It’s okay to get lost sometimes. If you get anxious, stop and take a deep breath. You’ll see a camp fire in the distance. Follow it and you’ll be surprised what you find.
Nowness
Compound Beauty Part 2 of 2
In the previous post I wrote about my neighbor and her beautiful garden. She’s always working on it. Her clippers are always in her right hand as she wanders through the garden. She’s a quick draw and will snip a dead shrub or feral branch in the blink of an eye. Her clippers are close at hand and she’s prepared.
Here’s lesson number two: Part of constant tweaking and improving is that you got to be prepared with the right tools. Make it easy to improve and tweak. Structure your day so that you have time to exercise, eat a good breakfast so you don’t snack on junk during the day, buy healthy food so that when you want to snack you have good food close by, set up filters on your email so that you give full attention to the right people.
Equip yourself with the right tools and it’s easier to improve day to day.
Compound Beauty Part 1 of 2
I have a neighbor with a green thumb. Her garden is wonderful. It’s like the one in the film The Secret Garden, but in California. It’s full of flowers and trees like roses, maples and nasturtiums. With the flowers come humming birds, dragon flies and bumbles bees. It’s a beautiful place to just sit and be. Here’s what I’ve learnt from her style of gardening: Always be improving. Whenever she’s out in the garden she does a little weeding, clips a branch here and there, tames an unwieldy mint patch or waters a thirsty lemon tree. Maintaining her garden isn’t done once a week, it’s an ongoing labor of love. The result is a wonderful living and breathing sacred place.
It’s a good lesson for work and relationships. Always be clipping and making small improvements. Small improvements accumulate like compound interest – it starts to gain it’s own momentum. Next time you are mindlessly checking Facebook, stop and ask yourself a question: Instead of infinitely scrolling to nowhere, where could you be clipping, weeding or watering in your own life?
Relax
You have arrived
Uitwaaien
Uitwaaien is a Dutch word which means to walk in the wind. Taking a breather in nature to clear your head and lift your spirits.
A walk through the bush is better than the caffeine injection from coffee or the endorphin kick of exercise.
Take a walk in the wind and step into nature, but just remember to leave something behind.
Do a little and do it properly
A lot of people skip daily exercise because of unpredictable schedules, family responsibilities or long work hours. The thinking goes if you can’t get in a proper workout then it’s not worth it. I disagree. Try this instead:
If you’re feeling swamped and can see that exercising isn’t going to happen that day then shorten the exercise window and do one piece of exercise really well. Break your routine into parts like Lego blocks and pick one. Maybe it’s one good stretch or a one set of pushups or five sit ups. Just do that one thing, do it slowly and be present and focused.
Being all in on one thing is way more effective than rushing through a half-assed routine. Most of the time that one thing leads to two things which leads to three things that are all done well and not rushed.
Digital doors and the importance of being physically present
Physical pilgrimages are important. I used to think that viewing something digitally was enough and that being there physically didn’t matter, but I’ve learned through traveling that being there physically can accelerate a connection to people and places.
Smells, sounds, people and places all trigger feelings that should be acknowledged and processed. There are places where the energy is palpable like airport arrival halls, Yosemite National Park or returning to the town I was born. In other places the energy needs to be stewarded, nurtured or repaired..maybe it’s been drained or sucked on by too many people or it’s been a place of suffering or pain. It’s hard to feel it without physically being there.
It can’t be experienced remotely via digital doors like Facebook, FaceTime and Skype. Digital connections build relationships and we are more compassionate and connected because of them, but physically being in the place is a different level. It’s about resonating with the frequency of the place and in turn having it resonate with you.
Carve out the time and travel. It stimulates growth in you, and in the people and places you visit.
None of us get out of here alive…
Acceptance of our mortality sharpens our focus on being present and enjoying every day. We secretly think we will live forever and bow out when it suits us. That’s the ego telling us we are in control.
We have a limited time in our body. We are all going die. Let that sink in.
Taste the coffee, smell the air, breath deeply and savor every day as it were your last. The acceptance of death increases our day to day joy. What a paradox!
Don’t force it
If you are forcing it then it’s not yoga. Listen to your body
Springboks
Have you ever seen a Springbok in the wild?
They live in the now. Alert, guard never down. The routine is the same. Eat grass, freeze, flare nostrils, smell wind, look around, go back to eating. Keep moving, no time for zoning out.
They stay with the herd. The herd is a connected force shield. When the energy in the bush changes they feel it. A startled bird or a quick movement in the peripheral sends a lightning fast energy ripple through the herd. The herd body is one – muscles tighten, ready to explode in different directions in a split second.
Stay fit, stay connected and smell the wind.
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