Start
untangling our thoughts from the underlying emotions that hold them in place
and give them meaning.
Our
thoughts create patterns – those patterns become sticky --- and when
something’s sticky, we can’t get rid of it.
And so we need to ask: what’s the underlying energy? Thoughts aren’t an enemy. They are an invitation.
If
you are sitting in judgment, you are maintaining the illusion of
separateness. Judgment and harmony
cannot exist in the same place.
Here
is a revolutionary idea: you don’t have to try.
Many
of us place our magnificence in the future.
Or leave it behind in the past.
It
is in witnessing the breath that we come fully into the present moment and
discover our magnificence. Once we are
aware of this, we enter the possibility of making our lives a living meditation
therefore meditation cannot simply be compartmentalized, placed into a little
box where we go and sit 45 minutes a day, or two years or two hours. Breath and spirit are your constant
companions.
Everyone
in my life – everyone I encounter – is playing the role I need them to play for
me. … Ultimately, what these encounters do is to provide us with opportunities
to feel whatever it is that is unresolved within ourselves.
Cultivating
gratitude in all things is not so much a feeling as a decision. It is a lens through which we choose to see
the world.
Life continually brings us opportunities to expand who we are.
Enlightenment
is about destroying any and all false notion that you have about yourself.
What is real is always very simple.
Being human means we will experience loneliness. We all have a hole in side --- an emptiness
--- that we long to fill in whatever ways we can. We reach for solutions. We move away from ourselves when what we
really need to be doing is moving closer.
Stop whatever it is that you’re doing. And for a solid minute, look out the
window. It doesn’t matter whether you’re
looking at a brick wall, a fire escape, a meadow, or a skyline. What matters is the nothingness. That
inactivity. The space you’re making for
your truest and deepest voice to emerge.
Everything
is trying to help you; everything is trying to support you. Absolutely everything.
Each
person that crosses our path has something to contribute to us – whether or not
we like the way it feels in the moment.
Life
is continually trying to deliver messages to us, and the messages come in the
most unlikely of forms.
My
life is the feedback loop that brings me the experience of who I am.
If
you’re at peace with yourself, you are already making a difference.
If
you commit powerfully to serenity, you will be willing to quickly see the
density that’s stopping you, and the density will begin to crumble.
Notice. Keep an eye out. It may happen only once today or a hundred
times. It don’t matter. There is immense power in the ability to
catch yourself, to observe your own instinctive responses and behavior. And when you do notice, meet yourself with
absolute love. The awareness signals the
end of the fight.
When
we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, we are experiencing a blessing. We are offering ourselves the opportunity to
see and experience life authentically without defenses or screens keeping us
from our own true nature.
When
sadness arises within us, we are being given an incredible opportunity to
integrate the wounds of the past.
Just
for today, live in the truth that there is nothing to defend.
People
who are riddled with guilt don’t dare to be abundant or happy because they
fundamentally believe that something they did was heinous. But they are thinking only of their past
selves. They forget that they were only
operating from the awareness that they had at the time.
Guilt
is a learned and conditioned response to what happens when we violate our own
inner integrity.
The
antidote for shame is intimacy.
Authentic vulnerability.
Shame
is the undercurrent that keeps you living in the belief that you are unworthy
of all the bounty life has to offer.
In
our day-to-day experience, the key to recognizing the energy of shame is to
catch yourself when you are deflecting.
As you move though this day – this one precious day, be aware of each
time you deflect. Each time you defend
yourself. It may manifest as
squeamishness. Discomfort. Embarrassment. A desire to flee. You might even self-consciously laugh. …
Notice how much easier it is, during the course of your day, to receive blame
and criticisms rather than kindness and praise. Just for today, step into
receptivity. Your deflection is your
road map. Pull yourself out of the
invisible vortex of shame that has become your default setting.
The
evidence that your mind is creating is false.
We
have the opportunity to become aware of and alive to our own motivations. Our own unconscious choices. When this happens, we can begin to choose
differently. More courageously. More lovingly. From a place of freedom.
Understand
that your patterns are your journey.
Just for
today, allow life to impact you without ducking, without scrambling for that
default button. If someone irritates
you, feel the irritation. If someone
hurts you, be sad. If joy bubbles up
from within you, breathe into it. In this way, we cultivate emotional
intelligence.
Consider
the ache as an awakening.
Talking
about the ego is a bit like handling sand.
It’s an ever-changing thing that you can’t grab hold of.
Watch
yourself carefully today. Keep an eye
out to see if you do any of the following:
brag, lie, name-drop, interrupt, assert, dominate, compare, manipulate,
insult, lack curiosity. If you find that
any of these less-than-stellar traits have crept into your behavior, you will
know that your ego is running amok.
The
most uncomfortable situations in life hold the greatest potential for growth.
Consider
the possibility that your triggers have something to teach you about yourself.
Make
yourself available to the discomfort.
What
would happen if you were to move through your day as if you’ve already lived
it? … You can glide gently through each hour as it unfolds. Everything has already happened. You don’t have to press. You don’t have to fight. You don’t have to assert yourself or you
will. You don’t have to control
anything. All you need to do is be
present.
The
true skill when it comes to riding the roller coaster [of life] has to do with
maintaining a sense of openness to life as it’s happening, instead of trying to
control the uncontrollable.
We are either in love or in fear.
Allowing
does not require doing. It is
non-doing. It is being available to
whatever is.
