May Scribe - 18.05.08

Simple disciplines...

What are simple disciplines? They are simple things you repeat over and over. Brushing your teeth is a simple discipline. We all do it (hopefully) and yet it is still a choice we make each and every day. Is it a conscious choice? Probably not, most of us have been doing it for so long now it has become part of who we are and how we begin each and every day. That's how it is with simple disciplines. Actions repeated over and over that bring about a positive or negative result. Brushing our teeth is a positive action, not only do we benefit, but those around us definitely benefit as well.

Let us look at a negative action. Cigarette smoking. We all know having one cigarette causes no harm at all. However, one cigarette followed by another and another and then years of this same thing becomes a simple discipline that we do consciously (or not) which mostly causes harm to our body. Our body can cope with having one cigarette. In fact, it can probably cope with many cigarettes before it starts to break down. It's having it repeated every day, every hour, every week for years upon years that we now know causes all sorts of roll on affects throughout our body. Now, this is not a teaching about cigarette smoking - it is merely to demonstrate the power of doing one thing over and over and over and over again.

Let's now take a positive example. Walking. We all know walking is good for us. We all know that spending 30 minutes every day walking will greatly assist our health. Walking once won't greatly improve anything. Sure, we might feel good that we have taken some action and we have increased the oxygen flow into our body on the day we do it. Imagine how good it is for us if we get up every single day and begin our day with a 30 minute walk. The domino effect this has across our entire life is outstanding. Just one simple action will give us more energy, less stress and we will feel more relaxed. Where once we had stagnation - now there is movement. This simple discipline can have such an amazing effect right through our life and yes, it truly is that simple.

Giving to yourself is really an important daily discipline to take on. The reason, when we fly, that we are told to fit our oxygen mask before we place one on our children is because we are of no use to them if we are not breathing. And so it is across all of life. To be there for anyone else in life, we first need to be there for ourselves.

Our body, mind and soul needs fuel. Just as our car needs fuel in order for us to go places. Our body needs food and water, our mind needs down time and stimulation and our soul needs to be connected and re-charged in order for us to function in life.

Imagine if we only nourished our body once, we wouldn't go very far in life would we? Imagine if we only learnt one thing to exercise our mind...well, now that just wouldn't work either. And..imagine if we only ever gave to our spirit once...ahhh....now that wouldn't lead to much of a life either. It's important to give to all of these areas, constantly.

Just as our mobile phone doesn't work if we don't 'plug it in' every now and then - neither do we. Now, instead of running ourselves totally out before we 'plug ourselves in', imagine that we just did a little bit each day to keep ourselves topped up.

Imagine that we were always conscious of the choices we made and did so knowing how important it was to our overall life.

Then, when life throws us a curve ball (as it often does), we would have the necessary energy within us to handle it. We wouldn't have to get sick, stay awake all night worrying or feel heavy and despondent, we would just deal with it. We would have plenty 'in the tank' which would help us to do whatever was required of us without causing us too much stress or pain.

If we ran our phone down to no charge at all and then needed to make an urgent call to someone, we would find ourselves in a spot of bother because our mobile just wouldn't work. We are the same. We need fuel. We need a constant and consistent supply of good fuel. Just as our car would not run very well with salt water in its tank, we too need good fuel in 'our tank' in order to do what we need to do.

There are lots of ways to fuel our body, mind and soul and mostly they can be interchanged - here are some I use:

Body	Mind	Soul
Healthy food Good oxygenated water Breathing deeply Exercise Rest Meditation Massage Manicures Pedicures Sleep Supplements Pampering Dancing	All types of puzzles Movies Television Watching sports Reading Breathing Sleep Study Research Writing Meditation Goal setting Playing games	Music Prayer Deep breathing Dreaming Play Touch Giving Meditation Quality time with loved ones Laughter Rest Spiritual teachings Dancing

Doing any of these once helps us for that moment - that day maybe. Including them in our day, every day, gives us the 'right' fuel to help us create an extraordinary life. Isn't that what we all deserve?

In closing, I'd like to say that we all know this 'stuff'. I am not telling any of you anything you don't already know. So why don't we do it? ...Because it's easy NOT to do it. Aha....it is also easy TO do it - all just a matter of perspective - that's all. If your life suddenly depended upon it - I ask you...how easy would it be then?

Well...YOUR life, and the quality of it, does depend on you taking responsibility for your Mind, Body and Soul - so it gets back to choice. We always have a choice. What will YOU choose?

Thank you for taking a moment to connect with this month's scribe. I truly hope it has been helpful. I would also like to take this opportunity to send blessings to Jeff Olson for his book called 'Slight Edge' which is where I learnt about 'simple disciplines' - thanks Jeff!

Much love, many blessings. Julianne xxx