Tag Archive for: presence

What’s the greatest expression of myself that I can be today?

I was listening to an interview with Joe Dispenza and he mentioned this question in one of his answers. I loved it! Read it again and see how it feels in your body. Do your shoulders move forward as a sign of protection, or do you feel yourself standing up straight? Does it feel like a sigh of relief or more pressure?

For me, it feels like a release. Like a permission that I can give myself to release the pressure of all the “should’s” that my mind comes up with. 

In tough moments like the recent events in the U.S., we might feel like we don’t know what to do; and maybe we feel like we “should” be doing something. 

While action is certainly needed, not knowing what the “right” action and what the effect is long term can be daunting. So, the invitation is to go back to this question and ask yourself (and myself included): 

“What is the greatest expression of myself that I can be today?

Then we can look at putting one foot in front of the other, and start there. Step by step, and eventually the whole road will appear ahead of us. 

But for now, let’s go with the highest expression and with today. That means that we are doing our best and there is no need for “should’s”, pressure, attachment, or judgment. And tomorrow is another day.

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Are you looking for certainty?

Photo by Shantanu Kulkarni

Often times we hear that all we have is now. The past is in the past, the future is not yet here. And yet, trauma or not, it is hard to be in the now. Understandably so, because there are so many things vying for our time and attention. 

Also, if we are attached to an outcome or consumed by fear, we are looking for certainty, so being “in the now”, especially nowadays, can be very unsettling because we are not getting what we are looking for. 

In reality though, the only thing that is certain is the present moment. We don’t know what the future brings and we can’t connect the dots in the future; we can only do that by looking back. 

The story below is from Ram Dass. It is one of my favorite stories because it shows how the context can change and provide meaning when you look back, so all we can do is be present with what is. That’s where the certainty lies. 

It’s the same with trauma and chronic illness. We might feel like we can’t control some of the circumstances we find ourselves in. What we can control though is how we respond to the situation: by knowing that we can handle it in the “now” and not letting the moment or the situation take our power away. 

Sometimes “handling it” means we need to move, or step away from a conversation or the news. Or we ask for support. Whatever it is, we are the ones making the decision about the next step, as opposed to the situation dictating it. 

“There is a story of a farmer who had a horse that ran away.
His neighbor came by and said, “Oh, that’s terrible.”
The farmer said, “You never know.”

The next day the horse came back, and it was leading two other wild horses. The neighbor said, “That’s wonderful.”
And the farmer said, “You never know.”

Later, his son was training one of the wild horses, and while riding the wild horse, he fell off and broke his leg. The neighbor came by and said, “That’s terrible.”
The farmer said, “You never know.”

The Cossack army came through recruiting everybody, taking away all the able young men. They didn’t take the farmer’s son because he had a broken leg. The neighbor came by and said, “That’s wonderful.”
And the farmer said, “You never know.”

And so it goes.”

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