How to Remember

You already know everything you need to know to be the person you want to be in the world. Really. I believe that about you. I believe that about me, too. I also believe we keep forgetting to what we know, keep forgetting live from our deepest values, and that we all need help remembering.

In this time of holiday grace, in this time of strife in the world, in this time of desperate need for peace and clarity, I offer you a "cheat sheet" of thoughts and practices for remembering all that you are and cultivating all that you are becoming.

Remember to stand by your deepest knowing
Become a curious apprentice of your own life. Be willing to keep your eyes gently, compassionately open to yourself even when you just yelled at the kids or spent two hours channel surfing .
Listen carefully to the twitch in your back, the pang in your stomach, the depth charge in your headache. What is it trying to tell you?
Offer yourself and others the rite of forgiveness. Daily.
Inquire, "What would I be willing to die for?"

Remember to plant your life in gratitude
Become a miracle detective. Spot one or create one every day.
Lean across the breakfast table and say, "I'm grateful you made these muffins. They taste like love to me." Yes, this even works at business meeting. Lean across the conference table and say, "I’m grateful for your ideas. I think they’ll make a difference."
For every complaint you launch into the world, counter it with an action of gratitude.
Inquire, "What message am I beaming out at the universe? What is being reflected back to me?"

Remember to discern the pattern of your life and give it breathing room to teach you
Be willing to stand up and demand to be counted – by voting, by making requests, by expressing your values.
Declare the future you want and realize that to create it, you must be open to learning whatever it is you need to bring what is inside you into the world – whether that skill is welding, negotiating a pay raise, or standing in your own power.
Let the pieces of your ego be chipped away until, naked, you can look those you love in the eye without blushing.
Inquire, "What is the one thing I am willing to know about my life right now?"

Remember how to carry your bundle of sorrows without shattering into useless fragments beneath their weight
Breathe into the whole of your rambling, precious life and let it run through you, refusing to sip the sweet with a thimble and gulp the sour with a bucket.
Recount all the ways one person can make a difference in the world and stake your claim to making your difference.
Inquire, "How can I create meaning from this moment, this suffering, this pain?"

Remember to feast on your life and offer your heart to yourself
Read poetry and dance to ecstatic music when you want to eat cookies and gobble reality TV.
Accept that straying from the path and forgetting is always part of the path.
Throw your arms around yourself every day and say, "I'm so glad to meet you."
Remember, each day, that you always have a choice, you always have an option.
Inquire, "What would I do if I knew I could not fail?"

May we continue to remember and help each other to remember.