FUNDAMENTALS

A quick look on Google gives this definition: a fundamental is something that forms a necessary base or core; of central importance.

Good. I like that. It's simple and it puts things into context. Over the past 5 articles I have written about principles that I apply in my life regarding my own personal development and spiritual practice. I have outlined the principles of Awareness, Belief / Breath, Conscious Intention, Discipline, Embodiment

Without my daily fundamentals I would be lost. The world is a tough place, especially for sensitive people. I am one of those sensitive people. I always was, since I was a child, although to many this may come as a surprise because I have learned to cover my sensitivity well. I created a personality that helps me to navigate my sensitivity. Now, by sensitive I don't mean that I get hurt if you say you don't like my jersey, or my haircut (or lack of haircut). I mean that I am a naturally empathic and compassionate person and, in a world of insensitivity and suffering, this can be challenging, because the world is full of pain and negativity and that hurts to observe.

Enough about that, let's get back to why my fundamentals are my saviours. I have trained myself through the years to have practices in my daily life. These are routines, rituals, repetitive patterns. All of us have them, but not everyone has consciously created them, and even the ones that are consciously created are not always cultivating what's best for us. This is why the first and most important Fundamental is Awareness.

Here's an important tip: you must practice fundamentals during good times. During easy times. If you wait for a crisis to start practicing, it's too late. Like someone who comes to a crisis point in their life and then desperately decides to try meditation. Meditation is a skill that takes time to develop through repetition. You cannot just do it just as you don't just pick up a violin and start playing.

Soldiers are not sent to battle without training. Sportswomen don't go to the track or the court without training. If you're called to play a piano recital at Madison Square Garden this coming Sunday and you haven't been practicing your instrument for a long time, you're in trouble.

Fundamentals are foundations of life. It bears repeating: you need to practice during easy times so that you can apply them under stress.

What's the aim of having sound fundamentals? The simplest is: being the best YOU that you can be. Being happy. Being peaceful. Being connected. Being functional. In good times and in bad. Life is seasonal. Life is change. We need tools to navigate.

Without fundamentals life becomes harder. With them, you still experience challenges, but your practice becomes your sanctuary. Your place of stillness and refuge. Your re-set button.

Fundamentals are a broad term of actions and skills that you can include and practice in your life. In tennis it might involve hand eye co-ordination, footwork, hand skills, movement etc. In business, a different set of fundamentals apply. In your daily life, it's essential to have fundamentals too.

The fundamentals I speak and write about are fundamentals of life. I already mentioned the first and most important – Awareness – because without it, you cannot know yourself, and without knowing yourself you are like a leaf on a stormy ocean. Awareness is the boat that helps you to navigate, survive, and ultimately, thrive in life.

Much of what I talk about are referred to as “soft skills”, but let me tell you, this is a misnomer. Soft skills are anything but soft. They're hard ! But they're crucial.

They require training and practice. They require strength and courage. They develop Wisdom. Soft skills include: empathy, compassion, courage, vulnerability, present moment awareness, self-awareness, forgiveness, and many more. In the world that we live in, it's far easier to be aggressive than kind. Far easier to be guarded than open. Far easier to take the comfortable route than the challenging one. Soft skills allow us to encounter life at a depth that hard skills can never access.

As I write this article I realise that it is impossible to do this topic justice. It would take an entire book. In fact it is the basis of my entire body of work. But let me try to distill some basics.

Since I've given myself a time limit to write these articles, I think what I'll do is to fire off some bullet points stream-of-consciousness style. Here goes …

FUNDAMENTALS:

·????????Allow yourself to make mistakes. Hold yourself accountable but don't be too hard on yourself. Don't beat yourself up. There is no way to live life without mistakes. Mistakes are how we learn.

·????????Mindfulness. This is an enormously important practice to develop. It cannot be covered here because it's scope is too large but let me just give a simple definition: mindfulness is the ability to be present in the moment, now. Easier said than done, but very possible to do...with practice

·????????Practice. Life is about doing, it's not about thinking. Yes, of course thinking is important, but the mind is only one aspect of who we are. We are much more than that. In this physical reality, all aspects of ourselves (mind, emotions, feelings, spirit) manifest in a physical form. This requires doing as well as being. One without the other is amputated humanity.

·????????Perseverance and patience. We live in space-time. That means it takes time for things to happen, they don't just manifest instantaneously out of thin air. Yes, sometimes we do have spontaneous things happening mysteriously, quickly, but usually things takes time. If we are not patient. If we do not persevere, we fail.

·????????Acknowledgement. When you've done stuff, acknowledge it. When you haven't done stuff, acknowledge it. Be honest with yourself, it's the only way. When you acknowledge the things that you have done you build integrity within yourself. You build confidence. You build self-esteem. When you acknowledge what you haven't done, it makes you accountable and you eventually do it. Acknowledge. Acknowledge. Acknowledge !

·????????Adjust and correct where necessary. This goes hand-in-hand with allowing yourself to make mistakes. It's important to adjust and correct so that you don't keep repeating mistakes.

·????????Meditation. This is a really misunderstood term. I'll create as much content as I can to clarify this, but for now, I'll say this: meditation is mindfulness. Mindfulness is the practice of being present; of embodying your life. You don't have to sit cross legged until your legs go numb. You can meditate on your bike, while brushing your teeth, while eating an apple. While talking to someone. It's a practice that you tailor to fit into your daily life. It needs to be, practical.

·????????Love yourself.

·????????Rest

·????????Work hard (fundamentals need opposites, they are paradoxical, they need balance)

·????????Find practices to engage with all aspects of your being. Physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual. There are loads of practices. I'll share as many as I can in future.. We are all different and so different things will work for different people.

·????????Practice integrity. In short: do what you say

·????????Let go of the past. Have faith in Life. Develop a relationship with your Self

·????????Reward yourself. Life shouldn't be a drudgery. Make time for rewards and enjoyment. Have fun (it's the first three letters of the word fundamental, that in itself must mean something :-))

·????????Connect with nature. Spend time with trees, in a park or anywhere you can. Even if you live in a concrete city (New York comes to mind) all you need to do is look up – the sky is there. It is nature. Connect. YOU are nature too.

·????????Gratitude. Everyone has something to be grateful for. Even if it is something small. The more you focus on those things the stronger you start to feel. Even in difficult circumstances, gratitude builds strength. This is huge !

·????????Invest in relationships. We are tribal creatures. We need each other. Period

·????????Create nourishing habits. Cut out toxic ones (this includes the people you allow in your life)

·????????Question. Challenge your beliefs so that you can evolve. One of the great sources of suffering is being too dogmatic with your beliefs. Nothing is too sacred to question. That's how we grow. Allow yourself to evolve, even if it's painful. Living things always experience pain, only death is no pain. Live

There is so much more to say, but time is up and I have to be true to my original commitment in writing these articles. So let me end off with one more …

Practice I MATTER.

Not in a narcissistic way, but with great humbleness and humility. I matter is important. The caveat here is a deep one, perhaps a difficult one to grasp. It certainly cannot be grasped intellectually, it needs to be experienced. This is it: I AM YOU and YOU ARE ME. If I matter, you matter. If you matter, so do I. Anything else is arrogance and ignorance.

Time's up. Next up, G. The final article in this series.

? Steve Tsakiris