Next time you feel self-conscious, you might want to reflect on this: just who is this self I seem to be conscious of? We live in a world of appearances, and when we believe what appears to be real, is real, we tend to get ourselves in trouble. Self-consciousness is the perfect example of an appearance we mistake for something real. In truth, self-consciousness is an illusion within a misconception.  As a reminder, an illusion is real; it’s just not what it appears to be. This particular illusion suggests that the self is actually a person. But what we think of as “myself” is simply a collection of our ideas, thoughts, memories, and

Life Knows What You Need All through this morning, I seemed to be having a difficult time getting to the work I had committed to doing. Other, seemingly unrelated ideas kept presenting themselves. I’ve learned to listen to that signal and obey the impulse to capture a thought when it first comes to me. They all had a particular tone I’ve come to recognize, and that tone can be best characterized by the feeling, “I’d better write that down. There’s something there I can use.” I’ve learned to listen to that signal and obey the impulse to capture a thought when it first comes to me. I started to berate

How Much Alike Are We? For most of my life, when I encountered someone, the first thing I noticed was how different they seemed from me. By doing that, I instantly made them into an “other.” This focus on how they differed from me made it impossible for me to see the being that person and I shared. We’re all part of one infinite being. it; we’re all localizations of that one consciousness. When we lose sight of that simple truth, we’re losing sight of both the divine nature of the person we have “other-ized” as well as our own divine nature. When you’ve lost sight of the divine nature

Everywhere you look, you’ll find people who are angry.
This isn’t the kind of anger that comes and goes, the kind that’s always been around.

Getting home, going home, finding your way back home against great odds are all themes that have appeared and continue to appear in literature, songs, and popular culture, from The Odyssey to The Wizard of Oz and beyond. We continue to tell stories about home because the idea of home is one that resonates deeply with humans.

Judgment On a hike up my local ski mountain the other day, I was so struck by the beauty of grasses and wildflowers nodding and bowing in the summer breeze that I stopped to admire them, something I rarely do on my way up the mountain. It’s not at all rare for me to stop and admire some tiny detail of nature, I just don’t typically do it on my way up this particular mountain. I use it as a workout, so my routine is to “motate” up that mountain with no rests, and no turning around to admire the view. I save that for the top. It wasn’t context

I Know Myself Really Well “I know myself really well” is a statement I often hear from clients. It’s also something I told myself for most of my life. But exactly what are we saying when we make that statement? More often than not, what we really mean is, “I know what I’m comfortable with. I know what I like and don’t like.” Knowing what you like is great, but whatever is on that list; preferences, tastes, accomplishments, experiences, whatever is on that list doesn’t even remotely describe or capture who you are. I’d come to see that when I or anyone else makes that statement, we’re essentially saying, “I know what

The Future You You’re about to get in your car and drive somewhere you’ve never been. You’ve got everything you need for your adventure and are ready to go. As you put the car in drive and start, where is your attention?  If you’re serious about getting wherever the adventure may lead, you’ll probably look through the windshield, at what’s ahead of you. Looking in your rear-view mirror wouldn’t make a lot of sense and wouldn’t get you anywhere, except in trouble. At least the past feels known. As obvious as that seems in the context of driving a car, it’s crazy how strong the urge to look behind us can

Is Well-being Created, or Revealed? I was reading an article about a choral group in Los Angeles. The director of the group was talking about how difficult, at the start of the pandemic, it had been for the singers in his group not to be able to get together and sing. As he talked about how much it meant to the singers to be singing together, he made the statement, “Well-being is created by singing.” I know exactly what he means. There’s very little I’m aware of that will let me experience well-being the way singing can, but I have a slightly different take from the choral director. Singing doesn’t