Braving the Hot Mess

Magic And Illusion

7/16/2019

This past week was my extended family's annual vacation gathering. Each year we get together in July to connect, enjoy each other's company, have fun, relax and create memories. This year we hired a magician to entertain the group during one of our evening gatherings. The magician started out by addressing the question..."Are magic and illusion the same the thing?" This question reminded me of my post from a few weeks ago on "The story I'm telling myself is...", so I decided to explore it a little more.

An illusion is an image that deceives the mind by producing a false impression of reality. Magic is defined as the art of producing illusions as entertainment by the use of devices. Magic and illusion are often considered to be the same thing.

Illusion is something that looks or seems different from what it is, something that is false but seems to be real. Illusion creates a false image in the mind of something that does not exist in reality. It is a false impression caused by the trick of sight and sound. Mirage is a perfect example of an illusion. It is the mind of a person that is tricked into believing something that is not real. Optical illusions and magic tricks shown by a magician are few examples of illusion. We know that the trick the magician is doing is not possible but he or she creates an illusion and that looks real.

I propose that life is an illusion of sorts. Sometimes we think we see or hear something based on our perception of the situation and we convince ourselves over and over again that the way we see it, our perception, is reality. Our mind is easily tricked into believing something that may not be real. We then create further stories in our mind to justify this reality and our brain looks for additional examples to help support the story.

Social media complicates our view of reality. Perceptions are created based on carefully crafted messages and images that cause us with limited amounts of information to form realities, most of which are truly just illusions.

Text messages can also be easily misconstrued without the benefit of hearing tone and seeing body language, causing us to create an illusion as to what we are seeing and hearing in our head. Something that is false, but appears real based on the made up stories in our head.

In the post a few weeks ago, I shared with you the idea of asking yourself the question…“The story I am telling myself is...", this week I invite you to also consider adding the question…“The illusion I am creating is…”. Being aware and challenging the stories and illusions that we are moment by moment creating, believing, and causing to be our reality can be difficult and yet liberating. It can help us get out from underneath the binds that fear and our perceptions create.

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Faith

7/2/2019

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Do you have faith? If asked about faith, I think most people would say it has to do with religion and your faith in God. It can also mean faith, belief and trust in yourself, others, the universe, etc. If we don't have faith, what do we have? It seems like it would be a pretty desolate life, and state of being, if we were absent of faith.

In the bible, in Matthew 17:20, it states..."Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Here is another way to look at faith from Hebrews !!:1, "Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. If you have faith then you have hope.

I believe that everything is more powerful when it starts with faith. The door is opened for the best things to occur when you let go of your fears and hesitations and just move forward with faith. This can be challenging to do. Faith takes practice, it's like a muscle that you can strengthen through practice.

Our faith can be tested when we experience hardships, illness, disappointment and loss. It's at these difficult times that we can either rely on our faith or turn from it. By holding onto our faith, its possible to see hard times as part of the journey and not as a punishment. Belief that everything happens for a reason. It's a belief that there's more to life than what's in this physical world. This concept can lead us into all kinds of related discussions about lessons, and karma, and the law of attraction, and about purpose and evolving.

Faith is about trusting the journey. Believing that there's a greater plan. Within this plan there are lessons and choices. Faith is about being in a place of yes. Trusting your instincts, your intuition, and sense of knowing that what you believe will unfold. Faith is about letting go, surrendering control and fear and living in a place of trust.

Do you practice exercising your faith? I need to daily remind myself to have faith, to not live in a state of ego and to not relinquish to fear. Tools that help to keep strengthening my faith muscle include on-going learning and reminders through reading about and listening to others who are also practicing their faith, my meditation practice, sharing and teaching faith and other spiritual practices to others, and by having the power of faith demonstrated to me on a regular basis.

Since I've been more actively exercising my faith muscle, life just makes more sense. The challenges of life make more sense too. I'm better equipped to accept them, even if I don't like them, and know that it will all be okay. I'm better able to look at the challenge from all sides and determine why it's being presented to me and what lesson is in it for me.

How do you exercise your faith muscle? What is your faith practice? How has faith enhanced your life? Have you experienced the power of faith? I would love to hear from you and learn about your faith journey.

"Your belief determines your action and your action determines your results, but first you have to believe." Mark Victor Hansen

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The Story I'm Telling Myself Is...

6/25/2019

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What are the tools you use when you are feeling fearful, frustrated, threatened or vulnerable in some way? Do you have tools in your toolbox to pull out and use? I want to share with you a powerful tool that I learned from research professor and author Brene Brown.

When we are in a fearful state of being the brain wants a story. Its main job is to protect us, so if it senses a threat the brain says give me a story, help me to understand what's going on. It wants to know, "Who are the bad guys?" and "Who are the good guys?", so we create a story in our heads about what is happening. According to Brene Brown, "The brain loves a story about bad guys and dangerous things, and in fact if you give it a really good one, it'll reward you chemically. "

Our minds are always thinking...we are a thought factory. We have between 67,000 and 120,000 thoughts per day and most of them are re-runs. Our thoughts create our reality more than anything else. While we can't control what thoughts arise, we can choose how we react. It's our conditioned reactions to our thoughts that quickly influence us and begin to create the story that we tell ourselves.

We think we are our thoughts, our sense of self is created by the stories in our minds and we are very selective about the stories that we choose to play. Making stories up about ourselves and others that we tend not to question, but rather believe.

And most of us tend to ruminate, to replay the same negative stories over and over again in our head. We get stuck in replaying these same old negative stories. Rumination is repetitive, negative thinking about the past, and it's a big factor in sustaining depression.

The more we replay these stories, the deeper the groove becomes in the record in our brain. Neuroscientists tell us that 95% of our thoughts are controlled by our preprogrammed subconscious mind. Instead of actually thinking, you’re looking at a “movie” of the past. Our habit is to lay over the top of the present moment our past experience.

Resilience play a key role in our ability to lead a happy life. People with high levels of resilience ask themselves, "The story I'm telling myself is?" and then get curious about the answer. Try this anytime you are feeling threatened. Lead with it when you are entering into a difficult conversation about how you are feeling. It forces you to examine what your internal dialogue is and present it to the other person to see if it’s what they intended. It's an open-hearted, honest, brave and vulnerable way to address a situation and your thoughts and feelings about it.

Most of the time the story we have made up and are telling ourself isn't an accurate one. Be brave, courageous and pause to challenge your stories, to get curious about them. Frequently ask yourself, "What is the story that I am telling myself about this?" and be willing to look at it with perspective.

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What's Good For The Soul?

6/18/2019

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What's good for the soul? The answer is simple...laughter, good old fashioned laughter. I love deep belly laughing, or crying and laughing at the same time, or laughing so hard that you end up snorting, laughing so hard that your stomach and cheeks hurt, man those are the best!

Do you get enough of it? I know I don't. Can you ever truly get enough of it? Remember the old saying, "Laughter is medicine?", well I believe that it is. I believe that laughter is good for our soul, our mind and our body. Laughter reinforces and brings about a positive emotional state of which promotes overall well-being.

Studies indicate that laughter boosts the immune system and triggers the release of pleasure-inducing neurochemicals in the brain. In the central nervous system, the brain also releases endorphins as a result of laughing. Endorphins are natural, morphine-like compounds that raise the pain threshold, produce sedation and induce euphoria. We feel better when we laugh because endorphins reduce physical and mental pain. Laughter lowers blood pressure, increases blood flow, reduces blood-sugar levels, relaxes the body, relieves tension and stress and burns calories.

Sometimes we may laugh by ourself while watching a funny movie or when we do something silly, but most of the time laughing involves other people. Laughing brings people together and bonds them, it's a great way to connect with others and connecting with others through laughter is therapeutic and promotes well-being.

Did you know that you can even do a laughter meditation? You can do it by yourself, but it's easier with a group. All you have to do is just start laughing, yep that's it just laugh. It will feel awkward and forced for a few seconds, but pretty soon you'll start to genuinely laugh at how silly the attempt at fake laughing is. You only have to do it for a minute of so to reap the benefit. Notice how you feel before you start and again when you are done with the laughing meditation.

Give yourself permission to laugh. Look for the opportunities to create laughter for yourself and others. Be light, be playful, be silly. Turn on a funny movie or stand up comedy act, turn up the music, dance, laugh and be silly, reminisce and share funny stories. When you hear laughter, move toward it, ask what's so funny. Laugh at yourself and share with others your funny, even embarrassing moments. Spend more time with funny, fun and playful people. Look for the humor in challenging situations. Give yourself visual reminders to be playful and laugh.

Life can feel serious, weighted, heavy, overwhelming and busy if we let it. Loosen up a little, have some fun and don't take life so serious, interject some laughter instead.

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The Practice Of Holding Space

6/11/2019

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What can we do when someone is upset, going through a challenge, is suffering and in need of help? You know those many times in life where you maybe feel at a loss for what to do for someone, you don't know how to help. Or maybe you have some thoughts, some ideas, but your advice was not requested. Can you conjure up a few scenarios like these in your head? What can you do in these moments?

Sometimes the best thing we can do is to hold the space. What does it mean to "hold space"? I love how coach and facilitator Heather Plett describes it. She says, "It means that we are willing to walk alongside another person in whatever journey they’re on without judging them, making them feel inadequate, trying to fix them, or trying to impact the outcome. When we hold space for other people, we open our hearts, offer unconditional support, and let go of judgement and control."

We might be holding the space for love, for understanding, for compassion, for empathy, for forgiveness, for light, for miracles, for suffering, for faith, for peace, for joy, for connection, for listening, for learning, for growth, for strength and ultimately for healing. Sometimes the best thing to do, the wisest thing to do, is to just hold the space. To be a space holder for whatever is truly needed. Sometimes in doing what seems like nothing, we do everything.

When you hold the space for someone you are allowing them to feel safe. Safe to feel, safe to explore, safe to listen to their own internal guidance system. It's an opportunity for self-exploration. It's not always easy, we have a natural human tendency to want to fix people, to give them advice, or to judge them. You are giving them the gift of your presence, your complete undivided attention and without judgment, you are opening up your heart and allowing another to have whatever experience they are having without trying to control the outcome.

Holding space is truly about allowing experiences and emotions to arise and pass away. It's about making a safe space so people can actually feel their emotions and see their thoughts. It's trusting that as they allow themselves to fully express what's happening, deeper healing is already at work.

Holding space for someone can be easy and yet so hard, simplistic and yet powerful. I believe that holding space is an intentional practice and a spiritual practice. Like so many other practices, the more you practice it, the better you will become at doing it. I am working hard to practice holding space for others, sometimes I do okay and sometimes I mess it up.

Heather Plett further explains, "To truly support people in their own growth, transformation, grief, etc., we can’t do it by taking their power away (ie. trying to fix their problems), shaming them (ie. implying that they should know more than they do), or overwhelming them (ie. giving them more information than they’re ready for). We have to be prepared to step to the side so that they can make their own choices, offer them unconditional love and support, give gentle guidance when it’s needed, and make them feel safe even when they make mistakes."

Heather offers the following helpful tips for how to hold space for others:

1. Give people permission to trust their own intuition and wisdom. This our own internal guidance system.

2. Give people only as much information as they can handle. Too much information can leave someone feeling incompetent and unworthy.

3. Don’t take their power away. When we take decision-making power out of people’s hands, we leave them feeling useless and incompetent. There may be times when we need to step in and make hard decisions for other people (ie. when they’re dealing with an addiction and an intervention feels like the only thing that will save them), but in almost every other case, people need the autonomy to make their own choices (even our children).

4. Keep your own ego out of it. This is a big one. We all get caught in that trap now and then – when we begin to believe that someone else’s success is dependent on our intervention, or when we think that their failure reflects poorly on us, or when we’re convinced that whatever emotions they choose to unload on us are about us instead of them. But that doesn’t serve anyone – not even me. To truly support their growth, I need to keep my ego out of it and create the space where they have the opportunity to grow and learn.

5. Make them feel safe enough to fail. When people are learning, growing, or going through grief or transition, they are bound to make some mistakes along the way. When we, as their space holders, withhold judgement and shame, we offer them the opportunity to reach inside themselves to find the courage to take risks and the resilience to keep going even when they fail. When we let them know that failure is simply a part of the journey and not the end of the world, they’ll spend less time beating themselves up for it and more time learning from their mistakes.

6. Give guidance and help with humility and thoughtfulness. A wise space holder knows when to withhold guidance (ie. when it makes a person feel foolish and inadequate) and when to offer it gently (ie. when a person asks for it or is too lost to know what to ask for). This is a careful dance that we all must do when we hold space for other people. Recognizing the areas in which they feel most vulnerable and incapable and offering the right kind of help without shaming them takes practice and humility.

7. Create a container for complex emotions, fear, trauma, etc. When people feel that they are held in a deeper way than they are used to, they feel safe enough to allow complex emotions to surface that might normally remain hidden. Someone who is practiced at holding space knows that this can happen and will be prepared to hold it in a gentle, supportive, and nonjudgmental way.

The space becomes a circle where people feel safe enough to fall apart without fearing that this will leave them permanently broken or that they will be shamed by others in the room. Someone is always there to offer strength and courage. This is not easy work, and it is work. We cannot do it if we are overly emotional ourselves, if we haven’t done the hard work of looking into our own shadow, or if we don’t trust the people we are holding space for.

8. Allow them to make different decisions and to have different experiences than you would. Holding space is about respecting each person’s differences and recognizing that those differences may lead to them making choices that we would not make. Sometimes, for example, they make choices based on cultural norms that we can’t understand from within our own experience. When we hold space, we release control and we honor differences.

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Life Shifts And Changes

6/4/2019

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It's the end of another school year. I have a daughter who is a senior in high school who will be graduating this week. How did that happen? So many feels, such a mix of emotions, so bittersweet. This whole school year has been marked with many passages...this will be the last time for this and this will be the last time for that.

Life is always shifting and changing, challenging us with its twists and turns, testing us, blessing us. Some shifts are welcome and others not so much, but one things for certain, they are not all within our control. Even the ones that we welcome mean change and that's not always easy. In these moments, whether good or bad, our spiritual practice can carry us and support us.

The shifts and changes of life can serve as a reminder to be fully present and engaged, to savor the moment. Being mindful to enjoy and not just endure the change.

The shifts and changes of life can serve as a reminder to be grateful and to keep perspective. Being grateful always for the goodness in our life. Focusing our attention and energy on the many things in our life to be grateful for helps us to keep perspective. Savoring and enjoying the journey, all of its ups and downs, discoveries and beauty.

The shifts and changes of life can serve as a reminder to love deeply. To share love, show love, express love, demonstrate love, give love, receive love, bask in love.

The shifts and changes of life can serve as a reminder to embrace the change, not to resist it, letting the new chapter unfold, not getting stuck in a fear-based mentality, finding the silver lining. Recognizing and being okay with the idea that most things in life are not permanent. Things ebb and flow, allow the flow to happen with as much ease as possible. Discovering the concept of impermanence was a game changer for me. Most everything in life is impermanent, things shift and change regularly. Just knowing this and flowing with it makes a huge difference. There's a lot less suffering, if we can stay rooted in the idea of allowing and impermanence.

The shifts and changes of life can serve as a reminder to have faith and trust. To surrender and turn it over to a higher power. You've been through shifts and changes before, somehow it'll be okay even if we can't see how at the moment.

The shifts and changes of life can serve as a reminder to live life with intention. Each and every day setting our intentions and then following through with our action.

The shifts and changes of life can serve as a reminder of forgiveness. Forgiving ourself and others for our imperfections. Moving on in life with a clean slate, with clear and positive intention. Not being part of the woulda, shoulda, coulda club.

The shifts and changes of life can serve as a time for reflection. Reflecting on and savoring the memories, the lessons learned, the journey. Wow, what a ride it can be at times!

The shifts and changes of life can be exciting if we let them. It can be exciting to not necessarily know what's just around the corner and how life can continue to shift. Say yes to the possibility of what's to come and be all in. Be curious and fascinated by what's yet to come.

As life shifts and changes and one chapter comes to a close and another one begins to unfold, I invite you to use your spiritual practice to help guide you through and support you.

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I Love You And There's Nothing You Can Do About It

5/28/2019

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Do you choose fear or do you choose love? This is a question that I ask myself often. Am I choosing fear or am I choosing love? It can be a hard one at times, it's ingrained in us to root ourselves in fear, we are conditioned to believe that it's necessary for our survival.

I recently had the privilege of listening to John O'Leary speak. He was inspiring, so I decided to read his book, On Fire: The 7 Choices to Ignite a Radically Inspired Life. In his talk and book, he shares his thoughts on fear and love which mirror my own. It served as an important reminder to me, so I want to share his thoughts with you along with an awesome statement that has the power to radically change and inspire your life.

In the book John explains, "Fear is rooted in what may happen, something that does not even exist in reality. Yet how frequently we allow this emotion to consume our thoughts, ultimately deciding the course of our lives." Isn't that true? With fear we are concerned about what "might happen". We get all hung up and consumed with...what if this and what if that.

John explains that fear suffocates...it suffocates creativity, openness, trust and possibility. It keeps us from being accountable, waiting for someone else to step forward and solve things. It keeps us from going all in, from taking risks, from being vulnerable. It keeps us small, telling us to hold back in case something goes wrong. Fear keeps us in a victim mentality, blaming others and thinking why me? Fear focuses us on ourself and keeps us stuck. Fear is no way to run a government, an organization, a family, or a life.

John writes, "All day long we get to choose how we approach each moment. We are free to live out of fear: How is this guy going to take advantage of me? I better cock my fist. Or, I better keep my guard up, this guy might steal my account. Or, okay, I'm already running late, I'm going to cut people off, walk with my head down, and make life all about me. My needs. My wants. My life. Me."

In regard to love he states, "Love is not just reserved for our inner circle. Our friends and family. It is intended to be the currency of our world. Offered to everyone you meet. If you are going to transform your life from a series of obligations to a long list of moments for joy, then you have to learn the secret. The secret is to say in your head to every person you meet, 'I love you and there's nothing you can do about it.' When you say it to yourself it changes the way you look at someone, it changes what you think about someone, it changes how you interact with someone, it changes what you're thinking about, it changes what turns you off and what turns you on, and it certainly changes what you're going to do next about it...Love gives you a laser like focus on what is truly important. Without it, we are frozen in the dark. With it, we light up the world...Those words allow you to focus on others, on their needs and on what they are saying. It keeps you mindful of what they might need in that moment, instead of what they might take from you; or what you might get from them...I love you drops your barriers, then theirs."

He concludes, "Choose to let go of fear and operate, lead, and live from a place of unconditional love...What if we approached each situation in our lives through the lens of love rather than the lens of fear?" Can you imagine how the world might change if we all practiced silently repeating that phrase to ourself and began to live and lead from a place of love?

I invite you to soak that all in and to reflect on it. Those are some powerful words and thoughts. I am working on practicing saying this statement either in my head or out loud with every interaction that I have with others. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's a challenge, but it serves as a reminder to me to live through the lens of love rather than the lens of fear and to remember that we are all one. There really is no place where I stop and you start.

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You Can't Be What You Can't See

5/21/2019

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Our belief systems are so important, they help dictate and ultimately determine how we view life and what we believe to be possible. If you are desiring to accomplish a dream that seems far-fetched then changing your belief system is a critical first step. It’s important to surround yourself with examples of how others have done something similar. Surrounding yourself through books, movies, and people who have been courageous at creating something similar.

Another great way to work toward achieving a dream is to utilize the tool of visualization. You can’t be what you can’t see. If you can visualize it into being then you can create it into being. You can’t create what you can’t imagine, so imagining it by surrounding yourself with examples of how others have done something similar, and then visualizing what you want to create is powerful.

I believe that it’s important to start each day with a clear idea of what you hope to achieve. If you start it with clearly defined intentions, everything in your conscious, subconscious, and higher mind will focus on supporting them. Where your attention goes, energy flows. What you give attention to you are going to bring to life. Concentrate your attention on the few things that will make a difference.

According to Sonia Choquette, author of the book Trust Your Vibes At Work, and Let Them Work for You, the best way to set your intentions is to develop the art of visualization. Here are five tips for setting your intentions and using visualization from the book.

5 Tips For Setting Intentions

Wake up a few minutes earlier.
Before rising, mentally review your schedule for the day ahead.
Imagine each person or situation that you’ll face, along with the outcome you want to create with each one.
Visualize every encounter, project, and assignment flowing smoothly.
Breathing deeply as you see your day, leave room for even greater successes than you can imagine and expect the best.

Get up 15 minutes earlier than usual, and while still in bed, review everything your schedule for the day. Decide what you hope to create and achieve from each task. At the same time, honestly assess your emotional and mental approach to each event. Are you looking forward to it, or are you hesitant and resistant? If you’re feeling negative, what’s causing your discomfort? The more specifically you can preview your day, the more clarity and receptivity you’ll invite in from your intuitive mind throughout the day.

Next, ask yourself these basic questions:

What do I have scheduled today?
What do I want to get out of this experience?
How do I feel about the events I have in place?

Then pay attention to your responses. If you’re uncomfortable about anything, ask yourself about the insecurity, challenge it.

Doing this for a few minutes each morning, before you start your day, will help to activate your intuitive muscles. View these exercises as business meetings with your higher consciousness. As Sonia Choquette says, “Do not underestimate the power of envisioning your day. A few minutes spent imagining wonderful things in the morning can turn an ordinary day into a miracle-making one.”

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What More Can I Do?

5/14/2019

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Have you started journaling yet? Recording your thoughts, experiences, life questions and challenges, your reflections, chronicling your day? It's something that I am currently working on doing and share as a key strategy for creating and sustaining happiness.

I attended a seminar last week and the presenter, John O'Leary, had a journaling suggestion that I really like. He said to end the day journaling and to include the question, "What more can I do?" I love this for a few reasons.

I believe that asking this question each day helps to create perspective,W similar to the way ending the day journaling about things that you are grateful for does. It causes us to get outside of ourself, our life, our problems and challenges by stretching ourself with "What more can I do?" What more can I do to grow and learn? What more can I do to care for myself? What more can I do to be of service to someone else? What more can I do for the world? What more can I do to love?

Keeping perspective on life is super important. It can be easy for us to focus on the negative things going on in our life and our world. It's important to recognize all of the goodness that is also around us in abundance. Spending a few minutes in reflection each day helps us to keep this perspective.

Practicing compassion is one of the strategies to leading a happy, connected life. Each day taking a few moments to reflect on..."What more can I do?"...helps cultivate compassion. It identifies ways that we can reach out and be of service in some way to someone else. Maybe that means praying for them, sending them positive loving energy, maybe it means offering to help, maybe it means thinking of the next thing you could provide them as an opportunity, the list is endless and sometimes just taking the time to consider it is all that is necessary.

You might be thinking that you don't have time for journaling, let alone considering what you could do for someone else. I totally get that and yet I still invite and encourage you do it. I believe you will reap so many benefits from this practice that it'll be time worth spending.

Gratitude, compassion and connection are all important variables in leading a happy life. Utilizing journaling as a vehicle for cultivating these key variables makes for an awesome combination. Give it a try!

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Be Curious Release Judgment

5/7/2019

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I remember when my kids were young and they had endless questions..."Why? Why? Why?"...would ring in my ears endlessly. They were curious about everything, wanting to learn and understand everything in this big world around them. Never satisfied with just one answer, but wanting to probe and be inquisitive and absorb more and more.

I feel like over the course of time we lose some of that curiosity, or it's suppressed in order to not be seen as a nuisance to those around us. In general as a society, we teach our children to not question authority, to not question society, to not question the status quo, to not question their teachers, leaders, elders, politicians, etc. It seems as though over time we lose a lot of that childlike curiosity. To some degree we stop questioning, stop being curious, stop learning and instead start judging.

On some level maybe we don't want to give away that it's something we don't already know. To be curious implies that we don't already have all of the answers. God forbid should someone think we don't already know.

Or is it that as adults we don't have the time to be curious? We are so busy with our lives and running on the hamster wheel that we simply don't have the time, capacity, desire to engage in the effort of being curious.

It seems like we have replaced curiosity with judgment. Instead of being curious about someone or something, we quickly resort to judging them or it instead. We form quick conclusions based on what we think we know and how it fits with the little bubble that we live in. We sync up with those who are like-minded and judge the rest as being "wrong".

It can feel maybe safer to judge and stay in our bubble and keep others in their bubble instead of trying to understand, instead of being curious. If we are curious and we learn a little more than we run the risk of being confused, of not having concrete answers that judgment seems to provide. We want a "right" and a "wrong" answer, that feels manageable and safe. Our view of the world and of people might shift and that can feel scary.

I listened to an episode of Oprah's Super Soul Sunday, where she was interviewing film and television producer Brian Grazer about his new book, A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life. I love Brian's ideas on expanding our curiosity, a trait he attributes to his success and says should be as much a part of our culture as creativity and innovation. Brian made a decision early on in his career to seek out "curiosity conversations" with at least one new person each day. He stresses how all of us can benefit from this practice of stepping outside our comfort zones.

Brian discussed and gave examples of how these "curiosity conversations" helped his career, opened up doors for him, and caused him to be a more connected and interesting person. I love the idea of engaging in curiosity conversations. Conversations where we are just really trying to connect with another human being and learn about them, their life, their interests, their passions, their career, their thoughts, their opinions. What an easy and powerful way to gain awareness of our world, gain perspective, see life through another lens, gain empathy, gain knowledge.

Here's another way to look at the concept of holding "curiosity conversations"...We've all had conversations with people where we walk away feeling good about the person, like they heard us, were interested in us. On the flip side, we've all had conversations where we walked away and felt like we were "talked to" or not understood, not heard, or where the person wasn't really present. I aspire for my interactions with people to end with them feeling acknowledged versus judged or disregarded. We've all felt the difference. Approach everyone and every situation with curiosity and release judgment.

The concept of leading a curious life appeals to me. I don't want to squelch my curiosity. I don't want to instantly judge or follow the status quo, or what someone, or what society tells me I should be thinking or asking about. I don't want to be so busy all the time that I don't have a few minutes to engage in a real conversation with the person next to me. It's important for us to explore, to question, to engage in life. Be curious about other people, be curious about where our food comes from, be curious about our spirituality, be curious about a country we are visiting, be curious about other cultures and races, be curious about what our heart is telling us, be curious about our purpose, the list is endless.

I love this quote from Elizabeth Gilbert, "A curiosity-driven life is a beautiful thing. Following your curiosity begins a scavenger hunt that can lead you to amazing places...It might even lead you to your passion."

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Magic And Illusion

Faith

The Story I'm Telling Myself Is...

What's Good For The Soul?

The Practice Of Holding Space

Life Shifts And Changes

I Love You And There's Nothing You Can Do About It

You Can't Be What You Can't See

What More Can I Do?

Be Curious Release Judgment

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