Pursuing Our Best Life…Right Now!

When you think of living your best life, does it seem like a distant fantasy? True freedom & happiness await us…right now. My dear friend, Pierre Bensusan, has permitted me to use his track called ‘Sentimentales Pyromaniaques’ from the album 'Altiplanos'.

Transcript

Let's begin our day with a little bit of happy talk and meditation in this short, Yet impactful podcast designed to infuse a little bit of positivity into each moment of every day. Let's get in the flow. Today I want to talk about living our best lives. Now, What does that really even mean? Living your best life, Like what does that really mean? Well, That's an easy question to answer and it's a difficult question, Right? Don't you think? Because living your best life, It can be really daunting for some people and then it can be really a simple thing for others, Right? So, When I think about living my best life, I feel like I'm free. I feel a sense of freedom and I feel a sense of happiness, You know? So, What is living your best life to you? I mean, It's going to be different for everybody, Obviously. But, You know, I keep thinking of like freedom. I mean, Freedom just feels so right whenever I think about living my best life, Right? So, Freedom and happiness. I mean, That's what we all sort of strive for, Don't you think? I mean, What else is there that makes you feel like you're living your best life? I mean, And again, Like I said, It's different for everybody. For me, A sense of service, You know, That kind of stuff too. But I think it really kind of boils down to freedom and happiness. That's just what I think, Right? It boils down to that, Right? So, How do we live into that? How do we live into that? Absolutely, The sense of joy and freedom. How do we live into that? How do we free ourselves? This is how I'm going to say it, Right? How do we free ourselves from all those chains of the got-to-do list? You know, The obligations and our chores. The chores that we have in our lives, They especially, The time of year when the holidays start. How do you remove those chains of I've got to do this, I've got to do that, I've got to do this? Here's the problem. Well, It's not really a problem. It's just a thing, Right? It's a life thing, Right? We will never not have got-to-dos, You know? Like, You've got to go to the grocery store and get food. You've got to go shopping for the holidays. You've got to, You know, Whatever it is. There's just stuff you've got to do, Right? But here's the thing. We cannot let those obligations rule us, You know? Because if you want to live your best life, What does that mean? How do you do that? Well, Today what I'm going to do is I'm going to spotlight one thing, Okay? Because this is, And it's kind of a big thing, Actually. One thing, There's a multitude of things that you can do to really feel that and live your best life, Right? But the one thing that is foolproof, I think anyway, Is work on living in the present moment. And I know, Blah, Blah, Blah, I know that we talk about this often, But I think that it's a really important thing, Subject to discuss, Especially right now. It gets, At least for me, I mean, I don't know about you guys, But I get so busy this time of the year to the point where I can't stop and enjoy, Or I don't, Or I haven't in the past. Let's do it that way, Right? I haven't been able to stop and just enjoy the holidays. I celebrate Christmas, You know, And we decorate our house, And then all of a sudden it's like, Oh my God, I do the shopping, And I got to do it now because I got to send the stuff back east, And I got to do this, And I got to do that, Blah, Blah, Blah, All those gotta dos. But here's what we can do, Right? Living in the present moment, Right? Okay, And that would be the goal, To live in the present moment and do this, Right? However, Here's the thing. There's one thing that you can do, Right? And this does it for me every single time. Stop whatever you are doing. I don't mean right this second, You know, Or it could be right this second, And it could be any time in the future. You can put a reminder on your phone. I'm famous for doing that. Like, I'll be like, I'll look down at my phone, And it'll say, Live presently or live in the moment, You know, That sort of thing, Right? So basically what you do is you stop wherever you are and whatever you're doing, Unless you're driving. You got to keep driving, Right? But if you're like outside walking, Stop what you're doing and just get present. Just even for a minute. It doesn't have to take, It doesn't have to be a big dramatic thing and stop you from doing the next got to do, Right? But here's what you could do. You stop. You're outside, Let's just say. You look at the trees, Look at the flowers and the grass and the birds, And just look around for even that short period of time. Let's just say you're inside at the mall. So many people going to the malls right now, Right? So you stop and you notice. Notice the decorations. Notice the people rushing around trying to get, You know, Get their stuff and get where they need to be. And then the smells coming from the stores, Whether it's perfume or whether it's, You know, Body lotion or whatever, Or whether it's food. Stop and just notice it. The music being played in each store. Look around you for just those few minutes. And when you do that, You're able to appreciate everything in your life at that point, Because if you take those few minutes and appreciate and look and smell and taste and listen and feel everything around you, This, Doing this, Puts you squarely in the right now and allows you to have that sort of, As Davidji calls it, That pattern interrupt. Allows you to just stop that process of, Oh no, I forgot. I have to go do this or I have to go do that. Oh my gosh, I have to pick up the dry cleaning. Oh my gosh, Oh man, I have to go get this and I forgot about this and all of that. Right? So just stopping for that, Those just few minutes. And again, Like I said, Putting that little reminder on your phone. I swear you wouldn't believe the reminders on my phone are just bizarre. Right? So I've got the greatest affirmation because today, Because what we're going to do is we're going to meditate on another thing that puts you squarely in the present moment. Puts you right here, Right now. I mean, If you're interested at all in Ram Dass, He was like the king of being present. Be here now. And do you know that man was happy? He had a stroke. He couldn't even move. I mean, He could barely move. He could barely speak. But he had this happiness about him that was absolutely incredible. He stopped and smelled the roses. If you want to put it in song terms, You know. So let's get ourselves comfortable. Because I want to meditate on this, Even again, Even if it's just for a few minutes, Three minutes. Stop and say an affirmation of putting you in the present. I am here right now. You know? But, Okay, So let's get ourselves comfortable because we're going to use a different affirmation than that. So get yourself comfy. Get your blankie if you want it. Let's take a nice, Deep breath in. Through your nose, Filling up your lungs and release very gently. Awesome. Putting away all of those got-to-dos and the obligations and chores that need to get done. Just putting that away for just even three to five minutes. And let's consider a few things that we're grateful for as we start this off. What are you grateful for today? There's so much, Especially this week, Being a holiday, Living in that place of gratitude. We are so grateful for our families, Grateful for this amazing community that is being built. It's absolutely amazing. So our affirmation for today is this. I choose to pursue freedom and happiness every day of my life. That puts you squarely in present, Doesn't it? I choose to pursue freedom and happiness every day of my life, Living our best lives. Love that. So as we sit in the stillness just for a few minutes, Repeat the mantra to ourselves. I will keep the time. Let's begin. I choose to pursue freedom and happiness every day of my life. I choose to pursue freedom and happiness every day of my life. I choose to pursue freedom and happiness every day of my life. I choose to pursue freedom and happiness every day of my life. I choose to pursue freedom and happiness every day of my life. As we bring our awareness back to ourselves, Start to feel through your body, Through your heart, That beautiful sense of spirit for today, For this season, That sense of gratitude, Knowing that at all times we have the ability to be here now. Namaste.