by Tina Greene | Apr 15, 2016 | Lotus Wisdom, Manifesting intentions
Hello everyone! Pete Seeger always said that “harmony is when the person next to you is singing a different note.” I love the image this evokes. A group of people creating something that is more than the sum of its parts. A place where each voice has a place and each person is valued for what they have to contribute. The fact that it also describes my dream for our world is a big added bonus. I’ve just returned from a four-day gathering of creative women and girls who are committed to exploring their own gifts and how they may embody those gifts to help create a world that works for everyone. I listened in awe as the young girls spoke about their vision of the future, about how they can contribute to the change that we all know is needed, about how we can support each other in our own work. This gathering reminded me how precious each voice is. There was a time when I didn’t have a voice to add to the circle. Insecurity, fear, shame and the deep conviction that I had nothing to add kept me bound in silence. Thankfully, the voice inside me would not be silenced. It kept whispering that life wasn’t meant to be like this. That there had to be more. Sometimes those whispers turned into tears. Of longing. Of loneliness. Of outrage and anger. Finally, in in the midst of the darkest night, I started listening. The more I listened, the better I heard. The better I heard, the stronger my own...
by Tina Greene | Oct 1, 2015 | Overcoming Fear
“Be more curious than afraid.” -Ishi I am calling BULLSHIT on fearlessness. Fearlessness is a myth. A set-up. An illusion. On the other hand, fear is a natural, often healthy response that arises deep in our reptilian brain. Evolutionarily speaking, it got us here. It helped our species survive in a world that really wasn’t safe, when “not belonging” to a family or a tribe really was a matter of life and death. While there are no more saw-tooth tigers threatening us, our reptilian brain – and its fear response – is not going away. Trying to get rid of fear is like Sisyphus trying to roll the stone up that mountain. It’s a no-win. That’s why I’m calling BULLSHIT on fearlessness. If fear is here to stay, how do we move beyond it? Here’s my current fear challenge. I long to move out into the world. To give what I know I came here to give. Yet, when it comes to acting on my desire, I am often paralyzed by fear. It feels like I’m on my own personal see-saw. One breath, I’m up, ready to take off. The next breath, I’m down, so scared I can’t move. It’s crazy-making. Does this sound familiar? How often do we find ourselves here? Too many to count right? Sigh. Each time I wake up in this place, I have to re-remember that I can be scared AND move forward at the same time. I can choose to move through – and beyond – fear, if I’m willing to practice – a lot! – compassion, curiosity and courage. ...
by Tina Greene | Apr 18, 2015 | Self Care
For most of my life, I was a pusher. Whatever the challenge, I could push my way through. Emotional, physical, professional. It didn’t matter. The name of my game was “just get it done.” Worry about the consequences later. Sound familiar? And then, four years ago, in less than the time it takes you to read this post, everything changed. Driving on the freeway. Construction zone. Traffic stopped. The guy behind me didn’t. The damage to my car was easily fixed. The damage to my brain, not so much. In that instant my life turned inside out and upside down. Nothing remained the same. Well, almost nothing. Thankfully, the accident didn’t affect my heart, my soul, and my commitment to grow through, and beyond, whatever curveballs life throws my way. But I’d never seen this pitch before. It didn’t respond to my pushing. In fact, pushing was the very worst thing I could do. Brains are tricky that way. First, they take way, way longer to heal than any other organ. Second, every brain is unique in how it responds to injury and how, when or even if, it heals. What works for one person, doesn’t’ necessarily work for another. In this sense medical advice has something in common with microwave instructions: your experience may vary. My challenge was learning how to live within my new limits, rather than in spite of them. And, as anyone living with chronic pain or illness knows all too well, this is a hard lesson to learn. In the beginning, I was a very reluctant student. I fell...
