During these times, I often think of the lyrics from an old Buffalo Springfield song: “A thousand people in the street, singing songs and carrying signs, mostly say, hooray for our side.”

The sad reality is that too many of us have picked a side, rather than looking for a solution.

We’d rather argue our facts and ignore the fact that we’re not seeking a way forward.

Some more lyrics from the Buffalo Springfield: “There’s battle lines being drawn, nobody’s right if everybody’s wrong.”

Not everybody on the other side of whatever side you’re on is wrong.

Our focus is on division rather than finding out how far we can walk together. There may be lines you just can’t cross, but that doesn’t mean you can’t move a little in the opposite direction.

I’m savvy enough to be aware that there are the far fringes on both sides of any issue. Those folks will remain dogmatic and emphatic, and no amount of facts will sway them. If you truly want a solution, these people have to be totally ignored. But most of us are not on the far side but smack dab in the middle.

The Buddha offered us “The Middle Way” – describing the position between extremes as being the way to harmony.

Returning to song lyrics. singer and songwriter Joe South requested: “Walk a mile in my shoes.” You don’t have to be Captain Obvious to know that you’ll never take a single step when your feet are in concrete.

If you want to keep arguing that you’re right, in America, that’s your right. But if you really want a solution, you’ll have to put down your placards and roll up your sleeves and get a glimpse of what the other side needs.

To get more of that view, perhaps you’ll heed the words of Jesus: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

All the best,

John

Listen to the recorded version.

Make sure to download a FREE copy of my ebook: INTER RUPTION: The Magic Key To Lasting Change here.

The Grasshopper chimed in with this on my morning walk: “Use your mind; don’t let it use you.”

It got me to “think about” the difference between planning and thinking.

Planning takes discernment – something our minds are quite capable of doing, along with sorting, labeling, and assembling data.

Thinking, on the other hand, is a road to nowhere that has us traveling around in circles.

Thinking thinks us; planning is us using our thinker.

Thinking is an internal voice that’s always blabbing trying to convince you that it’s you. It isn’t. It’s a bunch of thought loops on parade. The minute you engage with one of these thought loops, you have extracted yourself from who you really are and start believing you are who you “think” you are.

A question I often ask is: “Have you ever won an argument with your mind?” The answer is always “No,” yet we engage in this practice daily. You are arguing with a conditioned thought loop. It’s as silly as arguing with a tape recording of your voice.

Start to notice the difference between you using your mind and your mind using you. When you notice you’re in a thought loop, it’s the real you who does the noticing and it’s alerting you that you’re about to enter into another empty, seemingly endless diatribe.

Noticing that you’re in a thought loop creates spaces in your thinking – spaces that can let something new come through, like the idea of using your mind, not letting it use you.

All the best,

John

Listen to the recorded version.

Make sure to download a FREE copy of my ebook: INTER RUPTION: The Magic Key To Lasting Change here.

Here is the recorded version of the Grasshopper Note for the week of 8-3-20.

Read the written version here.

Make sure to download a FREE copy of my ebook: INTER RUPTION: The Magic Key To Lasting Change here.

What’s the difference between an “Aha” and “That idea has possibilities”?

Sometimes we confuse the two, or at least I have.

What I’ve come to find is that a good idea does not come as a complete package. It’s loaded with possibility but there are a lot of moving parts that need to fall into place.

Intuition comes with a bow. It’s a gift – a complete one at that. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t take work to take intuition to fruition. It does, but it’s not complicated.

Possibilities are like pieces of furniture from Ikea. They need to be assembled. Intuition comes with a pre-built shelf ready to display your creation.

This “Intuition or Possibility” notion may have always been common sense to you, but it was a real “Aha” moment for me.

So, I guess you could say the complete message my intuition is sending me is that I will have to roll up my sleeves to make more possibilities happen.

All the best,

John

Listen to the recorded version.

I don’t know about you but, in the past, I have lived under the umbrella of one of life’s biggest myths: Until it happens to me, it doesn’t exist.

Oh yes, I acknowledged that IT happened to other people, but blindly held the notion that it would never happen to me. Those people were just mishandling their lives and got what they got as a result. At least that’s how it computed in my mind . . . until it happened to me.

I’m not going to describe any specific “IT” here, only point out the limiting, and may I add, “holier than thou” mindset that fertilizes that myth.

Some telltale signs of the “it’ll never happen to me” crowd are vociferous, dogmatic assertions that the “IT” people are weaker, stupider, unsophisticated, lazy, etc. In short, inferior.

It’s both sad and entertaining when you hear an anointed one start singing out of a different hymn book. Entertaining because you get to see them bucked off their high horse; sad because they could have been aware of others plight in a more compassionate way, a lot sooner.

Their new mantra is similar to a quote attributed to English reformer John Bradford: “There but for the grace of God go I.” If you don’t believe in God, substitute the words “good fortune” in your mantra. Which reminds me of something President Dwight Eisenhower said in a speech: “There are no atheists in foxholes.”

I don’t wish anything ‘bad’ on anybody; My only hope is that their belief that bad things only happen to bad people will stop being their headline, long before we read their obituary.

All the best,

John

Listen to the recorded version.

Sometimes the title of today’s blogpost takes on a pejorative tone, intimating that you are “too big for your britches.”

I ask the question without bias in an effort to point you in a direction to find out who you truly are.

This much is pretty clear to me: We aren’t who we “think” we are, but we get closer to who we are by noticing what we do.

My friend and celebrated teacher Jerry Stocking recently posted this which sheds abundant light on the topic:

“In the absence of precise data about what you should do, it is often useful to notice what you do. And let what you do lead you to what you do next, and let the sum of what you do provide a glimpse into who you are, as what you think serenades, providing background entertainment, mood music for the expression of who you really are.”

I find that you are the you that shows up between your thoughts, not the person who gets lost in them, or spouts them ad nauseam to anyone willing to listen.

Doing is an elixir; it calms the mind and engages the body. Like the ancient Chinese saying reminds us: “Talk doesn’t cook rice.”

My preference is this: Don’t tell me what you’re going to do; show me what you’re doing.

You can waste your days continually thinking about who your really are, OR you can do something about it.

All the best,

John

Listen to the recorded version.

On my walk yesterday, The Grasshopper popped in and had this to say: “People run scared into the arms of their conditioning.” It took the whole walk to glean some meaning from his musing.

There’s no doubt in my mind that we are a fearful society. We’ve been conditioned that way, and the conditioning gets stronger with each passing generation.

I harken back to when I was a kid on summer vacation from grade school. I would get up, get dressed, eat my breakfast, brush my teeth, wash my face, comb my hair, and head out the door looking for a friend to play with. We would explore the nearby woods, play catch, shoot hoops at a schoolyard, work on an outdoor Cub Scout project, or walk to a playground and work the monkey bars. We were gone all day and didn’t come home most days ’til dinner. No one was concerned for our safety, nor thought it unusual that we didn’t return home until later in the day.

Somewhere along the way, as I moved closer towards adulthood, “Stranger Danger” got conditioned into society and now it’s a way of life.

We have learned to be fearful and we pass that along to our children, and they to theirs.

I call it the “World War II Water Down Theory.” I believe most people will agree that their great grandparents had it harder than their grandparents, and their grandparents had it harder than their parents, and their parents harder than them. We’ve become a protective society over the generations and what got watered down is our resiliency, which naturally increases our fear factor.

We are less trained to deal with adversity with each passing generation. And when it hits, we run and hide. It’s really not our fault; we were conditioned that way. But conditioning is no excuse to remain cocooned in fear.

The remedy is recognition – to recognize that you have the ability to respond to any situation vs. react to it. Application of this recognition acts as our reconditioning agent.

We have to retrain ourselves to trust our resiliency to get us through. We’re all resilient; we’ve just forgotten, and that forgetfulness fosters our remaining frozen in fear.

It is possible to bounce back to our natural ability to be resilient. The first step is recognizing that we possess it, and step two is to employ it more often. What you’ll find is that you’re tougher than you think as you break the link to past conditioning.

All the best,

John

Listen to the recorded version.

Here is the recorded version of the Grasshopper Note for the week of 7-27-20.

Read the written version here.

As I’ve written before, “Better” and “Best” can be fighting words, especially when used with people who like to mix it up.

When someone asks your opinion, better and best don’t seems so offensive as to put someone on the defensive.

It’s when you offer an unsolicited, emphatic assertion that contains those words that you should get ready to duck. It’s highly likely that you’ll get into a verbal dust up, especially if the person you’re directing it to has a much different view.

When offering a better or best opinion, it’s “best” to say something like this: “I find that this one works better for me” OR “The one I like best is this one.” When you choose to use this type of phrasing while using “I” and “Me,” you are stating preferences, not citing bible verses.

“The best football player ever is Tom Brady.” Can you see how that statement will get someone’s fur to fly, especially if they’re not a Tom Brady fan?

This is a gentle reminder that a subtle shift in language that takes you from absolute assertions to personal preferences will keep things in conversational mode instead of going down a rocky road.

Which way is better? The way that works best!

All the best,

John

Listen to the recorded version.

There’s another global pandemic going on besides the one that’s monopolizing the news. It’s been active since the time of Adam and Eve and, best as I can tell, no time soon is it going to leave. It’s the universal affliction of being stuck in our head.

If we charged out thoughts by the hour for taking up space in our mind, Jeff Bezoz and Bill Gates would be considered paupers by comparison.

When we’re in our head, which is most of the time, we are absent from our life. We’re in a pseudo-world that has nothing to do with what reality is presenting to us 24/7. We’re living on a movie set when we’re in our head. We are all storefront and no store. Our aliveness disappears and is replaced by what Bob Dylan called, “jugglers and clowns.”

Did you ever notice that when you stop thinking, you become an active participant in life? You’re more in touch with your senses and your aliveness can be seen, heard, and, most importantly, felt.

Excessive thinking is insidious. It sneaks up on you and before you know it, you’re overpowered by it. What to do?

The starting point for getting out of your head is to notice that you’re in it.

Noticing is the cure.

When you begin to notice your thoughts from a distance as an unemotional observer, you return to your body where life is actually happening. Getting out of your head and into your body can be easily done. Here’s one way that works:

When you notice that you’re in your head, acknowledge it by saying to yourself or aloud, “I’m in my head.” It’s a pattern interrupt that will interrupt your thought process long enough to activate your senses. Then, if the situation permits, close your eyes and do an inventory of your body. That means to bring each body part to mind (feet, hands, legs, stomach, neck, etc.) and just notice (feel) what’s going on in that part of your body. The whole process can be done in under two minutes.

When you activate your senses, you are no longer a member of the walking dead who’s trapped in their head. You are you – alive and present.

Truth be told, we’re probably never going to completely stop thinking, but we can mitigate it long enough to experience what alive feels like. The more often we notice our thinking, the less often we’re bound by it, and the more vibrant our life becomes.

Make it your mission to experience more of life today. You do so by letting your body have its say.

All the best,

John

Listen to the recorded version.