I tried to get quiet for ten damn minutes. I stopped meditating about three maybe four months ago. Not completely - I would listen to meditations on Insight Timer starfished in my bed, slightly conscious of the words coming softly from my phone. “You will lead an abundant life. You will prosper.” Mostly meditations to get me off on a good foot for the day. But quiet introspection had gone out the window. I am quite good at tapping into my intuition in the stream of life, but lately I have noticed that my mind has the better of me, and I am convinced that it leads, over time, to health issues from stress and lack of mental wellness.
In this attempt to get quiet, I held the peace for maybe one minute and then my mind started making the shopping list for our New Years Party. Better text the kids’ grandfather for the lasagna recipe. It was like an itch I had to scratch. I texted him. Back to meditation. Quiet for a moment, and then it began up again, mostly lists and paranoia that I will forget to text someone an item that feels imminent and pressing in this meditative moment. While I watch my impulsive desire to check the boxes while meditating, I also am acutely aware this is no way to live. I don’t want my mind dominating me. I am aware some of my best actions and impulses come from my heart, prompted by spirit. The will he, won’t he of my mind in the middle of a quiet meditative state indicates my mind wins. My mind is doing a touchdown dance and I am sitting there crosslegged like I am not noticing the cavalier taunting.
I made a decision. I am taking my mind back in 2023. I have known worrying isn’t an action step for a long time, except I keep worrying. Until I started adding up all the moments I have heard the messages of an action to take from the quiet place. They were gentle directives, in complete alignment with what I wanted and who I am. Why wouldn’t we want more of that? The quiet whisperings of our inner selves guiding us forward towards love, choice, comfort, creativity.
When I think I don’t have time for the quiet place because it may be a painful experience, I understand that we always have pain in our lives. We have experiences where we see what we wish we didn’t, or someone makes a comment to which we feel triggered. The quiet place is a break for all that, and for our buried wishes to be unearthed, where we have lost their voice in the damp sod of the world swirling around us.
If You Are Looking to do some writing:
Be persistent and consistent. I took one week off from this column, and it was like treading through jellyfish in warm Florida coastal waters to get back. Painful and unpleasant. Not the writing I started to do when I got here - I love the craft when I am finally in it - but the painstaking musical chairs of my mind to sit in front of the blinking cursor. You can love writing so so so much, and still stay away from it. You can forget how much you love to write shockingly quickly. In order to be a consistent writer, I have been blocking time in my calendar. Daunting taunting blocks of two or three hours labeled with the writing task at hand - column, book proposal, creative open space (just to add some terror). When I see these blocks on my calendar that I created with great intention, I feel like I am pulling a staple out of my thumb. (Are you loving these metaphors to drive home how hard it is to write when you pause for even a week?) Without those blocks though, I wouldn’t have the glaring reminder that I love to write, want to write, and can write… before it all evaporates into the ether.
What I wish someone would create:
I just found out that my mail isn’t delivered regularly on my block because the mail people run out of time and can refuse overtime. I have been waiting for a check and an important document for over a week now. We have seen no mail, and the rain has been an extra deterrent to our grossly understaffed mail system (come rain, sleet or snow does NOT apply in South LA.) I would like created a Proposition for the next election that actually allocates money to the post office for better staffing, better systems and I would like the Postmaster who is in charge of our district to be a position that is voted on. Apparently Biden nominated three people to fix the USPS and well, it’s not going very well. The insolvency of the USPS is gross and I would be at this point willing to pay directly to get my damn mail.
Technology Tip:
I was sharing about my column at a brunch last weekend and someone tipped me off to the better version of Google (is it possible?). I casually wrote down what he said “Open GPT” figuring I would Google it later. And I did. I honesty have no idea how to even give a tip on this because it is so beyond my realm of understanding but I decided to paste its meaning here and you can try and figure it out. Apparently “all the kids are doing it.”
GPT-3 (Generative Pretrained Transformer 3) is a state-of-the-art language processing AI model developed by OpenAI. It is capable of generating human-like text and has a wide range of applications, including language translation, language modelling, and generating text for applications such as chatbots. It is one of the largest and most powerful language processing AI models to date, with 175 billion parameters.
Shameless Plug:
A couple mentions here:
1. My client Andrea DeWitt’s book Name, Claim and Reframe was on The Today Show. Andrea is a perfect example of tenacity and drive to write a book. She never questioned when she started working with me that she wasn’t worthy or capable. She had some moments where she had to deep breathe through some writing up-levels I had her do, and looking for a publisher is never a calm road. But without even having a platform, she was found by the Today Show! Here is the link and it is a a 1:49 when she is mentioned. https://tinyurl.com/4vpt68pc
2. We think perhaps it was one of the articles Andrea wrote through my other client Kristen Noel’s Best Self Media that may have gotten the attention of The Today show further solidifying the importance of article writing! Article writing is so potent for book promotion before and after you write the book. Therefore, I am holding another Article Writing for Your Business class next Saturday 1/14 from 1-3 PST on Zoom. If you want to take this fantastic class that teaches you how to write a article and where to get it placed, you will want to venmo me $295 at Kim-OHara. Include your email address on the Venmo and you will receive a Zoom link. Powerful stuff!
Thanks for sharing