Part One: Knowing yourself is key to being able to change
We all think that we know ourselves… and then when it turns out to be wrong, we are surprised, but unphased in our certainty that we know ourselves.
Why is it nearly impossible to you to know yourself?
Because self-reflection is an intangible, spiritual capacity that can only open up if and when you look at your effect, your reflection, your feedback from the world around you.
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This morning I received an email from a young man who paid me to measure his starting point measurements.
He could be speaking for you.
I need to take better care to my physical body. Like you said, drinking more water is the first step.
I don’t take care of my body, and I can’t understand why.
I feel like I’m missing gratitude. I hate to say it but I don’t feel grateful, and I don’t understand why.
Gratitude probably will come up to everyone, at least in the United States, where this week is Thanksgiving week… and you are supposed to be grateful. Or pretend that you are.
The more lavish your Thanksgiving, the more money you spend, the more food on the table, the more you do it to cover up that you are pretending. And pretense is the killer of the spirit.
I had an interesting unintended experiment this afternoon.
I have a loud burr coffee grinding machine.
I was ready to make some coffee (I drink cold dripped coffee) and ground the coffee beans while I was doing something else.
I found out that I am much better ignoring memes than ignoring loud noises. I could not hear myself thinking. I was making mistakes… I pondered what I was doing…
This gave me an opportunity to put myself in your shoes. What it must be like to be living in the constant jarring noise of the memes…
Here is what I have seen so far:
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This week has been a success for Life, and a disaster financially. Everyone was spending their money on turkey, I guess.
So I am going to announce some sales for this coming week. I’ll make them good… so you’ll buy.
Now, about the successes that lead me to a huge insight.
Everything that people do is guided by memes, and they think they decided to do it. And you think they decided to do it from the goodness of their heart, from the badness of their heart, whatever seem to be the case. But in fact they never decided anything… It is the memes that are doing the deciding.
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I had a conversation with Zsuzsa, a friend of mine from architecture school.
I normally hide from her, because she is traditionally very negative. But last instant messaging we had she sounded upbeat, so I thought, I’d give it a try. I know how to break off a conversation when it goes south.
As fate has it, she broke her hand a few months ago, it didn’t heal well, and she has had a lot of pain. Interestingly it has changed her. Permanently or temporarily, I don’t know. My hunch is that it is temporary…
Anyway, I shared with her my experience with the nose bleed. She didn’t quite grasp it at first. She has had nose bleeds but her first thought wasn’t: this is the beginning of the end, so for her the chance of a breakthrough with that would have been small.
On the other hand, given that she is an architect, her right hand is her bread and butter, so creating a new way to look at it was a definite breakthrough for her.
I was mulling over this today as I was washing my hands in the bathroom.
“You need to trust the whisper inside your head that says that what’s happening is a good thing.” I thought, but then I cringed. Some 58 years ago I thought just that and where did it lead me?!
People are looking how to make this ‘staying at home’ thing less restraining and more enjoyable.
I got this suggestion in an email yesterday:
In my last email, I admonished you to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. So, if you are wondering how to conquer fear, then here’s what I did: I offered to help other people. Simple!
There are always people that need help (for different things), especially in these difficult times, and… Helping someone else is incredibly empowering and liberating.
It could be as simple as offering to help an elderly neighbour with her shopping or helping a relation leverage digital tools for their business. By the way, I’m doing both. 😉 So, offer to help someone else (for FREE) and before you know it – you would have stepped away from a place of fear.
And here is another story:
One night, the Shah dressed up as a peasant to enjoy the evening air undisturbed by his rank, and to wander through the streets of his empire unnoticed. He walked through town and reached the poor section of town. The street was quiet, but suddenly he heard singing from a little cottage. As he peaked through the window he saw a man sitting at a table. Continue reading How to Live More Abundantly… stories
