How Do You Show Up?

It's Monday morning. Again.

Roll out of bed, down the coffee and toast, rush out the door to sit in traffic, mull over the mind-numbing tasks and irritating people that await you, and count the hours till Friday.

Is this your life? Or some variation thereof?

Maybe you don't have a job you wake up excited to get to, or even a job that requires you to be anything more than semi-conscious and mediocre.

But this is your life. Your singular, precious life.

Let's try this again.

You wake up. Gratitude for another day, another chance to make it matter.

You know it'll be challenging, even draining at times. This is not necessarily the livelihood you would have chosen for yourself, or maybe it is, but it's not always smiles and sunshine. Point is, you suspect that what you get from it is directly impacted by what you bring to it.

But you have to prepare mindfully. Every day.

I'm in a profession that requires being "on". I have to be present for my clients and their needs. If I'm going to see a number of people in a day, I have to have physical stamina. This means eating well, being rested, leaving my 'baggage' at home, centering, stretching, and having the room all ready when my people show up.

It's not always easy. I don't always feel up to being in that role, nor am I always as prepared as I should be. But I know that even if my clients aren't aware of my half-assed-ness that day, I feel like I cheated them a little.

And cheated myself, because, well, I know damn well how lucky I am to be able to be doing what I love. I don't want to squander the opportunity that I have.

But what if you're not doing what you love? Why bother preparing as if you do? Why should you show up for the Man?

Well, again, this is your life. Maybe something better lies down the road for you, but you have a much better chance of that path revealing itself to you if you are fully present to what you're living now. That goes for whether you're the CEO of a multi-national corporation (in which case, you're reading this? Wow!) or a burger-flipper.

These hours of your life count whether you're thrilled with how you're spending them or not.

Taking time to prepare yourself can have the benefit of making your "now" more enjoyable, more effective, and more useful to you than begrudging your currently less-than-desirable circumstances.

And if you're feeling particularly altruistic, showing up intentionally goes a long way toward affecting those around you positively... even if you're not aware of it.

My livelihood (and quality of life, really) depends on 'showing up' intentionally... what would you do differently if yours did too? (...a little secret: it actually does...)

Some suggestions in my next post...

I Hate My Life

.. and is there a meridian for that?

This is a question I was asked by a client recently, one who is dealing with the fullness of life's offerings, and isn't handling it well.

As a practitioner, what does one say to such a statement?

I was in a similar situation to hers about two years ago, and while I tried to share the perspective of life on the other side of it all, we both know her circumstances do have differences, not to mention she's a different person with different resources to draw from (or not).

I did what I could in the way of continuing my shiatsu work on her, listening as I always do, and finding ways to make her laugh, which seems to end her hour with me a little more upbeat than when it started.

It's a dillemma many therapists face... walking the line(s) between what we are and are not trained to do, and whether to share our opinions as a friend might, or stay in our therapist box. Even, and especially, when we've made a freindly connection with our client, and we think we see the obvious thing to say.

I've had times where I've hated my life. Maybe many of us have. I feel somewhat grateful to have gotten to the point that I know my life is what I'm making of it. But this is not so easy to say to someone else, especially when they're in the thick of it. It was not an easy insight to bear, and while it offers ultimate freedom, you can't wish that stuff on someone who isn't ready.

In the meantime, I'll keep working on her "life-hating" meridian...