Mary Schiller argues that what feels like problems—thoughts, feelings, other people—aren't what we're actually dealing with. Instead, there's a creative energy called Life carrying everyone along. Stepping back to see the bigger picture reveals the gift of simply existing.
Hello, hello. This is Mary Schiller, author and coach, coming to you from Paris, France. I'd love you to find me on the web at maryschiller.com. This is my second try at this video. The first one got cut off, so we'll see if this one works. I am sitting outside a big shopping mall. I apologize for the squinty eyes here in Paris called Le Forum des Halles. And this is the Saint-Eustache Church behind me, which is quite amazing. I'm going to do a quick turn, just kind of show you this mall here behind me. There's part of it. It's a big shopping center that goes several floors underground. It has dozens of theaters and shops and even a public swimming pool. So it's a pretty amazing place. I like coming here. And looking at everything. And today my task was to find a few clothes to get for an upcoming trip to Hawaii that I'm taking later this month because I do not have any Hawaii-suitable clothes. So I may just have to get some aloha wear when I land, but I did manage to find a few things. So just really quick, I wanted to post a video and that is reflecting on some of the things I've been talking about recently about how our feelings look really important, but they're actually not. And I was thinking about how much we think we are dealing with all the time. We think we're dealing with circumstances, we think we're dealing with our thoughts, we think we're dealing with other people, we think we're dealing with our feelings, and on and on and on it goes. And I would love to just get a simple message across to you today that you're actually never dealing with anything. There is a flow and a creative energy that is called Life, in my mind, capital L, that is carrying all of us along. And if we can just kind of step outside for just a second of this human being experience that seems so visceral and real and take a look at where we actually are, we would be amazed at what has been given to us. You know, sometimes I can get overwhelmed by thoughts of how much of a gift this life is. And I don't just mean in terms of the relationships that I have and the people that I love and, and all the places that I've been and things like that. I just mean the experience of being, the simple experience of being that is simple and yet beautifully complex at the same time. And I would just love for you to contemplate that today, that if it really looks to you like you're dealing with something, try to take a step or two or 10 back from that, zoom the camera out, and see what's actually going on here in terms of human beings and what we are all just blessed with, for lack of a better word. I'm not a particularly spiritual person, I'm not someone who belongs to an organized religion, but I certainly do have the sense that there is no separation between you and me, that we are all part of this magnificent thing called life. We've been given this form to experience certain aspects of it in certain ways, but beyond that is so much more we can experience if we just, you know, as I said in a previous video, look up from the road a little bit look out towards the horizon and look around and see what's actually present in this human being experience. It's much more than our thoughts, our feelings, whatever seems like our circumstances are. Just lift your gaze up just a tiny bit and see what else you can see and experience. I hope this has been helpful. Again, please feel free to find me online at maryschiller.com. And if you have questions or comments, post them where you're watching this video or send me a note at mary@marieschiller.com. I'll talk to you again soon. Bye.
