ARE WE AWAKE?  Are we Conscious ? Yes YOU, ME, US?! Are we conscious of what we are doing here? Are we consciously thinking about how the thoughts we are having right now are influencing our lives? Are we taking responsibility for playing the parts we are playing in the “big picture” and the effect it is having on the world around us? If not… let us take reclaim our power and make a decision to put ourselves in check when need be (which is probably right now) because, a very honest reality check is the real payday!

Humans frequently get stuck in so many fucking cliches and we perpetuate generalized cliches by actually starting to believe them, own them and take them on as our own— so many irrelevant words… we use to excuse ourselves from being productive. So, let’s analyze some of them & how they don’t serve us or the greater good:

“My back is up against a wall”
“Opportunity doesn’t knock twice”
“Haven’t got a penny to my name”
“First things First”
“Fish or cut bait”
“Jack of all trades, Master of none”
“Curiosity killed the cat”
“My hands are tied”
“Same song and dance”
“Life’s a bitch and then you die”
“Passion doesn’t pay my bills”

And, my all time favorite: “Happiness is easier said than done”

Is it though? Is it genuinely easier to be unhappy? Doesn’t it take just as much (or more) energy doing things we don’t like doing versus devoting energy to figuring out what it is we really want to be spending our lives doing, and just deciding “Hey, I’m gonna do those things!”

What reality are we creating right now, today? If the answer is anything less than what is desired how about we go on and… fix it. Yea, let’s learn to stop the repeating and just choose to press “Shift” instead.

Peace of Mind vs. Rest in Peace:

So, what is the end game here? Have we clarified exactly what we want out of this life and how best to pursue every opportunity we get to live another day? Why live in hopes to one day “Rest in Peace” when we could choose to Live in peace right now?

“Peace of mind is not a goal I need achieve. it’s a place inside I never want to leave. Close my eyes, I still my thoughts and then I say I will choose to live in peace today.” -Robert Alan

So, what will your tagline be?

“(Insert Your Name Here),  made life as “easy” as possible, Winning, Game Over!”

“(Insert Your Name Here), Lived an Average Life, Waa-Waa, So there… “

” (Insert Your Name Here), Was Debt-Free, Yippie, Be envious… “

“(Insert Your Name Here) Never quite fully Pursued their Passions, Tune in next time, Meh…”

What is your Existential Attitude?

If we aren’t sure yet, we can tune into our inner Watts and ask… “What do I desire?”

“I always ask the question: What would you like to do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life? Well, it’s so amazing as a result of our educational system crowds of students say “Well, we’d like to be painters, we’d like to be poets, we’d like to be writers but, as everybody knows you can’t earn any money that way.” When we finally got down to something which the individual says he really wants to do, I will say to him… you do that.” -Watts

“And, uh, forget the money. Because, if you say that getting the money is the most important thing you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing, which is stupid.”

“Better to have a short life, that is full of what you like doing, then a long life spent in a miserable way. And, after all, if you do really like what you are doing it doesn’t matter what it is you can eventually become a master of it. It is absolutely stupid to spend your time doing things you don’t like in order to go on spending things you don’t like, doing things you don’t like, and to teach your children to follow in the same track. Therefore, it’s so important to consider this question: What do I desire?” -Alan Watts

CULTIVATE YOUR CREATIVE SELF NOW. Because if not now, when?

Let’s talk about Self-Love, baby!

The western world has conditioned us to believe that if we take honest time to care for ourselves, we are self-centered. If we decide to do what we love regardless of how much money it promises we are reckless and/or if we put our own needs first, we are selfish. This is all bullshit. There is absolutely nothing wrong with centering and/or taking time to tend to our-self and truly accepting what it is that we want in life. We can’t possibly lift those around us if we are not lifting ourselves, personally and professionally…

“In order to give of yourself to others, you must first have something to give. So enjoy life. Have fun. Indulge yourself. Be good to yourself. How can you hope to bring happiness to others, if you are not happy?” -Ralph Marston

Self Exploration is vital to the pursuit of happiness and our ability to affect others in positive ways.  If we do not have the courage to crack open our hearts, to be fully present and vulnerable with ourselves and let that love grow, the love we pour into others will be hollow. No-one will never know us in the deepest way, if we don’t first learn to know ourselves. No-one can ever love us in the richest way  unless we learn to feel what it is like to love ourselves . They just can’t possibly, no matter how wonderful they are, unless we allow it.

So, just do it. Take time to do YOU! As the airline manual instructs: “Put on your own oxygen mask before helping those around you” The beautiful irony is that once we do this, we will feel more able and willing to extend that power source into the world around us— totally unconditionally because we are no longer dependent on it and the world needs a little less co-dependency and a whole lot more open hearts…

INSPIRE=BE INSPIRED

Step 1: Love yourself.
Step 2: Love those around you, as yourself.
Step 3: Repeat (with more Love)

Need Inspiration? Well… here’s some…

“Everybody has got 5.5 liters of blood. I am just a human being. For me everybody is the same. There are thousands and thousands of people suffering. What is the ultimate purpose of life? It’s to give. Start giving. See the joy of giving.” -Narayanan Krishnan

“Food is one part. Love is another part. I cut their hair, I give them a shave, I give them bath. For them, to feel psychologically that they are also human beings, there are people to care for them, they have a hand to hold, hope to live. So, the food will give them physical nutrition. The love and affection which you show, will give them mental nutrition.”

I have found a lot of clarity working with “Perspective Exercises”. One focuses on the past and one on the future but, both seek to clarify our current life experience and how we can go about improving our quality of life…

1. Write a letter to your 80 year old self: Write an in depth letter of the things you feel most fulfilled from having experienced in this life as well as all of the things you wish you had done. Acknowledge where you may be guided by fear and where you seem willing to surrender to the truest version of yourself. Sit patiently with this laundry list– it has potential to reflect some very powerful clarity— such as… where in life you have been manifesting growth and where you may have been blocking it– yourself.

2. Discuss life with the 4-year-old version of yourself: Check in with your inner child, they are eager to respond to how you are dealing with adult life. They actually have pretty impressive things to say about fear and insecurity if you actually choose to listen. I find that having regular check ins with “Little Gina” helps to put a lot of unneccisary “adult” stress into perspective. What advice might my child-self have for my adult- self, and how can i utilize that in my current situation?  What would “Little Gina” say about how I am honoring (or dishonoring) myself and how best to start re-remembering the joy of being alive?

Avoid Complaining and Avoid Comparing. I heard this the other day and I thought about it some more and realized shit…  that’s a couple of damn-good strategies to increasing overall joy and decreasing the yucky stuff that gets in the way of that overall joy…

1. Avoid Complaining:
When we complain we often blame and in doing so we avoid taking responsibility for where we are right now. This is unfair to those around us and it ultimately stunts our emotional/spiritual growth. Let’s start making healthier mental choices in dealing with our challenges.

2. Avoid Comparing:
When we compare– we are at odds. You versus I rather than You AND I. But, we are all so alike in many ways — where we differ, we can learn to appreciate. By comparing how our lives are progressing by playing the comparison game, creates an atmosphere of devastation. The truth is, we are all moving at a different pace and in different directions. How we are getting wherever our “there” is always going to look different. Once we recognize that, we give space to live in accordance with our true path and open the door to realizing the beauty in appreciating the importance of our different paths– to the benefit of the whole-fricken-universal-good.

And…If I may add a third step to this strategy…

3. Avoid Average:
Move out of the mundane- “Let this be an average day to match my average attitude”. When we stunt our idealistic nature and forget to regularly exercise our imagination- we find insurmountable creative blockages. And these hindrances have only one manifestation- to fester in the core of our being. They create agitated, angry, impulsive, depressed, lackluster humans. And this kind of mentality runs rampant robbing us of our of all the deliciousness our lives have to offer, that could be ours, right now!

True Happiness isn’t a matter of You and I. It is a matter of US. Your happiness is my happiness- and likewise. That is why I wrote this post. I am inspired by divine humans daily… and I seek to share that inspiration with those around me. It is the fullest most complete version of living for me… I want you to feel my love and see through my eyes the depth of my happiness. I want to feel your love, and I want to see in your eyes- a happy human. Let’s all do our part to remember what happy feels like… for the betterment of all hearts, combined. And give ourselves the honor of having amazing taglines to go along with the amazing lives we chose to live…

Gina Rizzo Bishop

“Gypsy at heart. Student of life. Loved to Love. Lived to Be- Eternally Present.” 1/20/84 — the here and now

Do not stand at my grave and weep,

I am not there; I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,

I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sun on ripened grain,

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circling flight.

I am the soft star-shine at night.

Do no stand at my grave and cry,

I am not there; I did not die. -Mary Elizabeth Frye (1932)

Namaste.