Be Do Have

Earlier this week I had a profound experience with trying on different states of being. I embodied the word lightness and something incredible happened: I no longer felt heavy. I only felt light. It was a simple yet powerful shift. Here are some of my thoughts about it.

You have the power to choose your way of being.

All you need to do is ask yourself: how do I want to be? Choose a word (peaceful, radiant or loving for example). Try to embody the word and see what happens. How would it feel in your body to be that word? How would you carry yourself in the world? It's extremely powerful in my experience.

I imagine most people do the opposite (do, have, be). They do (work), to have (a house) and then they can finally be (happy). Sound familiar? Sadly, doing does not always lead to happiness. Simply choosing to be happy makes you happy. And you don't need to have material things to be happy. Some of the happiest people in the world I've met during my travels have very little. They are grateful for what they have and despite hardship they choose to be happy. 

Take a deep breath. You don’t need to do anything to be happy. You don’t need to get that next thing to be happy. You could just choose to be happy right now. How would that be? Take another deep breath. 

A lot of us were brought up in a doing culture. There's a lot of pressure here in the Bay Area to do great things, drive a fancy car and buy a house on a hill. I'm not saying those things are bad. What matters is: how are you being while you are doing them? That’s what is important. Have you ever been somewhere and not known how you got there? Did you get lost in a doing storm? I’ve been there. I want to live life being present to whatever activity I'm doing whether it’s washing dishes, writing this blog or talking with a loved one. And hopefully I’m being peaceful, loving and accepting to whatever I am being present to. 

What if you could slow down enough to really experience the present moment while doing? For example, eating a snickers bar. If you stuff a snickers bar down your throat then you don’t get to enjoy the snickers bar. If you mindfully eat the snickers bar one bite at a time, savor it in your mouth, taste all of the flavors and textures… I want to experience life like eating a snickers bar mindfully and slowly. I don’t want to miss out on experiencing the smooth chocolate, crunchy peanuts, and gooey caramel. How do you want to eat the snickers bar? Will you join me in this endeavor? 

I’ll leave you with this graphic. It has some nice questions to reflect on.