Take an R-Day

When was the last time you scheduled a day just for you? How often do you honor yourself by doing what truly gives you bliss?

I dare say most of us do a pretty lousy job in this arena. We put off personal celebration, telling ourselves that we’ll take some time off when “we’re done.” The challenge is that we’re never done: emails continue to flow, phones continue to ring, and there’s a never-ending demand to complete a task and move on to the next. And the celebration is postponed indefinitely, or so it seems…

But celebrating is critical for personal fulfillment, which is why Rejuvenation Days, or R-Days, are so important. An R-Day is a day or block of time (R-Time) consciously set aside for nurturing your body, mind and spirit. These brief periods of joyful, spiritual nourishment transform your life perspective.

On our Impossible Journeys, we often overextend ourselves, depleting our physical and mental reserves, eventually leading to varying levels of burn out. R-Time miraculously cultivates greater levels of energy and enjoyment for even the most mundane undertakings.

Taking R-Days will unleash your passions by reconnecting with a remote part of yourself—an area buried by years of responsibilities and self-sacrifices. Even if you are intensely enthusiastic about what you do professionally, scheduled time away from work only adds to your drive. Sometimes the best way to stay on track is to periodically diverge from the trail.

We limit R-Time by telling ourselves that we haven’t earned it and/or are not worthy. Yet rejoicing in special moments at scheduled and arbitrary points during the day can give us a higher degree of self-worth. Taking R-Time is a decision to play, void of any work- or home-related concerns. In this sacred space, magical healing occurs through recovery and renewal. What could daily celebrations add to your life?

For those still chanting the mantra of “I don’t have time”—yes, you do. Sometimes demanding schedules prohibit an entire day or afternoon for energizing the soul, but you can always take an R-Hour. Pulling yourself away from work and engaging in an hour of play can sometimes be sufficient. You can’t afford not to take R-Days. In many ways, this cherished time becomes the lifeblood of your passion. Also, there’s a working theory that says the more R-Time you take, the more productive and fulfilled you become. (Care to put this theory to the test?)

My R-Days usually lead me on a hike through the woods, a writing adventure in a café or an exploratory journey through someone else’s words. (Or playing with Yoda, of course.)

Where will your R-Days take you?

Happy Journeys!
Scott Jeffrey

Divine Timeline

Things never seem to work out as planned … at least, not how we planned them.

Even the best-laid plans get derailed. We set objectives and chart our course, but our deadlines pass with our goals frequently unmet. This usually causes desire to falter and passion to dissipate. What was once an exciting opportunity mutates into a frustrating blockade.

Much of this aggravation can be alleviated by an often overlooked, subtle yet powerful element of the attainment process. With this elusive principle we detach from outcomes, especially in reference to time. This spiritual concept contains profound wisdom shrouded in mystery: How can you be clear about what you want and effortlessly restrain yourself from wanting it immediately?

Living in a culture of immediate gratification, patience and trust are obscure virtues. High-speed Internet connections are sluggish, microwave ovens are time-consuming, and our professional aspirations crawl toward completion. But learning the gift of your divine timeline can alter your need for haste—whether you’re a mother of five or a chief executive.

Deadlines stimulate a sense of urgency, curb procrastination, and provide a tool for measuring progress. Deadlines instill focus, inspire creativity and guide decision-making. Deadlines are important.

Visualize a deadline as a straight line—with you at point A and your objective at point B. Most of us believe that this line is finite, starting where you are and ending at your deadline. In truth, the line is infinite (without beginning or end), filled with unforeseen bumps, twists and loops over the horizon. (So the line isn’t actually straight.) This ceaseless pathway is your life adventure, and a deadline is simply an arbitrary point along your obstacle-ridden Journey. This road ahead requires trust in Divine guidance because these unexpected curves and challenges are always around the bend.

Trusting in a Divine timeline requires a belief that you are being guided, having faith in God and in Divine creation. You are here to serve a purpose (even if you’re not 100% certain what that purpose is.) Operating on faith, you can eradicate worry from your life. If you know things happen in their own time, what is there to worry about? Worry is a feeble attempt to control situations, putting negative energy on something that is beyond our control.

Periodically remind yourself that things find their way. I was once fearful of this principle because I thought it might cause complacency and enervation. (As the argument goes, if things are meant to be, then why get off the couch? Which gets us into the sticky, predetermined destiny vs. free will debate. That’s for a later discussion.) Avoid this trap. It’s simply not true. When you connect with your Divine guidance, you find a renewed vigor to tackle greater personal challenges and expand your territory. You still have to do the work, but knowing that everything is divinely planned takes the pressure off. Your adventure will reach the next enchanting gateway, but you don’t need to know when.

Simply trust and do what you know to do.

Happy Journeys!
Scott Jeffrey

Inside a Bigger Box

“Think outside the box.” The phrase has been so overused that it was recently used as a punch line in a television commercial. The concept behind the phrase seems to have merit: We normally think in certain patterns, but to be creative we need to think in diverse, chaotic patterns. True.

However, this antiquated phrase is still inaccurate. Thinking “outside the box” is literally and figuratively impossible. Here’s why:

An individual’s thought process is a magnificent blend of beliefs, rules, experiences and intuition that shape ideas and each person’s personal reality. Since each of us has unique beliefs, rules, experiences and intuitive senses, we each have a distinctive thought process, otherwise called our box. In order to think “outside” our box we need to shift one or more elements of thought. The result of this shift is a “new” concept different from how we, and perhaps others, perceive things.

But this new idea is not “outside the box.” As a result of this new pattern of thinking, your box expands, giving you a much larger telescope with which to view the world. With a larger vision, you can capitalize on numerous opportunities that did not exist in your smaller worldview. A bigger box doesn’t just affect you—it has a way of improving the lives of people you know and even those you don’t.

New ideas can enlarge your sphere of influence and transform your world. A single nugget of information combined with an existing concept can spark an empire. A seed planted from something you read in an enlightening, non-fiction book or in an elegantly written work of fiction can change all the rules. Something you notice in a magazine or see in a movie can start the launch sequence.

You may not know it when the idea invites itself into your psyche. This mystical creature may percolate in the inner tomb of your mind, dancing aimlessly for endless hours in a room of normalcy … until it’s his time to be heard. Or the idea can collide with you, sending an electrical torpedo through your nervous system and out the top of your head. You are fully aware when these thoughts strike because they have a way of keeping you up at night (whether you want them to or not.) The application of this idea may be presently unknown, but you’re certain things will never be the same again.

Either way, when this occurs your box is forever expanded. You can’t go back. And why would you? You can now handle a level of problems that was once incomprehensible. The more your box grows, the easier it is for you to tackle any challenge.

How do you expand your box? With a beginner’s mind, continually ask questions and seek out the answers. (And remember to avoid the single, most deadly phrase: I don’t know.)

The ultimate box—the universe—is expanding at the speed of light. How fast are you growing?

Happy Journeys!
Scott Jeffrey