The Practice of Your Life

The Exercise and Pursuit of a Consciously Created Life

Amazing how many things we do for no good reason

Oct 23
2008

So I’m writing a book, and after explaining what the book is about to a good friend, he asks me why am I writing it?  I gave the obvious answer of course, “Because I’ve always wanted to write a book.”  And then comes the predictable question, “Why?”

And then my mind produces a deluge of possible answers:

Because I have something to say, that is important?  Because I want to be famous/rich/acknowledged?Because I want people to get how smart I am?

Note the question marks.  It’s just amazing to me that I had not thought of why I wanted to do this.  I then began really thinking and writing about the purpose of the book.  What would it mean to me, my readers, to people that I… Continue reading

Breakthrough in being with another’s POV

Oct 17
2008

The other day I was having a drink with a good friend of mine and he began to relate his impression of one of the political candidates in the upcoming election.  To say that his view was completely at odds with my own is to put it mildly.  What was really interesting though was that I noticed the initial feeling that got triggered by his words. The feeling that came up was anger, or more like an extreme irritation and it was completely reactive.  The thoughts that immediately popped up were your garden variety of “How could you be so stupid?, “Can’t you see how you’re being manipulated?”, “My God, you’re talking about a candidate for the top office …”

And then a miracle happened!

I let it… Continue reading

Context for the “Space”

Oct 10
2008

I posted before about our ability to create a space between stimulus and response. This is of course not Nobel Prize submission material, yet it’s one of those truisms that is so often taken for granted.

What I want to say here is that a practice of creating that Space will be a difficult one to implement, or maybe even impossible without a context for your life.  By context I mean a story about you, who you are, what your values are, and what you’re creating with your life.  If you’re not clear on what your goals are in life and therefore how your colleagues at work, your family at home, your neighbors and members in your communities all fit into your life, you’ll have difficulty making… Continue reading

“Something’s Wrong”

Oct 03
2008

The other day a friend of mine called me to share that he had a huge breakthrough while sitting on the can.  He thought that last bit of detail essential to the share.

The breakthrough that he had during his biological “functioning” was that he was automatically and unconsciously coming from “Something’s wrong.”   From his personal, family and business life he realized he automatically looked at what was wrong with everything.  He wasn’t doing this all of the time, but enough to affect his mood and close him down to new possibilites.

His real breakthrough came from realizing that he could just as easily look at what was right about all these areas in his life … and presto!  He did, and immediately his mood shifted; he was… Continue reading