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Today is the last day of January. It’s also the last day of something I started on January 1 called the Sacred Hour Challenge, which was to create and honor one hour at the beginning of every day of the month of January. What you put in that hour was almost completely up to you. Almost, because you could not fill it with communication with the “outside world” of any kind, i.e. things like news, social media, email, texts, phone calls, or something that distracts you from your purpose during this hour, to focus your attention inward.

Here’s what I learned:
1. Avoiding the temptation of all the options to see and communicate with the outside world that my iPhone affords IS POSSIBLE. Prior to this month, I had tried and failed many times to avoid the temptation of the dreaded notification badges on apps, the attraction to the possibility…

Do you know how you can create an entire future fantasy for yourself in the blink of an eye?

Like after you’ve gone out on a first date with someone you like and you’ve suddenly created a future with them where you’ve dated, married, moved into a big house, had kids, etc?

It’s your mind’s full-time job to protect itself and your ego from annihilation by constantly predicting the future by evaluating the past… so that it can make sure you’re prepared for the worst.

It spends every moment of every day doing this… and making sure that you know all the ways you haven’t measured up.

In addition to creating an impossible to please inner critic, this mental obsession with predicting…

We’ve been conditioned by the ongoing cultural narrative in the world that we should be seeking out, looking for, and ending up with our soulmate.

You know… that perfect person who “completes you”?

Does that person even exist? And why do you need “completing”? What makes you think you aren’t whole and complete exactly as you are?

What if your soulmate is the person right under your nose?

YOU!

What if the love you’ve been seeking is the very love that you need first to give to yourself, unconditionally?

What if by giving yourself that love, you fill your cup to overflowing, so that…

If you’re moving fast through your life, there is only a certain amount of detail you can see. And for most of us, when we’re moving that fast, it feels borderline out of control. I was talking to a client today… for her, that means focusing outwardly on all her responsibilities in her life (family, kids, work, relationship, health, home) and making sure they are all taken care of. She goes on, barreling along through her life at breakneck speed, white-knuckling the steering wheel, hoping she can keep all the plates balanced, seeing as much as she can see, while…

Tell the truth. I’ve heard that since I was a kid. So I did tell the truth… I was a Boy Scout and a US Marine for goodness sake. But as I’ve found out much later in life, there are many layers to the truth. And while telling the truth at the outermost layer can be difficult to begin with, telling the REAL, RAW, and RELEVANT truth to yourself about yourself and your life… well, it can be so difficult, that it’s completely obscured from your vision. For me, it was telling myself the truth about the really deep lack…

Have you ever noticed your incredible ability to tolerate suffering? We spend 30, 40, 50 years of our life developing mental and emotional habits that create life for us the way it is, the way we know it. These habits are all about proving to ourselves (and others) that we are enough, we’re worthy, and we’re not imposters. But here’s the catch… we never believe it! No matter hard we try, how well things might go in our life, we never do enough to prove to ourselves that we’re enough and worthy. And so we suffer in self-judgment. And… we’re…

It’s easy to sit back in the comfort of your easy chair, look out at the world and say, “I could do that if I really wanted to.” It’s also sometimes useful to look at things in your life through the lens of, “It’s just practice,” in order to relieve you from the anxiety, fear, and worry that can come with performance anxiety. However… NOTHING compares to stepping foot into the arena with a willingness to compete, to test yourself against yourself and others, with a desire to give your best and a willingness to fail if that’s what’s destined….

Life is constantly pulling at us all… 24/7. Kids, boss, carpool, spouse, employees, birthdays, reports, food shopping, meetings, email, texts, social media, getting gas, doctor visits. It’s a never-ending stream of things, people, and responsibilities… honestly, it’s no wonder that for most of us, there is NO TIME left over for us at the end of the day. And therein lies the problem. Do you want a sure-fire way to NOT get what you want out of your life? Simple – DO NOT include yourself in that list. DO NOT make yourself a priority. DO NOT keep commitments to yourself….

“I don’t mind what happens.” Do you mind what happens? If you don’t think so, perhaps ask yourself in a different way. Do I get triggered, upset, angry, resentful, disappointed, anxious, worried, stressed, peeved, depressed, etc? If the answer is no to ALL the above, then I’d say you pretty much don’t mind what happens, and your life is probably looking pretty fantastic! Congrats! But if you do mind, if you do get upset or triggered or have feelings like those described above, then it’s a great sign that there is INNER work to be done. Why? Because it’s the…

Life is incredible. The grandiosity of the universe in its magnitude. The incredibleness of the parts of even just this planet that we can’t see, but know are there. And what about the entire ecosystems of life going on inside our bodies… that we don’t have to pay one bit of attention to for it to function properly and keep us alive? Life always finds a way. It’s a miracle, really. Fills me with gratitude. Renews faith. Builds trust. Pulls me out of fear of the future or judgment of the past and brings me fully face-to-face with the uncertainty…

Have you ever felt pressure to get the right answer? To KNOW what you’re going to say before you say it? To KNOW you’re not going to sound stupid when you open your mouth? To know more than everyone else around? I have. That mindset “visits” me every day… sometimes affecting everything I do, and other times just serving as a reminder of my desire to not “live” there. Of all the possible things to know in the universe, I KNOW very little of them. The place that is “all that I know” is tiny… and is not so intriguing….

I’ve been in a hurry all of my adult life. I’ve lived most it thinking that: – if it takes the ‘normal’ person 60 minutes to do something, I can do it in 30 – If I don’t follow up on that, chances are it won’t get done – I need to jump on getting started because I want to be ahead of the game – I need to hurry up and seal the deal because if I don’t, they might find out the truth and not stick around – If I don’t hear back from someone relatively quickly, I…