Once upon a time, I was all about collecting knowledge, being smart, knowing things, knowing lots of different things, more knowing and trying to know the most. Slowly, I have recognised that yes, knowledge is great; learning is fun and having answers to questions can be interesting but it’s definitely not everything. What you do, Who you are, How you act is simply more important. Consider for a moment your friends, family, colleagues, whilst you might value what they know, it’s how they make you feel, it’s how they share that knowledge, it’s how they respond to you that shapes your relationship. It even extends to yourself – how you make yourself feel impacts you more than how much you know about stuff.
I love the idea (founded in Zen Buddhism) that … “How you do anything is how you do everything”.
How you show up to your day, your life, whether a mundane chore or a special event, who you are when you show up matters. What this means is the shift from the outcome, the collecting of knowledge, the Doing toward the who I am, the Being. Bringing our awareness, our accountability, our intention and ultimately our attention on establishing ourselves in this Being sets us up to act more purposefully, more authentically and with greater impact.
Our meditation practice helps us enormously in bringing awareness to not only who we are but also how we behave. Liking a guiding system, it gives us the feedback we need to adjust and shift how we go about our days. This gift can transform us and our way of being and acting in the world in such a profound way that our impact can be moving more often between neutral to positive and further away from the negative.
If we bring all our attention and focus towards who we are as we go about the day, simply watch how the rest of it takes care of itself.
Love,
Jo x