(It’s a long story that I’ll tell you sometime.)
This tweak means that when I go for a run, I always try to avoid turning left.
Let me explain:
Have you ever considered why you do what you love to do?
What component parts add up to you “loving this”?
I have, often.
You see, I figure if you know what ingredients make you come alive, then you can replicate those ingredients more often.
The “alive” factor doesn’t have to be when you are doing that one or two things that you love, it can be all the time.
Does that make sense?
For example, I know that a couple of my ingredients are exercising and being in nature.
There’s something about these that gives me a boost beyond words.
Now, when I go for a run I can turn left out my gate and do some laps of the town and tick one of my ingredient boxes (exercising).
Or I can turn right and get into the forest, run by the river, jump over some rocks, get dirty and tick two or three, since adventure is also an ingredient.
Turning right takes longer but the pay off is way more, way more life.
So I make sure I get out the door and turn right 95% of the time.
The reason I meditate is exactly the same.
I realised that all of my most memorable moments - when I was the most alive, the most immersed in what I was doing - I was also the most present.
I figured if I could learn to be more present then that would automatically mean I would spend more time with that sense of aliveness, no matter what I was doing.
Do you see?
The ingredient is presence and when I throw that in the cake mix that is my life the whole thing comes out sweeter and more substantial and yet lighter.
It pays to choose to have good quality ingredients, huh?
And why not? Such a small investment of time and it brings so much more.
Have a super day Arjuna “getting better at baking cake”
PS. There are only a few days left until the next Ishayas’ Ascension meditation weekend.
Three in fact.
I believe there is also a bed or two still available if you want to make it into a mini-retreat.
Although I’m not teaching, I can recommend these fellows highly. I will be around so bring your running shoes and we’ll turn right.
Here’s the linkage: