Do you ever get sick and tired of yourself? You know… it’s all about me, me, me.
What’s for dinner? How can I make more money? When will I find that perfect relationship? What will I be when I grow up? What’s my next diversion?
If you listen to the gurus they’ll tell you: Be yourself everyone else has been taken. What color is your parachute? Do what you love and the money will follow.
You practice the law of attraction, you visualize ideal outcomes, you say your affirmations.
But guess what? Your mind is still crazy – it never stops.
You try and think new thoughts but you end up getting the same results over and over again.
More More More
Doesn’t it seem like you’re always searching for more and you’re never satisfied?
More meaning, more fulfillment, more life.
Like a marathon runner without a finish line, you just keep on running. You’re getting tired and your head hurts.
In my coaching practice, the biggest limiting belief and mindset I run across with all my clients is “I’m not good enough.”
Something is always missing. I’m not talented enough, I’m not young enough, I need more knowledge, I need more money. It seems at every stage in our lives there is something new that we’re not. This dissatisfaction causes discontent and unhappiness – you turn into a sour puss.
Have you ever noticed that in your mind’s world – one thought leads to another? I’m going to tell you a story to illustrate what I mean….
The other day I was walking by a fruit stand and noticed a big stack of lemons. My first thought was, “Wow, what a big stack of lemons!” Next thought…”What a splash of yellow color!”
Then a new thought.. “Hmm…fresh lemonade on a hot summer day.” Suddenly a picture of the actor Jack Lemon flashed in my mind. Then I noticed a car across the street – I thought, I used to own a car like that – boy was it a lemon!
All these different thoughts from one big stack of lemons!
The nature of the mind is more. It’s a giant dream machine. But this more-ness requires – you guessed it – more thinking and more thinking causes complexity.
Simply Be
As I kid – I was simple. I remember walking down the road singing without a care in the world.
But then I got older. I got education. I got religion. I got complicated.
I love the biblical quotation, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin.” Flowers don’t try to grow. They just grow. They are magnificent in their own right.
So you throw up your hands and say, why am I trying so hard?
This morning I noticed a bird singing happily at the top of it’s lungs in our back yard. Suddenly, he flew directly into our window and was instantly killed. As we buried the dead bird I thought…
Your life is fragile and you have a limited number of heartbeats.
Easy Mindfulness Training
If you’re caught up in your head and can’t relax maybe it’s time for a little mindfulness training. I challenge you to do something RADICAL, something that is completely counter-intuitive. Something that will squeeze the sour right out of your lemon.
Think Less And Be More
Easy to say but hard to do – right? Nope.
- Close your eyes. Just be aware of your breathing.
- Count your in-breath as 1 and out-breath as 2, in-breath as 3 and out-breath as 4 and so on.
- If you notice yourself thinking a thought – go back to 1.
- Practice this simple exercise daily for 2 weeks.
This simple practice will help you clear your mind and help you focus. It will also help you to simply be.
To be contented with yourself just as you are is simplicity. In this simplicity you’ll find peace of mind. Then you can embody this peace to the extent that it becomes so contagious that it spreads to your family, friends and planet.
You’ll be in a better position to make lemonaid when life gives you lemons.
Remember, you don’t see things as they are, you see things as you are.
