Newsletters

May 2021 Oasis Odyssey

by Leslie Ackles

Losing Your Marbles?


"Our intention creates our reality."
-Wayne Dyer

Spring is here! We celebrated Easter with some of our grandchildren! We got our vaccines and many others in our family on getting theirs. We are moving into a new phase of the pandemic and there are times I am excited and exhilarated and other times that I am anxious and unsure. What is okay for me to do? What do I want to do? How do I want to live going forward?

I know as I move into my post vaccinated world I don't want to go back to the way I lived my life before the pandemic. I want to move forward differently. I want to choose how I want to live my life. I want to live with a new intention, and with a new mindset. I want to take stock of my life and choose my next steps very deliberately.

  • How do you want to live in a post vaccine world? post pandemic world?

I decided that I wanted to embrace the spaciousness that I discovered in lock down. I do not want to go back to the busyness of prepandemic times. I realized that in the past I sometimes made decisions just to be busy!

So I was reading Maria Shriver's Sunday Paper and she suggested an activity to help making decisions based on my new intention as I step into my new life. I will put a marble in a jar at the end of each day based on whether or not I lived my intention that day. This will really force me to pay attention to the decisions I make each day on how to spend my time.

I started the exercise and I can say that this living in a new way is HARD! The world is opening up and it is HARD not to slip back into my old way of living which means being super busy. I didn't get a marble one day because I let a glitch on my website basically hijack my whole day. It didn't have to be solved that day but I immediately pounced on it and ran with it. OOPS! Yesterday I said to my husband my urge to add another project was so strong it was almost impossible to withstand. But I did and I ended up with a lovely day of planned errands and tasks, a walk in the sun and reading a book. I ended the day with a smile and a marble!

"I haven't lost all my marbles but there's definitely a hole in the bag!" - anonymous

So how many marbles will be in your jar? Will you have a hole in your bag?
  • What do you want to embrace?
  • What do you want to leave behind?
  • What will be your intention, your source of meaning?

Will you join me in the Marble Intentions Exercise?

Asking yourself: Did I earn a marble today?

My Blessing for You:
May you step into your new intention
May you embrace your new life

May 2021 Oasis Odyssey

by Leslie Ackles

Losing Your Marbles?


"Our intention creates our reality."
-Wayne Dyer

Spring is here! We celebrated Easter with some of our grandchildren! We got our vaccines and many others in our family on getting theirs. We are moving into a new phase of the pandemic and there are times I am excited and exhilarated and other times that I am anxious and unsure. What is okay for me to do? What do I want to do? How do I want to live going forward?

I know as I move into my post vaccinated world I don't want to go back to the way I lived my life before the pandemic. I want to move forward differently. I want to choose how I want to live my life. I want to live with a new intention, and with a new mindset. I want to take stock of my life and choose my next steps very deliberately.

  • How do you want to live in a post vaccine world? post pandemic world?

 

I decided that I wanted to embrace the spaciousness that I discovered in lock down. I do not want to go back to the busyness of prepandemic times. I realized that in the past I sometimes made decisions just to be busy!


So I was reading Maria Shriver's Sunday Paper and she suggested an activity to help making decisions based on my new intention as I step into my new life. I will put a marble in a jar at the end of each day based on whether or not I lived my intention that day. This will really force me to pay attention to the decisions I make each day on how to spend my time.

I started the exercise and I can say that this living in a new way is HARD! The world is opening up and it is HARD not to slip back into my old way of living which means being super busy. I didn't get a marble one day because I let a glitch on my website basically hijack my whole day. It didn't have to be solved that day but I immediately pounced on it and ran with it. OOPS! Yesterday I said to my husband my urge to add another project was so strong it was almost impossible to withstand. But I did and I ended up with a lovely day of planned errands and tasks, a walk in the sun and reading a book. I ended the day with a smile and a marble!

"I haven't lost all my marbles but there's definitely a hole in the bag!" - anonymous

So how many marbles will be in your jar? Will you have a hole in your bag?
  • What do you want to embrace?
  • What do you want to leave behind?
  • What will be your intention, your source of meaning?

Will you join me in the Marble Intentions Exercise?

Asking yourself: Did I earn a marble today?

My Blessing for You:
May you step into your new intention
May you embrace your new life

March 2021 Oasis Odyssey

by Leslie Ackles

Peaceful Pause: Relaxation Response

 

"We must think over and over the kind of thoughts
we wish to dominate our lives."
-Henry David Thoreau

Take a deep breath ....and another..... inhale and exhale calm and ease...... Breath in this moment, this moment of peace. Step away from the news, anxiety, stress and take a breath with me.

My blessing for you:
May you feel one moment of peace.
May you know that you are not alone.

This will end. There is hope. We are in this together.

January 2021 Oasis Odyssey

by Leslie Ackles

Magical Thinking

 

"What if the resolution you make
is to love yourself more?"
-Cheryl Richardson

This year I especially needed a pick me up after our crazy stress filled November so I insisted that we put up our Christmas decorations BEFORE Thanksgiving. It was a hard and fast rule in our household that Christmas decorations did not go up before Thanksgiving. I felt the need for light, beauty and joy and wanted to bring it indoors to savor NOW.

Fast forward to the week after Christmas. What is up with me wanting to take down the Christmas decorations? Why don't I want them up into January for that light and joy? I hear that so many others are leaving them up. Why not me? Well, I finally realized that this was Magical Thinking on my part:
"If I take down the Christmas decorations now then 2021 will come sooner!"

And this pandemic year will finally be over.

There are several issues with this way of thinking:
  • Yes, we hope the pandemic will be over in 2021 but we still have months to go before everyone is vaccinated.
  • AND, taking down the decorations actually is not related to how quickly gets here.

 

I decided I needed to do something for myself to not just survive these next months but to thrive and feel joy, love, light.

The result is that I am going to create a weekly video series: Peace Pause. These will be 2 - 3 minute videos on Facebook and via this Blog to bring a feeling of peace into your life if only for just a moment. Step away from the news, anxiety, stress and take a breath with me.

My blessing for you:
May you know that you are not alone.
May you feel the light of hope in your soul.

This will end. There is hope. We are in this together.