A Daily Dose of Sanity

Are you integrity?

Does what you are doing on the outside match who you are on the inside?

If not, what can you do to get in integrity?

As you ponder that, keep this wisdom from Alan in mind: “The secret of success is to be total. If you are going to do something, really do it. Do not second-guess yourself, let guilt undermine your joy, or wonder if you should be somewhere else. Either do it with a whole heart or do not do it. Be total.”

Osho has some *great* wisdom about being “total” as well.

See the Notes on The Book of Understanding where he tells us: “When you are total, it is good; and when you are divided, it is evil. Divided you suffer; united, you dance, you sing, you celebrate.”

And: “It is not a question of which part you follow, it is a question of whether you go totally into it or not. To be total in your action brings joy. Even an ordinary, trivial action done with total intensity brings a glow to your being, a fulfillment, a fullness, a deep contentment. And anything done halfheartedly, however good the thing may be, is going to bring misery.”

Buddha echoes this goodness. He tells us: “If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart.”

Back to you.

How are you living?

What can you do to become more “total”?!

That’s hilarious.

I don’t know about you, but the “unblinking ones” (as Alexandra and I like to call them) freak us out a bit. :)

I’m all about intimacy but, as Michaela Boehm describes in her Art of Intimacy class at the en*theos Academy, locking someone into your penetrating, unblinking gaze isn’t intimacy—it’s more like walking up to someone you’ve never met and shoving your hands in their pants.

True intimacy involves respecting social norms and healthy boundaries while allowing a true connection to form over time rather than trying to prove your spiritual superiority through unblinking stares.

Ah…

Glad I got that off my chest. :)

Here’s to blinking normally and not taking ourselves *that* seriously as we lighten up and enjoy the ride!

P.S. Swami Satchidananda is amazing. Check out the Notes on The Golden Present for some of his wisdom goodness!

We all have a little voice that comes knocking. The question is, will we answer it?

Here’s how Joseph Campbell puts it: “To refuse the call means stagnation. What you don’t experience positively you will experience negatively.”

And, Jesus says this: “If you bring forth what is inside you, what you bring forth will save you. If you don’t bring forth what is inside you, what you don’t bring forth will destroy you.”

* knock knock *

…Hear that sound?

It’s your destiny calling.

Time to answer. :)

Amen to that.

Emerson comes to mind. And so does Leo Buscaglia.

In his must-read classic, Self-Reliance, which is pretty much an ode to this Big Idea, Emerson tells us: “Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. No man yet knows what it is, nor can, till that person has exhibited it. Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? Every great man is a unique. The Scipionism of Scipio is precisely that part he could not borrow. Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned to you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much.”

→ Insist on yourself! Never imitate!!

→ Do that which is assigned to you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much.

Wow.

Leo Buscaglia (see Notes on Love) puts it this way: “You are the best you. You will always be the second best anyone else.”

Are you in integrity?

Being total?

Replicating yourself?

How can you be all of those things *even* more powerfully?!

(And, as always, is NOW a good time to make that happen? :)

This is amazing: “Those who live to see their name in lights usually miss the light within themselves.”

Fact is, when you obsess about achieving some extraordinary level of fame or power or whatever, you’re less likely to get it.

AND…

Perhaps most tragically, you’re also less likely to ever discover and live with abiding happiness.

It’s the whole intrinsic vs. extrinsic dealio we come back to again and again.

Science *unequivocally* shows us that those who go after the fame/wealth/beauty and other EXTERNAL markers of success are significantly less psychologically stable than those who focus on deeper relationships, personal growth, making a contribution and simply expressing themselves authentically—the INTRINSIC stuff we want to pay attention to that leads to fulfilment.

Yah?

So, where are you putting all your precious energy?

P.S. This wisdom from Howard Thurman is good to keep in mind as well: “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

Love that.

Time for a little role playing…

::

You: “Inner critic?”

Your Inner Critic: “Yes?”

You: * Insert Trump cobra-like hand gesture *

→ “You’re fired.”

::

With that out of the way, it’s time to promote your inner fan club to the most important job in your head!

That’s powerful.

To repeat: “Anger is fear under pressure.”

Are you a tad angry these days?

What are you afraid of?

Odds are the inner critic is running the show and creating compelling visuals of all the things that will go wrong in your life. That fear bubbles up in anger (usually about something unrelated to whatever it is you’re supposedly so upset about).

So…

Next time you’re feeling angry, check in and see if you can identify what you’re afraid of.

As Alan so wisely tells us, if we can “discover the fear behind the anger and dismantle it in the light of awareness, the anger dissipates.”

Reminds me of Ayn Rand’s gem that we cannot say “I love you” until we can say the “I.”

As Alan so beautifully shares, love starts within.

Tal Ben-Shahar echoes this wisdom in his great book The Pursuit of Perfect (see Notes) where he tells us: “Why the double standard, the generosity toward our neighbor and the miserliness where we ourselves are concerned? And so I propose that we add a new rule, which we can call the Platinum Rule, to our moral code: ‘Do not do unto yourself what you would not do unto others.’”

I love that.

→ The Platinum Rule: “Do not do unto yourself what you would not do unto others.”

Tal also tells us: “When the Dalai Lama was then asked to clarify whether indeed the object of compassion may be the self, he responded: ‘Yourself first, and then in a more advanced way the aspiration will embrace others. In a way, high levels of compassion are nothing but an advanced state of that self-interest. That’s why it is hard for people who have a strong sense of self-hatred to have genuine compassion toward others. There is no anchor, no basis to start from.’”

Here’s to including ourselves in our loving embrace and remembering to rock The Platinum Rule as we remember to love ourselves first!!

P.S. How can you do that a little more today? (And tomorrow? And… :)

That. Is. Awesome.

Are you getting all freaked out by boggarts?

Time to grab your wand and get your inner wizard on with your “Riddikulus!” charm, eh? :)

Seriously.

Try it the next time you’re getting harassed by your inner gremlins.

Are you going through a challenging time?

If so, remember that we all go through seasons and be like the bamboo and take advantage of every season as you develop your roots and get ready for your next phase of rockin’ it!!