things happen for a reason. Make sure you make the most of what you have.  Show your friends how much they mean to you and how much you appreciate them. Smile and make the most of your life. Make it what you want it to be.  HAPPY are they who take like day by day, complain very little, and are thankful for the little things in LIFE. Don't take the little things for granted.

How quickly we forget! In early summer I find myself resenting a cool 60 degree morning, when not three months earlier I would have given my right arm for that sort of tropical delight. How easily we take things for granted, and forget the miracle and gift of being alive. Entitlement is the nemesis of inner peace . It is an insatiable beast. Even laying the whole world at the feet of entitlement is not enough. His first response is, “what took you so long”, the second, “Where is the moon?” Entitlement convinces you that the world owes you a debt, and multiple gifts are barely enough payback for what you deserve. Gratitude is the anti-venom that neutralizes entitlement’s poison. Gratitude is the opposite of entitlement. Gratitude begins with acceptance of what arises exactly as it is, rather than as you wish they were or expect them to be. Gratitude is not about benefits or usefulness or outcomes. You are thankful that things are just as they are —...

I’m ok at a few things. I can cook a decent curry, make babies smile in boring grocery lines, and put up with endless Seinfeld repeats. I’m also generally good at knowing when to stop drinking, spending too much, and sleeping in. But I am not good at goodbyes. Whether at funerals or airports, I just can’t do it. They hurt. And I don’t like hurting. It’s an end. And I don’t like endings. I want more. I want possibilities, chances, and just-maybe’s. I want the promise of a see-you-later. I really do. I want to see you, later. Oh I can fluff it up, focus on the good times. Celebrate and appreciate all I've learned and all I've become. Yes- cheers to the lessons, cheers to the journey, cheers to you and cheers to me. We can dress it up and dance with the goodbyes into the night- pretending you’ll call tomorrow to say what fun, let’s do it all again. But there is no tomorrow and there is no again. We all know goodbyes are just down-right badbyes. They have no rhythm, th...