Monday Musings: Opening Up to a New Week

Yellow flower (that's the technical name!), taken at Home Depot on Sat.

Good morning, lovely flowers!

Ahem, yes, I am talking to you…

It's Monday.

And that means a new week…

For me, I see the start of a week as a new opportunity to be intentional for how I want to be and what I will focus on.

For the focus on part, I do a self-summit each Sunday, a term I've adopted from Christine Kane, and plan out my week in advance.

For the how to be part, I adapt an idea I picked up from the excellent e-book Zen to Done by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits: I write a word or two mantra for how I want to be each day.

I see the how-to-be/mantra piece as being what I choose to open myself up to.

Sometimes I forget that I get to choose.

Right, right, I remind myself, I'm deciding how I will be in this moment.

And you get to decide, too.

This week, you could choose to open up to wonder. Or fun. Or peace. Or contentment.

There are a million choices to be made. But I suggest you choose the choice that makes your heart sing with delight.

Unless you are a sadist.

Then you could choose those drearily familiar choices of worry, pessimism, doubt, self-loathing, and negativity.

I've certainly chosen those in the past.

But they've never really served me — or made me feel very good.

So now I focus on choosing things that feel really good — and feel lin alignment with the nature of the universe.

The universe is always choosing expansion, blooming big, opening, growing, shining, and allowing.

And these are much, much better choices for me, too.

For myself this week, I am choosing to open myself up to flow.

It's the first of week of summer break with my daughter, and I'm seasoned enough as a mother to know that there is always some adjustment for both of us as we settle into a new routine.

So I am choosing flow. Flowing like a river, moving with ease and grace along the contours of this week, circling around any rocks and rippling along a current.

Flowing like a flower as it opens to bloom.

Tell me, what way of being do you choose to open up to and be this week?

Comments

[Carol Ross]

Thanks for this beautiful post, Shannon. I'm new to your blog and enjoying every photo and word. I can only describe the experience as yummy and nourishing!

So maybe that's what I choose for this week--yummy and nourishing.

[Shannon Jackson Arnold]

Thanks, Carol, for your kind words....
I love the intention of opening to…
yummy and nourishing…
this week.
Let me know what you discover!!
hugs,
Shannon