Even though the video for this lesson was taken before the tragedy in Japan, I feel it seems to hold even more resonance today looking at the aftermath of what occurred there.
Life is a constant opportunity to wake up. Every moment. When tragedies occur, they awaken us to the true miracle of being alive. We’re momentarily shaken from our slumber. We realize our lives are impermanent, precious, fleeting, blessed. We are awakened to how full our plate is, how much we can love, how fully we can create and contribute.
Sadly, it shouldn’t take a disaster to wake us up.
We let our minds run on auto-pilot so consistently that our self-dialogue becomes that of taking life for granted, complaining, beating ourselves up, focusing on misperceptions of what our minds tell us isn’t working. Our conditioned responses deaden us to the magic of what our lives truly can be on a daily basis.
Changing our inner dialogue is a moment-to-moment process. Waking to the miracle of our existence occurs the more we move from living in our heads to actually just living. It’s not about trying to put a positive spin on things. It’s about recognizing how our interpretations of things are often so limited, so habituated that we don’t even realize what we are saying.
Homework: Try this week to catch yourself in the moment when you are reacting from habit (there’s a whole bunch of examples of this in the video below). Re-interpret your judgment about that moment in a way that not only makes you feel better, but is the actual truth. It will not only activate you in your life in a new, dynamic way but it will also wake you up.
If you’d like to make a donation to the Japanese Earthquake Relief fund, you can click here for Global Giving.
Or here for Lady Gaga’s Earthquake Relief Wristband.