Rise & Shine

Photo: Tevis Rose Trower

Walking home from teaching yoga Halloween morning, I passed a team of paraplegic "wheelers" getting ready for the NYC marathon. Twenty strides past this tangible reminder of happenstance and courage gave me pause to consider the ephemeral nature of this little life - that we come in, do some stuff while we're here, experience a lot, then die. Shakespeare captured this sentiment beautifully in The Tempest:

Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd tow'rs, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on; and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

Indeed. It seems that the great decider of how we live isn't so much any other person or external influence, but the degree to which we determine how we will rise and approach life, and how we will recognize that we own the choices we make in the midst of the situations we experience.

So how can we move powerfully through this pageant of life? "What doesn't kill you just makes you stronger" is a quote I often heard as a kid growing up in the South. If you can imagine a heavy southern accent as you read that, then you can also imagine my surprise to learn that the famous German existentialist philosopher Frederick Nietsche is credited with first saying it. But even he can't claim originating the sentiment. My meditation teacher Sally Kempton just reminded me of the millenia-old yogic adage that "That by which you fall is that by which you rise", further reinforcing the notion that great wisdom has no nationality, dogma or ethnicity. It's just a simple truth - no membership fee required.

Giving much thought to how to rise, what to grow into, and what about life might feel more "happy-making" if approached a little differently, the approaching holidays are a great catalyst for bringing greater awareness to thoughts and intentions, choices and actions. And as much as I've dreamed of a fairy-godmother to make life easier, you don't have to look very far to realize there's not a wisdom teacher out there who says getting rich quick, shirking work, or surrendering your intelligence to situation comedies are paths to happiness.

Inspired by this, I looked at two traditional structures for the aspects of self - Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" and the yogic Chakra system - and made a map to prepare how to rise, not only through this holiday season but heading powerfully and peacefully into 2010.

Physiological
This level includes how you eat, getting some movement, some sleep, some comfort and downtime, making time for making love, taking care of primary physical self care such as dentist and yearly checkups, and yes, even simply heeding "nature's call" in a timely manner rather than putting it off after another 20 multitasks. Setting an intention here might include taking care of appointments long postponed, holding holiday drinking in check, packing a lunch rather than hitting the buffet, walking for 20 minutes before eating lunch, and making sure to take 10 minutes to breathe and center from time to time throughout the week. What can you identify that you need to remember on the physiological level?

Safety/Personal Power
This level relates to how well you stay connected to yourself in the midst of expansion into relationships including family, social and work. For many of us this brings up issues with over-committing, seeking approval or (the secret backside issue) forcing our will on others, judging ourselves or others, and any interaction with others that results in a power play rather than simply experiencing each other from a place of mutual respect and free-will. One way to keep yourself in that "happy-making" place is by asking yourself what you REALLY want as you consider any given choice. Whether simply determining whether to accept an invitation, or clarifying why you are squabbling with someone, this question will allow you to act on what is most true to you and to refrain from uselessly exerting your truth on someone who may have a different truth.

Heart/Love/Belonging
This is the flip side of the layer before. As an example from some of the most respected schools of coaching, there is an expression that we are all "perfect and whole", and in yoga we acknowledge this with the Sanskrit word "namaste" - loosely translated as the wisdom in me recognizes the wisdom in you. This doesn't mean we agree or even like each other, it simply means we give ourselves and others around us permission to exist exactly as we are. One way to practice this is to call to mind how it feels to observe an argument between two people you respect and admire equally seeing both sides as valid. That objectivity is a perspective you can cultivate in your own conflicts.

Self Expression/Communication
This layer is related to how we honor what matters most to us. How can you honor how you find meaning through this holiday season? Throughout your life? Taking the holiday example - maybe ritual is lost on you, but helping others means a lot. Maybe that means you spend the day volunteering and meeting others who share that value or inviting your family along or talking to them about why it means so much to you. Maybe you take on an issue you care about and blog about it. Maybe you join an organization that gives expression to issues you care deeply about. Think about it: over the next few weeks what could you commit to doing that really holds meaning for you? What about in the new year?

Self Actualization/Clarity
Self-actualization/clarity are often misunderstood as being really decisive or set in your ways. However, that way of being can only exist within artificial limits. For us to be fully alive, we have to stay awake to the dynamic world around us. Albert Einstein may have captured this best saying,

"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us "universe", a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."

In this aspect of self, your responsibility is to move purposefully outside of the limiting circle of your known experiences and cultivate new inputs, new ideas, find new perspectives and take new actions as your knowledge evolves. What can you do in support of this over the next few weeks? In the new year?

Remembering how short and precious life really is, get up. Rise. Make the most of it while you're here.

Be well,

Tevis

Related Topics:

• Mind, Body, Spirit: Member Discussion
• The Good Life Neighborhood
• Emotional Wellness - get helpful tips in your inbox

Rut, Routine or Ritual?

IMYJOB: Week 3

You know the drill. With some variation we all experience the following: Alarm. Arise. Bathe. Eat. Drink. Leave. Arrive. Work. When I was in college a popular band called The Godfathers reduced it to a stultifying Birth, School, Work, Death. It was their only hit. The Police captured it beautifully in their drudgery anthem Synchronicity II, and even Francis Ford Coppola says you'd better love what you do because "eventually you will hate it".

Because humans are pattern-makers both in terms of how our brains organize information and how we structure our lives, the workaday mentality is an inevitable one. But equally true, our nervous systems are wired to respond to chaos. Any fitness trainer will tell you that the human body responds best when dealing with uncertainty and will intentionally sequence exercises to wake the body up. Despite first-day-of-school reluctance to step into new situations, we crave both the security of the predictable and the excitement of the unknown. Having both is dependent upon how you cultivate your own sense of presence no matter which seems dominant on any given day.

To convert the hum-drum of everyday, you have to see your day with new eyes. The words "rut" and "routine" might easily describe the patterned events and actions you take everyday, but when held with a sense of appreciation and presence these very same events can bring a elements of comfort, connection and community.

• Savor the Sacred - What ARE the sacred moments in your day? What are the small pleasures that you experience because of the routine of your day? The sacred doesn't have to involve chanting, incense, or some other more esoteric ritual, although it might. It does require you look at your day as a series of patterned actions that create ritual, no matter how mundane they might seem.


• Patterns of Pleasure - Chances are the routines you experience have evolved from countless repeated choices you make based upon what gives you pleasure. Your morning beverage of choice; the route to work; what you read or listen to while in transit; pleasure can even be found in how you settle into your work-space. We all have endless small pleasures sprinkled throughout our days, often without notice due to the constant chatter of the brain. Take an inventory of your work-pattern pleasures this week.


• Cultivate Community - From the moment you awaken, how does your work create opportunity for beauty, for connection with others, for resolution, for rest? Is it saying hello to a neighbor as you collect the paper from outside? Is it the joke with the barista when you get your morning jo? Might the shared pre-meeting personal anecdote actually be a moment of connection? Is welcoming a new team member secretly a moment of compassion and kindness?

Anything from preparing for a meeting to organizing the things on your desk can be seen as creating order and ritual. When viewed with a beauty-seeking eye, any given day is full of sacred, pleasurable moments. By recognizing these moments of connection and sacred beauty in midst of the absurdly mundane, we elevate our work experience from being "what I do to get paid", to being another venue in which to experience the delight of being alive.

Be well,

Tevis

IMYJOB - The Series:

• Jobs: Love The One You're With
• Black Holes & Illumination
• Employee ID: Work As Self-Expression
• Rut, Routine or Ritual?
• The Difference is YOU

Related Topics:

• Mind, Body, Spirit: Member Discussion
• The Good Life Neighborhood
• Emotional Wellness - get helpful tips in your inbox

Employee ID: Work As Self-Expression

IMYJOB: Week 2

If you've been paying attention, you may have noticed that there are lots of ways to perceive work challenges. For some people impediments to being happy at work roll like water off a duck's back. For others, not so much. From obstacle to growth-opportunity, the ways we frame the world around is of our making and has real impact on the quality our life experience. The comments submitted by readers of this series give great illustration of this - ranging from (paraphrasing) "I love my job if not for all those irritating people I have to deal with", to "It IS our work to interact with each other".

But what IS your work? Is it part of your identity? Although there's a cliché that Americans live to work and Europeans work to live, in both equations work is somehow separate from life. Taking a clue from nature, all living things work and live. A tree could not be a tree without doing the work of being a tree (photosynthesis, etc.). While all other plants also conduct this work, the essential nature or treeness of the tree is what that work (photosynthesis) supports. The work supports the tree's essential nature, as our work supports ours.

Consider this example: when asked what his greatest work was, passion-driven workaholic, inventor, artist and renaissance-man Leonardo DaVinci responded, "Leonardo DaVinci". His sentiment contrasts with our modern demonization of identifying with work. I remember at a party asking someone what they did for work and being lambasted with indignation that such a question has anything to do with who they are suggesting that only people reminiscent of the greedy banker character Gordon Gekko in the movie Wall Street so identify with their work. But wait - if we are on a path of cultivating satisfaction in our lives, shouldn't EVERYTHING we do somehow be an expression of who we are?

Back to the tree example: imagine a tree that does less that 100% effort in photosynthesis - not much of a prognosis for survival. Suggesting there can be no conditions applied to how we embrace and exert in all venues of life, Martin Luther King Jr. said this:

If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, sweep streets like Beethoven composed music, sweep streets like Leontyne Price sings before the Metropolitan Opera. Sweep streets like Shakespeare wrote poetry. Sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will have to pause and say: "Here lived a great street sweeper who swept his job well."

Ego, status, self-conscious competition, and co-worker drama aside, King suggests - as many ancient wisdom traditions from the Bible to the Bhagavad-Gita do - that connecting full-heartedly to what we do is our real work. This concept is expressed by the term dharma meaning one's righteous duty (wikipedia).

This week's practice surfaces your insights about the identity-work connection. At any gathering of adults, often the first question exchanged is "what do you do for a living?" Set aside any conditioned guilt that this is the easiest way to break the ice with strangers, and take a new look to see just why that question yields so many pieces of information that allow us to learn about each other.

1. When held with fascination these conversations provide subtle clues that allow us to connect and establish common ground, and insight about un-familiar territory. Beyond job title, what do you learn about others by asking this question?


2. Notice what you surmise about other's education, interests, skills and social networks. How are these assumptions validated by further conversation? How do people's complexities surface? Can you allow people to be full human beings even in this conversation?


3. When you meet people you assume you have nothing in common with, how can you learn about and respect them? How do you connect with them even when you're not sure where to find common ground?


4. Do you get a sense that whomever you speak to is passionate for what they do? Do you perceive that they have interpersonal and executional challenges that arise in the course of "getting the job done"? Do they allow both passion and imperfections to coexist within this conversation? Do you?


5. What about outside passions? When you meet people who convey simply "working to make a living", do you find they typically have an outside passion? Do you find people with passions for work are the people with passions outside of work or do you find people who use passions outside of work to compensate for their lack of passion at work? BONUS: Would you say that passionate people are simply passionate no matter if the topic is work or leisure?

Wherever you go this week, don't forget to ask these questions of yourself as well. Notice how you express aspects of yourself by talking about work. Rather than allowing your work-centric conversations to be habitual venting or complaining, simply allow work to say something inherently powerful or meaningful about you and the people you meet. In embracing work as a form of self-expression, you practice an aspect of dharma integrating work into life and life into work.

Let me know how it goes.

Be well,

Tevis

IMYJOB - The Series:

• Jobs: Love The One You're With
• Black Holes & Illumination
• Employee ID: Work As Self-Expression
• Rut, Routine or Ritual?
• The Difference is YOU

Related Topics:

• Mind, Body, Spirit: Member Discussion
• The Good Life Neighborhood
• Emotional Wellness - get helpful tips in your inbox

Identity In Action: What You Do Is Who You Are

Photo: Tevis Rose Trower

"I triceratops therefore I am" loomed on a bus-stop billboard outside the grocery store near my apartment for weeks. The picture of the toddler making dinosaur claws with his small hands was cropped at the head, emphasizing his t-shirted little body and reinforcing that same message that what he does is who he is. Every time I passed it, though puzzling at the grammar, I simultaneously loved the notion of the little guy's joy captured there to inspire others. This "I summer Friday therefore I am" soon followed, as well as "I little black dress therefore I am" and "I dine after nine therefore I am". The campaign's objective was to remind us of the diversity of activities and individuals that make New York City great, but it also begs a bigger question: what actions define who you are?

After decades of "I shop therefore I am", economic realities are forcing many of us to rethink not only how we spend our money and time, but how we find the bearings of our identity when our former occupations have fallen to the wayside. I'm not just talking about brushing your teeth or balancing the checkbook. When we define ourselves with an emphasis upon the actions that produce positive feelings and enhance our self esteem, we create a go-to list of things we can do to give us a needed lift when we need it most. We also gain a more accurate sense of priorites when making choices how to spend our precious moments.

Try this: Each time you shift from one activity to another, notice your enjoyment level of whatever has just been completed. If it has produced a postive feeling, acknowledge it with an affirmative statement. In quiet moments, take inventory of the activities that bring truly positive feelings.

For the past week I've identified the following: I take my time walking my dog therefore I am. I discover new music therefore I am. I catch up with clients therefore I am. I take time to smile at people therefore I am. I meditate therefore I am. I work out therefore I am. I smell flowers therefore I am. I beautify my home therefore I am. I yoga therefore I am.

It's a small but powerful practice, I promise you that. Between running errands, observing the world situation unfolding and managing all the little relational challenges present in any life, this practice of recognizing catalysts for good feelings around you not only shifts your inner mantra, but literally calms your nervous system with reminders of wellbeing. I've been surprised how many things I might not categorize as being pleasant that actually are (paying bills), and just as surprised at how many things I might automatically pop into the pleasant category that actually aren't. The shuffling of items on my own inner to do list has been remarkable, showing a gap between what I assume I enjoy and what I ACTUALLY feel pleasure in doing.

Give it a try and let me know how you triceratops.

Be well,

Tevis

Related Topics:

• Mind, Body, Spirit: Member Discussion
• The Good Life Neighborhood
• Emotional Wellness - get helpful tips in your inbox