This blog is on summer mode. I began today’s post yesterday (Thursday) morning.

Side note: if you are following the book club posts, there is no week twenty three for something more.

Here is Friday morning (real time):

I feel light and spacious…

I feel light and spacious in my body…

At this time in my journey of personal curiosity and interest in feeling good most of the time, my desired outcome is ultimately to feel light and spacious in my body. I am referring to my joints in relation to movement and physical activity, as well as the main parts/indicators of the nervous system that I refer to in my content: mind, heart, belly, muscles, skin. 

What does it feel like to feel good? 

The best way to respond to this is with curiosity. 

Catch yourself feeling good. For me, the most authentic indicators are present when there are no external conditions that would suggest they are responsible for ‘feeling good’. The environment and external conditions can be wonderfully relevant to how one responds and ‘feels’, but they are mostly elusive and difficult to control. Notice what it’s like to feel good in the absence of external conditions.

When one can orient to a good feeling state, then it seems reasonable for one to intentionally create an algorithm that matches that general state of wellbeing (balance: not too much, not too little, just right). What this means is that one begins to focus on what is helpful, nurturing, authentic, and does not risk harm to self or other. The focus attracts more of the same. Consider what you pay attention to or what shows up in your digital world. Does it match your general belief in what is an authentic and relevant desired outcome for you and what matters to you? Or does it reinforce what’s missing – a general lack and scarcity of what’s possible to get to where you want to go? What shows up can be considered one’s algorithm. One can consider it their data, or results. It can be used as information for personal choice making as to how one wants to show up and express oneself, and what one desires to attract in their own realm of possibility. 

If you are responsible for someone else, it can seem ‘lazy’ or irresponsible for a person to be observed doing ‘nothing’, or seemingly ‘not take action’. If the person you are responsible for is of a different generation, it may be helpful to be open to thinking differently in regard to your belief in action/inaction, or what you observe in the other’s ‘behavior’. One’s thoughts and feeling represent belief, or mindset. Orienting to the ‘right’ or helpful mindset can make all the difference when it comes to action or ‘doing’. One can only control oneself. Noticing how you respond to the other’s choices, allows you the opportunity to consider your own beliefs (thoughts and feelings) in response to what is observable (action or inaction) of the other. One’s ability to orient to one’s own belief in what’s possible for self, and then to direct that same belief toward an ‘other’ is powerful.

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And here is Thursday morning:

Do you – you, just you, when you are you and feeling clear, open, stable – believe you are equipped to move toward discomfort and manage life situations, circumstances, and events? 

If your answer is yes, let’s continue together and be curious allies who believe in life and possibility. 

(Does it strike you as odd that one might consider keeping this opinion to oneself? – as if it’s childish to believe in life and possibility…)

Mantra: I believe in life and possibility. I believe in life and possibility. I believe in life and possibility. I believe…

Of course, physical life has this interesting mirroring effect. I think it’s the curiosity of the tao – everything is always two things: what it is and what it isn’t. And maybe that’s just the physical aspect of a life, whereas the nonphysical is a bit more ethereal: everything and nothing existing as one.

What this may mean is one can hold two competing ideas. In my first example, it would be to fully embrace life while knowing death is absolute; and the mirroring example could be holding the space of curiosity while being an observer of life.

I observe my experience in yoga practice to have a strength in the ‘being and allowing’ of the slow and steady silence. In my experience, physical ability may be considered that one is missing the point of the practice. In my case, I’m quite satisfied to not push my ability and can benefit from intensifying my physical efforts.

Is this making sense?

Another example of ‘the mirror’ is noticing what it is you are attracted to. I notice what I aspire to grow in myself (another way to say ‘lagging’ or undeveloped skillsets) is what I am often attracted to in others. I listen to a number of male podcast hosts and one thing they have in common is a humility in their own experience and a willingness to tell their own story. I am attracted to the authenticity, and in that example the magnet of attraction would be in the ‘like’ force. I appreciate truth and authenticity and therefore I do attract that like force in what shows up often in my experience. The mirror in the attraction would be that I love their intellect and conversational skills. These are skills that I want to grow in myself. 

What I notice about the hosts, is that they have the strength in the skillsets, but are unable to let go of fear. I know this because they are hosting many shows and say it in a version of the same story – especially when they are hosting authors or professionals in the personal growth field.

Yesterday I was drooling over a podcast listen with Rich Roll and Phil Stutz. It’s interesting that what I love about Rich Roll is his intellect, vocabulary, and tone of voice. The other thing I like about Rich is his honesty about himself and how he still struggles with self doubt and deprecation. Phil cut straight through Rich’s self confessed armor of intellect and use of language, and immediately poked the wall Rich has alluded to (I don’t listen to every episode, but the interviews I am drawn to are always topics of personal growth and expansion). 

I mention my admiration of Rich’s intellect because it is what I lack: verbal acuity and an ability to synthesize information and hold authentic conversation. 

On the surface level, I find it interesting that anyone can agree on anything because we all seem to mirror opposing forces. 

Perhaps what Simon Sinek is alluding to in his book The Infinite Game, is that there is a Finite Game where we humans need to get our shit together and decide what we all agree on and what is necessary to move toward collective growth and sustainable outcomes as a whole, while at the same time recognize that we are all pieces of the whole.

Can we humans be open to holding two opposing views? Separate AND equal.

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And here is the excerpt taken from June 14, 2020…

And here is the podcast episode I referenced…