Enlightened Engagement

Most have heard the saying, "Today is going to be the first day of the rest of your life." Most of us know that it means that you have to let the past go and live like it was your last day on earth. Enjoy the moment and live for today are said by many. These are platitudes are more easily said than done. Living in the moment takes a lot of focus and work. It takes a mega amount of concentration to live in the NOW when you are planning, writing, watching TV, cooking, or running. One trick I have added to my arsenal of strategies to enjoy my life is to put little notes up in my most usual places that remind me to concentrate on the here and now so that I can be in the present. This helps me to revel in the now of my running, writing, or teaching. I could be going to the office or lecturing to the class and I would see the note, FOCUS, and that would remind me to take a second to see all the beauty around me. I would then stop and look at the students in my room and realize how...

Taking a little time each day to meditate, think about yourself, say a positive saying, and in general let your mind relax is an important thing to do to get yourself back on track if you have taken a turn that has led you down the wrong road. We all get off track when steering toward our goals. We get side tracked by our friends, family, and even ourselves. This happens naturally in life because there are so many things going on. Some of those things we agree with and some we don’t but when we set goals for our lives we can get side tracked by life with its myriad of complications. An accident, an injury, loss of patience, inability to focus intently enough, and a host of different events can stop us from completing our tasks that move us forward toward our goals. To get back into the groove all you have to do is let go. It appears to be a lot harder than it looks but letting go just takes practice like anything else. When the world stomps on you and you are late for work take a mi...

Loss is an inevitable part of life. We lose games, we lose our keys, we lose our mind, and we lose a variety of other things as we participate in this thing we call life. Eventually we will lose our lives as well. Loss is not something to be afraid of or angry about it is the event that naturally comes with everything we do. Obviously we want to win but because our universe is balanced we can't win all the time. Loss comes with winning. It is the yin to the yang. Every win you experience there is a commensurate loss. There is no getting around that fact. The caveat is that the losses you experience don't always equal the wins you experience in intensity and duration and the losses don't always come in the same form as the wins but for most of us they even out. What you need to know is that you can minimize the sensations that surround your losses because you create your own world. An anecdotal example is that I would lose consistently when it comes to my car. When I was yo...