1. “Discipline in writing is important but sort of over-rated. The more important virtue for a writer, I believe, is self-forgiveness. Because your writing will always disappoint you. Your laziness will always disappoint you. You will make vows: “I’m going to write for an hour every day,” and then you won’t do it. You will think: “I suck, I’m such a failure. I’m washed-up.” Continuing to write after that heartache of disappointment doesn’t take the only discipline, but also self-forgiveness (which comes from a place of kind and encouraging, and motherly love).” — Elizabeth Gilbert
   
2. “You must have a room, or a certain hour or so a day, where you don’t know what was in the newspapers that morning, you don’t know who your friends are, you don’t know what you owe anybody, you don’t know what anybody owes to you. This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen.” — Joseph Campbell
   
3. “There are two pivotal tools in creative recovery — morning pages and the artist date. A lasting creative awakening requires the consistent use of both. Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages– they are not high art. They are not even “writing.” They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page…and then do three more pages tomorrow. The Artist Date is a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore something that interests you. The Artist Date need not be overtly
   “artistic” — think mischief more than mastery. Artist Dates fire up the imagination. They spark whimsy. They encourage play. Since art is about the play of ideas, they feed our creative work by replenishing our inner well of images and inspiration. When choosing an Artist Date, it is good to ask yourself, “what sounds fun?” — and then allow yourself to try it. — Julia Cameron
   
4. “Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about too. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.”- Kurt Vonnegut
   
5. “Write a million words–the absolute best you can write, then throw it all away and bravely turn your back on what you have written. At that point, you’re ready to begin.”– David Eddings
   
6. All writers think they suck. “When I was writing “Eat, Pray, Love”, I had just as strong a mantra of THIS SUCKS ringing through my head as anyone does when they write anything. But I had a clarion moment of truth during the process of that book. One day, when I was agonizing over how utterly bad my writing felt, I realized: “That’s actually not my problem.” The point I realized was this — I never promised the universe that I would write brilliantly; I only promised the universe that I would write. So I put my head down and sweated through it, as per my vows.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
   
7. “Don’t try to be original. Be simple. Be good technically, and if there is something in you, it will come out.” — Henri Matisse
   
8. “We want you to take from us. We want you, at first, to steal from us, because you can’t steal. You will take what we give you and you will put it in your own voice and that is how you will find your voice. And that is how you begin. And then one day someone will steal from you. — Francis Ford Coppola
   
9. “Everything that needs to be said has already been said, but since no one was listening, everything must be said again.” — Andre Gide
   
10. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows, Select only thing to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. — Jim Jarmusch
    
11. “I have always felt like this is so cruel to your work — to demand a regular paycheck from it, as if creativity were a government job, or a trust fund. If you can manage to live comfortably off your inspiration forever, that’s fantastic. That’s everyone’s dream, right? But don’t let that dream turn into a nightmare. Financial demands can put so much pressure on the delicacies and vagaries of inspiration. You must be smart about providing for yourself.” — Elizabeth Gilbert
    
12. “You can only write regularly if you’re willing to write badly… Accept bad writing as a way of priming the pump, a warm-up exercise that allows you to write well.” — Jennifer Egan
    
13. “Books are uniquely portable magic. If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.” — Stephen King
    
14. “Resistance will tell you anything to keep you from doing your work. It will perjure, fabricate, falsify; seduce, bully, cajole. Resistance is protean. It will assume any form if that’s what it takes to deceive you. It will reason with you like a lawyer or jam a nine-millimeter in your face like a stickup man. Resistance has no conscience. It will pledge anything to get a deal, then double-cross you as soon as your back is turned. If you take Resistance at its word, you deserve everything you get. Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.” — Steven Pressfield
    
15. What “Keep Going” did for me was it helped me establish a repetitive, repeatable daily system for producing work. Because what I was really missing in my life was some sort of method to making work all the time. — Austin Kleon
    
16. “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” — Marianne Williamson
    
17. “Everything you want is on the other side of fear. “ — Jack Canfield
    
18. Shitty first drafts. All good writers write them. This is how they end up with good second drafts and terrific third drafts. People tend to look at successful writers, writers who are getting their books published and maybe even doing well financially, and think that they sit down at their desks every morning feeling like a million dollars, feeling great about who they are and how much talent they have and what a great story they have to tell; that they take in a few deep breaths, push back their sleeves, roll their necks a few time to get all the cricks out and dive in, typing fully formed passages as fast as a court reporter. This is just a fantasy of the uninitiated. — Anne Lamott
    
19. “How we spend our days is how we spend our lives.” — Annie Dillard.
    
20. “That’s all any of us are: amateurs. We don’t live long enough to be anything else.” — Charlie Chaplin
    
21. “On the spectrum of creative work, the difference between the mediocre and good is vast. Mediocrity is, however, still on the spectrum; you can move from mediocre to good in increments. The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something.” — Clay Shirky

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years, you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.” — Ira Glass

Photo by Frame Harirak on Unsplash

Give them a gift they least expect.

Have you ever faced the dilemma of what to get your spouse for their birthday?

Have you ever wondered how to reach out to a friend you haven’t been in touch for a long time?

Have you ever faced the conundrum of encouraging someone who is going through a tough time?

Have you been feeling particularly romantic today but don’t know how to let you’re beloved know without feeling embarrassed?

Send them a love note.

Writing letters is considered old-fashioned. We have become so reliant on technology that we hardly think of writing a letter to someone when we can send them a text.

But letters are so powerful. Today, perhaps more than at any other time in history, letters make a significant impact.

There is nothing like receiving a personal, heartfelt letter from someone.

Letters are unexpected and beautiful. It might take you less than ten minutes to write, but a letter can, quite literally, change someone’s day, week, month… or life.

Here is a challenge for you, write seven letters in seven days.

The idea came to me in a newsletter, in the form of a booklet, One Letter Today, by Alexandra Franzen.

She suggested seven types of letters for seven days of the week.

1. A love letter
2. A fan letter
3. A letter to re-connect with a friend
4. A thank you letter
5. A letter delivering an apology
6. A letter containing your heartfelt advice
7. A letter to your “future self.”

You can write all 7 letters in a single day or write one letter per day for the next 7 days.

Alternatively, you can write for the next 30 days…90 days… 365 days and watch how your relationships change for good.

You can play music or write in silence. You can light a candle or sip some wine. Or both. Or not.

Create whatever type of experience you need to write.

If a particular topic or type of letter doesn’t resonate with you, skip it! Write a different type of letter instead.

Write a love letter.

It will only take you a few minutes to write a love letter.

You can write it on a beautiful piece of stationery or on a small piece of card. You can scrawl on a Post-It Note or scribble one on a notepad.

When you’re done, you can tuck it into a coat pocket or swirled it into a tiny scroll drop it onto a colleague’s desk. You put your child’s lunch box or slip it into a mailbox.

The length, format, and delivery method do not matter.

You can write a few paragraphs or a line or just three words: “I love you.”

Done.

Write a fan letter.

Choose someone whose work you love and respect. A writer, an actor, a musician, a producer, a local barista, a co-worker — doesn’t matter. Write them a fan letter.

Publish it on Medium if you like and send them a link.

Or mail them the old-fashioned way if you can find their mailing address.

What matters is you writing from the heart, saying what you need to say, and creating a positive imprint in another person’s day.

Reconnect with a friend

You have a long-time estranged friend whom you want to connect with again. Send them a letter.

Or perhaps you’d like to deepen a relationship with a new friend. Write to them.

Or maybe you should honor a treasured friend by sending a letter.

You might have hundreds of friends on social media, but none of them will come to your aid if you were in real trouble. If you want people to enhance your life, you need to connect them in a meaningful way.

A pure heartfelt note can do that.

Write a letter to say “thank you.”

Your team at work did a great job. How about thanking them with a “thank you” letter?

A friend went out of the way to help you; there is no better way to thank her than sending her a handwritten note.

Or, perhaps you’d like to say “thank you” to your soulmate, your kids, your mom or dad, or to someone who feels like a parent to you.

Write a sincere, heartfelt apology.

Have you let someone down, left someone hanging, or flaked out on, shamed, harmed, or wronged then. Write a sincere, heartfelt apology note.

Perhaps you’d like to write an apology to a family member or friend that you haven’t paid much attention to lately.

Or perhaps you’d like to apologize to a client or colleague who hasn’t been receiving your “best work” this past month.

Or maybe you want to write an apology to yourself. For speaking cruelly to yourself, like an enemy, not a friend. Or for neglecting your physical health instead of treating your body with respect.

If you need a little more guidance and inspiration, here’s an interesting website to explore.

Write a letter containing a few words of advice.

Somewhere, out there, is a human being who desperately needs your advice.

Not because you are “perfect” or “have all the answers.” Nobody does simply because you has walked the difficult path that this person is currently walking.

You’ve been there. You’ve done that. You’ve learned a few things, and you can offer a few words of guidance or reassurance as someone who is a few steps farther along.

In Japanese, the word “sensei” does not mean “expert” or “master.” It means “one who has gone before.” For someone? You are a sensei. Perhaps you’d like to give some advice to a child, a younger sibling or a family member.

Or perhaps you’d like to share your advice online in the form of a “public letter” to your blog readers or social media friends.

Maybe you have some advice to give to a friend in need. Or a colleague. Or a client. Or even to yourself. We often forget to take our own advice!

Write a letter to your “future self.”

Why not…

Write a letter to yourself one month, one year, or several years in the future. Express your hopes and dreams.

Give yourself a few important reminders. Nudge yourself to do better. Offer a few words of encouragement. Make predictions.

Or just say: “I love you.” You can give your handwritten letter to a friend and ask them to mail it back to you later.

You can bury it in a time capsule and dig it up in a year.

Or email it to yourself — in the future! — using FutureMe.org. Your FutureMe letter will be delivered to your inbox on the future date that you determine. It can be public or totally private. So cool!

So what letter are you going to write today?

Credit: This article is impaired by a tiny but amazingly inspiring booklet, One Letter Today, by Alexandra Franzen.

Need more inspiration, download it.

Photo by Lucrezia Carnelos on Unsplash

I have been writing on Medium for about ten months now. 

Once I exhausted my initial ideas I got interested to know how to create deeper and more engaging content.

I am particularly impressed with the work of Zat Rana, who has written articles that are amongst the most read on Medium. 

As I started pondering the question, as if by some serendipity, I was led to four levels of consciousness, a concept explained by Vishan Lakhiani in the book “The Code of Extraordinary Mind.”

Last week I wrote an article where I explained that at Level 1 your goals come from the culturescape. At Level 2 and 3, they come from within us but at Level 4 they come from a higher source — the Inspiration. 

Call it God, or Universe, or Supreme Being, or Higher Power, but Inspiration become our unlimited source of creation when we realize we are much more than just a body but a part of the “whole.” 

When we feel connected to every living being and become a part of the universe, Inspiration starts whispering to us. 

It talks in the form of intuition.

When you get an idea of a book in the shower, or a theory in the bathtub or a complete melody in a dream, it is not you, it is the inspiration talking to you.

You need to make sure you’re tuned in when Inspiration whispers because if you are not, it will go to someone else.

And if it finds you listening and up to the challenge, it will give you the intention (courage to act) and it will remove all the roadblocks.

That is the state you want to be as creators. 

I have covered these concepts in my previous two articles, Everything Changes When You Start Working From The Fourth Level of Consciousness and How To Make Sure You Listen To Inspiration When It Whispers.

Today I want to take them to another level.

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The concept of Being.

Eckhart Tolle, talks about a concept called “Being” in his book The Power of Now.

There is an eternal, ever-present One Life beyond the myriad of forms of life that are subject to birth and death. Many people use the word God to describe it; I often call it Being. — Eckhart Tolle

Being explains nothing, nor does the word God. But according to Eckhart Being has an advantage, it’s an open concept.

It is open because it does not reduce the infinite to a finite entity. God has been given several forms already. Each religion has given it some symbol, shape, or image. In many mythologies, God looks like humans.

But it is impossible to form a mental image of Being. Becasue “Being” is not a noun but a verb. 

So what is Being?

According to Eckhart, Being is your very presence. It is your true nature. Your own deepest self. 

It is accessible to you all the time. 

It is accessible to you now as a feeling of your own presence. Which is only a small step from the word “being” to the experience of Being.

It is a bit hard concept to understand. If you try to understand it with your logical mind you may not be able to. If you try to give it a form you will not be able to. Because Being can’t be seen it can only be felt.

That too when your mind is still and your intention is fully in the present.

Being is not only deep within but also beyond. It is in every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence.

Being is also the pathway to gain enlightenment. Enlightenment is not some superhuman accomplishment, it is simply your natural state in oneness with Being.

To regain awareness of BEING and abide in that state of feeling-realization, is enlightenment. — Eckhart Tolle

So Being is a state of connectedness with something big. Something that is essentially you and yet it is much greater than you. 

It is you your true nature beyond the name and form.

There is a connection between the concept of “Being” and the concept of “Four Levels of Consciousness.”

At the fourth level of consciousness when we feel connected to every living being and become a part of the universe, Inspiration starts whispering to us.

So when we are in the state of “Being”, we are connected to the Inspiration. 

Eckhart says it this way.

When your consciousness 

is directed outwards, mind and world arise. 

When it is directed inwards, 

it realizes its own Source

and returns home into the Unmanifested.

Eckhart goes on to explain that in this state of inner connectedness, you are much more alert, more awake, fully present. As you go more deep in this state of pure consciousness, you feel your own presence with such intensity and such joy that all thinking, all emotions, your physical body as well as the whole external world become relatively insignificant in comparison.

Yet it is not a selfish but a selfless state. It takes you beyond what you previously thought of as “your self.”

That presence is essentially you and at the same time inconceivably grater than you.

So Being is the higher state of consciousness and you can reach this state by simply incorporating a practice of focusing your attention into the Now.

By feeling your very presence. 

By connecting to your true nature. 

By connecting to your own deepest self.

By connecting to the universe. 

 — — — — — — — — — — — — 

I am going to stop here. I will be writing more on the topic. Stay tuned.

— — — — — — — — — 

If you like my work, subscribe to my newsletter A Whimsical Writer.

Last weekend, as usual, my husband brought a pile of books from the library. Our household is an avid user of the public library.

Amongst those, one book with an interesting title caught my eye. The title was:

MAKE YOUR BED

A tiny book of mere 130 pages was written by Admiral William H. McRaven, a former Navy SEAL.

How come an admiral was writing a book on making a bed? 

It is a job of a mother. A habit I have tried to install in my kids. 

The introduction to the book turned out equally interesting. 

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On May 17, 2014, Admiral William H. McRaven addressed the graduating class of the University of Texas at Austin on their commencement day.

Taking the inspiration from the university’s slogan, “What starts here changes the world,” he shared ten principles he learned during Navy Seal training that helped him overcome challenges not only in his training and long Navy career but also throughout his life.

And the first one of those was — make your bed.

Start Your Day with a Task Completed

Admiral’s argument is to start your day with a task completed as soon as you wake up. 

You may not think making a bed a task, but it is. Try leaving it unmade for a few days and you will see the untidiness it portrays. And it becomes much of a chore if you don’t do it first thing in the morning.

If you make your bed as soon as you get up, a sense of fastidiousness takes over and you already feel on top of the day. 

Admiral McRaven tells the story of when he joined the basic SEAL training in his younger days. SEAL training is the hardest military training in the world. For six months, the recruits are constantly harassed by professionally trained warriors who seek to find the weak of mind and body and eliminate them from ever becoming a Navy SEAL.

But the training also seeks to find those who can lead in an environment of constant stress, chaos, failure and hardship. 

Each morning, Admiral McRaven’s instructors, who were all Vietnam veterans, would show up in the barracks and the first thing they would inspect was recruits’ beds. 

The corners needed to be square, the covers tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard, and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack. 

It is a simple task, mundane at best. 

But why do it to such a perfection?

It might seem ridiculous, particularly in the light of the fact that they were aspiring warriors wanting to be trained in battle tactics, but there is wisdom in this simple act.

Incidentally, it is the first requirement of nursing training as well, an equally arduous profession. 

If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. By the end of the day that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right you will never do the big things right.

— Admiral William H. McRaven

In December 2003, U.S. forces captured Saddam Hussein. He was held in confinement, during which he was kept in a small room. He also slept in an Army cot but with the luxury of sheets and a blanket. 

Once a day, Admiral McRaven would visit Saddam to ensure the soldiers were properly caring for him. 

He couldn’t help notice, with some sense of amusement, that Saddam didn’t make his bed. The covers were always crumpled, at the foot of his cot and he rarely seemed inclined to straighten them.

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Admiral McRaven’s address to graduating class of the University of Texas went viral. For years he had been stopped on the street by people telling him their own stories, how they didn’t back down from the sharks, how they didn’t quit, how making their bed every morning helped them through tough times.

If by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made — that you made — and made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

So, if you want to change the world, start by making your bed.

Here is Admiral’s whole speech if you want to hear about the other lessons he learned in the basic SEAL training.

Image by Jill Wellington from Pixabay

Last week I wrote everything changes when you start working from the fourth level of consciousness, where I introduced levels of consciousness as a roadmap for growth.

At level one of consciousness, we are a part of the Culturescape. Our goals are given to us by the society, the culture that we are part of. “Get good grades.” “Get a good job.” “Become a doctor.” “Make a lot of money and live comfortably.” “Invest, build a portfolio.”

As we are achieving those goals, at some point, we start questioning society’s norms. We start questioning other people’s expectations from us, whether they are our parents or spouses, or bosses. We start questioning the religion. And we start realizing we don’t have to follow what we have been told all our life That we can choose our own experiences in life.

That is when we move to level two of consciousness. At level two, we look for a purpose for life, a way to contribute to this universe. This is when our goals come from inside us.

At level three, we discover we are a part of a greater whole. We see everyone else as part of us and everything else as part of us. We begin to see things differently to act differently to react differently and experience ourselves in a brand new way, a way that can change your life forever. We start re-coding ourselves, and we find ourselves at the fourth level of consciousness.

But we are level four; the goals are coming from a completely different place.

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The goals come from Inspiration.

Now, what is Inspiration?

You could call it God, you could call it the Universe, or you could call it your superconscious.

You think you came up with a brilliant idea for that book, or you came up with that brilliant idea for that new program, or you were the genius who came up with the idea for your business, but you did not.

You were simply the conduit.

You have a boss, and that boss has been whispering in your ear. She’s been telling you and pushing you and inspiring you to make that happen.

That is Inspiration.

And that inspiration gives you your intention.

When you start showing that you have intent to listen to it, and you’re going to start moving towards it, she removes the roadblocks.

So you don’t set goals; the goals are not coming from society, they are not coming from you, but they are whispered to you.

You hear whispers.

You have these little intuitive nudges you feel get while you are showering or waking up in the morning, and bang! An idea for that next blog post. Or an idea for that next product you have to build. The idea for the next course you want to serve. It just hits you.

This is Inspiration.

There is this really interesting story about what happens when you start listening to inspiration.

Michael Jackson would wake up at three am and call his manager, and would go, “Butterflies. Butterflies.”

The manager would say, “Michael, what the hell is going on. It’s three am.”

Michael would say, “I got this idea for a song. It’s about butterflies; I got to write it now.

Exasperated, his manager would say, “Michael, it is three am. Can this wait till tomorrow morning?

Michael would respond, “No, if I don’t write it, Prince will.”

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How to listen to the Inspiration?

Vishan Lakhiani, in his book “Code of Evolution,” states that at level four, we start feeling that we are particles of God having a human experience.

He calls humans Godicles. We are all God’s equals here on planet Earth, playing God within our own cognitive plane.

When that happens, we feel a deep sense of connectedness with all life with all human beings.

With this sense of connectedness, we open up to intuition.

What is intuition?

Intuition is one of these words that gets thrown around a lot but not many people know how to cultivate the skills to be able to hear their intuition on a daily basis. — Emily Fletcher

And if you ask any high performer CEO, any entrepreneur, how did you come up with an idea, they would say it was just my intuition. I just had this feeling in my gut.

So for many people, intuition is a sort of elusive gut thing that can be how they know something without the involvement of their critical mind.

Our left-brain critical mind is always screaming at us. I suck. I suck. I suck. And it’s very hard to hear your intuition when your critical mind screams at you because your intuition whispers. It says, write that book. Start that business. Compose that song; here is the melody.

If you don’t have a daily meditation practice that it’s very hard to tell the difference between your critical mind and your intuitive mind.

And if you’ve got this screaming, I suck. I suck. I suck voice happening all the time; how are you supposed to hear that intuitive voice?

What meditation does is that it takes our right brain to the gym every single day.

Our right brain is the piece of you that is in charge of intuition. It is the part of you that actually connects to collective intelligence.

Think of intuition and creativity as a Wi-Fi network, and your right brain is the router. Your right brain is the piece of you that allows you to connect to collective intelligence. And your left brain is the actual computer.

You could have the most developed intellect and incredible life experience, which would be like having the fanciest computer. But it doesn’t matter how good a computer is; it is no good if it is not connected to the internet.

Now, Imagine you connect that computer to the internet; how much smarter it becomes? How much more capable it becomes because you’re exchanging ideas. You’re able to intuit other people’s intellect. You’re able to hear how nature actually wants to use you to deliver your fulfillment.

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So sit in silence and tune in to Inspiration to get the intuition.

But herein lies humanity’s problem.

Blaise Pascal made huge contributions to physics and mathematics, notably in fluids, geometry, and probability. He died at the young age of 39.

Right before his death, he was hashing out fragments of private thoughts that were later released as a collection by the name of Pensées.

While the book is mostly a mathematician’s case for choosing a life of faith and belief, the more curious thing about its clear and lucid ruminations on what it means to be human.

He wrote:

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

Zat Rana, another Medium writer, wrote in an article that has got the most claps ever, wrote our aversion to solitude is really an aversion to boredom.

At its core, our addiction to TV, social media, movies, social gathering is in faction an addiction to a state of not-being-bored.

At its root is the dread of the nothingness of nothing. We can’t imagine just being rather than doing.

But according to Zat, there is a solution. The only way to beat this fear is to face it like any other fear. Face the boredom and let it take you where it wants so you can deal with whatever it is that is really going on with your sense of self.

That’s when you’ll hear yourself think, and that’s when you’ll learn to engage the parts of you that are masked by distraction.

The beauty of this is that, once you cross that initial barrier, you realize that being alone isn’t so bad. Boredom can provide its own stimulation.

When you surround yourself with moments of solitude and stillness, you become intimately familiar with your environment in a way that forced stimulation doesn’t allow. The world becomes richer, the layers start to peel back, and you see things for what they really are, in all their wholeness, in all their contradictions, and in all their unfamiliarity.

When you get to this state, you don’t just get your goals, your purpose; you get much more from the universe.

Read about any great person, whether they were spiritual leaders like Buddha, musicians, or entrepreneurs, they all followed a nudge at some point in their life.

Elon Musk woke up one day in the middle of the night with an idea on how to create a better rocket. Likewise, John Lennon got the music of his greatest song in a dream.

The Takeaway

Start understanding that there is a bigger source where you can tap, and that source is Inspiration. You can call it God, Universe, or you Superconscious.

Inspiration speaks in whispers. You need to be attuned to it to be able to listen to it.

You need regular daily meditation practice to hear the whispers of Inspiration that we call intuitions.

The hardest thing to do for humans is to sit quietly in a room, alone.

But if you can develop that practice, you will get in touch with the world within you and the whole world that we call the universe.

A big shift begins to happen then, and things shift, very, very, rapidly.

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Resources: Four Levels of Consciousness, Mindvalley

Zat Rana: The Most Important Skill Nobody Taught You

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