How To Thrive

I’m sitting in my sunny kitchen, on a beautiful morning, basking in this moment of balance and “rightness”.  It is a good moment to soak in; I sip my coffee and stretch my legs into a sunbeam.  Moments like these are precious, they create access to gratitude and thankfulness, which are really important to well-being.  They can also create a “call to action”, to have life stay this way, an internal voice that demands “…if you made this happen today, you can make it happen every day!”

It would be easy to mistake that voice for self-confidence… it’s not.  Unless I control the universe (which I don’t), creating the conditions for my peace, outside of myself, is not within my power (influence, yes… power, no).  Making a commitment to have life always balanced and calm is a set up for failure because that call to action, sets out on a path to control things, so peace is defended.  Can you feel peace move out of possibility with the gear up to defend it?  Creating a condition where there is a threat and a forthcoming battle (even when none may exist).  This defense takes constant vigilance.  I have to remind myself; the goal is not to always have peace…peace only comes from knowing whatever life throws my way I will handle it and find my way back to well-being.  Peace comes from inside of me, not from the world around me.

There is a Zen saying “the obstacle is the path”, which means that if I am chasing peace as my goal, I’m vulnerable to every life hiccup and concern, because I’ll see them as in my way, I’ll be constantly guarding the “status quo”.  However, if I am open to the fact that there will always be obstacles (like excruciating moments of personal failure) as well as times of deep contentment, I am not taking a defensive position, but am open to whatever comes, knowing I’ve got this.

“I’ve got this” doesn’t mean I won’t screw it up, it means if I do, I’ll figure it out and learn something in the process.  This is not an easy thing to keep top of mind, but with self-compassion I accept that I am a work in progress.  So, I’m going to grab another cup of coffee and enjoy the calm I‘ve created within myself, and the fact that I have a moment to enjoy it.

You’ve also survived 100% of your worst days, how do you let that comfort and source you?