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Everyone searches for and finds his or her own identity through a wide variety of experiences and expressions.  

Often a system of personal symbols can express that identity. A symbol is a term, a name or an image that contains specific associations in addition to its obvious everyday meaning.  For example, a rainbow can be a symbol for joy and hope of good things to come.

When we start to become more aware of personal symbols that influence us, we activate another avenue to look into our selves and become more aware of how we construct meaning in our life. A personal symbol will alert you to do something about your present condition; it will give direction to your life

How do I find my personal symbol? 

Sit quietly each day for a period of a few days. Reflect or journal questions such as: What is the new belief, goal, skills, behaviour, or routine I wish to establish? Is there something I want to let go of?  What is the feeling I prefer to have about myself at this time? What spiritual truth could inspire me right now?

Be alert to the nature and appearance of symbols 

Symbols often occur spontaneously in dreams and also crop up as symbolic thoughts, acts and even situations. Much of our perception of reality goes on at a subconscious level because we are so bombarded with stimuli all the time wecannot possibly register them all. Sometimes these events well up from the subconscious later on, through a moment of intuition or in a dream, and we realise they hold emotional significance for us. The psyche produces stories and themes cased in symbols like a plant produces flowers, not always presenting them in a storyline that makes sense, until we start to dig for the meaning.

Sometimes, inanimate objects are involved in symbolic events - for example, the clock that symbolically stops when someone dies.

Culture of origin and individual life experience combine to make the meaning of asymbol uniquely different for individuals. Many symbols are meaningful not just for the individual, but are collective. These are often religious symbols, such as the cross for Christianity. Animals and other elements of nature are often adopted as symbols. For example, the lion is widely accepted as a symbol of courage while the red rose stands for love.

The meaning of a symbol is not fixed and is often multidimensional. It develops overtime. It may lose or gain additional meanings in different social conditions andchanging states of the natural world. For example, the swastika was once a sign ofbeneficial cosmic power, but in the twentieth century, became a symbol of brutal force.

Different symbols will appeal to us at different times in our lives, yet, with a basic knowledge of the universal meaning of a symbol and applying patienceto doing inner reflection, we can work out what a particular symbol maymean to us when it appears in our life, however it may arrive.  We can educate ourselves to see the positive manifest in the symbol’s meaning as it unfolds in our life. 

Example of using a personal symbol

Of late, as I’ve been pondering the purpose of my life again and what it means to be happy, a phrase has come into my life - happiness is about ’someone to love, something to do, something to hope for’.  It appeals to me, thus it has personal significance, and what’s more, it’s easy to remember (very portable). So I use it to check where I am, when I am not feeling happy and ask myself how I can refocus on current situations to feel happier - how can I be more loving in my actions; is there something I need to change about what I believe is happening; what outcome would I like to hope for?

Regards

Frances

A defining moment is a moment in which you realize something about life and about yourself. It can occur in the midst of experiencing an event belief or person or with hindsight and reflection after the moment has passed.

The phrase, “a defining moment”,  popped into my head during an experience I had while shopping for apples in the  fruit store at the local shopping centre. As I separated a single plastic bag from the roll of bags, I accidentally leaned with my back against the very full display of apples. Two juicy-looking red apples rolled onto the ground. Then another two crisp apples joined them! I dared not move, in case the whole apple display cascaded down around me.  I could feel their weight against the small of my back.

Ordinarily, I would have panicked and felt highly embarrassed. Instead, quite spontaneously and calmly, I asked a lady near me to alert the checkout staff to the situation. Within seconds, a storeman appeared to help and steady the display while I resumed my normal centre of gravity! I simply remarked, “Sorry about that, that was a very full display!” and serenely went on with my shopping. The storeman took the grounded apples away for disposal. 

While the event was happening, I realized that the practice I had been doing for a few weeks on observing my emotions and emptying my mind, or being mindful of what I was thinking feeling and doing in the moment, was paying off.  At the dawning of this realization just as the storeman appeared, I gave myself a pat on the back. After the event, I realised that I feel naturally more empowered to choose what to think, how to feel, and what to do, more spontaneously, because I was able to say yes to what happened in the moment, rather than resist it. To my way of thinking, I have understood and experienced the essence of what Eckhart Tolle talks about when he focuses on the power of saying yes to living in the present moment. (See Utube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg9lY7_hCGA )  It’s practice that makes it natural.

I would be interested in hearing about other people’s experiences and perceptions of their defining moments.

Now, back to practicing being in the present moment!

Cheers

Frances

Around Christmas and New Year, there is usually a frenzied buying bonanza of gifts for friends and family, and catching up with people you haven’t seen for a long time. A friend of mine who spent Christmas on their own recently remarked to me, that any day can be special and that they enjoyed Christmas Day on their own. We discussed how feelings about what makes a day special are often linked more to cultural and family expectations than to individual enjoyment. While these expectations of sharing enrich our lives, they can also stress our lives. And so it set me thinking about how I can enlarge my sense of days being special, perhaps even giving up putting a time stamp on what days should be special.

Somewhere, sometime recently, I handwrote out a simple formula for making any day special, and this is what I would like to share with you at the beginning of 2008.

1. Don’t worry about the date

2. Don’t worry about being late

3. Give gifts less, according to social necessity, more according to inner guidance

4. A gift does not need to be material. It can be a warm smile, a kind word, a comforting hug, a soft apology, a cup of tea shared, a job done without being asked and a spontaneous phone call or email to say hi.

 Kindest regards

Frances