The Wisest Thing We Can Do

"If you must look back, do so forgivingly. If you must look forward, do so prayerfully. However, the wisest thing you can do is be present in the present. Gratefully."

- Maya Angelou

The enlightenment of Buddha and the Heaven of Jesus were never places to get to. They have always been a state of mind to realize, completely in this moment. And they’re not special states of mind. They’re actually the ordinary, everyday, everyone-has-access-to-it being present in the present.

What’s so profound about this natural state of awareness is that experiencing the raw, unadulterated experience of Right Now is the most insightful, influential, clear, and true experience available to us.

It’s where our true self lives.

There are points in my workshop and in between my coaching calls where I think to myself, “No one really needs this conversation. All we’re doing is getting present in the present.” And then I’m either coaching someone or getting coached, and I realize how easy it is for us to buy into our narratives and simply get distracted from what really matters: the experience of being alive, our family and friends, our passions and interests.

Being present in this moment - the only moment that we ever really experience - is both the goal and the access. It’s where the state of flow resides. It’s where we do our best work. It’s where enjoyment lives. It’s where life thrives.

See what happens when you bring your attention fully to the present moment. Allow the stories and judgments and worries and expectations to just be there, and bring your attention to your breath, your body, your environment, and the people around you.

You might just find yourself falling in love with life and the people in it all over again. After all, life is only ever happening right now, in the present.

"Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

- Ferris Bueller

Have a great weekend, and thanks so much for reading. ❤️

Our Continual Crossroads

A friend and former colleague shared with me that she recently had a breakthrough in her work as an educator. The last couple years had been very challenging for her, and she was very close to quitting. She felt as if she had come to a crossroads: either quit or figure out how to have a better experience of her job. She chose to transform her experience.

She started a new practice of beginning her days with a meditation, a spiritual reading, and prayers; she also closed out her days with a meditation, reading, and prayers. She used these tools to ground her in what matters most to her. With these simple practices she was able to get in touch and stay in touch with a core part of who she is, her love for the people in her life.

By calming her mind, she began to live more commonly in a state of relaxed well-being, a state from which she could hear the whispering of an internal wisdom, a universal intelligence guiding her to well-being.

In the midst of a challenging situation with a parent who was yelling at her on campus, she was unfazed. With the seeming endless demands of the constituents with whom she works, she is at peace and in action. Throughout her day she’s able to settle her mind and foster a consistent appreciation and enjoyment in being alive. At the end of the day she’s able to turn off work-mode. (She's also much more effective in her work now.)

We think we must stress our way to productivity, think our way to ease, or complain our way to changes. We think we need to worry our way to safety, struggle our way to growth, or sacrifice our way to success.

All of that is untrue.

It’s also detrimental - to our own well-being, to the well-being of our family and loved ones, and to the well-being of our colleagues and students.

When Gandhi said “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” he didn’t mean to work at it so that some day you could be that change. He didn’t mean to stress and worry over it. He didn’t mean to analyze all your problems and shortcomings (or those of others) until you could feel yourself as the change. He meant to actually be the change here and now.

What if that were possible for each of us right now? What would you like to bring into your own life as a way of being?

Chances are, the best path to that way of being isn’t the path of stress, fear, worry, contempt, discord, or frustration.

My friend observed that she was at a crossroads and she chose to actively engage with her life in a new way. She now lives life from intention, gratitude, enjoyment, and love, and that’s all she needed to transform her experience.

What if you are currently standing at a crossroads in life too? What’s your choice?

One perspective we could take is that we’re always at a crossroads, moment-by-moment. Do you choose fear or love? Do you choose desire or integrity? Do you choose worry or ease?

The more often we make the choice that's in line with our inner knowing, the easier it gets to choose it.

(By the way, sometimes the best choice is to not make any choice at all, at least not right now.)

Thanks so much for reading. ❤️

Curiosity

Curiosity is an exploration that happens in this moment.

Curiosity is putting attention over there.

Curiosity is asking questions, and then more questions, and then more questions.

Curiosity is an invitation to others to engage and explore with us.

Curiosity is taking another look even when we know we're right.

Curiosity is checking things out and looking at objects, people, feelings, and ideas from different angles.

Curiosity is a way to understand something differently, to learn something new, to shift who we’ve been and who we’re becoming.

Curiosity is joy-inducing, enlivening, and freeing.

Curiosity is letting go of the (often) arrogant and limiting notion that we already know something.

Curiosity is an easy and powerful access to insight, wisdom, love, and clarity.

Curiosity is a gift we give to ourselves as well as to others, much like love, compassion, trust, and generosity.

Curiosity is looking out into the future and being willing to see much more than what we know from the past.

Curiosity is a path to breakthroughs.

Curiosity is safe.

Curiosity is not what killed the cat; lack of awareness did that.

Thanks so much for reading. ❤️