“Step into your greatness” continues to be a theme that rings through my meditations and the parallels I see in my life/experiences.
THE KINGDOM
“The Kingdom – Your empire, your castle, your royalty, your people, your campaign. (Or perhaps, ‘Your fleet, boat, crew, etc.’ for a naval theme.’) What’s that big HELL YEAH vision and feeling? Who are the people that will support you (and you will support), etc.? … The Kingdom is a mindset. It’s a form of insularity on who you are and what you want to accomplish. How you want to move. How you want to RULE and CONTROL your own CASTLE/environment, your mind, how you will support your people, etc.”
→ Read more (Being the Ruler in Your Kingdom of Life)
Put your name on the wall. See YOURSELF as the greatest.
While I was meditating I had this random idea to put my name up on the wall in big letters — and then to draw lines out from it and list off all the characteristics of who I am (and who I aspire to be), my accomplishments, my aspirations, my beliefs, people that I connect with that inspire me … and so on.
And then I suddenly thought: that’s kind of weird and isn’t that kind of braggy and egotistical?
- Well, for one: It doesn’t matter what other people think. The only thing that matters is what I think of myself.
- Two: I thought I liked being weird? So what?
- Three: … I’m in the middle of a challenge of “stepping into your greatness,” so this kind of makes perfect sense.
- Four: I genuinely believe we are ALL great in our own way and that we SHOULD feel like “we’re one of the best.” Even if only to help prime our state to perform in our personally defined ideal manner.
We should all see ourselves as great — there’s something “ideal” within each of us that we can all access, if we allow ourselves to. We shouldn’t rely on others to tell us who we are and we shouldn’t rely on them to make us believe what’s true in our heart. Sure, they can help jump start it when we may not even see it, but the goal should be to inspire ourselves and to have unwavering faith in who we are.
“If you recognize the greatness within you and then hide it… you are putting a cap/limit on who you are… And you put your own life in jeopardy to be mediocre and unfulfilling.”
Put your name on the wall and don’t you dare hesitate to make it bold, colorful, and glorious. Inspire yourself.
Your state of “flow” will NEVER show up if you don’t sit down and do the work.
I’m not sure how long it will take my nervous system to really understand this. It’s taking a lot of willpower to get myself to sit down and meditate or sit down and start my work. Flow NEVER shows up until some personal push forward or some external event gets my momentum going. Yet almost without fail, as soon as I do, as soon as I spend the time meditating or open the laptop and start writing/creating … I enter that state of flow.
At this point, it’s a matter of persistence. Maybe it will take me my entire life to build that habit of “just sit down and X” where X is meditate, or start the first sentence of a writing project, or reach out to that person, or whatever it is that’s important/meaningful.
“… Thank you for taking this time to be with yourself.” Learn to appreciate the times when you DO sit down and do that “X.” Especially when X equates to meditate: that time for yourself is among the most valuable time you can spend. When you do it, you teach yourself that you and your time is worth more than anything else in your life. Be grateful for when you listen to your heart to sit down with your own self.
“You have to make YOU, your HEART, and MEDITATION a ‘HAVE TO’ and then make it exciting. :)” When the things that put you into flow become a MUST, consistency and habits will build faster than if it’s just a “I’ll do it when I can” or “when I feel like it” (spoiler alert: you almost never feel like it).
BE LOVE. … but start with yourself.
When I’m out of flow, when I haven’t really connected to my heart … it’s very easy for me to think very “low level” thoughts — focusing on the mundane, the unimportant, the mediocre. Scroll Facebook. Check subscriptions. Flop around through emails. Unimportant, distracting work.
But after spending time to meditate or otherwise doing work that matters and connecting to my heart? All of the sudden I want nothing less than to do ONLY the best work, spend my time creating and sharing, give to those around me … and so on.
But sometimes I can never give and “be” love if I don’t start with myself. It’s not selfish to take care of yourself if it means connecting to who you really are.
Because who you really are is far more effective and giving and loving … than who you are at your lowest, who will be far more focused on getting quick fixes and gets easily bogged down by the unimportant.
Foundation of the Day: Morning Rituals
If I don’t start my day right, my day goes to shit (on average). I don’t count my days as “good or bad” but now strive to answer “yes” to the question, “did I step into my greatness today?” I don’t on all days. But the days that I do… I probably started my morning right or at some point found a way to connect to who I really am, deep down.
Direct notes:
“The morning and how (or IF) I set my day up is make or break for my day. In general, not factoring in spontaneous moments/conversations/adventures — but the foundation of my waking hours is what sets the framework for the rest of my day, my mood, my direction, my commitment towards my life.”
Establishing morning rituals/routines has been an ongoing struggle. I haven’t really stuck with any one for a long enough time for it to become a habit. It helps when I can physically look at a list and answer “yes or no” to whether or not I did items A, B or C. When I track it, I’m more likely to do it.
For now, I’m focusing on as few items, and keeping it as simple, as possible. As rituals become deeply ingrained, then maybe I can combine them with other things and then add something new to focus on.
It’s important for me to remember that there’s no rulebook when it comes to morning rituals or even when I wake up and go to bed. Everyone is going to have a different opinion on what to do (or what NOT to do) in the morning and even when morning/afternoon/evening actually takes place. What’s most important is to understand what’s right for me — and then to do that, without shame.
I still have addictions to the internet/screens.
The internet is an incredible tool — I just so happen to use it in ways that greatly diminish my effectiveness on a daily basis. For now, the less time I can spend around the internet (particularly distracting platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest, and Reddit), the better off I’ll be — because it means more time to actually listen to my own true thoughts and intuitions. And not distracting myself with quick fix impulses.
Fix the flag. Control what you can, not what you can’t.
While I was sitting on the porch to be outside (out of my room) while I meditated, I noticed that the flag on our porch was all twisted and wrapped around itself. Not a big deal, but it stuck out to me for some reason. Internally I wrestled with fixing it (especially during my meditation). It seems so minute of an issue, but I pushed myself to get up, untangle it, and then sat back down.
I wasn’t going to be able to stop the wind from re-tangling the flag around itself, but for that moment I took control of a (very small) situation that I COULD control. Seeing – and hearing – that flag whip about in the wind with greater gusto was just another reminder that there is greatness in all of us … but sometimes we simply need a little untangling. And often times, we can untangle ourselves, if we focus on what we CAN control rather than what we CANNOT.
Untangle the flag. Tidy the shelf. Throw away that note. Message that person. Write that page. Control what you can control.
