Mindfulness

In my mid-twenties, I told a friend I was going to the Esalen Institute to “find myself.” He responded matter-of-factly, “You’re out of luck. You won’t find yourself there because I see you’re here.” Clearly, my friend didn’t get what I meant.

After what we’ve collectively been through in the past year, how do you prepare yourself for a completely different mindset for 2021? As evidenced in yesterday’s video, I had to dramatically shift my mindset to move from our 2020-21 workshop calendar and programming to our new Sabbatical Sessions.

When do you feel most untethered from what’s expected of you and most inspired by what’s inside of you? Why don’t we ask that question once a year as we approach midlife? Our habits can be like a drug, a distraction and anesthetic from what’s really going on in our lives.

Yesterday, on my way out to a 10+ mile walk around Lady Bird Lake, I shared the 25-floor elevator ride down with a neighbor I’d never seen before who I think lives in one of the penthouses. I was wearing a mask and a Golden Gate Bridge t-shirt. He donned no mask and a bit of a scowl.

Five innings. Psychologically speaking, that’s about how long most people think their life will last. No seventh-inning stretch. No bottom of the ninth. No extra innings. No walk-off home run.

Things were going pretty badly for Kiera. Life at what she had thought of as her “dream job” had taken a turn for the worse when her relationship with her boss had become toxic. She was just about at the end of her rope, but was too afraid to quit—the only thing that seemed worse than staying was leaving without a plan.

Chip: Separated at birth. That’s all I can say about me and Shelley Paxton. As former Chief Marketing Officer of Harley-Davidson, she knew how to make her way around a pretty macho culture and, of course, she learned how to ride a hog.

Pill. Grim. Age. As people arrive in midlife and beyond, they often pop pills to take the edge off the grim news they’re aging.

If you’re been an avid Wisdom Well reader, you know I revere the Irish poet John O’Donohue who passed away way too young a dozen years ago. If you dip into his well on Google, you’ll find things like this YouTube conversation on Ageing (yes, I kept the “e” in there out of respect to John’s European roots). Here are a few of the gems from his ruminations:

Hermann Hesse wrote, “When we have learned how to listen to trees, then the brevity and the quickness and the childlike hastiness of our thoughts achieve an incomparable joy.” “Hay un árbol que adoro.” I flirt with this specific tree on my daily walk as it towers above a farm just five minutes from the MEA campus.