In sequence of my post last week around chaos and entropy, here's a maturation process that I'm in right now around the power of NO. As much as our inner child may not want to hear "No", whether it comes to an indulgent distraction, or a soothing external influence/substance. Much of our Personal Creationary Power comes in the form of a Loving 'No'. Saying No to distractions, vices and crutches. Saying No to the lies we tell ourselves and choose to believe. Saying No to people, activities and pursuits that aren't in alignment with our values and priorities. Saying No to invitations, opportunities and experiences that don't support our growth. Saying No is just as crucial as saying yes. And by process of elimination, the more things we say no to, leaves a short list of things worth saying yes to. No is a boundary. No is a 'that's not for me'. The more people and places we put a boundary up around with No, the more energy, focus and concentration is able to be potentiated toward the areas and arenas where we say YES to. Where in your life are you ignoring the whisper saying 'no'? Where in your life are you saying yes to something that you know is a no? For what purpose are you saying yes? Is it to please someone? Is it to distract yourself? Is it to sabotage your efforts? Is it to soothe yourself? Ask yourself these questions and listen for the answers. And as always would love to hear what your all's experience is and relationship is to 'NO'.

Well I went dark there for a while and because I didn't intend to I apologize for my absence. I'm back from my own internal explorations and have LOTS to share. Here's one of the big core themes: Chaos and Entropy. TLDR; -How disorderly and chaotic is your internal state of being: physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually? -How disorderly and choatic is your external world: your physical living space, the sequence of events in your Life, your relationships etc? -How would your level of ease shift if you brought more order to yourself and your life? -The shortcut: stillness and attention to your breath. In Depth Exploration; These are two topics that I'm getting really interested in as I deepen my meditation practice and desire and commitment for more stillness in my Life. It feels like the more entropy or chaos or 'dis-order' I have the greater dis-ease and distraction I have from my desires and my purpose (which are slowly becoming one and the same). Have you ever noticed that elevated, high frequency-energetic states like focus, Love and joy have a certain level of singular focus? Where your mind and being is more present, more focused on a singular subject. Compare this however to lower frequency states like fear, shame and guilt and there is a much more scatteredness or disorderliness to our attention/focus, even rumination. Thoguhts of the past (typically association with depression) and thoughts of the future (typical of anxiety). In these states, the disorderliness and chaos of our internal state of being including repressed emotions, self criticism and shame, unsafety and fear- can actualy create different physical outputs or expressions. In anxiety the disorderliness leads to high physical output (pacing, visual scanning, fidgeting, unattentive) while in depression it leads to low phyical output (tiredness, low motivation and mood, physically sedentary). To contrast, in 'flow states' or states of great peace or presence there is a more laser like sense to them. What is that?

While the New Year is upon us, and people have taken off the starting line in pursuit of their goals, resolutions and habits, already a few days in some are already feeling depleted and discouraged. One of the things I've been contemplating a lot recently though has been humanity's disconnection from story and myth. After all, ever since before Neanderthals could talk, we were drawing symbols on cave walls depicting a series or sequence of events that included a plot, a character and a progression. This is the heart and foundation of a story. The Bible and other religious texts are a compilation of stories. The question becomes: what story are YOU writing? What's the story you're telling yourself? What's the story you're creating? Is it one that you'd want to tell around a campfire? Is your story one of perfection and wholeness or one of shame and discontent? Is it a story of courage, growth and expansion? Or a story of doubt, self-neglect and contraction? Is it a story of fulfillment and nourishment? Or a story where of compliance and sacrificial enslavement? If you were to look at your Life as a whole, and you connected with the Story that your Soul has laid out for you to Live, what chapter are you in right now? Are you in the chapter of rest and recuperation where you reorient and realign with your purpose? Are you in the chapter where you've gathered your tools, packed your pack and are ready to head out on your next excursion? Are you in the chapter where you're coming back home to yourself? Are you in the chapter where you're to go out in search of meaningful relationships and pursuits to support and fortify? What chapter are you in? Are you embracing it? Are you torn between the last chapter and the next one? What would it take for you to close the last chapter and jump into the next one with earnest enthusiasm, excitement and vigor. It's a new chapter. Though it may follow the last chapter, it is nonetheless a new one-ripe with the opportunity for the story to take a change of direction, a turn of events, a resolution, a healing and an expansion.

The New Year is officially upon us. And magically it coincides with a new moon on 12/30 (New Moons = 'No' Moon which is great for intention setting as it it marks the conclusion of the last lunar cycle and the beginning of the next one). If you're like nearly everyone else that sets and forgets new years resolutions, and you feel defeated to the point of not even wanting to set any resolutions this year, then join the club. Over time I've come to change the way I think about how I want to start of the new year and how I want to orient and organize my dreams, desires and goals. So here are a few of the things I'll be doing. Feel free to join me. More than anything else, I'm dropping the goals, habits and resolutions. My focus this new year is on 1. Reflection 2. Reorienting 3. Dreaming 4. Focus Reflection. I have a proclivity for sometimes spending and excess amount of time reflecting, analyzing, and critiquing my past. This year my reflection is with the aim to truly TAKE IN and APPRECIATE where I've been, all I've done, and the earnest well intentioned effort I've put in to various endeavors. In a sense, it's reflection with the aim to come to peace and acceptance with everything that's transpired to get me here. When I do that I'm far more present and energized to devote my attention with more intention towards what I desire. Reorienting. When I venture into the wilderness, every now and then I get turned around and I lose my bearings. Just as in life- it's easy to lose track of our values, goals and priorities. So this year I'll be reorienting towards what is MOST ESSENTIAL to me. What are the three areas or buckets of my Life that are most pertinent to me where I will get the most ROI (return on my investment)? I feel a greater sense of patience within me that is developing that will help me take things slow and focus on one thing at a time, which I think is where a lot of people get off track with new years resolutions. They try to overhaul too many things all at once and then they ALL end up slipping through their fingers.

Alright y'all lets talk JOURNALING. I have only a few requirements for the 1:1 clients I work with but two of those requirements is that they have to have a meditation practice and journaling practice. It's inevitable that they won't always be done EVERY day. AND I can't think of two tools as powerful and as fundamental as these two. If someone isn't spending 5 min a day breathing with themselves and writing down their thoughts and inner dialogue, it's hard to make much progress at anything else. Journaling in particular is an amazing way to audit our internal process. Every second we are CONSCIOUSLY processing 100-400 bits per sec (give or take) (unconsciously we're processing 11 Million bits/sec). Over the course of the day we end up consciously processing over 4MB of data. What's happening to all that data though? Who is sorting it and how? If you're living uncosnciously that means that your unconscious programming is filing that all away, and for most people that's a largely unaudited processing system that's mostly dysfunctional and rooted in inadequacy and scarcity. How the hell do we start intentionally and consciously sorting through all that data? Journaling and meditating. With that said I'm planning to create a journaling course to help people get more out of their journal sessions faster, but in the meantime I want to hear from you all. What's your journaling practice/process look like. Drop it in the comments and let's get the conversation going!