I usually start every morning by reading part of a nonfiction book while I have coffee. Sometimes it’s a book that I’ve already read and am in the process of revisiting for fresh insight. Maybe it’s an art book and I’m studying color palettes or techniques or just wanting to appreciate the work of an artist that I love. Maybe it’s a partial re-read of an amazing book about the creative process that I’m trying to internalize, like Rick Rubin’s recent masterpiece The Creative Act. Often it’s a book about mindfulness or spirituality like the book I’m re-reading right now, Radical Wholeness by Philip Shepherd.
There’s a lot to take in with this book. I’ve literally highlighted almost the whole thing and now I’m in the process of going back and highlighting my highlights with a different color! Yes, I’m that person. Luckily I’m reading an ebook so I’m not turning the nuggets of gold into a blurry mess. I’m not going to go into everything I’m connecting with in this one post, but here’s something that I read that stopped me in my tracks.
Whenever we tell ourselves to focus on the present or to focus on our body, we are not focusing on the present or being in our body. We are focusing on supervising our experience.
Florence, Italy 2009
Wow, right?
One of the things I’ve realized lately is that my whole life has been a work of learning to ground into the present moment. The anxiety-ridden childhood and young adulthood, fears and experiences around death, fears of being “alone in the world”, learning to sit with doubt and uncertainty (aka, life). ALL OF IT.
These are the things that go through my mind. Thanks for reading.
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