ACTualized living W/ Erik

What's going on? Cadre family, joining you here again on this Saturday morning. Excited to be here with you today. I thought I'd change up the pace a little bit. If you're anything like me, it's been a busy week, lots of things going on, and it doesn't feel like I've gotten much of a chance just to bring myself back to center, bring myself back to a place where I can be present with my family this weekend and enjoy the time that I have off to relax and unwind and plan for this next week, maybe get some projects done.

And so a big part of actualized change in our lives is being present. Past and future don't exist. All that exists is the here and now, right now. And that's where we can make change. That's where we can move and make decisions and do things differently than maybe we have in the past. But if we're just on autopilot mode, cruising through our day, not giving ourselves a chance to notice what's important to us this morning, what's important to us this weekend, and the direction we want to head here today, we missed those opportunities.

We're not aware. So this morning, I want to encourage you to close your eyes with me and take a deep breath. And as you notice, maybe even as we're here, sometimes the most difficult part about mindfulness is we think we have to avoid thinking, which is a weird and impossible thing to do. Mindfulness is really a practice of attention, being able to notice different thoughts and urges and not necessarily follow them, but just watch them. And if we imagine that we're standing on the shore of a massive river, for me, what comes to mind is this time I was in Utah on the Colorado river, and that river felt so vast and deep, and parts of it were murky and unclear.

And I remember getting caught up in that river and having to fight the current and how relaxing it felt when I got to shore. I can just watch the river go by with the sun setting off in the distance. The same thing is with our thoughts, our emotions. Let's take a minute to notice what that river looks like today, knowing that we could sit here and just observe and it would be time well spent. And if we find ourselves wading into the water, trying to fight the current while trying to practice this mindfulness, something that can be a point of reference, a place to come back to when we notice we're a little too deep into the water, is our breath.

As you watch this river, look for things that maybe you've been showing up a lot. Maybe there's things that you've tried to pull to shore and keep with you. They're weighing you down. Can we let those things go to drift on down and be open to what is to come? Maybe we continue to see the same idea about ourselves pop up. Or maybe this thought about what's going to happen next week or the week after that. We have to remember that it's a. A thought. It's a thought floating down the river. We can let go of it and everything will be okay.

As we continue to breathe, I want you to notice something in your actual physical environment right now. Maybe it's a smell. Smell. A sound. A feeling. Taste. Touch. I want you to focus that same attention there. Observe whatever that thing is. For me, it's cold in this room. I don't take enough time to appreciate the cold. Just sit with it for a minute and let it be cold in here. Notice the texture, the way it feels on your skin coming back. Hopefully at this point, you're feeling a little bit more centered, a little bit more fluid and willing to encounter today curious about what it might bring as we get out of that river and into our lives.

Have a great weekend. Thank you for joining me. I look forward to seeing you next time.