Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary

Have you ever felt discontent, unsatisfied, or restless?

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know I’m a big believer in emotions as transmitters of information.

The aforementioned emotions could be a sign that you need to make a change.

They could be an arrow pointing you in the direction you should go.

Or, they could be the result of an insidious lie that says, “I’ll be happy when….”

If it is the latter, you could find yourself dwelling in that emotion for longer than you might think.

It’s precisely because the unhealthy belief “I’ll be happy when” doesn’t actually go away even if you get the thing you think will make you happy.

It’s more a persistant way of being that just morphs and fills in the blank with the next thing.

And it keeps you in a perpetual state of restlessness.

You can never fully be present in the here and now because you’re always looking ahead.

This is a trap, to be sure.

And is a recipe for an unhappy life.

If you are a high achiever, you likely experience some version of this on a regular basis.

I want to help you break free from this thought.

I want you to be able to experience the delight of presence.

I want you see the beauty in the world and in the people around you.

I want you to experience being at rest and being at peace.

You might think this is an impossible pattern to break, but it’s not.

There is a very simple way to begin to interrupt this pattern.

It all begins with noticing.

Notice the sensations available to you through sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.

Notice your breath.

Notice your environment.

Step outside, and notice nature.

Notice something beautiful.

Drink it in.

And when you do this, you come back to presence.

Your mind focuses on the thing you are noticing, rather than the persistent thought or distracting emotion.

Living from presence is the way we are intended to live.

Anything that keeps you from being present is a form of robbery.

And what happens when you start living with presence is that you notice things you never noticed before.

You notice things that seem ordinary.

And over time, you realize just how extraordinary they are.

The sound of laughter.

The taste of a homecooked meal.

The voice of a loved one.

The feeling of the breeze on your face.

Your beating heart.

And you will find that your noticing turns into delight.

And delight gives way to gratitude.

Your nervous system starts to recalibrate.

You become more calm.

You become more grounded.

And then the real magic happens.

You begin to notice new possibilities that you couldn’t see previously.

A whole world available to you that you might not have fully experienced or noticed previously.

Don’t you want that for yourself too?

Photo by Nandhu Kumar on Pexels

I’ll leave you with the words of Mary Oliver:

“Instructions for living a life. 
Pay attention. 
Be astonished. 
Tell about it.”

Go notice something. And then watch what happens next.

Love,

Audrey