Covering the Basics

     Covering the Basics then. What is the mindset? What preparation have I made? Already that day I have 1) designed my mood, 2) decided not to be on automatic, 3) in all situations, to look and see, listen and hear, to be.

     What resides foremost in my active mind - how will I perceive the world? The answer – I’ll bow to how life is, I’ll realize that all the people I meet are one with me, I’ll recognize that I have a choice in all things, I’ll remember that I must allow people to come into my presence as perfect beings - not limiting them in my story about them and with no judgment, I’ll have no expectations about how they should be or act, life is continuous change, I am a beginner in so many areas, and that my words are very powerful. That’s how I’ll start each treatment. That’s how I’ll do life.

(That's my travel Gladstone bag.)

7,000 steps/161lbs

You can’t try to do things; you simply must do them. - Ray Bradbury

We Are Connected

The Basics then. Can we start with everything? We are, quite correctly, stardust. It just turns out that way that the planet and all that is therein comes from the cosmos, not to put too fine a point on it. The same atoms are used over and over again, have been for the past several years just slightly rearranged; Lily Tomlin says we are time-sharing atoms. Is there a connection between all things because of this?

The First Five Practices

"And for "But"
Perfect Just As You Are
Upset is Optional
No Judgment
My Own Story

4,000 steps/159lbs

Everything is connected. . .no one thing can change (or be changed) by itself. - Paul Hawken

Doing This Life

How do we do life? I think - no, I'm convinced - that we'd each do better achieving our own glorious success by whatever measure we wish to use if we had a plan or maybe a toolbox with those strategies therein to enable us to get through life, easily and effortlessly, with the most grace and to enjoy the most juice. Assuming that we are well along in life, perhaps into our thirties, by the time we discover this particularly scintillating truth, how do we recover?

How do we overcome being a regular snot around our Aunt Martha? How do we act like a grown up when Dad gets a wee bit drunk? How do we rein in that sarcasm whenever the subject of our boss comes up? How do we refrain from earnestly offering our advice on so many subjects? How can we get through our drama, vindictiveness, revenge, anxiety, grief and so forth?

(A brief aside here. There is no new thing under the sun. Most of this formidable stuff comes to us from the weekend-long seminar called Redefining Health at the Tai Sophia Institute in Laurel, MD.)

So, what are these basics? Where do we start? So much to cover. . .

1,500 steps/158.5 lbs

To acquire knowledge, one must study, but to acquire wisdom, one must observe. - Voltaire