If you are feeling off-center, what can you do right now to change this?

Could you stop what you're doing and take five gentle breaths?

Can you push away from the computer, set down your phone, and step out in nature to focus on its beauty?

Simple acts of self-care like these are easily forgotten when your day picks up pace.

Keep your intention for self-awareness strong so you can give yourself what you need to remain calm and clear throughout your day.

​©2023, Janice L. Lundy

With a constant bombardment of noise and images characterizing our days, the simple things, the delicacy of a flower or the song of a bird, can go unnoticed. Step away from the cacophony of life and reconnect with the joy of simple things. It only takes awareness to do so.
 
Wherever you are, pause, and heighten your senses. Pay attention on purpose. What do you hear? Notice how different you feel when you experience life with heightened sensory awareness. You will likely feel more calm, happy, and appreciative of the world around you
 
Isn't it amazing how the simple things in life can provide such soul satisfaction?

​©2025, Janice L. Lundy

Silence and solitude are vital to our well-being. Time to be alone, without the clamor of a noisy world and the needs of others, is essential for creating physical, mental, and emotional harmony. In fact, silence and solitude may be the foundational practice for living as our true selves; as beings who are innately confident, peaceful, openhearted, kind and generous. Without periods of and places for silence and solitude, it's difficult to connect with the essence of who we really are. In truth, we must desire inner calm more than chaos and create an environment and a routine that allows us to access it on a regular basis. 

Today, how might you create space and opportunity for yourself to be restored by silence and solitude?

​©2025, Janice L. Lundy

​There is no way to annihilate the ego, nor should we strive to. There is only one way to loosen its grip upon us, by tapping into the most powerful "virtue" of all, compassion. We can cultivate compassion for the ego because it is so insecure, rooted in fear; compassion for others because they are struggling with their egos just as we are; compassion for ourself because, in our humanness, we will fall prey to the ego again and again. It is inevitable that this will happen. The ego holds the blueprint for what it means to be a human being. We cannot exist in a body without it.
 
The practice of mindfulness can help us notice when the ego is present; we can see it clearly for what it is—an ego. The practice of compassion enables us to let go of any self-negating feelings we may have about getting "caught" or stuck in ego once again. Compassion invites us to love ourself as we are, then to aim higher so we make the wisest of choices.

​©2025, Janice L. Lundy

Do you ever wonder how you can be more compassionate? Sometimes we get firmly stuck in our intellect trying to reason out how. When we let the ruminating go—especially the "shoulds" of compassion—we can drop into a softer, more welcoming place within us.
 
Compassion carries a slight smile with it, so put one on. Compassion sees through lenses of love, so place an imaginary pair on your face and try to see others with kind eyes. Compassion feels through arms and hands, so reach out and touch someone. This is what is meant by embodied compassion—active gestures of connection instead of simply thinking about how.

Kindness is a practice of inclining the mind, of intention," writes Buddhist teacher Sharon Salzberg. Do you believe this to be true? It has been demonstrated that human beings are genetically programmed for kindness, yet it must be cultivated too. 

If you incline your mind—turn it, train it—to focus even more on kindness, it will magically respond. The more you are able to do this, to lean into kindness, the more often your natural response to others will be one of empathy, caring, and compassion. 
 
Kindness is a habit that begs to be grown in a world that is filled with challenges.

©2025, Janice L. Lundy

How fast do you walk and talk? Are you rushing through your day to get things done? Are you living by the clock? 
 
Rushing creates stress and stress creates tension, which creates more problems than we can name. Rushing also makes us miss the magic of the moment, including the joy of intimate conversation between friends and family. 
 
Consciously slow the pace of your day. Walk more slowly. Speak more slowly, more intentionally. Remind yourself to "Breathe, go slowly, and smile," as Zen monk, Thich Nhat Hanh advocates. Take time to smell the roses.

Are you being a “soul friend” today? Are you holding someone's hand, embracing his or her heart as a representative of divine presence in the world? 
 
In difficult times, we all need someone who can offer us unconditional kindness. Let us never forget that our extension of kindness and compassion serves as a mirror of the Ultimate. Let us offer it regularly and serve others unreservedly.

​©2024, Janice L. Lundy

One way you can to begin to live the core value of peace and kindness to all is to begin with yourself, specifically, by noticing your internal dialogue. How do you speak to yourself? Do you berate, judge or ridicule yourself? In truth, how you speak to yourself is either an act of self-care or an act of hostility. 
 
Speaking unkindly in this way sets us up to carry it forward by speaking carelessly to others. We perpetuate our inner hurt out into the world and others then suffer. 
 
Today, begin to speak to yourself as kindly as you would your own precious child. 

​©2024, Janice L. Lundy

Each of us is exactly where we are supposed to be right now, in a growth pattern that is uniquely our own, on a path that is ours and ours alone.

​We cannot compare our spiritual growth to anyone else's. Each is unique, fashioned with sacred purpose.

©Janice L. Lundy, 2024