True Waking Up Means Not Going Back to Sleep
“The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don’t go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don’t go back to sleep!”
-Rumi
What is happening in your life that is trying desperately to wake you up to a new understanding? Is it your job? Your kids? Your friends? Your finances? Your health?
Every day we have the opportunity to jump up to greet the new day awake and refreshed and ready to learn and grow, or to grumpily hit the snooze button and wish we could just stay snuggled up in our perceived comfort and pull the covers over our heads.
What is your life trying to tell you? What is causing you angst and frustration? What is instilling you with joy and gratitude? Everything you notice is only information. As Shakespeare told us centuries ago:
“Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
-Shakespeare, via Hamlet
What attachment are you giving to the experiences of your life? Is there a “good” and a “bad” way to look at things or is everything just information – just 1’s and 0’s – with no meaning except that which each of us gives it?
All the work you are doing to either wake up or to stay asleep is teaching you things. As my high school basketball coach used to tell us, “We don’t practice to come in second.” We don’t learn and grow through our experiences and our trials and our victories only to live a theoretical life. We don’t build our muscles in awareness and skills in leadership and accountability only to leave them behind when we really need to use them.
It’s SELF-help we’re up to, not SHELF-help. Your skills will come in handy when you need them, and that’s the purpose for learning and growing. You will take on bigger challenges because you can handle them. Don’t leave your awareness on the shelf of your life. Use it to make your SELF the best you can be.
So don’t hit the snooze button in your life. When would NOW be the time for you to practice what you’ve been learning?
It’s today.