Welcome,
And I hope that each one of you will come to find peace within yourself.
Today,
I'd like to talk a little bit about doing things that will help you to take control of your life.
The easiest way to do that is to change your perspective.
And to change your perspective,
You must change the way you look at your life.
We live our lives and go along much of the time on autopilot.
We sleep,
We eat,
We work.
We have time with partners or spouses.
We take care of children and pets.
We may plan activities for leisure time or vacations.
But for many of us,
However,
This routine becomes a trap.
It's comforting.
It's familiar.
But in the long run,
It doesn't require a lot of thought.
If you think about it,
What makes a vacation or a holiday fun?
For many,
It's because we go someplace we haven't been before,
And we do and see things that are new and different.
If you're camping and you see a bear,
That's exciting,
And you're going to talk about it for a long time.
If you go whitewater rafting,
That's exciting too,
And you'll always remember the experience.
But those are often isolated events.
The trick we need to learn is how to put excitement and interest into our lives every day.
One way to take control of your life is to do all you can to make each day special.
You can do that by staying more in the present moment,
By trying to live each moment to its fullest,
By letting go of the past and leaving behind all the things in the past that drag you down.
I know that in my life,
I've seen too many people that allow a negative event or a series of events to gradually dominate their lives and thoughts.
And here I'll just cite a couple of examples.
Maybe it was a tragic accident,
Or perhaps the death of someone close to them,
Or a failure in a business venture,
Or breaking up with the person you thought was the one.
But over time,
That event becomes a focus in their lives.
They talk about it,
They think about it,
And they're always reminiscing about what was or could have been.
And in doing that,
They lose control of their lives.
They live their lives in the past,
Or in a future that will never come.
Maybe you know someone like that,
Or maybe it's you.
A death of a close relative or a friend is always sad.
And it may even be tragic.
But we can't let things like that take over our lives.
Blowing out your knee in a football game and having your chance at the pros disappear might be sad.
And it might even be tragic.
But if you go through your life thinking about what could have been,
You lose control of the opportunity to be something great in another way.
I know what loss is,
As I've outlived all of my immediate family and all of my closest friends,
Every single one.
But to take control of your life means to look at things from a new way.
At one point,
I was paralyzed.
And for a time,
All I could think about was what I had lost,
Until I finally got control of myself and appreciated all that I still had.
No matter what your demons are,
You can overcome them.
And a good place to start is getting in touch with your breath.
Close your eyes now.
And let's go in search of this present moment together.
It doesn't matter if you're lying down,
Sitting or standing.
It only matters that you're comfortable.
Silence your devices,
All of them.
And hopefully you're someplace where you won't be distracted or disturbed for the next little bit.
This here now,
This is your time.
Just relax.
There's no pressure.
And there's no place to go.
Nowhere we have to be.
We're just here looking for ourselves in this moment of solitude.
Relax your face.
Unclench your jaw.
And maybe wiggle your eyebrows.
That should relax just about everyone.
Relax your neck.
And maybe you'd like to shake out your arms and legs and just let them rest comfortably.
Let your shoulders drop.
Let your body sag.
Ease any tension you might have in your chest or your belly or your back.
Let's start to focus on our breath.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Our breath is our anchor.
It's there for us in all moments.
And focusing on it can help us to capture the present moment.
It can help us to capture the now.
As you focus on your breath,
Let's track its movement in your body.
Feel it as it comes in through your nose,
The air moving into you.
Notice the movement of your chest and belly as the life-giving air fills you up.
Just continue to breathe and follow each and every breath as you let yourself settle in.
Just listen to my voice and follow your breath one breath at a time.
And follow me into this moment and into the next.
Don't force anything and just let your breath be natural.
John Lennon said,
Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.
That was certainly true for him.
I think most people plan a better life than they actually end up living.
But why is that?
I think it's because we lose our perspective when we deal with things that life hands us.
We get so caught up with the day-to-day stuff that some of the important things fall off the edge.
We spend our time worrying about the future instead of spending our time helping ourselves be at peace,
Helping ourselves grow.
We get caught up in trivial things where we can be so much better served by spending more time reflecting on our lives and planning how best to live it.
Because time is our most valuable resource,
We really do need to think more carefully how we spend it.
Breathing in and breathing out,
One breath at a time.
As you breathe in,
Feel some love for yourself.
Give yourself a break.
Life is hard.
We have to acknowledge all of your strengths and acknowledge what you view as your flaws.
We all have them,
Real or imagined.
But some things we view as faults are put on us by others,
Our parents or siblings or teachers or friends.
We need to let those things go.
Each one of us needs to know that we are enough.
We always have been.
We are often hardest on ourselves.
I've said before that loving yourself is the beginning of the path that leads to understanding and truly knowing yourself.
And the best advice I can give anyone is whatever doesn't serve you,
Let it go.
I'm still a work in progress just as you are.
So be grateful for all that you are.
Take this moment to be kind to yourself.
Loving yourself will help you to be your best self.
The losses and failures of the past can drag us down.
But only if we hold on to them,
We have to let them go.
Now as we come to a close,
Open your eyes and come back into the room.
Wiggle your fingers and toes and stretch and feel how good it is to be alive.
Take in a deep breath through your mouth and blow it out through your nose,
Letting out a sigh.
Get ready to move back into your day and be more joyful than before.
Before I close,
I'd like to read a little verse by Albert Camus,
The French philosopher,
In which he said,
In the midst of hate,
I found there was within me an invincible love.
In the midst of tears,
I found there was within me an invincible smile.
In the midst of chaos,
I found there was within me an invincible calm.
I realized through it all that in the midst of winter,
I found there was within me an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy.
For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me,
Within me,
There's something stronger,
Something better,
Pushing right back.
All of us can change,
And you can too.
I hope this has been a beneficial and calming session.
Till next time.
