Flow: Your WOW Message of the Week

Here’s your Words of Wisdom (WOW) Message of the week for July 16, 2023.

FLOW

It's all about FLOW

Everything is easy.

Definition: unrestricted, moving, open, being carried

Other: current, stream of consciousness

Opposite: stagnant, pinched off, blocked, clogged

A friend and I were talking about the concept of being in the flow and she said it felt like she was on a Fidelity investment commercial where the green line and arrow appear and show her the next right step.

I thought that was a brilliant description of being in flow. Another cool part of this story was that we were having this discussion while walking into the County Fair and low and behold, a huge long green line was painted on the ground showing guests where to walk and enter the admission gates.

I also love how the background of our flow card is green, just like the green line in the commercial and at the fair.

Being in flow to me also feels like moving forward in faith, relinquishing control, not knowing what is around the next bend, but trusting and relaxing into the knowledge that all is well, that I am loved, supported, and protected every inch of the way.

Being in flow involves surrender and relinquishing control, not fighting it but cruising along on a virtual “lazy river of life” in an inner tube knowing I am supported by a force much greater than myself. It is being carried or guided.

Ways to know you are in flow:
• Things feel good and easy.
• You are breathing with ease.
• You can see your journey as a glorious gift even when things don’t go as planned.
• You use your heart as a compass to guide your way and make choices.

Ways to know you are not in flow:
• Overthinking. Living in your head. Trying too hard.
• Things feel difficult and as a struggle.
• You find yourself holding your breath and your body hurts from holding your shoulders, jaw, and face in tension frequently.

How can being in flow help you live life better?

Find the Good,
Becky and Janette


Originally posted on July 15, 2020, written by Janette Stuart

We share uplifting messages of Well-Being and Wonder for Living Life Better. Find out about Well-Being for ME in 2023. A year-long program of self-discovery to Live Life Better through peace, love, joy, and ease HERE. It’s not too late to join us. This month we focus on DELIGHT.

Nurture: Your WOW Message of the Week

Here’s your Words of Wisdom (WOW) Message of the week.

NURTURE

I listen to my intuition and know what to do.

Definition: care for and encourage growth

Other: look after, support, take care of

Opposite: neglect, ignore, forget

INTENTIONAL ATTENTION!
To ourselves and others.

It can be a lifestyle, something we do in our daily lives. To improve well-being and contentment we support the act of being ourselves. There are many habits that encourage caring for mind, body and spirit. Through trial and error we learn what is most important to help us flourish.

For me, when I clear clutter from my house it decreases my stress level and gives me clarity. It makes me feel happier and it is a way to nurture my love of harmony and peace. Doing a daily meditation or soaking up some Vitamin D in the sun or saying no can be ways to encourage growth towards living life better.

Making someone feel important can be as easy as listening to them with focus and understanding. You can convey a feeling of cooperation and nurture the relationship. Taking consideration of other’s wishes is not the same as people pleasing or going overboard with YES to everyone or everything.

One of the best ways to be lifted up is to lift someone else up. Being a caring person who uses communication in a kind and honest way can lead to relationships where both are sharing dreams and life lessons with mutual give and take. Giving emotional support can make working through a challenge a little easier.

In these quickly changing times we sometimes face discomfort from different opinions and ideas. We are working towards a goal of listening, to support changes in ourselves and others. We must work together to nurture a climate of acceptance and inclusivity.

It is not easy to figure out what you need in your life to feel cared for or how you can support others.

Listen to your heart.

Tune into your intuition, it’s quiet and always there, and you will know what to do.



Find the Good,
Becky and Janette


Originally posted on July 8, 2020, written by Becky Wilbur.

We share uplifting messages of Well-Being and Wonder for Living Life Better. Find out about Well-Being for ME in 2023. A year-long program of self-discovery to Live Life Better through peace, love, joy, and ease HERE. It’s not too late to join us. This month we focus on DELIGHT.

Beauty: Your WOW Message of the Week

Here’s your Words of Wisdom (WOW) Message of the week.

BEAUTY

It’s everywhere.

Definition: Exquisite, gorgeous, attractive, lovely

Other: Stunning, pretty, easy to look at

Opposite: Hideous, decimated, grotesque

In this week’s guidance, we are focusing on the beauty we find in the natural world. Yes, it’s everywhere. Yet the thing is that we need to be aware enough to notice it.

Beauty is a precious gift from the Divine to delight and enrich our lives.

A friend of mine was recovering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and was guided to look for beauty in her midst every day and photograph and document it for a year.

Her first photo was a shot of the clouds and a rainbow that she sensed was a gift to her. This was just the healing elixir she needed to reawaken her sense of love, gratitude, and connection. Her project was called Choosing Beauty and you can find out more here. https://livlane.com/about-the-blog/

I love to go for a morning walk with my dog and see the beauty in my neighborhood. I could choose to focus on the overgrown yards, garbage, and decay but I choose to be on the lookout for beauty, and each and every day I find it.

Sometimes the beauty is a tree, plant, animal, or a nice encounter with a neighbor.

These walks are daily meditations where I look for beauty, inspiration, and delight to fill up my heart and soul. It enlivens and enriches me. You could call it “walking self-care.”

Today, I found two lush, thriving bushes growing out of a crack in the sidewalk. They were remarkable. A true example of “Bloom where you are planted.” The day before, I observed a beautiful hibiscus that made me stop and look deeper at her beauty.

Any way you choose to look for beauty in your midst is up to you. You could look online for images, take a walk, look out the window, go to a local nursery or park, or a thousand other options. You could take a picture, write about it, tell someone about it, or whatever tickles your fancy.

Remember, beauty is everywhere and is a gift to enrich your life.

Today, take a moment to notice something beautiful in your midst as you Live Life Better.


Find the Good,
Becky and Janette


Originally posted on July 1, 2020, written by Janette Stuart.

We share uplifting messages of Well-Being and Wonder for Living Life Better. Find out about Well-Being for ME in 2023. A year-long program of self-discovery to Live Life Better through peace, love, joy, and ease HERE. It’s not too late to join us. This month we focus on CELEBRATE.

Listen: Your WOW Message of the Week

LISTEN

Do you hear me?

Definition: to hear something with thoughtful attention, give one’s attention to a sound
Other: hear, pay attention,
Opposite: ignore, tune out, deaf

Is there a difference between listen and hear?

Listen processes the sound and to hear is tuning in to the message.
One is a biological function, the other includes attention and understanding.
And vice versa.
And maybe interchangeable.
Is there a difference?

I can listen to a song with my physical ear but do I hear the message intended?
I can listen to a conversation but do I hear the unsaid words?
I can listen to my intuition but do I take action on what I hear?
I can listen to my body but is that enough, or do I need to hear the lesson?
I can listen to the sounds all around me from Mother Earth but do I honor the poetry of delight?

Have you ever asked a person to pay attention to what you are saying?
Please listen.
I need you to hear me.
I want you to take in my words and understand.

Sometimes when someone asks us to listen we immediately jump to how can I help, what can I fix, what are the next wise words I can offer in this conversation? And really we just need to listen. And listen more.

To be heard can be life-changing. To see someone nod their head, eyes focused on you but saying nothing, knowing you will figure it out. Or a pause in a conversation on the phone, waiting for you to understand you are not only listening but hearing with understanding.

Listening is a powerful tool in relationships, from strangers to lovers. Listening is often the only thing needed to help someone.

Listening to your heart is hearing from within you. No one else. It’s just you. Are you hearing the message you need in the stillness of the present moment? Sometimes there is nothing else you can do but listen. No action required. To listen is the awareness of NOW.

I have been going on wood walks lately. At the park I walk from tree to tree, touching the bark and waiting for the message. Sometimes the breeze drops a hint of change coming, or the pine cone delivers hope while I am listening to my heart and intuition. No one but me is speaking and hearing what I need in those moments.

Listen has the same letters as silent.
There can be silence in listening.
Listening is about being present, not just about being quiet though.

I saw a meme the other day that said we have two ears and a mouth so we need to listen twice as much as we talk. Seems like good advice. Are you a good listener? Do you hear the message and understand what is being offered? Or are you really thinking about what you will say to fix the situation or prove you know more? Listening to the pain and change that many are feeling in these challenging and uncertain times will take courage and patience.
Do you hear me?


Find the Good,
Becky and Janette


Originally posted on June 24, 2020, written by Becky Wilbur.

We share uplifting messages of Well-Being and Wonder for Living Life Better. Find out about Well-Being for ME in 2023. A year-long program of self-discovery to Live Life Better through peace, love, joy, and ease HERE. It’s not too late to join us. This month we focus on CELEBRATE.

Joy: Your WOW Message of the Week

JOY

Look for it. Feel it. Savor.

Definition: Feeling of gratification aroused by something good or desired.

Other: Bliss, pleasure, enjoyment, blessed

Opposite: Sorrow, sadness, melancholy, bleak, somber

A principle of the Law of Attraction is what we focus upon expands.

If we are looking for the good of a situation or person we will find it. If we are looking for what’s wrong in a situation or person we will find it. If we are looking for beauty we will find it, if we are looking for upset we can find that too.

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.” - Henry Ford

Joy is a choice. We always have a choice. It takes bravery to look for joy in the midst of uncertainty, doubt, or challenges.

Joy is different than happiness. Happiness can be fleeting whereas joy is a deeply rooted sensation. What brings each of us joy is unique. It is not a one-size-fits-all type of thing.

Joy is that thing you lose all sense of time while doing, that thing that you’d wake up super early for or stay up late just for the sheer pleasure of it.

In their book, “The Book of Joy” The Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu present their 8 Pillars of Joy and describe them as “practices that lead to great inner peace and greater joy.” I would like a double scoop, please!

1. Perspective – Seeing from a different angle, retreating to see the situation more clearly.
2. Humility – Unassuming, keeping our ego in check, allowing others to shine.
3. Humor – Ability to laugh or be lighthearted in times of difficulties.
4. Acceptance. – It is what it is. Moving on or forward in faith.
5. Forgiveness – Compassionate with others and ourselves. Dissolving grudges.
6. Gratitude – Thankful for what is. Embracing blessings.
7. Compassion – Treating others as equals. Using grace with others and ourselves.
8. Generosity – Being kindhearted and giving.

Today’s invitation is to ponder what brings you joy and savor it. Look for it. Feel it. Savor.

If you can’t think of anything at this time, look back on what brought you joy as a child and chances are that thing will still bring joy forth for you today.

How can focusing on Joy help you to live life better?


Find the Good,
Becky and Janette


Originally posted on June 17, 2020, written by Janette Stuart.

We share uplifting messages of Well-Being and Wonder for Living Life Better. Find out about Well-Being for ME in 2023. A year-long program of self-discovery to Live Life Better through peace, love, joy, and ease HERE. It’s not too late to join us. This month we focus on CELEBRATE.

A Word About Being in the Middle and Declaring Devotion

Your Words of Wisdom (WOW) Guidance Card for Living Life Better will be on HIATUS this week. There are so many words out in the world right now, circulating, enticing, emoting and invoking.

Words like hope, commitment, freedom. Every week Well-Being & Wonder strives to instill encouragement and make you think about living life better, for YOU and the world.

We are in Week 24 of this year.
Not quite the middle of the 53 weeks that make up 2020.
June is the middle of the year.

We are in the middle, not the beginning or the end of many circumstances and situations. We are in the middle of a global pandemic, financial uncertainty, and civil unrest including protests for change, much hostility and public safety in question in many areas.

We are in the middle of life-changing happenings, events, crisis, attitudes and it is probable that we are not feeling centered and calm. I know I am not. Trying to live peacefully does not mean you don’t feel pain, sadness and grief. No practice, no meditation, no discipline makes you immune from experiencing the challenges of life.

Between extremes is something intermediate, the middle or center.

Not everything is hard.
Not everything is easy.
Not everything hurts.
Not everything feels good.
Not everything feels sad.
Not everything feels happy.

Daily renewal to live with the intention to do better, feel better and be better is at the heart of our lives. The heart is kind of the middle of the human body. Our heart, that central portion leads us with love and compassion for others and ourselves.

What is the middle of the middle?
The dd letters in the middle are calling me to DECLARE DEVOTION!

I don’t want to live in the past. Regret keeps me stuck.
I can’t see the future. Worry will not change it.
I declare devotion to NOW.

The edge of beginning and end blend into the middle.
The middle is now.
Declare devotion to NOW.
Do better.
Feel better.
Be better.
Now.


Find the Good,
Becky and Janette


Originally posted on June 12, 2020, written by Becky Wilbur

We share uplifting messages of Well-Being and Wonder for Living Life Better. Find out about Well-Being for ME in 2023. A year-long program of self-discovery to Live Life Better through peace, love, joy, and ease HERE. It’s not too late to join us. This month we focus on CELEBRATE.

Flourish - Your WOW message of the Week

Welcome to the WOW Card of the Week series. A new card will be featured every week for you to think about, mull over, and maybe change something to fill your life with well-being and wonder.

Your Words of Wisdom (WOW) Guidance Card of the Week June 4-9, 2023, is here!

FLOURISH



I choose to thrive knowing I am living life better.

Definition: Grow or thrive, vitality

Other: Blossom, favorable, profuse

Opposite: Fade, deteriorate, decline

The word flourish holds a very special place in my heart. It was my focus word in 2019. I chose the word flourish because not only did I want to enjoy my life, I wanted to thrive with a huge sense of health and vitality.

Little did I know how impactful the word would become for me. It was my constant companion as I was on my healing journey with pancreatic cancer.

Flourish means to sparkle and shine despite circumstances. Laser-focused on health and vitality comes to mind. To stand firmly rooted, digging deep with a strong support system so that we can thrive despite the raging conditions going on around us.

• If you feel a little unsteady, stop, take a deep breath, and ask, how can I best flourish right now?

Ways to Flourish:
• Enough rest
• Proper nutrition
• Fully hydrated
• Strength and courage to be mentally, physically, and spiritually resilient
• Basic life needs must be met

Here are some great affirmations for flourishing:

• Today, I choose to flourish despite circumstances.
• Today, I radiate vitality as I embrace flourishing.
• I am strongly anchored and supported so that I may flourish.

How can you live life better by allowing yourself to flourish today?

Find the Good,
Becky and Janette


Originally posted on June 3, 2020, written by Janette Stuart

We share uplifting messages of Well-Being and Wonder for Living Life Better. Find out about Well-Being for ME in 2023. A year-long program of self-discovery to Live Life Better through peace, love, joy, and ease HERE. It’s not too late to join us.

DREAM - Your WOW message of the Week

Welcome to the WOW Card of the Week series. A new card will be featured every week for you to think about, mull over, and maybe change something to fill your life with well-being and wonder.

Your Words of Wisdom (WOW) Guidance Card of the Week May 28, 2023 through June 3, 2023, is here!

DREAM

If you could do or be anything, what would it be?

Definition: a cherished aspiration, ambition or idea
Other: desire, wish, hope, intention
Opposite: apathy, indifference, contentment

Everything starts with a dream.
The vision of a new reality.
A possibility in the making.
A strongly desired goal or purpose.
A wish your heart makes.

Become your own dream detective and figure out what it is that you love and want more of in your life.
Sit in the stillness and quiet.
Think of what your life could be if there were no boundaries on the possibilities.

What image is created by your imagination?
What sensations are occurring in your mind?
What area of your life is calling for a dream?

Unlocking your dreams comes with the willingness to change, commit and clear the way by setting goals and taking action.

Don’t be pushed around by the fears in your mind,
Be led by the dreams in your heart.
-Roy T. Bennett

Every dream precedes a goal which needs determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort to make progress towards the end result. Dreams can come true if we have the courage to figure out what is important and then do it. By living a lifestyle that is conducive to making our dreams a reality, we encourage others to reach out for their dreams also.

A dream helps to inspire, gives us hope, and fill our lives with purpose. It shapes our everyday life with intention and becomes a way of living life better.

Find the Good,
Becky and Janette


Originally posted on May 27, 2020, written by Becky Wilbur.

We share uplifting messages of Well-Being and Wonder for Living Life Better. Find out about Well-Being for ME in 2023. A year-long program of self-discovery to Live Life Better through peace, love, joy, and ease HERE. It’s not too late to join us.