Can you remember a time in your life when things felt really overwhelming? What got you through it? Did you work your way through it? Or did something appear out of the blue when you finally let go? My personal experience is that this magic occurs on the other side of my habitual should: “If I only work harder, I can make this happen.” When I have exhausted myself doing more and more of what I know, I remember, “Oh yeah, I just have to let go; all this fighting will never...
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Life is an ever-changing set of competing priorities, where visions become reality in the context of daily demands. For me these days life is occurring at an ever-quickening level of intensity, as my different priorities compete with the mundane for my time and attention. And I know from talking with clients and students that this is a very familiar place for a lot of people. I hear people tell me, often on the verge of desperation, that they cannot figure out how to create...
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I don’t know about you but I think human beings tend to be somewhat crisis oriented. We don’t really reach down into ourselves for answers until everything we’ve tried to do to control the world around us fails. As long as you have the familiar sights around you – things that you think you know – there is a sense of security. But when you leave the place that you know, and things aren’t working (e.g. Thomas Edison’s 1,000 unsuccessful attempts at a...
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A number of years ago, when I first began studying aikido, I had a habit of falling incorrectly and, more often than not, hurting myself. I was very frustrated and though I thought I understood what the right way was, I could not get it right. One night at the end of class, the instructor noticed my disappointment, leaned over to me and said very quietly, “It’s difficult to be a beginner.” That phrase didn’t comfort me much at the time, but it has rung through my ears many...
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What is it about human beings that has us habitually say No to the things we love the most? You know what you need to do (to feel good in your skin, to take care of yourself, to reach your personal goals, to make a difference in the world) but somehow you don’t do it and don’t do it and don’t it. Or you know what you need to not do, and you do it anyway. Again and again and again. So many of the people I work with say things like: “I just want to...
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What do you think it would take for you to say, “I love my life?” Do you need to make more money, leave your relationship, change jobs, get in shape, find yourself, or finally name your Big Why? Do you need to bring more love to What Is here and now? My own experience is that it’s a little bit of both. Some days, the reality of my life just needs me to love it, just as it is, and make a bit of space with compassion for all the things I cannot change. Other...
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