Here and now
“Who am I?”
Asked the image in the mirror.
I stood there,…
watching.
Wink wink.
The passing by of changing clouds.
I took another sip of air.
I smiled and she was there;
Smiling back.
“You and I,
we are the same.
What you see is what you are.
Every mirror is your guide.
Everyone is who you are.”
If that is true,
there is no You.
While all along
I thoroughly enjoyed
the game of Two.
You roll your mighty body with impeccable waves.
You extend a playful, immersive delight.
I savor you with gratitude,
with sparks in my eyes.
Not the best of Cuban torcedores*,
nor my mum with Walnut Christmas cake,
can match your expertly crafted wake,
with salty flavors that swirl, fold, and perfectly break.
The foaming, dissolving dance in each wave you make – an electrifying grace.
You alone can sweep me off my feet and meet me where I am,
always catching me, lovingly, in your waterfull embrace.
I dig you, especially when sand is where I stand.
Your hypnotic sound.
A timeless symphony you alone can play,
for as long as gravity remains.
In fact, your soothing hum,
exudes the might
that hibernates my monkey mind.
I say yes!
Yes to my inner child that loves to play!
How lucky am I to splutter and paddle as if I was a child.
Thank you!
Thank you, for the playfulness that never ends.
For the joy you bring out of my salt loving, porous, Swiss cheese like cells.
*A torcedor is a skilled craftsman or artisan who hand-rolls cigars.
Ps… you can’t whip a whacky poem like this with Chat GPT,
so don’t fret about AI, it cannot come up with real stuff, because it cannot swim nor play,
it’s not kicking, and it’s not alive.
But it can surely help with a few crafty synonyms I need once in a while.
So, thank you for the role you play in
my sweet little rhyming game.
It’s been a few days since I’ve had an inspiration to write something new. Today it came. Thanks to PW 50: ‘What is my relationship with synchronicity and what do I imagine is possible when I bring more awareness to the role it plays in my life?‘
‘For me, synchronicity is all about perfect harmony, matching movements, sounds that are totally in tune, aligned frequencies, umami tastes, moments when your heart is open, overflowing with love, joy, and trust. Things happen, I meet people I was supposed to meet, I end up in places I was meant to be – timing is impeccable.
Synchronicity is powerful, mesmerizing, it draws in, it attracts. For example, if we all started breathing following the same rhythm we would create a flow and become part of that same flow we created.
Just imagine watching 50 Irish dancers on the stage, tapping their feet at the same time, totally in tune. Or listening to a choir of 30 people singing a song, their voices joint, blended as one. How about the orchestra and all the instruments playing the same beautiful melody?
What about nature?
Watching, listening to the river can be incredibly soothing. All the water is moving towards the same direction, singing the same song, each drop of water is absolutely aligned.
Have you ever watched a flock of birds flying in the sky – or a murmuration of starlings? Hundreds and hundreds of birds flying as one, every single bird perfectly aligned. What an incredible performance!
What about two or more people brainstorming, coming up with great ideas, their frequencies matching, bubbling, in sync with one another, in their thoughts, intentions, working together, being part of the same flow
Synchronicity is all around us – we just need to pause, pay attention, and recognize it.
Take a look at your wonderful body, the movement of your legs and arms as you walk, when you run. It wouldn’t happen if it wasn’t in sync, not in a million years.’
Synchronicity brought me synchronicity itself. How much more in sync could I get?
Working through the 20 PrivateWork prompts has revealed a number of insights. It was a much needed exercise of confirmation. Now that I’m in that flow I want to capture every drop of it. Squeeze it out, here, on a paper, so every time I need to recollect and realign myself, all I need to do is refer to this moment. Come back to these words – to the space that binds these synchronistically infused thoughts. The empty, silent space out of which the flow emerges and carries on. To me, living words are the most beautiful art & science of magic that gets captured in a very special way, but not really captured because it remains free – always.
The words I read carry the powerful fragrance that is strong enough to bring me back to this moment when I digress. We all digress from time to time and that’s ok. We all wobble in life. Life is a challenging affair – we are constantly dealing with thoughts, information, never ending stories upon stories, emotions, we continue storing gigabytes of memory.
As if nature, the most brilliant architect I have ever come across, has engineered this game that seems to have no end, unless you take charge, unless you awaken, become more aware and start working, tirelessly. Until you expand your pause between the stimulus and your response, not allowing to continue reacting – re+acting. Have you ever thought of this word – it’s genius. It holds the meaning of itself – continuously repeating the same old act. We all react – until we don’t.
Instead of reacting, all we need to do is learn to introduce the pause – we have to master the art of expanding the length of the mighty pause, so we can allow the clarity to arrive – we enter the flow and we gain the ability to respond.
Relationship with myself and others is about being in sync with each other. When you’re in sync with your self you can be in sync with anyone. Even when they are not. Therefore it is my responsibility – it starts with me. Responsibility – ability to respond. Either I choose to bring harmony, peace of mind to this world or I choose not to. Hence, we all seek activities that help us realign with ourselves – and that’s a good, useful approach. For me it’s swimming, yoga, writing, meditation, dancing, being in nature, listening to particular music, horse riding, churning mugs on a potter’s wheel. For you it can be something else – find out what that is, because it’s more important than you think.
Synchronicity is a state of pure bliss – Ananda – no friction, no fear, no resistance, no control, no doubt. Responding while having trust, complete trust in the way you respond to the stimulus that came your way.
Skillfully, gracefully, with a smile, with an open heart. In sync, in tune, at one, in alignment, in the flow… back to oneness with life, back to the Self. Like a river, like gazillion droplets of water, all flowing towards the Ocean. Like a dancer becoming merging with music. Like your heartbeat, perfectly aligned with yourself, with the universe. Body, mind, and soul, completely in sync.
What an experience – what a beautiful life to be able to live like that. Now that’s what I call a life worth living.
In sync, in harmony, in tune with One Self, hence in sync with everything and everyone else.
Om
What is a good day?
What does it depend on? Is it what I do, who I’m with, where I go on that particular day? Is it a state of my mind? Perhaps a combination of several factors woven together?
I take a deep breath, I close my eyes, I connect to my heart, to feel and see clearer, with a composed state of mind, with an open heart.
I don’t think it’s only the state of mind that makes it a good day – for me. It’s having a lot to do with the state of my heart. I heard the other day, from a close friend of mine, that the heart is continuously expanding and contracting, like an accordion. There must be some truth to that. Every cloud has a silver lining. We ebb and we flow, continuously, yet something remains never changing – the part of us that is uplifting the instrument that creates all the music – or the noise.
I want to know more! How do I flow through different stages of life, throughout years, months, weeks, days, hours, moments? What is the pattern, how does it work, how does it go, how am I influencing the quality of my day with the state of my mind and the openness of my heart?
A river of questions… how fast and where is this river wanting to flow? Towards the ocean, of course, I say to myself, with a smile.
The very notion of tapping into my higher Self is a journey without destination. I represent that journey and I am the destination; both, at the same time, in the same moment. When the mind and the higher Self are aligned – my heart remains expanded and for me that makes it a good day. I try to stay out of the way with my “worldly I”– well, as much as I possibly can – I try to lead my life by being the Self, allowing the mind to follow, assisting me with daily chores, decision making processes, practicalities of life.
People in our lives will inevitably end up probing our ways, using their faculty of mind to an extent we allow them to. When you love someone, your heart is open, you give them access to yourself, hence you become accessible to interference – to a certain extent – you have to decide.
Sometimes the interference is valuable, it adds clarity to your state of mind, enabling you to see events in your life as they are. It all depends where the other person is coming from. From the state of their higher Self or their mind? Is their intention selfless, pure from the heart, or is there a selfish, manipulative motive that made them open their mouth, either consciously or subconsciously? How do you recognize that to ensure you remain faithful to who you are?
Whenever you feel any notion of abrupt disturbance, try not to react instantly, learn to pause between your thoughts, allow at least 10 heart beats and a few breaths to pass in between, so you may fall in tune with your own truth. Work it out, before you act it out. This way you can respond, not react. And respond profoundly and powerfully you will!
You see, mind likes to jump like a monkey. It is always there, ready to prance and spring, it has many persistent habits. Your heart is your anchor. Heart is continuously beating from the same place, sometimes faster, at times slower. Intensity is it’s only variable. How fast it beats you can influence with the power of your breath and your mind. When responding and making decisions, try to first tap into your heart beat, observe where you are and don’t make any hasty decision when your heart is beating too fast.
Wait for it to calm down, so you can catch the silver lining, enter the flow and at that moment you will grasp your truth – you will know exactly how to respond. Decisions that matter in your life, should originate from the calm state of mind and an open heart. Following this principle, you will notice that your mind follows your higher Self, willingly. It will all fall in place – watch and become your own witness. This can also be one of the ways you can start exercising your self-awareness – if you will.
Life often presents obstacles when it’s time to move on, but that too is part of the journey. You will be challenged to remain in alliance with your true self.
Places we decide to visit, people we surround ourselves with, activities and habits we choose to cultivate and engage with – they matter. The more in tune I become with myself, the easier I navigate through life. Life becomes simpler and I become more skillful. Both matters, the world we carry inside as well as the external manifestation of our life that makes us who we are. Both should align for the powerful insights to arise and give us a clear direction forward.
The greatest craftspeople in this world live & create while being fully aligned with their higher Self, composed state of mind, an open heart, and oodles of skills to create a masterpiece. And so we create!
Words: 1222
Visuals: Infographics
Engagement time: 5 minutes
Practice – Depends how much you worry
Shelf Life – Ubiquitous
What happens when our minds get cluttered with worries? What consequences does a cluttered mind have on us when we interact with people? How does it impact our day-to-day performance?
Quite a lot.
Worries are like parasites, depriving us from being fully present. They soak up our creative juices that are required for our clear-thinking and for being part of the creative flow.
The more we trouble our minds the less we are part of the flow – which is essential for generating new ideas and the outpour of creativity.
There’s an easy approach to tackle this challenge by instantly resolving any arising issues – as they come, so they should go. The most important task is not to allow our minds to marinate in worries and regurgitate unnecessary thoughts.
When we enter the flow, we dwell in the moment of presence. For example, when you were a child, you were frequently in the moment. Next time you get a chance to observe a child, notice how natural it is for them to be in the moment.
As we get older, as we accumulate more life experience, we also tend to clutter our minds with increased amount of thought and worries, hence, there’s a good chance we fall out of the flow – to the extent where we forget all about it. It’s a well-known fact that we are all born creative, and then, creativity gets educated out of us in school.
Schooling focuses predominately on analytical way of thinking. Most of who have gone through that kind of educational system had to learn towards a narrow-minded result, which was either a right or a wrong answer set in advance. But that’s not how real-life works, because not everything is black or white. As children we also inherited various traits and behavioral patterns that were not always conducive later in life. Worrying is one those patterns that appear quite innocent in the beginning, but can soon turn into an unconscious habit. Here are a few examples we can all relate to.
Through my life and career I rarely received any useful advice on how to deal with worries. The best I could hear was: ‘Don’t worry, be happy.’
Instead of being asked the question: “What is the root cause of your worry, why are you worrying you and how can you address your worries?”
Here’s my art and science of resolving the issue of worrying and overriding this old pattern of behavior. To do this exercise, make sure to pick the best time of your day. Your mind should be calm and you need enough energy to grasp whatever comes up as you observe your thinking patterns. For me, early morning, after a good night sleep, works best.
Here’s what you can do to prepare, physically and emotionally.
This approach is useful when you have the time or you are willing to create the required space to do this exercise properly.
If not you don’t have the luxury of time and space you need to learn to work on your feet and become skilled enough to create the required space and silence whenever necessary to resolve the arising issue. Eventually it becomes very easy and effortless. Just like anything you master- just like riding a bike, you learn and you never forget.
You can do this exercise on your own or with a friend. Feel free to tweak as desired, as long as you experience the impact.
Having answered these questions, I invite you to dive deeper and analyze the situation further.
“How does worrying impact me physically? (e.g., unnecessary hunger, craving for sugar, cigarette, coffee, my arms get itchy, I get a headache, I can’t sleep, I feel tension in my stomach, I escape by getting lost watching TV, I start endlessly browsing through social media – again I escape, I am not present)
“When I worry, what’s going on with me emotionally? (e.g., I get sad, I am scared, I get angry, it makes me anxious)
“How does that impact my performance in life, at work?” (e.g., low performance, lack of focus, poor concentration, lack of confidence, lack of direction in life)
Can you notice if there’s a pattern in ways you respond to various events in life? Is there a chance you worry too often and too much?
“What do you need to change right here and now, to stop worrying?”
But most importantly!
As you go through this exercise you should be able to create some free space in your mind and feel lighter. If you notice the difference, you are ready to start humming the tune of the song: ‘Don’t worry, be happy’.
I would also advise you to learn how to harness and maintain the required silence at all times, by keeping your mind less cluttered. That means ¼ empty – just like your stomach – it works best when it’s not overburdened with food.
Important to add, you don’t have to absorb everything the world presents around you; all the sounds, interactions, people, images, information, sensations, billboards, and advertisements. My rule of thumb is, if I can’t remember what I have seen and heard at the end of the day, it’s not worth giving it my attention.
Use your natural power of selective attention and focus, to guard your sanity and your inner space, so, you can retain the clarity of your crisp mind.
Many articles and videos speak of leadership qualities, yet only a few I came across have grasped the importance of maintaining our mind silence and thought gap, which is recognized by the clarity of our projection in this world. It is a quintessential quality of any high performing individual in life, in business, finance, sport, music, art, medicine, IT, science, etc.
The same goes for teaching, leading, managing, presenting. When you are trying to convey a message that is not deeply rooted in your own understanding and experience, with 100% clarity, your recipients won’t receive the message in the intended way. The message was lost to begin with.
I think that to be a natural ability of top-quality leader we so admire. The quality of the one who is capable of capturing your attention and does not depend on PowerPoint or an orchestra of bells and whistles
I wish you a great day, full of crystal clarity ahead!
