January 19, 2021
Meditation: Lullaby for Grown Ups (Liquid Mind) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyqss5-_AFM
Question: What is one thing you secretly hope other people don’t discover or find out about you?
Answer: I’m a pretty transparent guy – what you see is what you get. As a big fan of Brene Brown, I’ve always found that vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness, so sharing the things that might scare other people would not be scary for me. I know that for years – starting in high school all the way through to when I turned 50, I felt like an impostor. When I hit 50, it was like a light bulb went off; I decided it was time to be me, the authentic me, the transparent me, warts and all. And by sharing my “the year of you” journal entries with the world, it makes it harder to hide. But I’m going to really think about this one…
After meditating on this for 5 minutes, my answer to the question would be a limiting belief that no matter what I do, it’s still not enough – which equates to a different form of “I’m not enough.” I feel like I have to do more and more and more, just to get some decent attention from my colleagues at work and as a professional. I just need to sit with the notion that giving my best to help improve the lives of others is all that I can do, then I’ll be able to feel like I am enough. I’m moving in that direction, but every now and then you go down those rabbit holes and spiral into negativity and suffering. Besides, they’re just thoughts…
As part of my morning routine, I spend at least 15 minutes reading something, whether it’s a chapter in a book or an article I found online. This morning, I found a great article about happiness, framed in a different way. Here’s the name of the article and the link:
- After a string of life setbacks, here’s how I learned to rethink happiness – https://www.fastcompany.com/90595384/after-a-string-of-life-setbacks-heres-how-i-learned-to-rethink-happiness
I really like the four lessons she learned about happiness; but what really got me thinking were the four questions to ask yourself when searching for a source of happiness, which she shared as:
- What do I cherish?
- What’s worth defending?
- What’s worth disrupting?
- What am I holding on to, and what might I let go of?
My answers will be another post. But “happiness” is one of those things that our students always value, but cannot really define. My sense is that they believe it’s this “thing” to achieve, not a state of being. And these questions get to the heart of what happiness really is – it’s an internal state of joy, not this instantaneous state of mind that’s fleeting.
So here’s your challenge – ponder these questions for a while and see what YOU come up with!
Have a great day!
The Dream Dean 