by Kathleen Keating

Join our Souper Hero on her journey to find the ingredients for a peaceful heart to add to our Solution Soup.

PLAY YOUR WAY TO HEALTHY HABITS!

“We do not stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing.”

In SOLUTION SOUP ... you will discover creative ideas that make change an adventure - for adults as well as children! The Souper Heroes will stir your imagination and make a challenging game out of whatever you want to do to create a healthier, happier life.

Star Charts, Contract For Success, Your Personal Trainer Journal, The Book of Courage, and more stimulate your imagination to create more play for yourself.

Everyone of every age needs a few cups of fun in their recipe for living.

Change becomes adventure when the adventure is creating change.

Playing stimultes your imagination.

Imagination inspires your creativity.

Creativity is the way we make beauty and solve problems.

Play, imagination, and creativity inspire us to grow into our highest potential.

Play ~ Imagine ~ Create ... and anything is possible!

Cup of Contemplation

Make a favorite pottery mug or china cup your ‘cup of contemplation.’ Every day make yourself a cup of herb or green tea in this special cup ... then find a special place to be quiet and alone for ten or fifteen minutes. Perhaps you can pull a rocking chair up to a window or fireplace, or even a quiet corner of your bedroom. ... consider gazing at a lovely picture and listening to some favorite classical or soothing music. In the summer, you might want to sit outdoors and listen to the birds.

Peacefully, slowly sip the warmth and be aware if the present moment. Serenity is woven into the ritual of sitting down and drinking a cup of tea. As the cup rests in your hands, let your mind rest in the welcoming mood of contemplation. As you taste the the tea, taste the unity of all things.

Let the herbal flavors and green leaf teas speak to you of deep forest pools, rocks and trees .... of a single flower, a fallen leaf ... silent clouds moving across the deep silence of space. A cup of contemplation is stillness and Spirit ... the solitary journey of your soul to wholeness. Each sip gives you time to breath in the grace and wisdom that resides within your calm heart.

Continue to notice your breath coming in and going out ... like the rhythm of waves on the beach. Watch your thoughts come and go ... like clouds floating by in a spacious sky, noticing yet gently letting them pass.

This simple time will ease your body, soothe your heart and strengthen your mind.

Then keep your lovely ‘cup of contemplation’ sitting on a shelf or window sill where it will be a reminder to breathe deeply and give gratitude for the here and now.

Most good intentions to change are often clever-sounding "shoulds." Intentions - by themselves - tell us that we're trying to be further along in our willingness to change than we are really able. Trying to create positive habits based on good intentions alone may leave us feeling inadequate, guilty or hopeless.

The book lists the four basic principles of change and the eight steps of how change happens.

The secret to change is not only motivation, but momentum.

Momentum is a way of defining habit.

When we direct our movement along a particular path, after a time the force of that movement will keep on going automatically in that same direction. That automatic force becomes a habit.

Habit is the quiet engine humming in the backgound of our daily lives which frees us to be creative in play and work.

Not all habits work in our best interest. Sometimes we don’t realize we are creating momentum for activities that give us comfort and ease from the stresses of life, but then dampen our passion for a life lived in alignment with our deeper purposes.