Like fish, we typically grow in proportion to the size of our environment.
Put into a bowl, and we’ll grow bowl-size.
Put into the ocean, and we’ll grow ocean-size.
If you find yourself feeling stuck at “bowl-size,” try swimming into bigger environments. Or focus so much on growing yourself that the bowl-size simply is no longer a good fit.
There’s a whole ocean out there. For all of us. In every field and life dimension.
The question is… what size feels Goldilocks right to you?
“You should take him on a vacation… so that he can best enjoy the time he has left.”
“…Why? So we can forget and drink beers on the beach? …No. No. I’m not doing that. I’m not letting him give up. I’m not giving up. I’ll take him for a walk by the water… so we can talk. I think that’s what he needs most—what he wants most right now. I’ll even help him change is lifestyle so that all the crap gets cut. But quitting isn’t what I want on either of our minds.”
—After hearing a mutual friend’s cancer metastasized and there was nothing more the doctors could do.
I played 3 hours of intense basketball today.
Afterwards, I was spent.
…Walking to my car even felt like a chore.
And as I was driving home, I remembered I still needed to mow the lawn.
…And it felt like pushing a weighted sled at the gym for 45 minutes after running a half marathon.
But what’s interesting is later that night, I watched a legendary DJ set on YouTube that I’ve been meaning to watch for months.
…And for two hours, I danced in front of my TV without so much as a grimace—in fact, it flew by and left me feeling light as a cloud.
It was an incredible reminder that energy follows alignment. And if you’re fighting with yourself for energy, maybe it isn’t your energy levels so much as it’s your energy inhibitors and drains.
…And worth meditating on is how alignment can help fix both.
Before heading to the music show last weekend, after just having finished dinner, one of my friends spotted a group of people hanging out who looked like they were going to the same show as us.
“Let’s go say what’s up to those guys before we head over…” He suggested.
Which isn’t something I usually think to do.
But we did.
And it went way better than I initially felt it would go.
See initially, I felt it would be awkward… like it was a bit of a disruption to their hangout… like it would be better to talk to people who were already at the venue…
But I was wrong.
It was an easy flowing conversation… a welcomed connection before the show… and we had people to look out for once we got to the venue.
This is why it’s so good to hang out with people who inspire you to do things outside of your comfort zone.
It never would’ve happened on my own.
I can’t express to you enough the importance of creating your own weather.
This becomes particularly important when you live in a chronically overcast, gray, cold, rainy place like Buffalo, NY.
If I let the weather dictate my mood, I’d be chronically miserable.
Instead, like the Good Mother herself, I gather various ingredients from what’s available in my immediate surroundings and cast a forecast over my day that’s aligned, predictable, and intentional with the mood I’m looking to nurture.
Music is a fundamental key in this practice. The vocals, instruments, and added sounds play at the exact vibration I’m looking to resonate at. And so rather than look outside at the literal weather, become miserable, and try to think myself into a joyful state… I’ll listen to music that matches what I would define as a joyful frequency and let it pull me upwards and outwards of my mind and into my body.
Mindful consumption is a strong second in the practice. Like food to the body, what gets consumed via the eyes, ears, and other senses has a direct impact on our inner weather. Watch news, gossip, and hate-based media—and so, too, will your mind become. Watch art, contribution, and love-based media—and so, too, will your inner weather become.
And digestion is an under-discussed third. Like food to the body, if you never stop eating—regardless of how healthy the food is—your body is going to feel like it needs to explode. We have a daily calorie limit for a reason—and the same should be true with the amount of minutes we spend consuming. The rest of the time? Digesting. Meditating. Relaxing. Playing. Being.