What won’t work for you, in any way – at any time, no matter what – is focusing and concentrating on yourself…how troubled you feel; how angst-ridden you are; how disorienting your body sensations feel.
Fine: You can notice your body. It’s yours. Notice your thoughts. They are yours. But noticing is all together different than focusing, perseverating and creating the constant background where you lounge in the apparent woeful state of your mind.
Stop talking about yourself. Again. And again. …to your friend, your mom, your dad, your spouse, your sister, your brother, your boss, your employee, your team, your doctor…to yourself.
Stop talking about yourself. Stop.
Keep talking if you want. But talk about something other than yourself. Find words that have nothing to do with you and everything to do with something other than you.
Just for 10 minutes…then 30…then 60…
Witness the world without saying “I”, “me”, “my” or “mine”.
Then get busy. Do something. Different. Do SOMETHING different.
Oh. Don’t you sass me.
Yes, you might as well be Mother-f*cking-Theresa. Try it for ten minutes. You don’t even have to be a saint or even a Nobel Prize Winner. Just do it.
She didn’t talk about herself.
She was too busy.
(Her childhood was no picnic. Albania was not the swinging scene of peace and liberty. And she had plenty to be sorrowful and nervous about. She actually held starving, dying children in her arms. She knew the world was ugly, too…. She got close to the stink…foul breath, filthy fingernails and frothy excrement. And when she wasn’t dealing with the-oft-pathetic state of the poor and the sick, she was busy either fighting off critics and naysayers or trying to figure out who was the right person to get her the biggest, broadest publicity. Talk about personal, professional and public stress. From handling handlers to dealing with journalists who referred to her as Mommy Dearest –a fanatic, a fraud…a fundamentalist. That chick was a champ.)
No. You don’t have to be Mother Theresa. You just have to be you. But be the you who gets up and does something…be someone other than the one sits still, staring at your screen, comparing yourself to anyone, or calling whatever-you-are-doing LIFE.
Do something. Different. Do something different…than talking to yourself about yourself, again.
Go for a walk.
Sing outloud.
Clap your hands. Do jumping-jacks.
Page through an old-fashioned, hand-held encyclopedia.
Look at a flower. Arrange some.
Read poetry. Or some famous speeches.
Try to figure out what color blue is in the sky.
Plant something. Notice a baby tree.
Get busy with your arms and legs.
Tip-toe. Walk on your heels.
Climb a tree. Do a cartwheel. Try a somersault.
Take a yoga class. Try ZUMBA. Do Feldenkrais.
Ride your bike.
Get a membership at Massage Envy.
Get adjusted.
Dance.
Do a push-up.
Look at the movements of your hand.
Reproduce a mudra. Learn a word in sign-language.
Create a still-life of a corner of your room.
Clean your closet.
Draw a mandala.
Read a label. Stop eating sugar!
Say no to high-fructose corn syrup.
Get a proper nutritional consult. Go on a cleanse.
Drink water with lemon.
Taste a new spice.
Chop ingredients for coleslaw.
Poach an egg.
Peel a potato.
Sautee onions.
Taste great olive oil.
Throw out something you never use.
Walk around the block and notice people’s moods.
Say hello to someone you recognize.
Say a prayer of thanks.
Write a Thank-You Note!
Put some money in savings.
Look at old coins.
Go to a museum.
Read movie quotes.
Watch a trilogy.
Time yourself drawing something for a game of Pictionary.
Write a letter with your non-dominant hand.
Imagine the skin of a newborn baby.
Touch the skin of a newborn baby!
Try to speak like Yoda.
Learn the origin of a word.
Read Gilgamesh.
Find out what careers other people have and how they contribute something to this planet.
Read about the Overview Effect.
Read about the Butterfly Effect.
Study the names of skeletal bones.
Look at the depth of the night sky.
Feel your breath move through your nose.
Do something. Do something different.
Get up, off your bottom, and stop talking about yourself – to yourself or anyone else. Stop analyzing your own head-blender or noticing how you do feel, don’t feel, or wanna feel. Stop. Do something else. Do something different.
That, my friend, is the first step in finding your power. It is that simple: You stop. You stop a million times. In your stopping, you find your power. And, believe me. It’s there.
You are in charge of where you put your focus and concentration. You are in charge.