Good Morning folks! Here's the question that I'm pondering these days: When was the last time you spent an entire week just being happy? Sounds simple enough. Maybe this week? Or last? Or is it more like a day here and there? Or even more likely, you might say that you have a "happy life" or had "great year last year"...but seriously, take a look at just one week: do you experience happiness for whole weeks at a time?

If you are like many of my clients...and I always include myself as my most complex, and stubborn, client (!), then the truth is very likely: not often. Recently, I led a wonderful yoga/meditation retreat for 16 amazing people in the spectacular coastline jungle of southern Mexico. About four days into the retreat, it dawned on me that I was smiling all the time! ME? Smiling all the time...wow! Known as a committed "frowner" -- interspersed with a healthy dose of smurks, chuckles and occasional broad grins...I hardly think of myself as smiling all the time. But here I was, more than halfway through a week of relatively hard work, albeit in a very special place...but still, I was amazingly happy.

Now back in the emergent sunshine of spring-on-its-way New York City, I'm committed to replicating that experience. Why shouldn't I/we be happy all the time? We certainly have plenty to be grateful for: plenty of food, clothing, shelter, and good friends/family. These things are no small feat in a world where a large percentage of the population goes to be hungry every night. Yet, that truth can sometimes feel abstract, distant from our everyday lives.

I have a client who struggles with day-to-day happiness. We have tried working with various journal projects--gratitude journals, vision journals, fantasy journals, etc. Even his dreams are remarkably "happy" and eerily joyous in their rich imagery and narrative. Yet on a day-by-day basis, happiness often eludes him. Stress, duty, overwhelm, sadness, anxiety, these are the emotions that will often haunt him as he gears up for his day, even has he dutifully jots down a few things he is grateful for in his "gratitude journal". If nothing else, he is a good student. And so are we all.

The issue here, as far as I can tell, is that he (and I can relate to this to a certain extent..what about you?) has a very difficult time drawing that fateful distinction between day-to-day "needs" and day-to-day "wants". For example, when I ask him to state what would make him happy--in life--he responds immediately: more love in my life, a great partner, more collaborative and pleasant colleagues, more money, more free time, etc. But when I ask him to start each day by writing down just ONE thing that he wants to experience, that will bring him happiness TODAY , he flounders. The list quickly takes on the tone of a "to-do" list. He writes down, without thinking, what he needs to do that day, mistaking getting stuff done, with creating happiness.

Happiness is a lofty concept for most of us, and an elusive one. It is probably not an accident that many other languages just forgo having a word for happiness. The Germans, French, Chinese and others stick to more specific experiences like joy, ecstasy, fun and good fortune. Yet, here in America, with our ubiquitous sound-bite use of the English language, "happiness", it seems is here to stay.

Witness the latest tome on the subject to hit the Amazon shelves in full force: "Happy for No Reason" by Marci Shimoff of Chicken Soup fame. Having succumbed to the catchy title myself, I have to acknowledge that it is a good read. She very adroitly captures what I do consider to be the major ingredients required for a life filled more with happiness than that other stuff (anger, grief, anxiety, etc...). She writes about mental, emotional, physical and spiritual practices that need to all work together in a synthesis to complement and integrate the full human experience. You go girl! Especially the emphasis upon the physical--exercise, yoga, movement, dance--these are crucial aspects of human happiness, that in our overly cognitive psychology-stuffed culture often get ignored or denied by the cerebral "talking heads" that make up much of the psychotherapy-world.

Yet, here is the rub: Marci--and me for that matter--may emphasize all the right components that are needed in the mix for a high happiness quotient, yet on a minute-by-minute, day-by-day basis, lots of people still struggle with feeling happy. To be sure, much of this syndrome can be laid at the doorstep of our paradoxical big picture (e.g. fantasy) culture that has a two-second attention span. We seem quite capable of momentary highs and long term visions, goals, and fantasies...but maintaining even one short (or is it long?) week of just plain old happiness is tough.

So here's a test for you:

Every day this next week, wake up in the morning and do this one thing first, before ANYTHING ELSE: Write down in your journal, or on your refrigerator (or more likely in your iphone (that's where I do it), one thing that will bring happiness into your day that day. Just one thing. Examples: "I will bring happiness to my client meeting this morning." "I will be happy during a business meeting." "I will bring joy to my dinner with the kids tonite," etc.

Use the words that work for you: happiness, joy, fun, enthusiasm, playfulness, care. BUT be sure that whatever it is you commit to do, it is something that will bring you happiness. In fact, if you do this right--and here is my nod to those left-brain cognitive folks--just thinking about it may make you happy.

So give it a try. One week of happiness. The world needs your joy...and you deserve it. Let me know how it goes!

Happy Days Are Here Again...The Sky Above Will Clear Again...!!!?

Dr J

"If I had known what it would be like to have it all, I might have settled for less" Lily Tomlin

Well, Hello there! I'm back! Yes it has been a while and I have been remiss of late in sharing my own adventures (and mis-adventures) in Life-Shifting! I'd like to be able to say that I've been on a long retreat or, better yet, a sabbatical, vacation or other equally socially acceptable excuse for a long disappearance. But alas, the truth is much simpler and much less impressive: I've been busy! Yes, BUSY...working, studying, writing, learning, playing, and of course, procrastinating.

You see, I'm one of those people I like to call "portfolio people". There are many of us these days...and more and more are joining the ranks of what is truly a post-modern approach to life: no longer does one career, one job, one hobby, one degree, one homeland (even!) suffice. No, we of the burgeoning portfolio tribe are CONSTANTLY on the move, adding arrows to our quiver of life skills, talents and experiences. Perhaps it is one more phenomenon that can be attributed to the restless nature of aging boomers (though my younger colleagues seem to develop the "portfolio disease" right out of college!. However, given the alternative--a full-time job (yikes!)--I, for the most part, am a major advocate of living the "portfolio life".

Living a "portolio life" basically means breaking out of the bounded belief structures and cultural norms that have us convinced that we should settle for one job, one career, one set of social groups, one spiritual tribe, etc. Yet, just as the idea of "retirement" is beginning to feel extremely anachronistic to today's forever young and active "oldsters" (sixty is the new "middle age" right?), so too are the one-trick pony beliefs around professional life, social life/circles, even spirituality. Why should we settle for just one job, or one company, or even one religion during our limited and oh so precious time on the planet? And so, many of my clients--and myself included--have decided to broaden our horizons, heading off to explore the hinterlands of our inner and outer landscapes in order to learn, grow and build a multi-dimensional, multi-faceted "Portfolio" life. We are part-timers, volunteers, consultants, coaches, business owners, artists, and sometimes, all of the above (most portfolio folks wind up working much MORE than one full-time job...hey, but it is a CHOICE!).

To this development, in general, I say, all to the good. Human beings are not drone bees, or annual begonias meant to flower once, to live one glorious season, flowering and dying all in one pot. We are meant to learn, grow, flower, die and be re-born anew many many times during our sojourn across the span of a life. Looking back over the past few months that I have been on hiatus from this blog, the days and weeks have been fuller than ever: I've become a certified vinyasa yoga instructor, created new life-shifting workshops, led my first yoga/spiritual retreats to far-flung lands, tended to the needs of my family (aging/ill parent, etc), deepened my relationship with key loved ones, supported a growing cohort of corporate and private clients, and "almost" finished my book proposal. It has been a rich, rewarding and very full time. Yes, full. Too full in fact, for such a non-entity of a word. I think "over-stuffed" might be more like it. Or perhaps, "packed to the gills"!?

So, as I reflect on my time away from this blog, and feel the blessing of my return (for me it is a gift to share in this way, and I hope for my readers as well!), I am struck by the downside of success: the portfolio is only so big and can only carry so much. It may have multiple pockets and hidden crevasses in which to stuff a few more activities, workshops, or yoga classes, BUT it is finite, fragile, and breakable. As am I. As are you.

At some point, in order to add something new to the portfolio, we have to give something else up. This is a hard pill to swallow in a culture where most of us, if not all, are addicted to more, more, more. I remember reading a rather wonderful book called "There Must be More Than This" by Judith Wright, in which she very smartly outlines the problem with a culture in which it is considered "the norm" to constantly seek more stuff, more pleasure, more ways to keep busy. Yet, even Judith in all her wisdom didn't seem to notice that her book ITSELF was representative of the very thing which she was chastising. Her book pointed out that there are "bad" things to want more of--shopping, TV, Internet, chocolate, etc--and "good" things to want more of--spiritual learning, meaningful relationships, creative arts, volunteering, etc--yet no where does she acknowledge that it is still all about MORE, MORE, MORE.

So where do we get off the treadmill of "more"--be it the good "more" or the bad "more (and the judgment of the difference seems to me at times a bit condescending--given that I LOVE chocolate and get some great spiritual teachings from the internet...)? It is a complicated, if luxurious question: How do we know when the portfolio is over-stuffed?

Well, the good doctor is humbled by this one. Not sure I can give you a good answer but I will share with you how I make the call: by looking for that sweet spot, that balance between the MORE going out and the MORE coming in. Ask yourself these kinds of questions:

1. How much of your time is devoted to giving to others?
2. How much of your time is devoted to giving to you?
3. How much of your time is spent on those and what you love?
4. How much of your time is spent on those who love you?
5. How much of your time is spent just on "taking care of business" (e.g. bills, bills, and bills!)
6. How much of your "business" is aligned with questions 1-4 above?

Where do you come out? Is your portfolio over-stuffed, over-flowing or leaking a bit from the side? (e.g. lost time, lost energy, lost health?). In the past few months I've been blessed by the addition of many new arrows in the quiver of my portfolio. For this I am grateful, yet I also know that I have missed the gift of this blog and am acutely aware of the price we pay when we over-stuff the portfolio. It is time for me to empty my bag a bit. Make some room to move around. Throw out some of the tried and true contents that are hiding, stuffed, crumpled and out-of-date towards the bottom. Spring is coming anyway...so the time is right for taking stock of what's in and what's out. Most of all, it is time to let go of a very insidious belief: that I (or you) can do/have it all. We can't.

So here's to Spring cleaning and perhaps a new idea to ADD to the portfolio (once there is some room in there): LESS IS MORE. Is there room in your portfolio for this one?

Cheers!

Dr J

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a wonderful retreat/seminar with Margaret Wheatley, the renowned leadership expert and author of the award winning Leadership and the New Science, among other great works. Her exploration for the week long seminar was around this question: "Where are the Leaders the World Needs Now?" A great question and one that she, not surprisingly, did not answer but rather prompted us to sit with, reflect upon, and discuss, mostly among ourselves.

Over the five day period, I had the chance to interact with a number of the hundred or so participants and in spite of all the evident diversity of the group--teachers, counselors, administrators, Government officials, corporate types of all ages and backgrounds--I was consistently amused to find a singular rumble of anxiety flowing through each and every one of us. It seems that by posing this provocative question at the outset, Meg had placed us front and center in the firing line of resistance: what, me? A leader? For this time? Well, certainly not! Next in line please.

Yet leaders we are, according to Meg's simple, eloquent and dis-arming definition: a leader is someone who wants to help. That's it. Starting here, starting now. Do you want to help? Yes? Well, then, wake up: you're a leader. And if you thought that wasn't enough to bring the full rage of resistance to your comfortable, passive seminar-participant existence, Meg added early on, this pearl of wisdom: "I have nothing to teach you." Nothing. Nada. It seems, according to her estimation (and that is a pretty mighty estimation, by the way, given that she has taught, coached, lectured and cajoled thousands of so-called leaders over many geographies, cultures and years!) that all the knowledge--or rather, wisdom--one needs to be a leader resides right inside our own heart/minds. We only need to let go of our fear of just how great we really are. Smallness is a defense against GOD. Our resistance is our ego, our story of who we THINK we are supposed to be--good soldiers, compliant students, corporate drones, etc. Leaders are OTHER. Not Me. At least that is what our fragile ego would have us believe.

So, as you digest this giant gem of wisdom from which everything Meg shared with us all week emanated, let me share with you what I personally learned from Meg, from the participants, and from myself during the seminar. You see, Meg may have been the muse that week, my guide to the teaching that I most needed to hear, but the real teacher was something entirely "other". The real teacher, the greatest teacher, during this week or any other is disappointment.

Wasting little time with pleasantries, as leaders who are awake to their job rarely do, Meg pointed the way to this powerful teaching right from the outset. She started off her first presentation on the very first morning by saying that if we had come to see her looking for answers or methods or "mental models" or new practices or techniques or formulas for how or why or when to become a leader...or for tool sets to take back to our organizations to turn others into leaders, we would be sorely disappointed. In fact, she went on to add--nail in the coffin here my friends!--that she could only guarantee one thing about our experience with her during the week ahead: that at some point we would invariably be disappointed. We would be disappointed in her ideas, her way of behaving, in the format, the weather, the food, the timing, the institute, something. Guaranteed. As she put it, and I paraphrase, you paid your money to increase your "knowledge-base" regarding leadership, when in actuality that very same knowledge base is a defense, a wall you are building to prevent the experience of your true nature as a leader to emerge. Disappointment is a given, because your soul already knows better. I (Meg) can't make you happy, teach you anything or turn you into a leader, only you can do that. And since you paid money to supposedly learn "something" from me in that regard...disappointment (maybe already in play, now!!) is guaranteed. Sorry.

Whew. Yikes. Can I get a refund? Well, yes, perhaps on the seminar...but no, not on the truth, the wisdom, and the value of what she was offering here. At the end of the day, the only experience of leadership that is authentic and useful is leadership of the self. We, all of us, ARE the leaders the world needs now...and we know it. But we are afraid. Or should I say, our egos are afraid. The leader beneath the ego, buried under the baggage of cultural and childhood conditioning, is there just waiting to be set free. AND...wise elders like Meg Wheatley go around and do "seminars" with one purpose really--all the fluff of structure and brochures and content is just designed to get our egos to pay up: to offer us a doorway. They simply hand us the key to the door behind which lies our golden essence, our true face--timeless, perfect, unblemished and pure. Leaders one and all.

The pathway offered here, by Meg, or by anyone, is through your disappointments. Disappointment is the greatest teacher because it automatically throws us back on ourselves and points to our need to control, our need to stay small and comfortable, our need for life to be predictable. But life is not like that. When we allow ourselves--and we all do it!--to get enveloped in the energy of disappointment, we are resisting life, resisting WHAT IS.

There is much more to be written about this subject. If you have gotten this far in this blog you may be enraged, confused, or have already "logged off" in your mind. You may be sorely disappointed that Dr. Hull didn't go to a world class seminar with a world class teacher on leadership and come back with anything more helpful than this: look to your disappointments to teach you to be a leader.

That's it. You and I are stuck with it my friend. Leadership lies within us all...in the essence of our very being. It lies in the present moment perfection of life in motion. The river of life is always moving and changing and we have the ability to drink, swim and BE in the flow, leading ourselves towards a promised land of joy and opportunity and blessings for all. But we have to get out of our heads and into our hearts. Disappointment is the pathway from our ego-based, fear-based desire to HOLD ON to our small selves, to sit on the shore line and watch OTHERS lead (down the garden path, but to what/where?).

Think on this for a bit. And the next time your spouse, or loved one or teacher disappoints you (let alone the weather, the stock market, the Government, etc.) which should happen within five or ten minutes of reading this blog...might you have the presence of mind/heart to stop, breathe and look at HOW YOU ARE CREATING YOUR OWN MISERY.

I know, this is heavy stuff. So, I will leave you on an up note, again from the experience with Meg and her profound candor and wisdom. By the end of the week, many of us, myself included, had jumped in the river...and slowly with awkward strokes and occasional gulps of water, begun to swim in the joy and vitality and peace of our own folly, imperfection and innocence. We are alive. We are leaders. We will be disappointed...mostly in ourselves. But if not US, then who, if not NOW, then when?

Jump in. The water's fine.


In the flow,

Dr J

...in the parlor, in the hallway...in the places we hold dear...writes Stephen Sondheim in his famous song from A Little Night Music. Little did I know just how profound this lyric was (although it has always struck me as pretty profound!) until I got my apartment "feng-shuied" this past weekend. Seems there is a whole lot of death lurking not only in the parlor (does anyone really have a parlor anymore?), but on the bookshelf, in the kitchen, in the bedroom...and of course, in the closet (who would have guessed!).

But seriously, here's another lesson that I learn again and again as I explore the principles of "Life-Shifting" in a wide range of domains: everything on the inside is mirrored on the outside, and vice versa. This past weekend, a friend cajoled me into attending a workshop on the ancient chinese art of "feng-shui". It turned out to be a very interesting way to spend an afternoon and I came away impressed, as always, with the wisdom of the East. It seems that one of the key principles of feng-shui (which turns out to be a whole lot more than warding off demons by placing crystals and other New Age accoutrement in strategic corners of your condo...but you knew that, right?) is that in order to make room for the birth of new ideas, creative insights, and expanded prosperity to enter both your psychic and physical space, you have to get rid of stuff that no longer serves you.

You need to create space for something new to arrive. The rule of thumb that this particular feng-shui teacher, Ariel Joseph, gave us, was that if something in your space has not been meaningfully put to use for over a year, it is time to let it go. For all intents and purposes, the "thing"--book, clothing, trinket, gadget, decoration, photo album--is dead. And death drains energy...from your space, and from your heart.

Doesn't this strike you as very similar to one of the key principles of "Life-Shifting"? In order to become a master of self-renewal, we must learn to release and let go of outdated, worn out versions of our own self-identity. When the narrative of who we are, or more specifically, who we think we are, no longer serves us, it is dead. In fact, some aspects of our identity are always in the throes of dying.

Think about it. Step back for a moment and reflect on your life ten years ago. Who were you? Perhaps you are in your thirties today and ten years ago you were single, a student, living alone? Perhaps you are in your forties today and ten years ago you were newly married, a young professional, a proud condo or home owner for the first time? Are you still identified by these labels? I doubt it. Besides, these are just surface identities. If we dig deeper and ask ourselves who we really are today, what stories do we tell ourselves and others about our lives, our sense of self, our place in the world? Are we successful? Happy? Healthy? Are we honest about what aspects of our personal narrative may no longer work, that may no longer serve us? When was the last time you looked in your psychic closet and got rid of anything--any label, any story, any idea--that you have not, in effect, "used" in over a year?

I can sense your anxiety rising. Ok, I'm projecting, but all I know is that it rises in me as I write this--so if you're breath has become a bit stilted, or your chest tight as you read this, I'm with you. You see, this principle of death, taken from feng-shui and applied to our inner sanctums of self-perception starts to get emotionally dicey, because we know where we're headed: to the dumpster. The key to unlocking the energy, vitality and creativity of re-birth is in the act of releasing the dead. In a feng-shui context, we are talking about getting rid of stuff. In the Life-Shifting realm, the order of the day is getting rid of limiting beliefs about who we are, what we can and cannot do, how we should live our lives.

Now, I certainly recognize just how difficult it can be to let go of our limiting beliefs about ourselves. We tenaciously hold on to old stories because of a deep-seated unconscious fear that we won't know who we are without them! In effect we fear the worst: being nothing, being nobody, being empty, bereft, alone. Yet, it wasn't until I watched the class erupt in a tirade of emotion and anxiety in response to Ariel's simple mantra--"empty the closet, empty your life"--that I realized just how terrifying it can be to throw out stuff. In fact, as I sat in the class and ran my mind through my closets, bookshelves and cabinets, I too, recognized how emotionally attached I am to my stuff. "So what if I haven't read any of those old college books in years," I could hear the inner voice whining, "I couldn't possibly throw them out. They mean so much to me."

Do they? Not really. They are symbols of a time before, a time when I was living in a different place organized around a different story. A time that is no longer alive in me or present in my world. Of course, I know Ariel--and Sondheim for that matter--is right: those old books are dead. Dead weight. It is time to let them go. To lighten my load, so to speak, to make room for something new, fresh and inspiring to take their place.

Dead may feel like a harsh word to apply to a book, or a piece of clothing, or even too long-loved story of your youth. Yet, the principles of feng-shui are no laughing matter: everything carries energy. Everything. In fact, quantum physics now demonstrates to us that energy in some form is all we really are, and the energy of creation and destruction are truly two-sides of the same coin. If the energy in your space is not being born anew every day, spiraling towards the realization of your next great potential, then it is spiraling downward in entropy, towards dissolution and death. Nothing is ever stagnant. In fact, the Tibetans would remind us that from the moment of birth onwards, every breath takes you closer to death. All energy is entropic on some level. But let's leave that one for another day...and focus on release, surrender, and creating space.

So, here is the question of the day: if your physical home is a reflection of your psychic home, what clutter needs to be thrown out? What no longer serves you? Take a few minutes each day for the next week to scan the horizon of your four walls. Ask yourself if you have meaningfully "used" all the items in your space. If not, what prevents you from releasing them to the world? Perhaps you have clothing, books, kitchen appliances (I have an old laptop if anyone needs one) that could use a new home. OK? Ready, set, let it go!

See how it feels to lighten your space. Clean out and clear off your desk. Make room for something new to be born in your space and in your life. Soon enough we will tackle the challenge of releasing emotional, mental and perhaps physical (do I hear "weight loss"?) clutter from our inner sanctums. But for today, let's get some practice with the "easy" stuff, eh? I mean how hard can it be to part with a few old books....

Besides, here's the good news: the opposite of Sondheim's screed holds true as well: Every day a little birth...in the parlor...in the hallway...

So go for it: revel, relish and rejoice...in release!

Dr J

Whenever I meet a potential new client for the first time, I introduce them to two of my favorite children's books: Zoom and Re-Zoom, both by the wonderful illustrator Istvan Banyai. Together, my new client and I typically read these two books, which sit on the coffee table in my office, in about five minutes. They are quite easy to read, for there are no words, just full-page breath-takingly beautiful illustrations of scenes from daily life: children playing on a farm, a family on a cruise, a old lady on an airplane, a taxi cab in Manhattan. The books are nonetheless life-changing...or should I say, life-shifting, for every person who encounters them. They basically set the tone for all the work that is to come. So what, you ask, is so special about these books?

It's very simple. Each illustration that we see on one page is found replicated somewhere, in part or whole, on the next page, embedded in a new illustration. Page after page, the illustrations move you through a wide range of worlds both microscopic and panoramic, depending upon what direction you are going in the book. In this way, each book reveals a narrative that starts with a "normal" view and then shifts your focus either inward and downward (e.g. a full color, full page carnival scene on one page shows up on a postage stamp on the next page), or outward and upward (e.g a tropical rain forest scene on one full page turns out to be the cover of a book being read by a child sitting in the window of an airplane crossing the sky on the next page. In this simple yet powerful way, Banyai reminds us of a very poignant truth: how we experience the world depends greatly upon what we choose to see.

Think about it. From the moment you wake up in the morning and open your eyes, what you experience as "real" is made up of a strange and sometimes awkward collision of internally generated thoughts and emotions (memories, dreams and reflections) and external images--sights, smells and sounds. So how do we make sense of anything? Clearly, our ability to not come apart at the seams in the face of the sensory and cognitive assault we benignly call "waking up," is due to our ability to do one thing: focus. What we focus on becomes real for us. In the moment that I turn in bed and attend to the cat lying by my side, most everything else (not everything, but close) disappears. There's the cat. He needs/wants to be petted (of course, I'm making this up!). I pet him. I stroke his fur and watch his eyes glaze over in pleasure. Everything is as it should be. All this is "normal" and doesn't feel or appear particularly special to us.

Yet, as Banyai's books remind us, what we see, feel, or ignore at any given moment is always a choice. We can get laser focused and we can span the horizon. We can get tunnel vision and we can get lost in universe. The work of a life-shifting coach/therapist asks: where are you? Are you seeing the big picture? focusing on the positive? honoring what is right in front of you? Are you aware of the past, but not caught in it? Are you envisioning the future, but living in the moment? Or are you caught in the dark, tied down to an old routine, an old pattern, and old way of seeing that diminishes you and keeps you small? Sometimes breaking out of worn out patters is as simple as turning the page, opening our eyes to a wider view, seeing anew.

So today I want to remind you that life-shifting is about mind-shifting. From the Eastern perspective of Buddhism the practice of enlightenment begins and ends with accepting what is. Being present. Still. Grounded in the moment with what is right in front of you--chopping wood, carrying water, doing the dishes, or making love. Yet, our Western cultural conditioning adds an occular layer to the experience of what is as well, for "what is" is also a matter of what you choose to see; how you choose to dance with the fluid boundary of inner and outer worlds; how you decide to be.

I did the following exercise yesterday and I highly recommend it. From about 3pm in the afternoon until I went to bed at midnight last night, I made a point of constantly re-assessing my visual experience of the world around me. For example, I stood on the street corner, gazed downward and closer, narrowing my vision to take in the mail box next to me, the overflowing trash can, the poster on the street light post, the stains on the sidewalk, the mishapen stonework, all the way in to my toes on the pavement, my multi-colored flip-flops, the ripped up hem on my jeans. Then in equal measure I brought my gaze upward and outward, taking in the broader landscape-- the street filled with cars, people walking in a multitude of directions, and more: a cacophony of buildings, windows, arches, stone gargoyles, water towers, trees, puffy clouds behind the spire of a church, and finally, the great expanse of blue sky.

Sounds like a simple practice and it is. You can do it anywhere. I tried it in a crowded movie theater last night: moving my gaze from the cat hairs on my pants, slowly, ever so slowly expanding my vision to include my body in a chair, the chair in front of me, the back of the head of the person in front of me, the row in front of me...and onward and outward until I could bring the whole screen, theater and room into my field of vision. When was the last time you noticed the lighting that brings a warm glow to your favorite theater? Last night I discoverd that my neighborhood movie theater has a beautiful, antique chandelier! Does your favorite movie theater have a curtain across the screen? Does it matter? Of course not...and yet...

These simple excercises are practices for becoming present and awake to your surroundings--the beauty, diversity, the presence of life--that swirls around and in us at all times and all places. We need only pay attention. Give it a try...and if your not sure what the hell I'm talking about here...get hold of Banyai's books. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Happy Seeing!

Dr J