- Struggle to meditate.
- Struggle to dance.
- Struggle to love.
At our core… these are truth. These are nature. These are pure.
Everything that causes us to struggle is lies… nurture… tainted.
I help busy people do inner work.
At our core… these are truth. These are nature. These are pure.
Everything that causes us to struggle is lies… nurture… tainted.
After I upload a quote to MoveMe Quotes, it’s important I tag it with the appropriate topics/themes.
For example, I uploaded a quote today that reads, “You start dying slowly if you do not travel, if you do not read, if you do not listen to the sounds of life, if you do not appreciate yourself. You start dying slowly when you kill your self-esteem; when you do not let others help you. You start dying slowly if you avoid to feel passion and their turbulent emotions; those which make your eyes glisten and your heart beat fast. You start dying slowly if you do not change your life when you are not satisfied with your job, or with your love, if you do not risk what is safe for the uncertain, if you do not go after a dream, if you do not allow yourself at least once in your lifetime, to run away from sensible advice…” ~ Pablow Neruda
Now, obviously this quote is about death—and how not to die slowly—so I tag it “Death Quotes.”
But… more importantly, this quote is about living—and how to truly live before you die—so I tag it “Living Quotes.”
And this duality is an important concept to understand when dealing with insight.
If you want to understand life—study death. If you want to understand death—study life. If you want to understand self-love—study self-hate. If you want to understand self-hate—study self-love. If you want to understand connection—study solitude. If you want to understand solitude—study connection. And so on.
Are you studying the duality of the problem(s) you’re facing in your life?
Don’t waste time alone.
Society might have you brainwashed into believing being alone is a bad thing. Like, “Why are you still single?” or “Did you go there alone?” or, you know, the looks and tones.
And social media might have you trained into believing that turning it on and scrolling is socially connecting you—so as to distract you from the alone.
And the feelings of boredom might make you cringe and restlessly pace in circles over doing anything still and meditative when your calendar appears blank and your battery charge goes.
But… being alone is not a bad thing.
Don’t… waste time alone.
Time alone is time that can be spent turned inward… exploring the inner landscapes… uncovering the hidden gems of insight buried within the depths of your mind.
Time alone is time that can be spent healing… unpacking and reflecting on pains of the past… bringing clarity to thoughts tangled by writing them down… absorbing information from the most brilliant minds to have ever arranged words into practical, life-changing ideas.
Time alone is time that can be spent present… slowing down from the rush of the modern day wave… soaking in the information that’s touching your senses in the here and now—that may never again touch again in the same way… being grateful for the experience of life—despite all of its ups and downs…
Being alone is not a bad thing.
In fact, it may very well be precisely the thing that more of us need.
Don’t… waste time alone.
P.s. If you enjoy these 1-min messages, would you reply with a 1-line testimony that I can add to this landing page? :)
Why do we look at ourselves in the mirror so frequently throughout the day?
Like, we just saw ourselves 10 minutes ago after getting out of the shower… why must we check our appearance again after getting dressed? And again after getting into the car? And again after getting to work? And again in the store mirror? And again and again and again…?
Maybe it’s because we know things change—and can change rather quickly and unexpectedly.
Like, what if we got a piece of food stuck in our teeth? Or our hair got messed up? Or our clothing malfunctioned and a little more skin was showing than we intended?
…I’d be lying if I said I didn’t check for these things throughout the day.
…And there’s nothing wrong with this.
My followup question however, is how often do you check the mirrors that reflect your inner state?
People are much more likely to mention a piece of food stuck in your teeth or hair standing up or a wardrobe malfunction than they might be to mention a sour mood, an unusually short temper, or a judgment malfunction…
People can help us with our outer reflection, but our inner reflection is mostly on us to check-in with.
…Which we do by meditating, reflecting, writing, and mindfully walking or conversing.
If this isn’t already a part of your day, maybe it’s time to make it a part of it. And, like physical mirror check-ins, maybe it don’t have to be so formal… after all, “look in the mirror” probably isn’t blocked into your days… yet you do it all the time.
…What if you did the same with your inner mirror?
We write when we’re emotionally “drunk” because we can reference, in real-time, highly potent human emotions. Emotions that each present as their own color that we get to dab and use in the painting of our life.
Writing when we’re only feeling one kind of emotion leads to a very one-colored painting. Writing our way through all of the emotions is how we welcome the full color spectrum onto our canvas.
But, we also write when we’re emotionally “sober” because we can edit or re-work any of the “drunken” brushstrokes we might’ve made with a calm, clear mind. A mind that sees the whole canvas and not the singular brushstrokes. A mind that sees how the various colors interact and if any of it needs to be adjusted. A mind that can bring harmony to all of the colors that present in our masterpiece.
…If we want to continue writing (and painting) the most raw, accurate, compelling story (masterpiece) possible, we should do so both when we are deep in the midst of our most potently raw, human states and when we’re crystal clear and able to shape those expressive bursts into accurate and compelling pieces.
…In other words, it’s always a good time to write.
Don’t let the “drunken,” fiery bursts of passion or mundanity of everyday “sobriety” intimidate or dissuade you.
It all serves a purpose.
…We just have to keep showing up to the canvas to figure out what purpose today’s brushstrokes might serve.
P.s. I sip on coffee while I write these. If you enjoy these posts, you can support my future work by supplying me with my next cup of joe here :)
I meditated with a group for the first time today.
We met at a local park, sat in the grass, did 15 minutes of quiet sitting, 15 minutes of quiet walking or continued sitting (most kept sitting), and finished with another 15 minutes of quiet sitting.
Then, after everybody came out of their practice, the group spent 15 minutes discussing a topic.
Before we began, I asked one gentlemen what brought him to the group and he said he had a hard time meditating alone.
Which struck me because what is a meditation group, but a group of people who are practicing being alone… together?
There’s that element of connection during the discussion portion, but for 45 minutes, it’s just you. And if being with you is hard for you, for any duration of time, it’s as good an indicator as any that inner work is needed.
I don’t say this from a place of judgment, but from a place of compassion.
Because of all the company you keep in your life, there should be no better company than the company you keep with yourself. And the more you improve the company you keep with yourself, ironically, the better the rest of the company you keep will become, too.
Some questions to reflect on: (1) Have you ever considered practicing being alone? (2) Have you ever considered practicing being alone, in a group? (3) What, if anything, is coming up that’s preventing you from starting a practice like this?
P.s. In case you missed it, you can read the best of what I posted to MoveMe Quotes last week, here.
It’s worse to take an interest in irrelevant things than to do nothing at all.
What might be some examples of irrelevant things?
At least when we do nothing at all we get to sort through and settle what’s already on our mind, allow our imagination and creative sides to flex, and do some of the inner work that leads to greater feelings of contentment and fulfillment.
What I see, however, is most people living as if doing nothing is some kind of bad thing. As if it’s some sort of signal that we have nothing better to do. But, don’t get it twisted, doing things that are irrelevant to our path forward (what’s going to help us grow and improve) isn’t better—it’s the opposite.
Investing attention into irrelevant things is investing into distractions. Distractions which take our attention away from what is relevant to our path forward—ourselves. Which, surprisingly enough, is easiest to explore when we do more of the very thing we may have been subconsciously trying to avoid this whole time: nothing at all.
P.s. Does the thought of doing nothing freak you out? My guide can help with that.