“I simply feel that a human being must always recognize that he is qualitatively more than any system of thought he can imagine, and therefore, he should never label himself. He degrades himself when he does.” - Alan Watts
When you concentrate on the middle of your chest - this is where loving awareness lives. This is the spiritual heart. Not the beating heart, not the emotional heart. This spiritual heart goes way back - goes back many incarnations. We call it the soul.
One of the biggest things that holds us back from living inspired lives is caring more about what our life looks like on paper than what makes us really happy.
Our society is not designed in a way where you can be a conformist and have it all. If we do what most do – if we follow what’s normal and what’s average – we will get average results.
Normal in the modern era can mean hating your job, being in debt, being physically unhealthy, being surrounded by unsupportive people, being locked into an overpriced mortgage, being locked into an overpriced car lease, being locked into materialism, being afraid of going all in.
It would be nice to be able to be seen as normal and still have it all: Purpose, passion, love, an amazing supporting cast, an amazing career, good health, enough sleep, downtime for reflection, flow, spontaneity, creativity – and everything else we really want deep down.
But the fact of the matter is, having all of these things – or even most of them, all at once – is extremely rare. It’s not average. There’s nothing normal about it.
We cannot be normal and get abnormal results.
Fuck what your life looks like on paper.
Figure out your non-negotiables, and make those the core focus of life. Ruthlessly cut out all of the other things that you waste time on to seem normal to people who aren’t interested in understanding or accepting you anyway.
The ones who are also going all in on fulfillment will understand.
Normal is overrated. Struggling mercilessly behind the scenes just to put on a happy mask borders on tragedy.
Don’t wait for outside permission to stray from convention. Believe me, the others hate it too.
Sometimes, the most *mystical thing we can do- is rest. We
can let go of doing, becoming, achieving and fighting. We can, just for a
little while, give ourselves permission to
rest. In the obscenely busy world in which we live, where deep connection has been
traded for busy-ness, and urgency syndrome has become the psychological norm, a
few hours or days of rest can be a sweet, sweet medicine to heal and nourish
your soul. In the time of rest, you don’t need to solve any problems; you don’t
need to be profound, and you don’t need to figure it all out. All you need to
do- is rest. Begin to rest and nourish your nervous system every once in a
while and see how much more efficiently you digest your life. Re-calibration is
a necessary nutrient that your soul NEEDS in order to decompress and expand.
So, if no one has given your permission to rest lately, the Universe is sending
out the invite- especially for *you♥
