Just Float

Soft Tranquil Blue Glass Mindfulness Reminder

It is another day of listing a new necklace to my Center Rings Etsy shop.  That is when I have to study the particular necklace I am listing and try to describe it with tags that someone might search.  Trying to read peoples minds has never been something I clam to be able to do.  So, instead I decided to describe what comes to mind when I look at the necklace.

How do I describe the color of blue in the glass?  Light blue?  Light turquoise blue?  Then, I thought of the color of a clean swimming pool.  Yes, that is what it reminds me of.

Then, that reminded me of an example I heard once in therapy of what not do do if you are having a panic attack in quicksand.  If you thrash around trying to get out, you will sink deeper.  But, if you lay on your back and float, you will not sink.  It is strange how our mind can so often fool us into thinking something is true.  I know my mind would say "get out of there" if I found myself sinking in quicksand.  The knowledge to lay back and float would not come to mind.  Yet, it is a perfect example of realizing that what we think might not be the truth.  Our instincts are not always right.

So, when I am feeling a bit anxious or panicky, I am going to think about just laying back and floating.  It is quite a remarkable feat of our natural world that water can hold us up if we let it.

Wishing you a wonderful little float today--even if it is just in your imagination.

Aromatherapy, Mindfulness, and Panic Attacks

Aromatherapy Mindfulness Reminder Necklace

One of the other things besides practicing Mindfulness techniques to help with my panic attacks has been essential oils.

The Mindfulness Reminder necklace above includes a lava bead, which because of its porous nature makes a wonderful diffuser for essential oils.

I was excited when I ran across this study from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) on Mindfulness Meditation in combination with essential oils to help reduce anxiety.  It was brought to my attention by the Tisserand Institute.  Robert Tisserand is one of the leading experts on the study of essential oils and wellness.

Here is the link to the notice from the Tisserand Institute

and the study from the NCBI.

http://tisserandinstitute.org/learn-more/mindfulness-meditation/

Inspired by the Little Bird Tracks

 

Mindfulness Reminder Necklace with Little Bird Tracks by CenterRings on Etsy

Yesterday was a snow day in Minnesota.  (Yes, many of us here were groaning a bit that is was April and we still had snow.)  At our house, we also had an abundance of little Juncos in and out and all around our bird feeder.  I just love the little prints they made in the snow--so much so that it was my inspiration for the pattern on these new hammered brass rings.

Slow down

Take a breath

Be in the Moment

Hold your thoughts and feelings as gently as you would a baby bird

Let them go

Just be

Mindfulness Like Celadon Must Be Experienced to Be Understood

When creating a listing on Etsy, one of the things you do is add tags that describe your piece, such as  color, shape, usage, etc. so people can find it more easily in a search.  It is often difficult to decide what colors to use.  Do you just use the word "green" when it is really a lime green?  If someone is searching for a green necklace are they that specific?  Needless to say, the answers are quite illusive, and you just use words that seem to be the most direct.

Describing the color of the little green-blue bird on this necklace yesterday I had to stop and really think what words to use.  One issue is that describing color can be very personal.  What looks like blue to one person might look like purple to another.  It is actually quite difficult to find true colors.

 

Mindfulness Reminder Necklace with Little Celadon Bird

Then the color "celadon" popped into my head. Yes, the little glass bird was celadon in color.  I typed it in with the other tags and posted the listing.  But I could not help wonder if what I thought the color celadon looked like was really the same color in the little bird charm, so I googled "celadon" in Google images.  Above is a picture of the necklace with what showed up in Google images, which confirmed I had found the right descriptive color.

It was interesting to read a bit more about celadon.  It is actually used most to describe a certain Asian glaze in pottery.  (I know the little bird charm is actually glass, but it is the same color as many of the celadon glazed.)

I was quite struck by this description I found for celadon green in Wikipedia:

These pots have blue-green glazes and are made in elegant shapes and were produced in kilns from all over China. Korean celadon pottery has been described by ancient Chinese artisans as having a quiet elegance whose color is "beyond description", in that it must be experienced to be understood, and its simplicity of form and style has been compared to the spirit of Zen Buddhism.^[49]

I really like how they describe celadon as:

"having a quiet elegance whose color is beyond description"... "that must be experienced to be understood..."

That really is another description for mindfulness, and it is really not as illusive as it seems at first.

Giving Ourselves a Soft Place to Land

Colorful Textile Mindfulness Reminder Necklace

Yesterday, I tried something new and different adding a some color.  As I created this necklace, these are a few thoughts that streamed through my mind:

• What does it mean to offer ourselves a soft place to land?
• What does it mean to accept all our thoughts and feelings--the good, the bad, the easy, the hard, the right, the wrong?
• Do we even need to label them or judge them?
• By giving our thoughts and feelings a soft place to land, will they never go away?
• Is giving our thoughts and feelings a soft place to land in a way a metaphor for acceptance?
• We don't cling to them or shoo them away.  We just let them be there.

I wrapped the metal rings with embroidery floss to make this necklace.  It is much more colorful.  I notice that when I give myself to the present moment, I notice things I would not notice otherwise.  Sometimes, what I notice more is color--the different greens in a leaf, the pink of a blooming gerber daisy, or the turquoise of an ocean bay.  Yes, all these are a soft place to land.

May you all find your own soft place to land.

Mindfulness Reminder Necklace with Hand Stamped Ring

I had some fun stamping brass yesterday.  The brass circle is not a "perfect" circle, yet isn't that how our lives really are?  Today, I am embracing my wonky circle.  So many times beauty really is in the imperfect nature of things. 

May you hold yourself gently today--wonkiness and all.

Little Blackbird Mindfulness Reminder Necklace

This song may or may not apply to the practice of Mindfulness, but it went through my mind when I was making this new necklace.  :)

Little Blackbird Mindfulness Reminder Necklace

CenterRings Little Etsy Shop is filling up!

CenterRings on Etsy

Slowly but surely,

I have been listing the Mindfulness Reminder Necklaces in my Etsy shop!

Come take a visit! 

First Etsy Listing!

I started working on this idea of CenterRings over two years ago, and I finally made my first listing and opened my Etsy shop.  That may seem like no big deal to many of you, but I was reminded how much work goes into getting an item ready to sell.  If only I could just make these necklaces and they would magically be photographed, described in writing, priced, weighed, measured...  I went through all this before when I opened my Etsy shop prayer bedes (which I hope to get active again soon.  And I am telling myself that "soon" does not mean 2 years, like it did for the first post on this website!)

The pricing and shipping parts of selling my work are my least favorite.  In order to just get this off the ground, I decided to simply charge $18 and include complementary shipping in the US.

So, here it is--my first listing in my new Etsy CenterRings shop.  There will be more to come, today!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/600878667/center-rings-mindfulness-reminder?ref=shop_home_active_1