Good morning from Sunnyvale. Today’s Wednesday and Wednesdays are for questions. What is sparking the questions I want to offer today is a conversation I’ve had with several different people. It’s about how you decide whether you’re going to show up live and in person to an event or gathering versus participating on the phone or zoom or whatever. I think that one of the positive side effects of COVID and that period of time was people getting more comfortable and happier in their personal space. Now, of course, that wasn’t the case for everyone, but many people got more comfortable being with themselves and being alone.

I think there’s a fine line between wanting to be alone and appreciating being alone and isolating yourself. In fact, I’ve been noodling what I’m going to do next, and one of my considerations is as much as I really do love to be alone a lot of the time, I do really see the value of being with other people and getting energy and sharing ideas and stories. That’s a fine line we’re all walking.

I know some people spend an enormous amount of time online for work, and then oftentimes all they want to do is be alone. But in being alone, they’re cutting themselves off from needed energy and ideas and human connection. Anyway, that’s part of the reason I’m going to this AI and Wisdom conference, and I’m making an effort to see some of my new friends from my experience at MEA, the Modern Elder Academy.I don’t want that to be a once and done experience. I gained a lot from being around people.

I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of this idea of entrainment. There are all different types of entrainment –  neural entrainment, sensory entrainment – and it’s about falling into rhythm and the synchronization and the adjustment and moderation of our behavior that comes from being together. There is a synchronization of brainwave activity and for example, sensory entrainment induces a specific mental state. That’s part of the reason it’s important to be around like minded people and to seek them out and to make the effort. That’s why I chose to be in the audience at the AI and wisdom conference. I want to be in a large room of like-minded people thinking about important issues in the world. And I want to break bread and share the table with some of my new friends after we had this incredibly intimate and beautiful experience together. And I need and want to be alone.

So the questions I’m offering today are related to this , and they came from an interview I listened to with Jen Sincero, the author of You Are a Badass. She was talking about how after a lot of her success COVID was a time of retreat, and she took it a little bit too far. Anyway, in the interview she did with my friend Susie Moore which I talked about in episode 6, she shared the questions and the filters she uses to decide if she’s going to get out of her pajamas and make an effort, and here are the questions. The first one is, will it be fun? The second one is, will it give me energy or deplete my energy? The third one is, does it have meaning? I’ll say them again. Will it be fun? Will it give me energy or deplete my energy? And does it have meaning?

I feel like these are important things to think about today because there’s so much going on in the world right now. These are tumultuous times. It is very easy to retreat and I think it’s an important time that we stay connected and that we seek out loved ones and we don’t close ourselves off from the world.

I’ll leave you with that thought today. . Until next time, from my heart to yours.