Unexamined Ideals Spawn Global Dysfunction
As I sit in this seat of relative wealth and privilege, it is easy to take the comfortable aspects of that seat for granted. It is easy to believe that I know more about someone else’s life than they do themselves. It is easy to believe that I have solutions to another person’s hardship that they themselves cannot see or attain. It is easy to believe that my intention to save another from the challenges they face is genuinely selfless.
Beliefs fuel the ideals which inform our choices. But beliefs and ideals that were handed down or picked up during a time of relative innocence or powerlessness result in choices which lead us down an inauthentic path. Regardless of how far we walk down that path, and regardless of our degree of worldly success, enduring fulfillment will continue to elude us and 3 a.m. angst will still threaten to consume us. This lack of fulfillment is a root cause of many global issues including poverty, violence, war, disease, and environmental degradation.
When left unchallenged, ideals give rise to individual and collective “comfort zones”. Those comfort zones interfere with our ability to make compassionately responsible choices which further fuels global hardship. As such, it is imperative at this ripe juncture of evolution that we leverage the vast creativity of our prefrontal cortex to illuminate and examine our own conditioned biases. One immediate and effective way we can do that is by challenging elusive comfort zones.
This can be easier said than done since our limbic system is hard-wired for self-preservation. Often it takes some combination of deep fear and hope before someone willingly steps outside their comfort zone. But when that fear and hope stem from a hotbed of blind biases, the resulting step will likely do as much harm as it does good. A less common reason people willingly step outside their comfort zone is out of genuine curiosity. This alternate reason often yields great insights into the true nature of reality, and effectively illuminates blind biases.
Raising the curtain on my unseen biases, I become humbled by both my arrogance and my innocence. I am now far less likely to sit in judgement of another or take this seat of relative wealth and privilege for granted. Having endured great challenges, I have come to understand and appreciate the powerful way challenges incinerate false precepts. I am now able to arrive in each situation innocent yet wise.
Humble empowerment fosters an authentic path. Bowing to the “unknowns” of a given situation, I embark upon a path of discovery which ultimately reveals new insights about this life that is living me. Revelation is an unending source of fulfillment. Self-fulfilled, my choices now arise from a place of genuine curiosity.
Until we have seen clearly our own biases, we would be unwise to assume we know best how to alleviate someone else’s suffering. Until we have seen clearly the gift woven throughout our own struggles, we would be unwise to try and save another from the challenges they face. But when we have seen clearly the global dysfunction spawned by unexamined ideals, we take our first steps on an authentic path of humble empowerment. Only then can we explore from a state of genuine curiosity how to best leverage our seat of relative wealth and privilege in service to another.
A Trifecta of Life Lessons
1. There are no obstacles: only opportunities to learn and grow.
2. There is nothing I need that I don’t have.
3. Everything that must get done will get done.
Some people choose the field of Accounting because of their love of numbers. I had chosen it because of my fear of words. Truth be told, I barely passed 10th grade because of a D- in English. When I was 38, I discovered I was a writer, and my journey since then has been one of trying to reconcile and integrate this “inconvenient truth”.
I’m 45 now, and as a single mother with two active girls, a full-time job, physical therapy for a severe herniated disc, and a new consulting business I’m trying to get off the ground, there is little time to just sit and write anymore.
And as I found myself torn this morning between wanting to write a post for you today and needing to do therapeutic exercises, get my girls ready for school, and get myself ready for work, I found myself thinking, “I have no time to write today.” There was sadness as that sentiment rolled through me.
One lesson I’ve learned well over these past six years is that there are no obstacles: only opportunities to learn and grow. Listening to my inner dialogue this morning I realized I was just making an excuse, and in that excuse, I was turning away from the writer that I am.
Two other lessons arrived hot on the heels of this winning truth: there is nothing I need that I don’t have, and everything that must get done will get done. Over the past six years, this trifecta of life lessons has empowered me to transform my life from one of deep despair to one of thriving adventure. When something is important to me, I know I can either make an excuse or I can take action.
Granted, there are some fairly immovable factors of my life that I choose to honor in order to keep the wheels greased. But there are many other factors that can shift, shrink, or fall away all together if I am bold enough to be who I am.
As I look at my morning from the other side of having written this post, I see clearly that my busy schedule is not what stands in the way of writing: it actually drives me to write. If I had all the time in the world, there is a chance I wouldn’t write much at all, and a chance that the things I would write might be more “soft” and less practical.
These very distinct boundaries don’t stand in the way of creativity: they help me get clear quickly about what to write. These boundaries also set the stage for writing and give me material to write about. Even more, they prod me to share what I’ve written before I have a chance to judge it as pure garbage and rework it to death or not post it at all.
There are no ostacles: only opportunities to learn and grow. There is nothing I need that I don’t have. Everything that must get done will get done. So now let me ask you: what’s standing in the way of you being most fully yourself?
Advice is a Poor Substitute for Insight
So you want to start a business, but you don’t know which of your many brilliant ideas to commit to. You ask friends, family, successful entrepreneurs, gurus, coaches, and really anyone who will listen (aka: random cashiers who seem genuinely sincere when they ask how your day is going). You run through all your different ideas, weighing the pros and cons of each, hoping that someone will reveal some angle that will tip the scale unquestioningly in favor of one idea over all the rest.
To even be contemplating starting a business indicates that you have experienced some degree of mastery with the jobs, projects, and assignments that others have entrusted you with. You have also felt stifled by the lack of opportunity to take that experience to the next level or express your own vision within that environment.
Starting a business is your opportunity to take full responsibility for the direction of your life. Only you know which idea you are willing to fully commit to. Relying on other people’s advice is an ill-advised shortcut: then you have them to blame when it fails. Then you are right back where you are right now, faced with the decision of committing your own vision or committing to someone else’s. As long as you are looking to others to choose your path for you, your experience of success as an entrepreneur will be limited.
The hard news is that your first attempt will most likely fail to some degree, but you will learn a tremendous amount in the process that you can successfully leverage on your next attempt. Ask yourself, “what idea am I ready to commit to and see fail?”
Know this:
- Ideas are not the determinant of success: commitment and persistence are.
- An entrepreneur who waits for the right idea at the right time for the least money dies without ever starting a business.
- Ideas are worthless unless you can execute them. Pick one idea that feels achievable, and learn the art of execution.
- Ideas are harder to execute on than you can even know at this point. Commit to one idea, and learn that lesson.
- If it were easy and cheap, everyone would be running their own business. You have to be willing to do what 96% of other people wouldn’t do.
- Clarity and confidence are a result of action, not a prerequisite.
- True success is an inner phenomenon, not a worldly statistic.
- If you are unwilling to invest in yourself (even if that means going further into debt), then you are adding significant time to your journey and missing out on unknown opportunities.
- Money is not an obstacle, it’s an excuse. Time is truly your most precious resource. Get started!
More than anything, stop asking “what should I do?” and ask instead “how do I want to be?”, then do that from the time you get up to the time you go to bed. Your need for a the “right answer” is blocking the original insight you need most. Relax, and trust. Realize you are complete even if you can’t completely see all of yourself. When you do that, you will discover the diamond in your pocket. From that space, you cannot fail.
How Full Is Your Wheel?
I was given a homework assignment this week as part of an inspired business development group I recently joined. My homework was to fill in a “life wheel”, ranking my degree of fulfillment in eight different key areas of life. At first, I stared blankly at the worksheet and tried to accurately assess each area on a scale of 1 to 10.
After several minutes of struggling to even fill in one part of the wheel, I wondered if my inability to gauge my fulfillment was the result of the wheel already being entirely full. I started filling in the wheel to see if that was true, and it turns out it was! All at once I was reminded of the realization I’d had six years ago: that fulfillment is always the case, and that the only thing that shifts is our awareness of it!
Now, does that “100% fulfillment” mean I am sitting pretty on a pile of money? No: not in a conventional sense anyway. Would I like that to be the case? Well, that would certainly allow me the opportunity to set up my humanitarian foundation, go all in on my life’s work of helping people take life to the next level, and add to the growing collection of books I’ve authored. And while I love the idea of those possibilities syncing up with my current reality, the fact that that experience is not here now takes nothing away from the degree to which I experience fulfillment.
You see, I think differently than most people, but that wasn’t always the case. Like so many people I talk to these days, I used to believe that if I got all the “right pieces” in all the “right places”, I’d be seeped in an experience of enduring fulfillment, and life would be a non-stop bliss picnic. But as good as I was at identifying and achieving my goals, there always seemed to be some area of life that fell short on fulfillment. After almost four decades of trying and failing to create an experience of enduring fulfillment, I was utterly depleted, and in a moment of deep resignation, I gave up my quest.
In the days that followed, an innocent curiosity took up residence in the mental/emotional space that had previously been filled with unrelenting angst. In that energetic expanse, I realized the sun never stops shining, which helped me enjoy the rain and no longer fear the dark. I realized the pinnacle nature of this one pristine moment, which put an end to my futile “striving”. More than anything, I realized that the only thing that had interfered with my experience of enduring fulfillment had been my limiting thought process which presumed that fulfillment was something that must be attained.
But why then, if I’m so fulfilled, would I still have goals to start foundations and businesses and books? That’s the beautiful part. These inspirations arise as a natural expression of fulfillment rather than as an attempt to attain fulfillment. Because I no longer chase fulfillment or run from fear, I am able to stand clear surveying the expansive horizon. I am able to step in whatever direction feels most aligned with who I know myself to be in this moment, and step towards experiences that will show me ever more deeply to myself.
Each step is fueled by fulfillment. Even if at times there is a fleeting experience of uncertainty or disappointment or frustration, those limiting conditioned (and human) experiences arise as a swell on the ocean of fulfillment. There is a coy smile woven throughout each brief heartache: a smile that quickly dispels the illusion of struggle and oppression. I bow to each moment looking for what I may learn, and in doing so, I learn what it is that I have to share and teach others.
Even the depth of loneliness, which had persistently threatened to engulf me numerous times throughout my life, has found safe harbor with me. When it knocks at my door, I invite it in for tea and conversation, and listen as it shares the depth of its sorrow. I thank loneliness for serving its purpose so honorably. Before long, loneliness is transformed into radiant warmth as a result of feeling seen, heard, and valued.
So how might this insight serve your own quest for fulfillment? Perhaps it will inspire you to rest the quest for fulfillment, and instead simply explore ways to expand awareness of the enduring fulfillment that is already the case. If you’d like some more insights on how to best do that, I’m happy to both share what I know and help guide you to original insights of your own.
How Productivity Changed My Life
Recently I took part in my very first group blog interview! The topic was “Productivity”, and I was honestly surprised at how much I had to say on the topic. You can read the interview here, but I also wanted to share some insights that came out of this most recent interview adventure.
If you would have asked me twelve months ago whether I felt productive in my everyday life, I would have certainly said an enthusiastic “Yes!” At that time, I was working on my first manuscript, rebuilding my website, blogging, and taking an online course on how to become a successful author. Oh, did I mention I’m a single parent with a full time job?!
I was super busy for sure, often working into the early morning hours. I felt great though! Taking a leadership role by directing the course of my life has a fantastic experience, and learning and doing new things makes me come alive! The thing was, I wasn’t seeing a tremendous amount of viable products coming from all my activity, and my manuscript was in danger of missing its deadline.
In talking with a friend about my concerns, they pointed me towards a one hour productivity course. I didn’t understand, because in my mind, I was super productive. I trusted their insight, though, so I decided to check it out. What I came to realize from that course is that activity and productivity are two entirely different things! At that time, I was busy, but that busyness wasn’t producing any viable products.
As it turns out, the thing my activity was missing was structure, focus, and a measurable outcome. Adding this back in to my life was difficult, because in the five years prior I had transformed my overly analytical and organizational habits in favor of a rich and fulfilling practice of presence awareness. In other words, I was so “here and now” that structuring my activities seemed incongruent with my deepest experience of peace.
Happily, I learned I was wrong, and integrating presence awareness with the goals that I have set for my life has taken my experience of peace to the next level! In fact, the resulting insights and experiences were so profound, I decided to start a consulting business helping others do the same in their own lives.
In the time since my lesson in productivity, I was able to:
- Meet my manuscript deadline
- Write my first ebook
- Redesign my website (again)
- Write and share over 130 insights on my blog
- Complete a course in Positive Psychology Coaching
- Develop a vast offering of Pintrest Inspigraphics
- Develop and implement a social media strategy for promoting my life’s work
- Collect and publish a series of 4 books of poetry that I had written in 2009
- Successfully coach 5 people to experience empowering clarity in their life
- Begin development of a new web-based journaling community called Cathartic Clarity
- Expand my network of peers, mentors, and friends
- And so much more!
How’s that for productive?! Seeing it all in a list here even surprises me. What’s most surprising, though, is that I am actually able to get in my required sleep these days, and my experience of presence awareness has deepened.
So if you find you are struggling to turn your dreams into reality and share your life’s work with the world, you may benefit from learning some productivity essentials. I’d love to have a conversation with you about it! In the meantime, you can check out more of my recent productivity insights here. If you have any questions or comments, I’d genuinely love to hear from you!
The Willingness To Fail
Often the entry to the path that leads where we most want to go contains aspects that make us recoil. This natural response is useful if there are actual lions guarding the gate, but most of the time our flight response is triggered by perceived threats that have no absolute basis in reality.
To take life to the next level, we invariably arrive at a moment of truth where we must decide: do I really want what I say we want, or would I rather just spend my days talking to myself and others about it?
Talk is cheap. Action involves genuine risk: We might fail, We might lose money, We might look foolish, We might lose everything and have to start over again from scratch. These all have a relative reality to them, yet they also contain the opportunity for an invaluable and immediate learning experience that could fuel our progress.
When an obstacle appears on your path, I would encourage you to use that obstacle as a cue to test the validity of your assumption of threat. Get curious. Ask yourself: how might taking on this obstacle be the key to getting me where I want most to go? Just asking this question puts us in a state of receptivity allowing us to traverse the part of the obstacle that is most difficult to swallow. Once on the other side of the obstacle, it becomes easier to see how the obstacle was in fact helpful in preparing us for the next stage of our journey.
Success is not a matter of luck, it’s a matter of cultivating a willingness to fail. When we successfully cultivate that skill, there is little that can stand in our way.
Hopeless
There is a moment at the edge of reason, just beyond the surrender to hopelessness, where we can glimpse inherent perfection.
Words alone are never enough to convey such perfection: we have to experience it first-hand.
One time is never enough: we need to keep experiencing it as long as it takes to really “get” it.
Get it, then keep getting it. Your life’s work is revealed in the midst of it all.
Feeling Ready Is Optional
From an early age, we are taught that the path to a sustainable income is to learn from experts, employ their practices, and when those experts deem that we are ready, begin offering our services. This process is partly designed to support the needs of society by leveraging our need for sustainable income. It works well in conventional, practical roles such as law, accounting, cashiering, and the like, and those roles are immensely valuable. If this way of serving the world feels most in alignment with the fullest possible expression of yourself, then you are set for life, and this essay will be of no use for you.
Speaking for myself, I had (eventually) found fulfillment in my conventional day job, but I simply didn’t feel fully expressed. That’s when I realized the distinct difference between a job and our life’s work. Our job is what we do to sustain our life. Our life’s work is an extension and expression of who we are.
When it comes to our life’s work, the “path-to-an-income” process that we learned in our formative years can be the very thing that stands in our way of ever experiencing the fullest possible expression of ourselves. There is no graduation or certification for our life’s work. We need to create our own theories and practices.
When it comes to our life’s work, feeling ready is optional.
Doing that ‘thing’ that feels most aligned with the fullest expression of ourselves exposes our soft underbelly to the world. The fear of gaining someone’s trust and then failing them can be paralyzing. Until we can accept that possibility, we will never fully trust our own voice, and we will never experience the fullest possible expression of ourselves.
Start now, before you are ready. Rather than learning a hand-me-down process to funnel people through, allow the people who connect with your offerings to inform the development of a new process.
It’s not that those early adopters are getting a lesser form of your best work, it is that those early adopters are helping to shape your best work. Essentially, you end up crafting your life’s work around the people who are most willing to have an offering crafted specifically for them. It’s win-win.
If you long to experience and express your life’s work, start now. Feeling ready is optional.
What’s Your Priority?
Incorporating a new activity into our daily lives presents many challenges. New activities come prepackaged with a host of very cheap and easy excuses to hide behind. Starting a business introduces a variety of new activities all at once, many of which we have no prior experience with. It is no wonder so many new businesses fail.
I have found that every excuse is merely a tactic for avoiding something I was overwhelmed or intimidated by. Eventually I landed on one idea that was compelling enough to triumph over the tyrannical reign of excuses. That compelling idea became my priority, and excuses which had once seemed so impenetrable evaporated into the thin air from which they arose. I was finally able to create my first product.
On the other side of that experience, the process of creating became much more clear. That clarity paved the way for more products and services as I honed the skill of establishing priorities. Now, it is no longer a question of success, but simply a matter of figuring out the activities that will make up that success, and setting those activities as my priority. It is now entirely about sincerity: how do I most want to be of service?
When your ideas successfully become your priority, no excuse will stand in the way of your success.
Stepping Anyway
A painter does not wait for the painting to be perfect before first dipping the brush into the paint.
Go!
The only place to start is here.
The only day to start is today.
The only time to start is now.
The only way to start is to start.
Let go of the concerns of how and what and who and why: these answers will be revealed in perfect order and right on cue.
Thrashing is unavoidable as you hack through the dense jungle of uncertainty: embrace the thrashing. Your willingness to learn in the open positions you for greatest success.
Make something happen. Learn something new. Share your gifts.
Why are you still reading? Go!
Leveling Up
Achieving our goals can be a double-edged sword if we head out onto that path equipped with only our ideals. There is an experience of life awaiting us beyond our ideas of what experiences we want our life to contain. As long as we are chasing our dreams, we are trampling over the intention that got us to where we are right now. It’s a losing battle, and we end up exhausting ourselves in the process of fighting ghosts.
When we step from a place of fulfillment, the war ends.
Stepping from a place of fulfillment becomes possible once we have taken responsibility for the decisions we have made to this point. We “own” our choices, and discover how each choice contains within it the fullness of life. We no longer feel compelled to try and filter out the undesirable aspects of our choices, and instead discover the goodness woven throughout all aspects of our choices.
Stepping from a place of fulfillment means we are not trying to attain something, but are simply open to discovery. It indicates we are in alignment with the fullest expression of ourselves in this moment. By disengaging from the need to “level up”, leveling up can occur naturally and without stress or crisis. We let go of what that “upper level” looks like, and are able to experience the fulfillment inherent in every step along our journey.
If you ever reach a point where you feel you’d like some support or companionship on your journey, I do hope you’ll drop me a line. I’d love to hear from you.
Do The Work
Something’s gonna have to give.
In order to fully express your life’s work, you have to be willing to sacrifice ideals.
The work will suffer if you try to make it play out the way you think it should play out.
If you polish a rotten apple and sell it, you won’t be in business very long. You can deliver more crisp, juicy apples in a shorter amount of time if you don’t stop to polish them.
All that’s required is to do the work: polishing is optional. Allow the work to stand by itself, raw and juicy. Only then will you stop alienating the very people who you are here to serve. Only then will they even be able to hear their voice within the work you do.
Unless of course your life’s work is polishing…then I suppose you should just carry on. ;)
Love The Life You Created
The fact that 80% of people do not like their job is not exclusively symbolic of the fact that 80% of employers suck.
The fact that Google is the “best company to work for” is not exclusively symbolic of the fact that Google is a dream employer.
The most significant factor determining whether you love your job or your life is your perception.
…
We are capable of loving our life even if it doesn’t resemble a fairy tale. The simple truth is that until you love your life just as it is, you will never love it regardless of what changes you make. “How can I love my life the way it is now?!” When the entire fate of your experience of fulfillment rests with you doing just that, how can you not?!
The most empowering strategy for creating a life and job you love is to love your life and job as they are right now.
Choose your life, warts and all. Life doesn’t become lovable simply because it reflects your ideal. Your ideal is what needs changing. Shifting your perception frees up a tremendous amount of creative energy that transforms your life in ways you would never imagine.
What’s Your Excuse?
An unspeakable crime happens every day that affects almost every single person on this planet.
The primary victim: Ourselves.
The secondary victim: The world around us.
The crime: Misspent creativity.
An excuse for why you can’t be creative is the most devious form of creativity. Do any of these sound familiar:
“I can’t sit down and create right now because…”
1. I’m cold
2. I’m sleepy
3. It’s been such a busy day
4. I have to get to the laundry started
5. I only have half an hour
6. This place is such a mess
7. I just take care of these dishes first
8. I’m too comfortable
9. I’m too uncomfortable
10. I need a dedicated space
11. I have a mountain of work to do
12. I need to organize my sock drawer
13. I just need to sit for a minute
14. My show’s about to start
15. I need some inspiration
16. I have to just look this one thing up before I forget
17. I should just check my email real quick
18. I need more light
19. It’s too bright in here
20. The computer’s fan is too noisy
Creativity can be used on excuses, or creativity can be used on our life’s work: the choice is yours. What form will creativity take for you today?
Turning Lead Into Gold
Authentic fulfillment is an inner phenomenon, and is therefore independent of outer circumstances. Trying to achieve fulfillment by making the circumstances of your life fit some ideal is a fool’s errand. You might succeed at changing your life, but you won’t feel any more fulfilled. The mindset that prompted the desire for transformation will be stronger than ever, and over time this mindset will see this newly created life through a lens of growing discontent.
Authentic fulfillment arises in the act of aligning with life’s inherent perfection.
Rather than trying to shift the unwanted aspects of your life, learn to leverage them. Shifting how you engage with those undesired elements will fuel transformation.
Authentic transformation starts, and ends, with awareness. In this way, transformation is not about doing things differently: it is about “showing up” in a different way. Shifting focus away from “what” you do and onto “how” you do what you do is pure alchemy transforming perfect lead into pure gold.
Willing To Fail
Starting a business to help others is a noble endeavor, but “noble” is not enough to guarantee success. The hard fact is that your business may not succeed: certainly not as quickly as you would like it to. Once you are clear about that, you may decide to start your business anyway. That is the point where your business can be of genuine use to others.
Leverage your curiosity: Make it about what you will learn in the process. Don’t wait for permission or assurances. If your business is something you can’t NOT do, then do it. Even if it does not “succeed” in the conventional sense, you will learn tremendous lessons which can be parlayed into something else. Your chance of success increases with each “at bat”.
Authentic success grows out of the willingness to fail.
Qaunestwieorn
All questions are powerful. They have the power to move us forward, and they have the power to keep us stuck. A fundamental step on our journey to personal mastery is learning to trust that we are the source of the answers we seek. Another is learning to ask questions that help us move forward.
Every question has its answer built right in. Truly, they are inextricable. If you are not asking the right question, however, you will be left groping in the dark without an answer.
If you find yourself stuck, ask yourself: Is there a different question I should be asking?
If a question arises without an empowering answer, use that as your cue to drop the question and turn your full attention to whatever is in front of you to do. Do that task openly: fully surrender to it. Doing so creates an opportunity to learn what that activity has to teach you. Each activity then becomes a source of empowerment, and often reveals the question…and the answer…you need to move forward.
You are the source of the empowering answers you seek.
Giving Heals
Growing up, we embody a mindset of wanting. We come to situations and relationships from a place of lack and we scan the scene for what it is we can get from it. If a situation appears not to hold anything for us, we feel unsatisfied or disinterested and we move on to something with seemingly more to offer.
Until we can break free from this mindset of lack and conditioned patterns of wanting, we are destined to remain in situations and relationships that are shallow, unfulfilled, and often troubled. Nothing in the world can truly bring us fulfillment, and yet opportunities for fulfillment are available to us each moment of our day. It is found in the still moment between breath and thought where we have the chance to change our way of interacting with the world.
When we become aware of that moment of stillness, we awaken to the present moment and find it teeming with life. When we retrain our minds to linger there for a while, we become infused with an experience of aliveness. There is an excited curiosity that takes over for a time as we notice things we hadn’t before, and we see other more familiar things as if for the first time.
In this heightened state of consciousness, even the simplest tasks bring us joy. There is a lightness in the realization that each moment only consists of simple things: that it’s only when we get taken over by thoughts that situations become complex. In this way, we tap into a never ending supply of joy, and “wanting” loses its influence over our interactions with life.
From this platform of fulfillment, we now scan scenes to see what we can give rather than get. And the more we give, the more we realize we have to give. In that giving, we experience a far deeper joy than we experienced from getting. As we look around us, we begin to see solutions instead of problems. For the first time we know what it is we have to do beyond any concept of what we might otherwise have chosen to do, and we have the energy and focus to rise to the challenges before us.
We begin to stretch ourselves in ways we never imagined ourselves doing, and loving in a way that we never thought possible. Outwardly the world still appears the same to those around us, but inwardly we have experienced the truth of “the man behind the curtain”. We are no longer fooled by the illusion of problems, and as mind-made distractions fall away, the real issues stand revealed. We bring ourselves to those issues and merge with them, acting upon them from the inside with a love that is beyond comprehension.
In that way, we begin to heal the wounds incurred in the schizophrenic battle of the illusion of a separate-self as we begin to experience ourselves as part of the whole of life. The power and effectiveness of our actions inspire those around us to begin to question all the ways their thoughts have limited their being in this world. We shift from growing up to growing wise. Embodying a mindset of giving from a place of abundance, we experience fulfillment, joy, and healing, as we bring an enthusiastic energy to each situation through a multitude of inspired acts of love.
As you move through your day today, I encourage you to pause and ask: “What is it that I can give in this situation?” There may not always be an apparent answer, but even just the act of asking is one that will lead to an experience of love. It is a question that helps you step out of the stream of thoughts by bringing you into the present moment, and that presence can heal in ways far deeper than the human mind can begin to comprehend.