What makes you Tick? With social distancing, it might not be what you expect.
“Be clearly aware of the stars and infinity on high. Then life seems almost enchanted after all.” ― Vincent Van Gogh
It would be easy to fill this screen with links of activities, virtual tours, game apps, and online workshops, video chats, and livestreamed concerts to fill your time during this quarantine.
I don’t know about you, but somehow, I find myself with a schedule more packed and widespread than before the world became socially distant from each other.
What happened to a love of boredom, stillness, silence, of empty space?
Some art I’ve been creating in my studio lately - any title ideas?
You can read many articles on why we need boredom to grow, discover ourselves, and learn to trust our instincts. Those are easy to look up, as well as the benefits of mindfulness, meditation, and slowing down.
But don’t go on a Google marathon. The best proof of the benefits of nothing, stillness, and…”boredom…”
…is trying it out and seeing what you discover. Only you can find the answer.
After all, it’s how you discover what makes YOU tick. Your own uniqueness.
I’ve learned – after that endless expanse of years I couldn’t eat or drink, nearly 30 surgeries, and many more detours that circumstances can suddenly become terribly difficult. But if you keep following that road, it eventually leads to a clearing.
That clearing is up to you. And the unknown colors of the sunrise you’ll finally see can be so extraordinary!
I composed "The Sky is Blue" at a time in my life where it was hard to believe in anything.
"Our world may be crumbling, but we still have the sky."
For me, those lyrics especially resonate now.
There will come a time when we look back on this period with fondness – even a romanticized longing. We will remember when life slowed down, when we could not leave our homes, and we were forced to scale down, focus on what really mattered to us, and pay attention to the little moments- we realize in the small moments, how much there is to be grateful for.
So rather than find a Facebook Live broadcast of a national park (although that’s quite fun too) or Instagram a yoga class – or, stayed glued to the news reports and wish the days away, let’s really BE in this moment, whatever moment we have.
Adapting to change is an ongoing endeavor throughout our lives. Life is always moving, growing, expanding with the ever-flowing times. So let yourself be puffed along like little sailboats as the universe blows you forward with a cosmic kiss.
Don’t wait for life to “go back to how it was” to “start your life again.” Embrace these changes and enjoy how it makes you improvise the path you thought you knew.
If we don’t change, if we are not constantly letting ourselves be molded by life’s detours, we get stuck.
And what’s fun about being stuck?
Find the movement in the stillness - how many parts of you can you discover…just by breathing? “Swirling Dancers”
On my own surgical detours, not being able to eat and drink for seven years made me isolated from the world. But if I waited until my life was “back to normal…”
…I’d still be waiting to get my “life started.”
I learned after 28 surgeries that not even surgeons have a magic solution to be “healed.” Only you can sew your life together, no magical surgery will do it for you. We are always reinventing who we are and what we aim to be – so there is no reason not to be perfectly happy now. Otherwise we might miss a miracle. And life is a miracle in itself.
So come along with me and embrace these detours!
Don’t be scared, anxious, or impatient with yourself – taking on these unexpected challenges is an honorable task, how lucky you are! What a glorious opportunity to explore those depths which a steady life could never possibly illuminate.
When we stop fighting against the past, stop worrying about the future, and we surrender to being in the world as it exists now, all anxiety disappears because we realize that we always have the power in the present, we can be happy, fascinated, and in awe of the world we live in at this very moment – it’s in our hands.
If you really get down to it, putting yourself in the now so perfectly is like finely placing yourself on the head of a needle - you can't go anywhere outside of it and so your thoughts don't have room to wander in the vast territory of open emotions and turn themselves into fear, tension, nerves, or anxiety.
“Now” is a very small circle to put yourself in that feels safe.
NOW is so tiny…yet it is also immeasurably large!
Because that little moment is your invitation to thousands of other moments!
Then, your whole world unfolds from there…
Today:
I invite you to take one more baby step to push ourselves beyond our limits and explore something new, see these detours from a slightly different angle.
“JOY - “IT’S UP TO ME” NOW
I - I create the quality of my life with my ongoing thoughts.
T - The choice of joy or the opposite is mine.
S - See, hear, and feel the way joyful people see, hear, and feel.
U - Unjoy is created by negative T.W.A: thoughts, words, and actions.
P - Perspective makes me happy or unhappy.
T - Talk to yourself the way you would if you were a master of joy.
O - Oneness of humanity gives me many opportunities for kindness.
M - My unconditional joy & love creates a magnificent life.
E - Every moment of joy is stored in my awesome brain and I can access those moments whenever I choose.
”
So think about it.
Nevermind.
Don’t think.
Be in it:
What
Makes
You
…
Tick?
For every day, year, moment of medical isolation, I was pushed to sit with myself, and sometimes it was hard, until that hard gave way to something very illuminating. (I share all the details in my book.)
Sit and wait for a miracle. It could be flying from the next leaf brushing past your window.
How are you finding ways to come closer to yourself, others, and the world we live in right now?
How lucky we are.
““Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness. It took me years to understand that this too, was a gift.” ”