Episode 148 Catching Up To Myself

December 11, 2023

Good morning from Punta del Est. I’m in Uruguay. I woke up this morning to a really sweet invitation from my friends, Eric and Diego, which said  we’re going to X beach for lunch. Would you like to join us? Of course the monkey mind that suffers from FOMO says, well, , nothing you’re doing is more important than saying yes to a beautiful invitation to go to a beautiful beach with your friends. And the other side is saying you’re feeling happy, rested, creative, and inspired. And you should just enjoy this moment and catch up with yourself. So which is it?

We all have those moments when we don’t want to miss out. We feel like we should push ourselves and say yes, yet there’s a part of us that is just happy where we are. In my case, I’ve been moving a lot and I haven’t had enough quiet. I haven’t maintained some of the things that really ground me, and I’m feeling like I’m in that moment when I’m finally catching up with myself. I texted back, I think I’m going to take a pass.

I think the reason I’m sharing that with you right now is because I know this is a busy time of year. It’s a time when many of us start to feel anxious about all of our commitments, and I think oftentimes it comes down to how we frame for ourself the saying yes or saying no. Of  course there’s that great question when you’re saying no, what are you saying yes to? In my case, I’m simply giving myself permission to catch up to myself.

I want to share something I wrote down from this lecture series I’m listening to with the poet philosopher David Whyte. The subtitle is freedom from the distracted mind. Here’s what he said. There’s something about the ability to love your own solitude and the beingness in that solitude that has everything to do with your own sense of freedom. He talks about this moment when maybe we’re free to do whatever we want in the day, but when we wake up to our own to do list and to our sense of being besieged by the world, we’re really not very free at all. We’re almost always bullied by our own minds by the distractions of our texts and our emails and the constant pseudo-responsibilities that we’re generating for ourself. He ends by saying so the ability to say no to things – the ability to say no to everything that is not a powerful joyous yes – this is a very powerful path of freedom to take.

I like that language pseudo responsibilities. In fact, during this lecture he was talking about the difference between our real responsibility and what is our real work –  and how we can distract ourselves from our quiet core when we take on things as responsibilities when really they’re pseudo responsibilities. Those are the very distractions he’s talking about.

So yes, I’d say today by saying no to lunch was about loving my own solitude and about this sense of freedom. Enjoying my own sense of freedom. Maybe saying no is in fact saying yes to what’s really calling your heart. That could just be gathering yourself and finding your quiet finding your way back to your core because when we’re distracted by all that busy-ness, we don’t really show up in our full presence.

Of course showing up in our full presence is the ultimate gift. I can’t imagine that in this busy time of year, there isn’t someone out there who needs to hear that today.

. Until next time, from my heart to yours.

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dear Listeners,

Friends say I live my life out loud. That’s because I’m a curious, adventurous person and, as an appreciator, I simply love to share what lights me up. Consider this is your invitation into my fun, multi-faceted world.

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