Amy Hoppock's Blog

Where to find me.

If you’d like to follow my writing, I hope you’ll join me at Smaller & Deeper. Smaller & Deeper is a Sunday Evening Newsletter that goes out every Sunday evening. It’s an invitation to start your week with grace and space. A Recent Smaller & Deeper Newsletter I’m sharing a few things that caught my eyes or ears this week. Things that feel, in essence, smaller and deeper.   Ideas, words, poetry, and prayers which invited me to a new understanding or deeper reflection. (and hopefully you too!) An Essay: This guest essay in the New York Times by the Inauguration Poet Amanda Gorman is excellent. Her way with words is inspiring. I’ve re-read it several times.   “And now more than ever; we have every right to be affected, affiliated, affronted. If you’re alive, you’re afraid.  If you’re not afraid, then you’re not paying attention.  The only thing we have to fear is having no fear itself-having no feeling on behalf of whom and what we’ve lost, whom and what we love.” A Podcast: The Anthropocenecd Review The official description of this podcast is: John Green reviews facets of the human-centered planet on a five-star scale. John Green is a YA author. You’ll have to listen to understand! My son and I listened to the episode on Orbital Sunrises, which resulted in google searches and continued conversations for the following twenty-four hours. I listened to the episode on Plague (spoiler plagues get a one-star rating. . . I tend to agree with that…). I love quirky ideas (rating sunrises and plagues on a five-star scale?) I also love dives into history, which provide context and grounding for our current realities. I’m looking forward to adding the rest of these episodes to my listening list and the book to my reading list! A Prayer: THE LORD’S PRAYER From Theatre in Your Life by Robert Barton and Annie McGregor  O cosmic Birther of all radiance and vibration. Soften the ground of our being and carve out a space within us where your Presence can abide. Fill us with your creativity so that we may be empowered to bear the fruit of your mission. Let each of our actions bear fruit in accordance with our desire. Endow us with the wisdom to produce and share what each being needs to grow and flourish.  Untie the tangled threads of destiny that bind us, as we release others from the entanglement of past mistakes. Do not let us be seduced by that which would divert us from our true purpose, but illuminate the opportunities of the present moment. For you are the ground and the fruitful vision, the birth, power and fulfillment, as all is gathered and made whole once again. Amen. May, you in your reading, listening, watching, and living, be a discoverer of words, ideas, and verses that bring wisdom, delight, joy, and pause. May you savor what you find and gather the blessings, insights, and peace from the words and creative insight you discover. May you be a super spreader of joy, wisdom, and simple delight. Read, listen, look for wisdom, delight and joy this week. Does changing the purpose of your consumption change what or how you consume? When you find something that sparks wisdom, joy, delight or pause…who can you share it with? Dolly Parton, Songteller: My Life in Lyrics by Dolly Parton I listened to this book. Dolly is the narrator, it felt less like a book and more like a podcast, she was just telling the stories of her songs. It was a really (really, really) fun listen. Dolly is a kick. She shared the story of maybe fifty songs and EVERY. SINGLE. ONE she said at some point, “this is my very favorite song” or “this was the best song I’ve ever written.” I can’t speak for the book, but the audiobook is wonderful! Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout This is #2 in the Amgash series (Lucy Barton). I read them completely out of order, 3,1,2. This book instead of being narrated by Lucy was a collection of short stories of Lucy adjacent characters. In the author’s notes at the end of the book, Elizabeth Strout said she wrote these short stories as she was writing the first Lucy Barton book (My Name is Lucy Barton). She said when she finished the first book she realized she almost had a second book in a completely different format almost done. I loved this series, very quirky, very heartfelt. Very good. “To listen to a person is not passive.”― Elizabeth Strout, Anything Is Possible I try and pay attention to words or phrases that stand out to me in my reading and listening. There is a spiritual practice called Florliledgium that collects short, interesting pieces {words that “sparkle” up} and put them together. This is kind of like that. Watching for things that sparkle. Gathering them and seeing how they work together and what message, mantra, or new idea might arise.) A Practice: Read slowly. Notice if a word or phrase stands out to you. How do the words make you feel? Is there an invitation? (I’m sharing in italics the lines that stand out to me in these passages. Maybe it’s the same, or maybe it’s different, there is much food for thought in each of these passages) “When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don’t blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason and argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change” ― Thich Nhat Hanh A soul flare is what happens when someone shines (his or her) light no matter what it is. In a song, a smile, or a well-made soup; they send out a flare of light that inspires others to shine their own. Soul flares make this world better. –Annie O’Shaughnessy “Anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you.”― David Whyte “The hard thing when you get old is to keep your horizons open. The first part of your life everything is in front of you, all your potential and promise. But over the years, you make decisions, you carve yourself into a given shape. Then the challenge is to keep discovering the green growing edge.”— Howard Thurman

The post Where to find me. appeared first on The art of powering down.

On Horizons, Edgewalkers, and Inward Flow

In a conversation with a friend this week we talked about the question: What is the topic of your conversations? She had heard something about the kinds of conversations we have: about people, events, or ideas in many ways shape us. (One Haiku this month was about shaping!) We remarked how rare it is to have conversations about ideas. Even wondering if we, (the collective we) have lost the ability to have civil conversations about ideas. (theological, political, philosophical, etc.) It strikes me that these Haiku conversations are indeed conversations about ideas. In our conversation this month, I learned about the idea of horizon people. Am I a person who embraces horizons or one who doesn’t even see them? I also learned about edge walker people, the people who walk the razor fine line between cultures, ideas, and build bridges. I hope you’ll click over to Profound Living and watch our Haiku conversation. It’s always the highlight of my month. I know you’ll find an idea or invitation that will challenge you and bless you. Watch July 2021 Haiku Talk Here I would love to have you join me for my Sunday Evening Newsletter- Smaller & Deeper. Currently, most (really all) of my writing is happening there.

The post On Horizons, Edgewalkers, and Inward Flow appeared first on The art of powering down.

On Tears, Owls & Commencement: Haiku Talk

“It is a startling truth that how you see and what you see determine how and who you will be. An interesting way of beginning to do some interior work is to explore your particular style of seeing. Ask yourself, what way do I behold the world? Through this question, you will discover your specific pattern of seeing.” -John O’Donohue in Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom The practice of writing Haiku has helped me discover my “specific pattern of seeing.” There have been so many unexpected gifts from this practice. I hope you’ll take some time to listen to our conversation about Haikus this month. It felt like we were standing on sacred ground. You can watch our conversation here and see the other Haikus this month. Smaller & Deeper is my weekly newsletter. It arrives in your inbox every Sunday evening. Reflections, poetry, quotes, books. It’s a pause to start your week focused on the smaller and deeper things. I hope you’ll join us.

The post On Tears, Owls & Commencement: Haiku Talk appeared first on The art of powering down.

Who Set The Boundary? Haiku Practice

Each month I share a Haiku that I’ve written, then write about it and share with my Haiku Group. We’ve been at it for close to (over?) two years now. New learnings continue to emerge. I love the word practice. A practice is something that we undertake, with consistency, to become better, to learn more, to improve. There are spiritual practices with ancient roots that aim to tame the ego. My kids regularly practice golf and dance. They aim to improve their chosen skills through repetition. Sometimes we say we need to practice patience or self-control. A practice by the very definition is grace-filled. We come to practices with a recognition that we aren’t experts and have more to learn. There is a willingness to learn from others with more experience. Muscle memory develops through the repetitive action that practice invites. When I sat down to write my Haibun (reflections on a Haiku) this month, I realized that my haiku practice was oozing out from just Haiku. The theme of my Haiku this month (That I wrote several months ago and chose to create a postcard from one month ago) was profoundly accurate of the current questions in my life. I’ve been challenging myself to dig deeper in understanding the historical impacts of -isms and -archys that are more than just theory. The things that we do with frequency and purpose shape us. The practice of writing Haiku, pausing to see the small, the essence of something, reading with an eye to a phrase that sparkes a question or is lovely is shaping me. Just as my kids swing golf clubs to improve their skills, writing Haiku improves my skill in finding the profound hiding in the ordinary. It’s always such a pleasure to spend this 30 minutes (or so) with Michael and Davin. We talk off zoom how much energy and creative energy this practice imparts for the rest of the month. I started a weekly newsletter a little while ago. I get a few newsletters and I love the consistency of knowing when they will arrive. Newsletters directly to my inbox feel a bit more personal and focused. I love this space and writing about questions. (And it’s not going anywhere) So consider this your “personal” invitation to join my newsletter list (if you aren’t already getting it!) My newsletter is called Smaller & Deeper. It’s about small ideas and practices, with permission sprinkled in that smaller, sometimes IS better. It’s a reminder (to myself mostly) that deeper ideas and wisdom often hide in the ordinary. It goes out every Sunday evening. My hope is that it’s an invitation to start the rush of a new week with sparkles of wisdom and words of grace. (Click on the link to read any of the “back issues” and, sign up. It’s free. Your email isn’t shared.)

The post Who Set The Boundary? Haiku Practice appeared first on The art of powering down.

On Smaller & Deeper

I started a weekly newsletter a little while ago. I get a few newsletters and I love the consistency of knowing when they will arrive. Newsletters directly to my inbox feel a bit more personal and focused. I love this space and writing about questions. (And it’s not going anywhere) So consider this your “personal” invitation to join my newsletter list (if you aren’t already getting it!) My newsletter is called Smaller & Deeper. It’s about small ideas and practices, with permission sprinkled in that smaller, sometimes IS better. It’s a reminder (to myself mostly) that deeper ideas and wisdom often hide in the ordinary. It goes out every Sunday evening. My hope is that it’s an invitation to start the rush of a new week with sparkles of wisdom and words of grace. (Click on the link to read any of the “back issues” and, I hope, sign up. It’s free. Your email isn’t shared.) I’m sharing below what I sent out this week. I would love to have you join our smaller & deeper community. “When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. When you improve conditioning a little each day, eventually, you have a big improvement in conditioning. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually, a big gain is made. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens—and when it happens, it lasts.”  —John Wooden This week I heard the story that caught me off guard with its surprising insight. It was of a woman talking with her yoga instructor. He mentioned that he had meditated 30 days in a row. She was impressed and commented that she could never do that. He responded, “I aim lower.” The yoga instructor explained that he had a goal to meditate daily. But, if he realized that he hadn’t meditated in the middle of the day or late in the evening, he stopped and silenced his mind for a minute or two. Aim lower feels like a grace-full invitation. It’s easy to think meditate every day means 25 minutes in the full lotus position, with a silent mind, and anything less doesn’t count. What if taking a few deep breaths and silencing the mind for a minute in the Starbucks drive-through did count?   Aim lower is an invitation to set ourselves up for success. It means that instead of measuring perfection, we can measure progress. It means there is space for our humanness, mistakes, and misdirections. We can celebrate small wins as progress.  Aim lower is a counter-cultural invitation. People don’t write about their halfway stories. They share their winning stories. It is easy to start to adopt an all-or-nothing mindset. Either we meditate for 30 minutes two times a day, or it doesn’t count. Aim lower reminds us that a win is a win is a win. Aim lower is permission to try new things. We aren’t going to meditate like Deepak Chopra when we start. But we can start and try and try again and learn with every experience. It’s easier to try new things when we know there is room to make mistakes and learn as we grow.  Smaller & Deeper is about finding tools, ideas, and permission to live counter-culturally. Aim lower fits because it reminds us that goals are good. Small, achievable, realistic goals are some of the best kinds. Small goals set us up for success. Each time we achieve a small goal, it creates the conditions for more success.   Robert Maurer, in his book One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way writes about the power of small goals.   Your brain is programmed to resist change. But, by taking small steps, you effectively rewire your nervous system so that it does the following: “unsticks” you from a creative block bypasses the fight-or-flight response creates new connections between neurons so that the brain enthusiastically takes over the process of change and you progress rapidly toward your goal. A Quick overview of Kaizen (One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way is a pretty quick read. I refer to it often. If you are looking for a good read that is very practical, I would recommend it!) Photo by Ronaldo de Oliveira on Unsplash This weeks practice idea is directly from Rober Maurer’s book: Kaizen offers the possibility that through small acts of kindness, and even small moments of compassion and curiosity, we can change ourselves—and, eventually, humanity. We can focus on being generous in daily thoughts and actions so that we don’t hoard our kindness for some important person or event, but spend it freely when our children anger us or when an employee deserves a small compliment. We can respect ourselves by taking small steps toward improving our health and relationships; we can respect others by asking them small questions. By asking small, gentle question, we keep the fight-or-flight response in the “off” position. Kaizen questions such as, “What’s the smallest step I can take to be more efficient?” or “What can I do in five minutes a day to reduce my credit-card debt?” or “How could I find one source of information about adult education classes in my city?” allow us to bypass our fears. They allow the brain to focus on problem-solving and, eventually, action. What small question can you ask yourself this week? What is the smallest step you can make to address something that is a challenge or opportunity? (Bigger isn’t better in this context. . small, tiny, deep is what you are looking for.) ideas.poems.quotes.songs that sparkled for me this week. (I try and pay attention to words or phrases that stand out to me in my reading and listening. There is a spiritual practice called Florliledgium that collects short, interesting pieces {words that “sparkle” up} and puts them together to form something new. This is kind of like that. Watching for things that sparkle. Gathering them and seeing how they work together and what message, mantra, or new idea might arise.) A Practice: Read slowly. Notice if a word or phrase stands out to you. How do the words make you feel? Is there an invitation? “To be really great in little things, to be truly noble and heroic in the insipid details of everyday life, is a virtue so rare as to be worthy of canonization.” Harriet Beecher Stowe “Indeed, the big decisions in life are hardly ever clear—except for one. And that one is piercingly clear: life is a series of dilemmas, of options, of conundrums, of possibilities taken and not taken. Negotiating these moments well is of the essence of the life well-lived.” Joan D. Chittister Mindfulness is the capacity to recognize things as they are. When you are mindful, you recognize what is going on, what is happening in the here and now. When you recognize something positive, you can enjoy it; you can nourish and heal yourself just by recognizing these positive elements. And when something is negative, mindfulness helps you embrace it, soothe it, and get some relief. Mindfulness is an energy that can hold the suffering, the anger, the despair; if you know how to hold your suffering long enough, you get relief. Thich Nhat Hanh “All too often we bemoan our imperfections rather than embrace them as part of the process in which we are brought to God. Cherished emptiness gives God space in which to work. We are pure capacity for God. Let us not, then, take our littleness lightly. It is a wonderful grace. It is a gift to receive. At the same time, let us not get trapped in the confines of our littleness, but keep pushing on to claim our greatness. Remind yourself often, “I am pure capacity for God; I can be more.” Macrina Wiederkehr Photo by David Todd McCarty on Unsplash Typos and misplaced commas are all my own and prove my humanity.

The post On Smaller & Deeper appeared first on The art of powering down.

Where Am I On My Scale?

This isn’t a question about weight, and it has nothing to do with bathroom scales. It’s a question about perspective.  I “collected” this question from a podcast. I love listening for robust and meaningful questions in the stories and experiences of people. This was the true story of a young woman who set out with her husband to row across the Atlantic Ocean, from Britain to Barbados, in a rowboat they built! (What could possibly go wrong?!) As soon as they were in the open ocean, they realized that her husband had an overwhelming fear of open water. After a few days, she had to radio for rescue, and her husband was taken off the boat. She made the unbelievable decision to continue on by herself. It took her three months, but she did it; she rowed across the Atlantic Ocean by herself! (Rob cast Episode 206 Debra Searle Did What? Check it out. You won’t be sorry!)    While at sea, she learned to cope in extreme and lonely conditions. One habit she developed is a “how-bad-is-it-scale.” Creating this scale was a critical tool for perspective and resilience on the open ocean, and it works on dry land too! A 10 for her was rowing her boat onto land in Barbados. A 1 was being eaten by sharks.   Then, when she was feeling down, overwhelmed, scared, she would say to herself, “where am I on my scale?” Usually, when she sat back and thought about it, in light of her best day and the very worst, she would find herself at a 6 or 7. The result was what seemed overwhelming and crippling viewed by itself when put into context on her scale. She was able to approach it with some perspective.  What is your scale?   What is a 10, the best ever day, things are going swimmingly? What is a 1, the worst, most challenging day? When you have a personal scale, you have a tool that can help you put your challenges into your own context.   In some ways, that is the power of this tool. It’s by your own design. It’s not some outside perspective that is placed upon you by others.  This is your scale based on your life.  For this to work, you have to actually have your scale. You have to think about it and identify your 10 and your 1 and maybe your 5. Then when you need it, you have set markers that can help you evaluate where you are.  And maybe, just maybe, when you are spinning out of control, you can sit back and think about your scale you can start to see what feels awful right now, in light of the best and the worst; it isn’t really that bad.  “What we do see depends mainly on what we look for. … In the same field, the farmer will notice the crop, the geologists the fossils, botanists the flowers, artists the coloring, sportsmen the cover for the game. Though we may all look at the same things, it does not all follow that we should see them.”  ― John Lubbock,  If you like these questions, please consider SUBSCRIBING to The Art of Powering Down; Questions to Recharge Your Soul… Every week there is a question that will gently challenge you, encourage you, or help you live your life with more intention, grace, and purpose. (Sharing these reflections and questions with friends is the greatest compliment!)

The post Where Am I On My Scale? appeared first on The art of powering down.

Haiku Chat

There is no other event in my life where synchronicity shows up with such regularity. There is no plan, coordination, or agreed-upon theme. And yet. . . (If you are new here, (Welcome!) or just need a reminder, Michael, Davin, and I write a haiku (or choose one Haiku we’ve written.) We create a postcard (virtual or physical), share it with each other (and in many cases with others…), and write a Haibun (reflection on the Haiku) for each Haiku. Once a month, we meet via Zoom and share our Haiku and Haibun. Last April, we decided to start recording our conversations and sharing them on the Profound Living Blog (Michael’s blog that Davin also contributes to) and here; The Art of Powering Down. Smaller & Deeper is my Sunday Evening Newsletter, I would love to share my reflections, poets that inspire, quotes that sparkle, and ideas that are small but powerful. If you like these questions, please consider SUBSCRIBING to The Art of Powering Down; Questions to Recharge Your Soul… Every week there is a question that will gently challenge you, encourage you, or help you live your life with more intention, grace, and purpose. (Sharing these reflections and questions with friends is the greatest compliment!)

The post Haiku Chat appeared first on The art of powering down.

What Patterns Do I Keep Repeating?

There are two distinct ways to approach this question.  You can focus on the positive patterns, relational and life strengths that you have that serve you well.  Or you could focus on any negative patterns, ways that you approach relationships, create drama, or handle life that does not serve you well.  There is much to learn from both kinds of patterns.  But, let’s focus on the positive! What positive patterns do you keep repeating in life and what can you learn from them?  Are there problems that are never really problems for you because you know how to anticipate and avoid them before they become a distraction?  Are there tools or patterns that you use in relationships that empower and encourage people at a true and genuine level? Sometimes the things we are really good at, we don’t even recognize because they come so naturally.  It’s empowering to take time to celebrate our strengths! It’s important to start with our positive patterns because our brains slide swiftly and almost purposefully to the negative.  Richard Rohr talks about positive and negative thoughts in this way:  “…our negative and critical thoughts are like Velcro, they stick and hold; whereas our positive and joyful thoughts are like Teflon, they slide away. We have to deliberately choose to hold onto positive thoughts so that they can “imprint.” ….Neuroscience can now demonstrate the brain indeed has a negative bias; the brain prefers to constellate around fearful, negative, or problematic situations. In fact, when a loving, positive, or unproblematic thing comes your way, you have to savor it consciously for at least fifteen seconds before it can harbor and store itself in your “implicit memory;” otherwise it doesn’t stick. We must indeed savor the good in order to significantly change our regular attitudes and moods. And we need to strictly monitor all the “Velcro” negative thoughts.”  (Richard Rohr-Feb 18, 2016 Daily Reading Center for Contemplation and Action) Reinforce the positive, savor the good!  Take time to identify and celebrate your positive patterns.  Recognize your skills in relationships, in managing time, in confronting conflict, in seeking silence, or in caring for yourself or others well!  Your positive patterns matter!  You have them, find them and celebrate them. Perhaps when you read this question your mind went immediately to some perceived negative patterns; choices that you make that do not serve you well.  It is important to recognize these things.  But can you hold them gently? Can you explore these patterns with curiosity and kindness?  Can you say, I see that I often make a choice to be reactive about this thing and it never ends up well.   Can you suspend judgment about a pattern and just observe it?  Resist the urge to be self-critical and judgemental about your patterns.  The pattern is just a pattern, it is instructive to us about something deeper.    What patterns do I keep repeating in my life and what can I learn from them? This question is not about changing patterns.  It IS about learning from them.  Our positive and negative patterns have things to teach us.  Look for the lessons.  What lessons are your patterns teaching you?  “You are shaped by Your thinking. The outcome of your life cannot be better than your pattern of thought”  ― Benjamin Suulola If you haven’t already signed up for my NEW newsletter, Smaller & Deeper, you can here.   If you like these questions, please consider SUBSCRIBING to The Art of Powering Down; Questions to Recharge Your Soul… Every week there is a question that will gently challenge you, encourage you, or help you live your life with more intention, grace, and purpose. (Sharing these reflections and questions with friends is the greatest compliment!)

The post What Patterns Do I Keep Repeating? appeared first on The art of powering down.

Do I Stop Too Soon?

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existence. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery each day. —”Old Man’s Advice to Youth: ‘Never Lose a Holy Curiosity.'” LIFE Magazine (2 May 1955) p. 64.”― Albert Einstein I’ve been wondering this week when I stop too soon.  Information moves fast.  It feels like we have to have an opinion (and a STRONG opinion at that) on everything.  If I am honest, it’s way too easy to read a headline and a few sentences of a news article, and I’ve formed an opinion.  It’s also way too easy to see a story or post on social media and go from zero to annoyed.  It’s like we live in a constant state of alertness, especially when it comes to information.   It used to be (I’ve heard) that information and even opinions were in books or newspapers that were edited and fact-checked. This means, of course, that there were gatekeepers.  Information might not have flowed as freely as it does now.  I feel like my brain was maybe better evolved for slower, fact-checked information than the constant stream of information presented with the same level of authority.  The random person on the internet can give their ideas with as much authority as the highly educated doctor, historian, economist.   The question I’m asking myself is this: Do I stop too soon?   This question means that instead of taking things at face value, I need to keep being curious.  Do I decide something is wrong or annoying and stop there. (Yes. Often I do this.)  Maybe instead of rolling my eyes, I should ask a few more questions.  Why does this evoke such a strong response? What feels off to me? Where could I go to fact-check this or learn more?  If the same things always annoy me, why is that?  What button does this push?  Is this idea correct, and I just don’t like it?  Why? There are always a million more questions that can be asked.  I need to not stop too soon and keep asking questions.  Information is an invitation to learn more.  I have been taking shaky steps towards being more curious. Here is what I’ve noticed.  It means I need less information and more space.  It means curating and cultivating where my attention goes.  For me, that means no Facebook.  The frustration of Facebook does not outweigh the rewards for me.  It means way less Instagram. I am making sure that I’m only checking it briefly once or twice a day.   It means that I’m constantly asking myself a few questions.   Is this person always advertising something?  Unfollow. Does this account make me care about things (I mean things, objects, not ideas)  that I wouldn’t on my own? Unfollow. Is my political ideology, theology, foundational understanding of the world so divergent that it’s too far of a bridge to cross? Unfollow. It means that I’m intentional about looking at news from several sources. Do I stop too soon is a question I am using to challenge myself to be more curious.  Mostly it’s about being more curious about myself and my reactions.  It is paying attention to what I am paying attention to and asking, does this help make my life better? Does it help make the world kinder?  Do you stop too soon? Do you stop asking questions before you have enough information? SIFT is a really helpful acronym that can help us become better-informed information consumers. I read an article earlier this year in The New York Times. I found this link that is helpful about how to use SIFT. My kids and I did this with something I had posted on Instagram (that I thought was true. . it wasn’t. It was a great exercise.) If you haven’t already signed up for my NEW newsletter, Smaller & Deeper, you can here.   If you like these questions, please consider SUBSCRIBING to The Art of Powering Down; Questions to Recharge Your Soul… Every week there is a question that will gently challenge you, encourage you, or help you live your life with more intention, grace, and purpose. (Sharing these reflections and questions with friends is the greatest compliment!)

The post Do I Stop Too Soon? appeared first on The art of powering down.

What Do you Wish You REALLY Understood?

“You can learn new things at any time in your life if you’re willing to be a beginner. If you actually learn to like being a beginner, the whole world opens up to you.” ― Barbara Sher What do YOU wish you really understood? It is easy to get stuck in our routines and forget to explore. When we stop exploring we stop being a beginner.  Being a beginner can be a good practice.  When we are a beginner we have to be willing to make mistakes or even look foolish.  Beginning something is filled with promise, possibility, and fear.  It’s a risk to begin anything new. Beginning is a practice that invites us to humility, listening, courage and hope. Shoshin is a zen word that means having a beginner mind.  I stumbled upon the concept of shoshin thinking about this question.  It’s new to me, but I love the concept.   When we have a beginner’s mind we let go of all our preconceptions about a topic and learn without bias.  Think of the last time you set out to learn something new.  It was all fresh, you were aware of your fragility and limited knowledge.  You were probably willing to listen closely and carefully to the expert who was guiding you.  Your brain was literally making new connections. ShoShin is an invitation to adopt the posture of a beginner, even in the things that we know that we know that we know. There is always a new angle, an unexamined bias, or a blind spot that we can explore. Shoshin is a humble practice. To approach something new or something old that we want to see with new eyes takes humility and courage. What if we examine our long-held political, theological, relational, or philosophical ideas with the posture of a beginner? What would we find? “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” -Shunryo Suzuki The past year was a lot of different things. As I’ve been pondering being a beginner I’ve realized that 2020-2021 was a divine invitation into being a beginner.  None of us had lived in a worldwide pandemic. We had to feel our way through so many new things: masks, health orders, grocery stores without groceries, mainstays of our culture closing. (schools, I’m looking at you.) Whether we wanted to or not we have all experienced being a beginner.   What do you wish you understood? Where do you need to become a beginner? Do you want to understand poetry, physics, baking bread, weaving, improv, math? The possibilities and potential for understanding are endless. Maybe intentionally becoming a beginner would be a good practice? Can you take 5 minutes today to start to learn just one thing about that topic? Then imagine if you took 5 minutes tomorrow, and the next day and the next.  Within a short time, you will know way more than you know today!  You don’t have to become an expert, but you can start.  You can be a beginner! Speaking of being a beginner. . I started a newsletter! It’s called Smaller & Deeper. It can arrive in your inbox every Sunday evening. It’s an invitation to explore what it means to live smaller and deeper. (Click on the link below to explore and maybe join me?!) “Go wide, explore, and learn new things. Something will surely have a kick for you” ― Mustafa Saifuddin “Every time you have to make a choice about anything, think “Does this go toward or away from what I want?” Always choose what goes toward what you want.” ― Barbara Sher If you like these questions, please consider SUBSCRIBING to The Art of Powering Down; Questions to Recharge Your Soul… Every week there is a question that will gently challenge you, encourage you, or help you live your life with more intention, grace, and purpose. (Sharing these reflections and questions with friends is the greatest compliment!)

The post What Do you Wish You REALLY Understood? appeared first on The art of powering down.