The Good Stuff Is a Practice

Love, peace, hope, optimism, faith, compassion, interest, generosity - they're not nouns. They're verbs. They're ways of being. They're disciplines and trainings. To master them, they require consistency. They require practice.

Love is a practice.

Hope is a practice.

Optimism is a practice.

Faith is a practice.

Compassion is a practice.

Interest is a practice.

Generosity is a practice.

We're always training our subconscious and conscious mind. We're always training our nervous system. We're always training our body. We're always practicing something.

What have you been practicing for years that you’re ready to leave behind? Are you willing to practice the good stuff?

Here are four previous posts I wrote on practice:

• Practice

• Practice and Progress

• Songs We Never Practice

• The Most Important Practice

Much Love. ❤️

The Symphony of the Universe

Last night, a fly came into the house with me. It flew quickly around the kitchen, bouncing off the ceiling and the walls and a light. 

The night before, I woke up around 3am. I had worries quickly flying and bouncing around my mind just like that fly. About family, about teaching, about work, about choices.

Fortunately, by Grace and by practice, I caught this thought as soon as it showed up: “Ugh, I just want to go back to sleep!”

Instead, I rolled over onto my back to intentionally be with that part of my experience, and I gently made room for my mind to run its course and settle down on its own.

(Ever notice how trying to get the mind to settle down doesn’t actually work. For me, it’s more a practice of taking my foot off the accelerator and just letting the mind coast itself to quiet. It also helps to speak calmly, gratefully, and lovingly to it.)

Almost immediately, by Grace and practice, my mind settled.

Then my stomach started making noises.

I ate dinner late that night, and my body was digesting at 3am. Again, a judgmental thought or two showed up, and I just brought my attention back to my body doing its digestion thing, thanking my mind for trying to help.

My digestion was like a symphony! A sound on the left side, a sound on the right, some hollowness in one sound, some liquid in the other. It was beautiful.

Here’s what I saw (by Grace and practice) that night and still see so clearly: the body is always serving us.

Nearly all of its functions - we’re blind and deaf to them. While I could easily distract myself with worried thoughts, I’d miss the symphony of autonomic digestion. While I could listen to music as I walk, I'd miss the incredible detail, strength, and precision of my foot, ankle, leg, hip, and torso joints. 

Not only do we live in God’s Sculpture Garden - we’re always an audience to the Symphony of the Universe. Each part of our being - the mind, the heart, the body, the senses, the spirit, the relationships - and each part of the universe outside ourselves - the birds, the breeze, the cars, the footsteps - plays an instrumental role in the Symphony of the Universe.

By Grace and practice, we can learn to hear it more clearly and more appreciatively. 

Much Love. ❤️

P.S. When I wrote “the body is always serving us” above, I questioned whether that is true or not. Cancer, for instance - that’s not serving us, is it? Well, it’s not, but it intends to. It’s doing what it “thinks” it’s supposed to do. Just like our minds when they worry, like our hearts when they get anxious - parts of ourselves doing their best, and sometimes it’s not actually helpful. Should we hate them for it? Fight them because of it? Or learn that, maybe, this too I can love? And perhaps that love can help heal…

(As always, 100% human-written.)

Be It Til You Feel It

In a recent conversation, a client said to me that he never really liked the phrase “Fake it til you make it.” Me neither. So we coined a new phrase (at least new to us!):

Be it til you feel it.

I like to think of times of challenge as being in our spiritual dojo. When the challenges show up, it doesn’t matter that they’ve shown up - what matters is how we be about it.

In many ways, most of us are hateful to our discomforts. We suppress it. We fight it. We avoid it. We resist it. We want and pray for it to be different. 

We be this way to our feelings. We be this way to our minds. We be this way toward other people. 

We be hateful and hope that it resolves the discomfort. 

Does it work for you? (It doesn’t work for me.)

Just because I feel uncomfortable doesn’t mean I have to be uncomfortable. Just because I feel resentful, doesn’t mean I have to be resentful. 

That’s the beautiful thing about being - it doesn’t depend on our feelings, and it doesn’t depend on the default thoughts our brains are spitting out. 

You know how lawn mowers have the cord that you pull to get the engine going? For me, a single thought can be that way. It can pop into mind and then rev my emotions right up.

When I’m being compassionate, though, or patient, gracious or loving, the energy doesn’t get stuck and it can move. 

By being more compassionate, I eventually feel more compassion.

By being more loving, I eventually feel more love.

By being more patient (peaceful), I eventually feel more at peace.

Do we have to feel compassion to be compassionate? No. 

Do we have to feel love to be loving? No. 

Do we have to feel patient to be patient? No. 

Here are some powerful questions worth considering when you’re faced with your next challenge:

How can I be more understanding toward this challenge?

How can I be more patient with this challenge?

How can I be more loving with this challenge?

How can I be more curious about this challenge?

How can I be more gentle with this challenge?“

(This challenge” may be a student, a family member, a colleague, the weather, traffic, or yourself.)

Your challenges are your spiritual dojo. Be intentionally toward them. 

Be it til you feel it. Then keep being it.

(As always, 100% human-written.)