Early to Bed, Early to Rise – Is this the secret to Health, Wealth & Wisdom

Early to bed

Early to rise 

Makes a (wo)man healthy, wealthy and wise 

Benjamin Franklin

This is exactly what our creator had in mind when they finalised my factory settings!  

Few things make me happier than going to bed early + waking up early. It has definitely made me healthier and since good health is our true wealth, I’ll be the first to say thank you for being able to check the “wealth” box too (while I wait for the billions in the bank).  

As for being “wise”, I guess being able to recognise what I have in this moment is the real measure of wisdom for me.  

Am I wise enough to know that I don’t know?

Am I wise enough to know that every breath is a gift, every second in this body precious?

Am I wise enough to ask for help, change course, learn, stretch, surrender to both pleasure & pain?

Am I wise enough to never call myself wise

And, most importantly, 

Am I wise enough to know when a carefully timed double shot of Espresso is required because life is not linear and mine is no boarding school?

I’m learning.

I encourage you to be you, to share you, to celebrate you. Imagine how dull life would be if we all loved our orange juice with salt?

Lee 

I just love this little doodle my 8 year old did of me! He sure knows how much his mom loves her some Ed Sheeran “Bad Habits” in those mom jeans. As for the cute eyes, well…what can I say?

Some advice for kids…(of all ages).

Dear Kids

Whilst no parent has all the answers and whilst this mama is constantly, still learning, know this for sure:

1. You are never alone
2. Travel is the best teacher
3. “No” is a good word. Use it often. It’s particularly lovely when there’s a dead silence and you offer no explanations
4. “Please” and “thank you” never goes out of fashion
5. Water heals. Oceans. Tears. 2 litres a day
6. You have a built-built in “people” radar. Please listen to its beep beep beep when something feels offish
7. Sleep is medicine
8. Play, play, play. Never stop playing
9. Less sugar, less screen time, more grass, more laughs
10. God is inside you and no one one has a special hotline that you need to go through
11. Betrayal is painful. Nothing can prepare you for that kick in the groin
12. Go out and explore. You can always come home to cry
13. Try and remember who you were before the world started pinning its labels on you
14. Your body is beautiful. Exactly as is. Explore it. Admire it. Treat it right and it will reward you so much
15. No one knows it all
16. Blood makes you related. Loyalty makes you family
17. Believe in magic. Those who don’t, never find it
18. Your word is your honour. Do what you say you will. Always
19. A grateful heart is a magnet for miracles
20. Give freely. Of what you have. Of your time. And quietly please
21. No one likes a show-off
22. Learn to listen. To God’s voice in the early morning. To yourself. Certainly to people who you trust
23. Shortcuts never work
24. People will forget what you say but they will never forget how you made them FEEL. Be kind
25. Books, music, thunderstorms and tea are good for lonesome days
26. Abundance and prosperity are your birth right
27. Look beyond the labels of race and religion, gender and social standing. How people treat people from whom they need nothing is where you should focus your scoring and grading
28. Jealousy is when you count other people’s blessings instead of your own
29. Love does not need to hurt
30. Speak your truth. Even when your voice shakes
31. What sets your soul on fire? Go there
32. Learning is constant
33. Messing up is okay. Intentionally hurting someone never is
34. You teach people how to treat you
35. You may have one “true love” or many or even none. Remember that you are whole anyway
36. You have a story that only YOU can tell and you owe it to yourself (and no one else) to express that story in the world. Your way!

xoxo

Mama

Copyright of Lee Mayimele 2020 – First published 2017, All rights reserved

I’VE SPENT THE LAST 21 DAYS WITH OPRAH & DEEPAK CHOPRA

I’ve spent the last 21 days with Oprah and Deepak Chopra.

We meet 5am daily, just after I have had a coffee, when the world is still fresh and my heart open.  Our shared passion is HOPE IN UNCERTAIN TIMES.

Every day is the same.  Oprah goes first. She tells a short story of times when she lost hope or how hope guided her back home. My goosebumps tells me that I’ve been there too. I mean, we all have. Hope is what got me through many a bloody and painful day.  It still does.  Just recently, in fact, I have had dig deep in my drawer of compassion in order to deal with difficult individuals who I can only describe as malicious and deceitful.  HOPE is the muscle I used to frame a vision of them returning to the light one day.

Next, Deepak gets me ready to pray.  The sun is usually beginning to make its way up. We begin with a “centering thought”. My favourite has been “being at peace is my greatest strength”.   Deepak takes me through a preparation for meditation with a short lecture. We get comfy, accept a Sanskrit mantra, a bell goes off and we meditate together for about 20 minutes, after which the bell goes off again and we release the mantra.  

It has been incredible! The expanded awareness is lovely. The deep sense of connection to Spirit so comforting.

It is said that HOPE is the word inscribed into the heart of every human being.  Always a tomorrow. Always another day. Always!

Sometimes we just need a little reminding.

Lee

P.S. Here are the details of the mediation if you’re interested.

https://chopracentermeditation.com/experience#

A BIG SHIFT – AHA!

A couple of years ago, I sat at my desk, staring at a pile of papers for hours.  

I was required to do a recon of expenses for the company I was working for at the time, but because I had been running on empty for months, I just sat there unable to move. 

My doctor called it “adrenal fatigue and burnout” but I knew that there was more.  But, like so many a corporate animal, I limped along from one deadline to the next trying to prove that I was invincible when in fact the ground was giving way beneath my feet. 

I won’t tell you exactly how that chapter ended because you’ll have to wait to buy my second book. (SURPRISE SURPRISE! Yes, that’s what I’ve been doing all this time.  I’ve been writing.  Sorry if you’ve missed my weekly stories  I had to put my head down and focus.  I’ve also written about why I could not blog during this time of writing my book. It was a “spiritual” directive)

 

Back to the story of the ADRENAL FATIGUE,

Yes, I was drained by my work because it was not aligned to my PURPOSE.   I kept getting this nagging feeling that I had to make more time for my “inner work”.

Why couldn’t I just fast forward to the part where I get the new role in the new life I wanted?

Frustrated at first, I began to make time for what I believed to be the INNER WORK. Daily meditation, prayer, study, study.  I consulted with my guides, teachers, coaches, mentors and spent many hours in prayer and solitude.

Still, something was missing.  Until one morning, just as I stepped out of my cold shower (Get your mind out of the gutter! I’ve been taking cold showers for over 20 years for their circulation and immune boosting benefits!)

Ahaaaaa!  I felt a voice say in answer to my repeated question about how to inject more purpose and magic into my life in order to grow and prosper.  The answer was quite simple:  PLAY! LAUGH! DANCE! CONNECT! 

That’s it, I thought. That’s exactly what was missing.  Those words described me so well but why was I not committing to those things in the same way as I was to the other “important” things in my life?

Exactly!  Following my BLISS is now my “inner work” and I am very committed to it.  

Perhaps I can tempt you to join me?

 

xoxo

Lee

 

A Monday “Accident”

After a rush to get the kids off to school, I grabbed my diary off my bookshelf and rushed out of the front door in my white Converse.

 

I sat down at my corner spot at my local coffee shop, pulled out my notebook and turned to November.  Damn! Wrong notebook. Many years old.

 

I flipped through it and I looked at the words. 

 

List after list

Chest pains

Deadline after deadline 

Anxiety

 

Stress

More words

More deadlines

More stress

 

I recalled it all. 

 

I must tell you though, the coolest feeling in the entire world was as I realised that all that was in the past. 

 

…and that the crap we stress about today, will also just be old words and old memories in scruffy notebooks one day too. 

 

Shucks, that’s a lovely feeling! Don’t you think?

 

 

© Lee Mayimele

 

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Where we don’t know the origin of the pics used, all respect and due credit are hereby given where appropriate. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Lee-Ann Mayimele and A Heart Full of Stories with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. All media rights and copyright for the words reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shine your WEIRDO LIGHT bright (A short Soul-Sunday reflection on being YOU)

My HEART had a massage this week.

 

Someone described me by saying “She gets PEOPLE fatigue” (describing my way of engaging fully socially and then clandestinely retreating back to my own space and pace).

 

Game changer. Bloody damn GAME CHANGER!

 

It’s one thing to know something about ourselves. It’s another to know that someone else GETS it!

 

I mean, isn’t that what we all want? A gentle voice mirroring back to us those beautiful words “it’s okay”.

 

Okay to be weird

Okay to different

Okay to go at a pace that isn’t exactly textbook, but a pace that feels right just for us?

 

I must tell you, it’s just lovely.

Just so lovely when one heart bows to another in a simple Namaste-style salute that says “You’re weird. But, gosh, so are all of us!”

 

 

© Aluta continua, as they say.  A Heart Full of Stories, 2017

The Power of ART to touch the HEART

I was drawn to a lady.

 

I saw her in the window. Not in an Amsterdam Red Light District kind of way. No, it was a statue of a lady to be exact and she was beautiful with the aura of a wise old soul.

 

I wasn’t sure if she was for sale, but I followed my instinct and went inside.  Aha, I thought, I am a genius! My friend’s 40^th birthday was coming up, and although I was more than one month early, I was sorted. I could tick her gift off my list.

 

After she became mine, the lady stayed in my car for a day or two. Then I moved her to the office. She looked happy.

 

When we closed for the Christmas holidays, I moved her back to my car.  She didn’t seem to mind that either.

 

But it was only until I mounted her in the perfect spot in my home (okay, this is still sounding Red Light-ish), that she really seemed to come alive.  What a magnificent piece of art she was, revealing her essence slowly and seductively, ever so subtly like a Picasso may have done.

 

My fascination with the lady grew each day. I noticed she was holding her hands together, palms up, as though she was either offering or accepting something.  I loved that I didn’t know which it was and that I still needed to find out exactly what she was up to.  The mystery intoxicated me.

 

Days went by, and she was still mounted.  I justified her hanging to myself by saying “It needs to stay out of the way of the kids” but God knows, I was planning a coup. Her spell was cast and there was no way I could entertain the thought of parting ways. Not yet.

 

When my friend came around after her holidays, I was so delighted to see her.  She brought spices and spices make my heart sing.

 

While I was opening the wine, my daughter stormed into the kitchen and said “Mama is soooo mad, you know!?”

 

The holidays had been long and I must say, the manners-barometer was shaky.

 

My friend played along, “Yes, darling. Why is your mama so mad?”

 

“Well, you see that” she said pointing to the lady.  My heart pounded hard. “Well, she bought that for yourrrrrrrrrr birthday surprise, but now she says it’s hers and you are getting a…..” 

 

My reaction was swift.

 

I said “Damn kids of today!” and rolled my eyes.

 

© A Heart Full of Stories, 2015.

 

P.S. The lady remains in my care. And the mystery of whether she is giving or receiving or doing both is still driving me mad. (Again, no PG 21 SVNL tones whatsoever are intended by that statement)

 

COPYRIGHT:

Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Lee-Ann Mayimele and www.aheartfullofstories.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.