Today is the shortest day and longest night of the year. Around the globe many cultures celebrate this turning point from darkness to light.

It is Winter Solstice.

Especially this time of year I sense a beautiful expansive stillness emanating from within nature.

As we pause for a moment allowing our intellects a rest from the mental and forever changing chitter-chatter of our busy minds we see that this deeper stillness is a perfect reflection of who we truly are.

In stillness there lies a deeper Knowing easily forgotten when we innocently live our lives from within the self-made confines of our personal thinking.

In the darkest of darks there is always light. As we pause and all else falls away we see that we are that which lights up the world.

Perhaps it is time we stop talking and start listening.

What looks to you like it is 100% up to you, all of the time every time?

​You are not your thinking moving through your mind, like sticks and soft leaves in a gentle river.

You are not your thinking seemingly stuck on repeat like a heavy cloud covering the sky on a stormy day.

You are not the feelings, heavy nor light, that dance or stomp through you in perfect unison with each thought.

You are not your past experiences. What is experienced is thinking in the real time moment of Now.

You are not the sticky note labels you, others or society define you by - the list of labels being endless but none True…

If who you are, is not this, then who are you, in this moment?

Text: Trine Høhrmann, © 2021
Photo: Canva

There is tremendous power in hope. In fact it is a game changer in how we show up to ourselves and in the world. Hope is not the light at the end of the tunnel, but the light already shining brightly within the tunnel.

Today ask yourself “what am I grateful for?”

Let what wants to show up show up.

I notice that my best decisions are made from clarity and inner quiet, a deeper knowing if you will.

I notice time and time again that what is always holding me back from living the highest version of who I am is me innocently believing my personal thinking is Truth.

When in fact it can't be Truth. Truth is consistent. Truth is true 100% of the time all of the time. Whether I think I can or can't do something or who I think I am in any given moment is always changing, and therefor is not Truth.

The Truth - we are, by design, whole and intact. Like the sky. No matter the severity of the storm the sky remains clear and intact. The only thing that can take us away from knowing this? Innocently misunderstanding where our experience is coming from 100% of the time, every time. 

What if decisions where made, not from what you think about, but from what occurs  natural for you to do when you explore from an open mind and open heart?

All of it well-meaning, and I can't help but think that the motivation for the advice is an undiscovered belief that we as human beings are inherently broken and therefore in need of fixing, and that we as the ones struggling have to look for answers outside of us because we ourselves operate under an undiscovered belief that we are not Enough. That we do not already have within us the answers that will effortlessly remove the invisible mountain of our own hidden beliefs about who we are and what we can and can not do. ​That we are Enough.

And then I read something like this and I start laughing because I remember I am the awareness aware of thinking.

There is tremendous power in hope. It is a game changer in how we show up to and in the world. Hope is not the light at the end of the tunnel, but the light already shining brightly in you.

Today I feel moved to share a quote from psychiatrist Dr. Bill Pettit. My husband first heard this quote several years ago on Dr. Pettit's The Real Change live podcast series. My husband reads it to me when he knows I am on my way down the rabbit hole of less than helpful thinking, gently pointing me back to my well-of-being. My hope is you will read it, continue to read it, and share it with others.

Like all humans I experience times when my outlook feels dark and hopeless, and other times it feels bright and hopeful. It feels much like moving up and down different levels in an elevator. I spend time in the basement feeling all sorts of less-than feelings (less than hopeful, happy, calm, loving, patient...) and I see only what is not possible. I'm less kind to myself and less patience with others. As I move up a few or several levels I begin to feel brighter, lighter, happier, more hopeful and compassionate. I begin to see what was already possible. The movement up and down is outside my doing. It is how the system is designed to work. In every human being. That too is hopeful.

My hope is that you will hear something resonating within you in such a way that your mind clears and in turn hope arise to the surface brightening up your experience.

This is what my husband heard on the Real Change podcast series with psychiatrist Dr. Bill Pettit.

"Listen, this is not rocket science. Sometimes you're in your right mind, and sometimes you're not. And your right mind is your home, but you can think yourself away from it.

Now when you're there (away) and you want to get back home, it's really quite simple. 

Number one, when you're not there you're not very smart, so keep your mouth shut.

Number two, keep your hands to yourself. Don't throw anything, don't hit anything, or anybody.

Number three, leave your thinking alone until you feel better. Don't try do do anything with it, don't try to think positive, don't try to get rid of the feeling/thoughts, don't try to distract yourself. Just leave it the hell alone as best you can." ​Dr. Bill Pettit.

How lovely is that.

With love.

Trine