Sarah hamilton's Blog

This is where you'll find my musings on Gratitude, Inspiration, Stillness and Awe…. "Transform your thoughts, transform your life"

How can we change an obstacle into pure joy? November 26, 2014

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This video came across my Facebook feed the other day and I simply fell in love with it.  First off I’ll admit I have a soft spot for sweet animal videos but this one really got me.  So I contacted the young woman to see if it was on youtube and if so may I use it.  Hence it was uploaded and here is a horse who’s name is Magic… Really, I love it! This lovely horse was frightened of the water until his amazingly young rider helped him to move past the fear (who’s the life coach here? 🙂 )  And not only did he move past it it but it became pure joy, for both horse and rider.
Which got me to thinking about how one can move past a fear and not only turn it into joy but create joy for someone else as well.  And the answer is perception. How are you viewing the fearful situation?  If you change the way you view it it just might surprise you.  It will change.  A question I ask myself when confronted with a situation or something I’d rather not have in my life I ask myself, “What can I learn right now?” or “Where do I want to go from here”  There is always something to learn in any given situation. And then I ask how I can shift my energy and for me I find 10 things I’m grateful for.  Which immediately brings me into the moment and straight into Gratitude.
What a perfect time to talk about gratitude!  Thanksgiving is tomorrow in the States and it’s a wonderful opportunity to look at all that is abundant and wonderful in our life.  Wishing you a joyful grateful Thanksgiving!  What a spectacular way to move into joy and shift from… well, just about anything!
Have a Magical Day!
Lot so Love
~Sarah
 

“It’s a blustery day in the hundred acre woods” November 2, 2014

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This morning our power went out, luckily only for a brief stint but our internet went out for… well it’s out now and we’re not certain when we will get it back. I love this weather enforced down time. Our television is web based and when the internet goes so does the television. The quiet in the house is really lovely. All I hear is a man tinkering and a little one playing and creating stories with her legos.

 

I don’t know about you but when I get going I go! I can lose track of the quiet times, the down moments, the not doing. With all my focus on staying in the moment I can get wrapped up in the doing. So this begs the question: What do you do to stop and smell the proverbial flowers? Or fly the kite? I’m looking out my windows at the trees swaying to the remarkable wind that is definitely a Winnie the pooh kind of day.  Today for me it was loosing our power and internet (this post is obviously posting after the fact).

 

Hope you are all enjoying your Sunday!

Lots of Love!

~Sarah

 

How attached to “Woundology” are you? October 29, 2014

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Today as I was doing my physical therapy in the pool today I was reminded of a word: Woundology.  Often when someone has been through some kind of life altering illness or situation that understandably becomes their raison d’être, their focus… their defining sense of self.

“They are striving to confront their painful experiences, valiantly working to bring meaning to past traumas, and exercis- ing compassionate understanding of others who share their wounds. But they are still not healing. Rather, they have redefined their lives around their wounds and the pro- cess of accepting them.”- Caroline Myss

As we try to connect to others we do so by finding a common ground but by doing so it tends to be around our wounds and that becomes our language.  I still catch myself doing it after a week of migraines I’ll say, “Sure, I can but I have to see how I feel” which I see as taking care of myself but in actuality it is setting myself up for the pain.  As opposed to simply, “Sure I can!” and then cross that bridge later when I get to it because simply since something has happened in the past doesn’t mean it will happen again.  I’m not saying it’s easy but small steps in staying in the present moment is the way to go.  There are a lot of other factors that come into play here as Ms. Myss states but for me all is aided by staying in the moment.  I focus my language around what is positive and healthy.  I also look at what the present “pain” might be telling me.  How can it inform me as to what I may not being seeing in my life.  How do I choose to be healthy? And currently I choose, as some of you may have read, something Radically Beautiful.

So I wonder, how do you talk to yourself and to others.  How do you define yourself?  And the big one what story of yourself do you create?

 

Lots of Love,

~Sarah

 

 

 

#RadicallyBeautiful October 5, 2014

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#RadicallyBeautiful

Michael Allen Wells

Mine Hill Roxbury CT

 

 I have been chatting a bit about finding something Radically Beautiful with my clients recently.  This effort is a great way to bring you back into the moment when we find ourselves crazed from the day.  I tend to find the way the light looks as my radically beautiful thing.  Here a couple of pictures to illustrate some light I find pretty breathtaking.  My friend Michael Alan Wells took the picture on the left.  Now let’s take a deep breath in and a deep breath out… Ahhhhhh.  Taking advantage of this skill can do so much for you.  It not only brings you right back into presence but it goes so far as to immediately lower your blood pressure.  I find seeing that which is Radically beautiful is even better than asking myself “Where are my feet right now?”.  Which has been my go to, to bring myself back into the present moment.  This skill helps us to see the beauty in the world instead of the thing that might be taking us out of the moment because we don’t like what’s currently happening.  Once we take a beat and stop and “look up and look out”  and relax into the moment we have an easier time assessing what is really going on for us.  so that we can choose what we want to feel and think.

Which leads me to my next thought.  I was out and about today with my sweetie and A-bomb and was looking at my phone when I stopped and looked up and looked out and realized I was missing the day.  How often have you been lost in a gadget and missed out on what was really happening right in front of you?  I almost missed out on a spectacular day.  So put down that gadget (of course after you stop reading this post :-)) and get out of the house today!

Share your #RadicallyBeautiful thoughts with me today!

Lots of Love

~Sarah

 

Starting the day over…. October 1, 2014

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IMG_1903“We live in a non stop world!”  This phrase has been stated over and over again usually in the same sentence with the internet, social media, children, work and everything else one can imagine. Now today was one of those days for me.  It seemed as if I wanted to start my day over the moment it began.  That said there are many people who say to simply change your thoughts about the day.  Meaning that we say, “Ok now my day is exactly as we make it and thus it’s a great day!”

There is some validity to this.  To quote Dr. Wayne Dyer, “If we change the way we look at things the things we look at change”.  Yet, I know that my day starts with a ritual of meditation and coffee.  So if it switches up as it did today, I can have a hard time getting back on tract.  So in the vain of seeing things that are radically beautiful today (look at last weeks post) I took a few minutes to make another cup of coffee and sit down for a sip or 2 to recalibrate.  This moment stopped me from a down hill slope.  Which gets me to my point, How do you stop the habitual pattern of the “down word spiral” of unhealthy thought?  The thoughts that keeps us in a habitual pattern that feeds our stress.  We don’t always make it easy on ourselves to simply change our thoughts on a dime.  Hence finding a way to re-center our thoughts.  I used a few moments to breathe and slow down, if only for a few moments but it worked.  This moment was #radicallybeautiful to me.  I was incorporating a centering breath with the comforting warmth of my coffee.  So how can you stop, breathe and move forward with a fresh thought pattern.  Awareness can take a bit of work.  To catch yourself before the stress or the craziness of the day gets the better of you is the goal.

I will save a whole post about awareness for another day.  But for today, take a moment to breathe and  and take into your lungs the freshness of a centered self.  Now carry on with your day, fresh.  That’s if you have had any day like mine, which of course is now quite lovely!

 

Lots of Love!

~Sarah

 

How do you handle stress? September 17, 2014

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window

Loving Light

I recently moved into a new house with my sweetie and it’s beautiful!!  Though with all the excitement and joy of finding a home I have forgotten to do one simple thing… Stay in the moment.  I have gotten caught up in the, “I have to do’s”.  You know the, I have to unpack the bathroom today.  I have to get a recycling run in today. And I have to organize my office…  The list goes on.  Albeit being excited about my new adventure I haven’t taken the time to smell the roses…literally.

So as the Universe is want to do, I was listening to a dharma talk by Tara Brach, which I was doing while on the excercise bike no less… (of course maximizing my time, no judgement please).  The moment she said “Stress is fear of the moment”….. I stopped biking and continued to listen because I was meant to hear it.  She said if we stop the moment we are aware of our stress and radically notice the beauty around us we’re immediately brought back into the moment.  She went on to remind me of so many salient points of my seminar that I started to laugh.  I, was not living in the moment.

We all need reminds every now and then… So… right now the sun is shining through my windows creating the most luxurious light in my house that I feel wrapped in loving light…. You get what I ‘m saying, right?  So, I wonder where you might be allowing stress to dictate your way in the world?  How can you take a step away and ask yourself:  Where and I right now?  How do I feel right now? Am I able to accept it?  And…. What is radically beautiful in my presence right now?

Go ahead be radical!

Lots of Love

~Sarah

 

Habits… Are you aware of yours? July 11, 2014

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Recently I have been spending time with a rather exceptional 7 year old and the other day she said, “You did it again!”.  Which seemed confusing to me since I had no idea what I was doing to do it again….  She noticed that I was saying, “That’s Insane!” which I say when something is either super yummy or quite spectacular.  That said, I guess I’m saying it a lot because I find many things about life… spectacular. But either way I’m saying it repetitively and unaware of it….

 

This got me thinking… What else may I be doing that I am unaware of??  I also in turn noticed that my clients were talking about that which they were unaware… How might you be going about life oblivious.  The only thing we have control of is the way we think and the way we respond to things.  Do you have habits of which you are unaware?  I’ll share another one of mine with you.  I also have a habit of turning on music in the house that my boyfriend doesn’t like when my leaves … And Dance around.  OK so that’s a bit silly, but it’s a habit.  It takes 21 days to make or break a habit….  Who wants to join me in creating new healthy habits, mindful living.

 

I have just completed my 1 on 1 physical therapy and now have the ability to go to the facility and do rehab on my own.  This is my habit that I want to support and grow.  Who wants to join me in a new habit? Share with me what you are doing so we can support each other in mindful, healthy living!

 

Energetically,

~Sarah

 

Full of Gratitude… June 5, 2014

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I haven’t written in a few weeks.  I have been recuperating after back surgery.  Some of you may know that I had asked for help.  I knew I couldn’t do it on my own….  Well what transpired was far beyond anything I could have imagined.

In less than a month and a half the whole amount was covered.  I’ll say it again the Whole amount was covered….  The money came rolling in and has literally left me speechless for the entire time.  I am humbled by all the generous souls in the world.  What was interesting this morning is that upon seeing that my goal was made, I started thinking “I did it!  I did it!” and within a split second I changed to “You did it!!  You did it!!” because there is no way I could have done this by myself.  So I didn’t do it.  You helped raise the money, you did all the heavy lifting.  Thank you! Thank you!  I will live the rest of my life knowing you helped me get well.  Being able to pay for a bill with complete faith that there is money to cover it has done more for my healing than almost anything else.  I regularly say that no person is an island and we can’t get anywhere alone.  We can’t succeed without someone else to aide us in our goal.  This is yet proof yet again that, “I am because we are” –Ubuntu

 

All I can think go today is:  Thank you…

 

All my love,

~Sarah

 

Inspiration from Jill Bolte Taylor! April 29, 2014

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I have blogged about Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor in the past but I wanted a little inspiration today!  It is amazing what can happen when we neurologically align our Brain with our heart!! Consciousness: The way we perceive ourselves and others in the world.  Here’s her most exquisite sharing at the TED Talks!

 

Each day is a gift! April 21, 2014

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©Sarah Hamilton

 

Each day is a gift… Right now is all we will ever have.  We all know the expression, “The past is history, the future is a mystery and now is a gift.  That’s why it is called the present!”  How are you going to embrace the moment?  Valuing the moment in whatever guise it shows up to you is not always easy… But if we look at it in just 3 ways we can.

When you’re in the moment you can accept it, enjoy it or be enthusiastic about it.  These 3 states of being I learned from Eckart Tolle and they really shifted my reality.  The alternatives simply create struggle…  Let’s just say someone is yelling at you… Do you want to fight or defend yourself?  All of that creates struggle… By allowing them their “stuff” and knowing the Truth about who you are leads to the acceptance of  what is happening and you can walk away with out harm and ill feelings. Then there is the enjoyment of the moment which we all can choose at any moment in time but my favorite is the Enthusiasm of the moment!

I made a choice with my life a long time ago not to struggle with time, space or people.  It has taken a lot of work for me to get here… people, health diagnoses and the simple choice of wanting something better. The idea, that if we struggle or fight with a given thing or situation that’s all we will ever have.  What do you want?  What kind of quality of life do you choose? And, the big one… How willing are you to do the work that it takes to let go of the all the stuff?

Our lives truly are gift of spectacular opportunity.  What are you going to do with it?

 

 

So much Love and Pink Light today!

~Sarah