Life Priorities

When people move on from their physical life, we don’t remember their possessions: the things they had and owned.

We remember who they were; what they gave to us and others in terms of an uplifted feeling. It may have come through the vibrancy of their character, or the quality of their talent.

It is the person we love and hold eternally in our hearts, not their stuff.

Yet in our own lives, we obsess over gaining material wealth. We convince ourselves we ‘need’ far more than we actually do.

It is all so transient, anyway. It occurs to me that the people we love and admire, whose inspiring words we quote and deeds we desire to emulate, are often the people who own(ed) next to nothing. They were valued for their spirit and their actions.

These are our mentors, our role models, our most beloved and respected. It makes sense to shift our own personal focus from chasing money, cars, big houses and fashion statements – to being the full-on amazing person we truly are at our core.

Let’s present this Self up front and foremost.

Setting this as our top priority makes us truly rich. This is the way a single individual can illuminate the whole world.

Life Priorities © November 22, 2015 | Annie Zalezsak

Advertisement

Life is About Creating Yourself

Are we all born as a blank canvas?

It doesn’t matter. We create and re-create ourselves over and over as we go through life. I know that I have wanted to, on many occasions, re-invent myself, change my life, write a new story.

I am a work in progress. I have no idea what it will look like in the end, but I am intending it to be a masterpiece. My life may be like an abstract painting that causes viewers to raise an eyebrow or screw up their face in confusion or shake their head in disbelief.

But it’s my palette, my choice of media, my relevant colours.

I assert my right to splash and splatter the paint in any fashion that feels most ‘me’. I will not be to everyone’s taste and that’s okay. It’s more than okay. It demonstrates my unique, one-of-a-kind-ness. I do not want my life to be a carbon copy of another’s. I do not want to be remembered by my photographs alone. I want to create an impact, a movement that will spiral upward and beyond my earth years.

Creation is an immense power we humans have. I intend to use mine fully, daily, in every way I possibly can.

How about you?

Life is About Creating Yourself © March 3, 2014 | Annie Zalezsak

Inspiring Quotes

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a blog on Clarity Tribe. Instead, I’ve been focusing on building a Clarity Tribe Facebook page where I’ve been posting photos with inspiring quotes, like this one:

You can “like” the Clarity Tribe Facebook page and receive all new inspiring quotes in your Facebook newsfeed.

I’ve also just recently started a similar Clarity Tribe board on Pinterest.

Thank you for your support!

Update 21 April 2012:
These quotes are now also on the Inspiration page!

Ignorance is NOT bliss!

I remember growing up and using reading to cut out what was going on around me: noise, rowing, fighting, fear of not having enough food or money. It was easy to do this and it felt safe. I could and did ignore the truth of what my life was about. It was too painful to accept and I didn’t want it to be like this… to believe that life was painful and that it hurt… a lot!

So I ignored it. I chose to put my sights on somewhere and something else and concentrate on that. Making a picture that wasn’t whole somehow fit into a dream of mine.

That is how it was for many years until I SAW what I had been doing! Many of us today are doing the same thing. We can see what is going on around us, but we are not truly SEEing. We do not want to admit what we have helped to create in this world of ours. For whatever reason that is specific to us as individuals, we do not want to accept violence, hate, resentment or any other of these feelings, fear or beliefs we carry inside of us. We feel that it is not right to get angry or be afraid. Yet we watch those close to us doing this very thing. Not only this; we ‘feel’ the energy of their emotions but are unable to articulate them. We hold them inside of every cell in our being. Before we can make the changes needed in this world of ours today, we have to ACCEPT that things aren’t right. How can we make any real and lasting changes if we cannot accept that which needs to change? Surely we will create more ignorance, not love and light?

Stepping Stones

We try to control our lives. With every choice we make, we agonize over what will be the best. We’ll imagine entire scenarios well into the future, filled with hazards and mistakes. Likewise, we may picture unreasonably fantastic success. Either way, the likelihood is, it won’t pan out anything like you fear or hope for.

So, we straddle the stepping stones. We keep one foot here, as we step there, and don’t commit to either. Just in case. We can’t let go of the past, for fear of the unknown future. Yet we bounce between the two, back and forth, and forget to live in the Now.

There are so many influencing factors that we simply don’t have to hand right now, and therefore we can’t calculate into the equation. Try as we might, there is no right or wrong about any of it. We have to take the next step. Trust that the next bit of information we need to take the following step will be presented to us. And then we can take the next step after that.

Planning, setting goals, and making the ‘right’ choices in advance is like trying to predict the lottery. Imagine trying to select the winning numbers as if your life depended on it. How stressful would that be? It’s an impossible task. Similarly, trying to predict our future, or what is the best decision, is pretty much futile. We actually don’t know how it will turn out.

We just have to decide. Take action. And build life step-by-step, trusting that each stepping stone will ultimately take us to a good place. And enjoy every stepping stone along the way!

Stepping Stones © September 14, 2011 | Annie Zalezsak

Let go to enjoy the ride!

For many years I have been following my ‘spiritual’ path, always looking for the meaning in everything inside and outside of myself. It has kept me very busy and I have learnt much about myself and the world in general. It has kept me company when I have been alone, like a companion who has so much in common with you and who cares about you. It has become a comfort!

However, that ‘comfort’ had also become a drag. So much time spent ‘looking’ that at times I missed such beautiful experiences that were with me right there and then. It had become another form of attachment, almost like a dark cloud hanging over me. Such a heaviness I carried, believing it to be part of the journey, part of the learnng experience. I became heavy, my conversations became heavy… I thought that this was how it should be on this spiritual path.

But today, lying in my glorious garden in the morning sun and listening to the birds and a family member singing in the bathroom, I realised that I need to let go of all the looking and the lessons. I need to let go of the heaviness and meanings.

After all, Life is just… life. It is meant to be lived, not sought. And so today, I have let go so that I can indeed enjoy the ride — the ride that this life actually is — fun, exhilerating and full of wonderful moments. Perfect!

Popcorn Trails

As we live each day, situations arise and people cross our paths. Each one has an impact (if only subtle). Some, we’ll ignore to a large degree; others will positively influence us toward a new direction.

It’s like a popcorn trail: as we pick up a kernel, it leads to the next, and then the next. At some point, we discover we’re in a completely new place, with an entirely different view on where we’ve been, and where we’re headed.

Life has a way of guiding us like this. Call it intuition.

Do you follow popcorn trails?

Popcorn Trails © June 4, 2011 | Annie Zalezsak

Master of Your Destiny

No one else can live your life. You are the Captain of your ship, the Master of your destiny. Before you set sail, be sure you know where you are heading. Plot your course accordingly, even if you can’t see it, it is there just on the horizon. Even when you have no energy for things, you have energy… you cannot not have it, you would be dead otherwise. Perhaps you are already dead… dead to the old way of being, and if this is so, say “goodbye” and dream a new dream, a new life. For after all, no one else can dream your dream, or live your life. It is in your hands… so go now, go grab it with a blind faith in yourself that all will be well!!!

Knowing and Walking

Knowledge is somewhat subjective. We could just say it’s all thought. Let’s suspend the analysis for a moment and presume there is a kind of supreme knowledge that is the ultimate truth of life. Let’s presume we have been enlightened to that knowledge: we know what it’s all about, what we’re here to do, how it all works. What then?

There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
— Morpheus, in the film, The Matrix

 We may ‘know’ what the path is. Are we walking that path?

To know but not to do is not yet to know.
— Zen proverb

A life coach might say: take action! Yet, there are ideas (excuses?) around ‘divine timing’ and ‘allowing’ for the Universe to deliver ‘this, or something better’. We may ‘sit still’, wait to be ‘guided’ or ‘meditate on it’. We may be looking for the ‘flow’, the ‘signs’, or following our ‘intuition’.

It seems to me that thinking, believing and even knowing is not enough.
Walking. Therein lies Reality.

Walking involves Being, with every cell of the body, heart and soul, fully committed to something. It does not even matter what that ‘something’ is. What matters is full and complete engagement.

Until we Walk, do we really Know? Do we really Live?

Knowing and Walking © May 8, 2011 | Annie Zalezsak

Becoming a Modern Nomad

I am a restless soul. Every moment of every day of my life must count for something, mean something, or I get very restless. I need to be where I am needed most; where I am nourished most. It’s a great big world out there. Why settle in one spot, decay and rot, in the name of putting down roots? We’re not trees. Humans have legs that are made for walking.

It took me many, many years to accept my nomadic self. The excuse to move has always been for work experience, a career move, more affordable cost of living. The truth is, my feet itch, my spirit yearns for renewal of Self, of fresh eyes, new perspectives, greater awareness, expanded possibilities. The traditional: own a home, have a family, get the latest devices everyone else has, while ‘nice’, has never been a motivation for me. In fact, once I acquire a certain amount of material possessions, there is a point at which it feels so burdensome, I need to get rid of it entirely. This is true to some degree of places I live, and even people (if they are stagnant in their own lives).

I used to be hard on myself about this. Like, it’s wrong. Like, I should be settled and own a home at my age. I should stick with my job because who’s going to give me another when fresh blood is so bountiful? But, this is my life, and I’m going to do it my way, and the consequences may not actually be so bad from my point of view. To some, the worst thing in the world may be to have nothing. But imagine the freedom!

The tribal way was nomadic. If a place no longer served, the community got up and shifted elsewhere. At a time when there were no borders, where instincts and intuition were followed, when shamans led and the people trusted, this is the innate natural behaviour of the human being on earth. Modern society is so fixated on ownership, on insurance, on legal boundaries – all oppressive fear-inducing tactics – resulting in depression, stuckness, and suicide (of spirit, if not body). For me, this kind of life is something I no longer accept.

It wasn’t until I fully accepted the possibility that I could become homeless, penniless, jobless and wind up with nothing – that I could begin to let go of all my possessions to free myself entirely of their responsibility, so I could be true to the wandering spirit that I am and live as a modern nomad. It is getting to a place of Fearlessness of the Unknown.

As I shed the excess baggage I’ve accumulated, I remain open to any and all possibilities that come my way. Open to learning, being, becoming, evolving.

Is there any other way to live? For me, this is the best way to live!

Becoming a Modern Nomad © March 16, 2011 | Annie Zalezsak