Access Inner Peace On Command

I know you got a big task list today, but you know, every day is a good day to reset our mindset, to choose our attitude, to decide on the energy, want to feel, project. And every day is a discipline, a practice to come back to our centeredness when we get thrown off common sense has to be common practice in personal development. We've got to practice those simple habits of coming back to our best selves. Every day is a good day to grow. You've got these great intentions, you're excited for life and then stuff hits the fan. We're going to talk about that today because I love in growth day to take on a new personal development topic just every single day for you to just break it down to help you think about it, help you recenter and carry on with great intentions and the ability to be high performing today. So let's talk about that. Wake up, you feel good, then you're upset quickly by something. So today's topic is going to share something that I've had to learn over and over and over and I'm still trying to figure out and I'm still practicing and that is a little bit of Zen in life, finding that place of Zen in your life. Now I'm not here to talk about the spiritual or more of the religious type of Zen. So this won't be a comprehensive course on the history of what Zen is meant to be or its related Taoist or Buddhist background. Instead, what I'd like to share is just four simple ideas of what I contribute and would call to my personal Zen. And again, I'm using it in a very relaxed way. So please don't get mad about that, but let's talk about that. That means when I think about my personal Zen, I think about the ability to have a sense of centeredness that even if I peak or I go off or I'm angry or I'm mad, I can come back to center within, you know, hopefully minutes, if not that hour, and find my intention again, find what I desire of life, find my appreciation for myself, finding for life, for others, for the world, and find my centeredness in my breath, even if I get upset, even if I got thrown off, finding my centeredness in my breath, in my physiology, in my mindset, and then carry on that ability to self reset. But it's just part of that overall spiritual Zen that we would love to all feel. I mean, wouldn't you love to feel more peaceful and good and joyous throughout the week? I think it starts with finding and keep returning to a Sense of centeredness. Another thing I think that really helps me is a release from attachment to the future. You know, I have these grand plans. I'm building these big things. I want to reach, you know, the world with personal development. I want Growth Day to scale and scale and scale and scale so that you and I can have more positive people who are more conscious, more self aware, more intentional, and more caring in the world. I think that spreading personal development isn't something I'm doing because I'm just interested in it. I believe it's my life's purpose, it's my mission. I'll do this until I can't, period. Those who've been along with the journey with me in the last 20, 25 years, you know, it's been my singular obsession to master this area, to keep learning about this area, to share this area, and to empower other people to work on this area as well. But even with those grand plans, you gotta just live in the day. You gotta live in the day intentionally. As centered as you can do your best today, but you know what? When it doesn't go right tomorrow or a week from now, or the bank account's not showing up 10 days, what you want it to, and you gotta go another couple of months or another quarter, I'm here to tell you, you have to be able to release yourself from the stress of that future expectation and, and desire and be here.

Now.

The third idea I'd love to share with you is I think that finding personal Zen is all about that statement I've been sharing for the last two years, which is judge less, feel better. And the idea that the more we judge others, the more we judge the world, the more we make others other, the more misery we experience, the more frustration, anger. Why are they like that? Why don't they get this us against them, Tribalism. All the things that we see in modern society ripping us apart comes from too speedy and unexplored judgment, assumptions, biases. And if you want to feel good and be Zen, stop judging everybody. Stop judging yourself. When you scroll through social media, I'm not like them, stop judging them. I'll look at them in their stupid car. You know, stop judging. Just let go of that need. And that's hard. That's hard because if you look at like even my situation this morning, I was mad at somebody who I really care about. And my, my judgment to the words them was probably unfair and probably too immediate and probably too swift. And I got to take a step back from that and go, oh, okay, I'm getting upset about this thing I just saw. Chill, dude. Find your center. Release expectations. It has to be exactly the way you want.

Carry on.

And then the last idea that I think really protects personal Zen is the idea to have beautiful intention, beautiful appreciation, a sense that I should be able to recognize or see or feel a sense of grace, love, beauty in the world. And what that means for me is like, oh, I have that old saying, if you've ever seen my work before, where I say, when you walk by people on the street to share energy towards them that says, I wish nothing but joy, abundance, happiness and health and love for you, your family, and all those you touch and serve. That statement, I think, is really something that changed my life. I started saying that with. Not out loud, not verbally. To people, though. I. I tend to be kind of dorky and a little overly emotional. And you might. If we're ever at dinner and we do a toast, I'm probably going to break out into something like that. So forgive me. But in real life, for years and years and years, I was trying to reprogram my mind because I didn't trust people. And I grew up in a place where there was a lot of physical violence. And so I had to teach myself to send loving, caring, joyous, beautiful energy towards others because I wanted to have that experience in life. And you know what, we create our energy and our experiences and our assumptions in life. So I thought, why not consciously program that? So for years, I would just walk by people and say things like that. Or I'd be, you know, someone would enter the elevator and. And you know how it's awkward in the elevator, and you always think, oh, it's so awkward in here. And I'd be literally sitting there, probably being the awkward guy in the back, just smiling and thinking, I wish nothing but joy, abundance, happiness, health, and love for you, your family, and all those you love and serve. And I would just repeat it, repeat it, repeat it, say something like that to that effect over and over and over and over. You know, a family gets on the elevator. I wish nothing for this family but joy and abundance and health and happiness and love and. And I would just say it over and over in. In, you know, waiting in line for the barista when somebody served, a waiter served something. When I'm, you know, talking with team members, when I'm watching people on Zoom, you know, I literally am just trying to send out this positive energy, and it keeps me in a positive and beautiful, energetic state, protecting my personal and spiritual Zen, I hope that helps you today. I know you got a big task list today, but you know, every day is a good day to reset our mindset, to choose our attitude, to decide on the energy we want to feel, project. And every day is a discipline, a practice to come back to our centeredness when we get thrown off. I was thrown off this morning. But you know what? As much as I was thrown off this morning, didn't feel good, got angry, was, wasn't in a good place, tried to return back because common sense has to be common practice in personal development. We've got to practice those simple habits of coming back to our best selves every day. I had to acknowledge it myself this morning. My friends, every day is a good day to grow.

This morning, today, find that space of mindfulness again. Find that space of peace again. I know maybe you woke up, you have these first thoughts of all these to do's today. You gotta handle this thing with the kids, run that errand, make sure you review these things, maybe finish a little.

Bit of that project.

There's things to do this day. You can't just sit around, meditate, be at the spa all day. But you can enter that space of peace today. Maybe it's as simple as this morning, just taking a few minutes to pray, to meditate, sit down, be at peace, do a release meditation where you close your eyes, you take four or five deep breaths, and you begin repeating the mantra to yourself of release, release, release, release, release. And just for 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes, repeat the word release to yourself. As thoughts come up to your mind, you just watch them pass away, like watching clouds float through the sky, unattached to any of them. Just finding a moment of peace and relaxation this morning to let those thoughts fly by, simultaneously release the tension in your shoulders, your back, your legs. Just find a moment today of release. No matter how much you still have to do today, just find that moment of release. And then from that space, you remember who you are in that space of peace and release. You take a breath, air, a breath, and you say, oh, right, I'm still alive.

Beyond my projects.

I'm still here. Okay, good. And you have a moment of respite from the busyness and the craziness. But we also know that, you know, mindfulness isn't just about meditating and sitting on a cushion somewhere. It's today. Throughout the day, notice things. Notice things. So much of the week we just blast through in a hurry. One activity, one meeting, one thing to the next thing to the next thing to the next thing, and we barely notice any of it. We never felt the day. And so suddenly the week is all gone. We're blasted through. We barely have a scant memory of anything that was important or meaningful or joyous. And we fail to capture that memory in our mind. So today, even though they say, gosh, mindfulness isn't about living in the past, well, we weren't in the past.

We weren't even there.

And so maybe today you also take just a mindful moment to recollect some beautiful moments from this last week. Was there something amazing that happened? Was there a friend or group of people that had a joyous outburst of laughter? Was there a moment where somebody appreciated you? Someone said something nice? Maybe it's possible for you to just take a moment to remember those things and to have reverence for them, to be grateful for the moments from this past week. Maybe as you go throughout today, you find yourself paying attention to your breath again. Not all hurried, not all frenzied. Even as you're going through the day's activities, just noticing your breath and your body again, grounding yourself the moment, grounding yourself to today, grounding yourself to the reality and the blessings of today. Even if you got to run those errands with kids, notice the kids. Even if you have to get that final project done, feel the completion of it. Even if you have to finish that big task, just notice that you're finishing. Just take a few moments today. Can you find some peace? Can you find some awareness? Can you ground back into your mind and your body, your heart, your soul, the feelings of the day? We say it at growth day so many times. We have to learn to feel the day again, to have reverence for life again. What was it that was beautiful this last week, that's memorable, that I'm grateful for that. I'm thankful for capturing that so that I have it, I can remember it, I can feel it, I can sense it. If I feel hurried or stressed or I'm worried I didn't get things done, I go into my planner in growth day and I just go there and I just write down a few tasks to remember and I can go throughout the day now, peaceful, centered, in a good space.

Maybe just coming to this audio.

Every day is part of that process for you. Every day, my friend, you can find some peace. You can feel the day again. Because every day is a good day to grow.