I feel like I’ve been writing a lot about time this year. While that is not quite true, I have mentioned “time” in 419 posts on the blog so far.

Time is so interesting! I am often asked how much I fit into one day. And then I think about Oprah and how much she can fit into her day. The more I explore the concept of time, the more it fascinates me.

Time is a human-made up construct and we all follow it. What would happen if the concept of time ceased to exist? Would we finally listen to our bodies and nature instead looking at our phones or TVs for the time to help us decide whether we should go to bed or eat? Was the concept of time one of the biggest drivers to separate us from our own biology and Mother Earth?

Time flies for certain activities and drags on for others. How did people measure time before? Was it in line with the sunrise and sunset or was it based on how long it took to wash laundry vs. feed the chickens?

If certain activities take “longer” than others to do, can we play with this concept and collapse or expand time?

Can something as fundamental as time be reimagined?

An ability we all need to grow is asking ourselves hard questions. And if we can’t ask them of ourselves, then we’ve got to find people who we trust to ask us and to hold the space and accountability for us to truthfully answer those questions.

Breaking through barriers means we are doing things we have never done before, and those things have been surrounded by walls that said we shall not pass. And frankly, we will not pass through those walls by thinking, saying and doing the same things we have always done.

The discomfort of the hard questions is part of the price we pay to get to the other side.

This is something I have enjoyed doing as it has gotten me through many walls and will help me to break down more. I don’t think discomfort is a bad thing. We’ve got to get at least a little uncomfortable to become the next version of ourselves. I mean, a caterpillar completely dissolves into some sort of goo before reassembling into a butterfly.

Ask yourself the hard questions (or have me do it) and become that butterfly.

As we are on the tail end of another school year, I am once again astounded at how time passes so seemingly quickly.

There is nothing more sure than the seconds rolling by, and because it is a constant, the passing of time gets pushed into the background, out of our peripheral awareness.

We think – time is not something we can control nor change so why pay any attention?

Paying attention to each second gone would mean that we would have to recognize our mortality, that we would have to recognize we are on a deadline (i.e., our last day) and that we should get moving because we cannot pull back those seconds as the sand falls to the bottom of the hourglass.

In this recognition, we can either become overwhelmed and disempowered or motivated and completely empowered.

We are conditioned to put our head into the sand when we get overwhelmed and just to keep moving through the motions of each day and in this case, further allowing time to pass without recognition or awareness.

It is really only in pulling our heads out, recognizing it, that we can start to finally live in alignment.

However, recognition is a balancing act. While we cannot live in a place of ignoring time, we also cannot dwell on the loss of time because that takes us into a mindset of fear, regret and scarcity.

What does that mean then?

That means we have to live in the present.

It is funny when the liminal space is actually right now. We are always in a state of transition. Perhaps that is why balancing ourselves in this space is one of life’s greatest challenges.

Maybe who we are never changes.

Maybe it is the environment that allows or does not allow for us to comfortably and wholly express our true selves. Our environment is what we are immersed in all around us – our home and families, our workplace, our community, our friends, our city or town, our country, etc.

And if that environment was not allowing from the very start, we may find ourselves for the first time much later in our lives.

I have listened to the full soundtrack to The Greatest Showman 3-4 times today (#slightlyobsessed). In fact, I’m listening to it as I type.

While singing and dancing in my seat all day, I realized what I really want right now is to gather with some friends and belt out a few musical soundtracks. There doesn’t even have to be much talking, just using our voices and bodies to bring this music to life.

One of my most memorable evenings spent with a couple of my cousins was when we got together and imperfectly harmonized some songs from Rent.

It feels somewhat impossible to bring my idea to life and find time and space to gather and sing. At least that is what part of my brain is telling me. But really, it can be as simple as sending a text, opening up my basement to a few people and just sing.

When did creating art together become so infrequent, so optional? When in fact, art is not an option to our souls. It is what our souls yearn for. It is essential to our thriving.

What does your soul really want right now?

My pledge is to figure out how to make this musical night happen some time over the next few weeks. I’ll report back.

In an online discussion over the weekend, my cohort and I were talking about limiting beliefs. Someone mentioned how they are a positive person and still have challenges with limiting beliefs.

I pointed out – those two things are mutually exclusive.

Just because someone is a positive person does not mean that they don’t have limiting beliefs.

I think there is a misconception that positivity is a panacea to personal growth.

Don’t get me wrong. I am a glass half-full, find the silver lining, make the best of a situation kind-of person.

But positivity can’t solve it all.

There is absolutely a time and place for positivity. And yet, at a certain point, we can start gaslighting ourselves with our positivity because we are not dealing with the root issue.

The roots for limiting beliefs can run pretty deep in our subconscious. They most often require more than silver linings, positive thoughts and affirmations.

I also shared some thoughts on this video on my YouTube channel if you were interested in hearing more. Then let me know what you think about positivity and limiting thoughts!

The other day, my five year old asked why we need money.

I shared that money was created as a universal way to trade, and how back in the day, if we had eggs and our neighbor had vegetables, we’d trade some eggs for some vegetables. And now, instead of eggs, we have money.

I have no idea if this is actually true, but it made sense to me. (Hopefully, my kids don’t fact check me in the future.)

What I found most fascinating with this exchange was that I did not get totally tripped up trying to answer it. I have a funny relationship with money, and I’ve been actively healing it for the last three years. If I was asked this question four years ago, I am pretty sure I would have gotten flustered and made up something that would reflect a victim mindset about money.

There is no shame in having a less-than-whole relationship with money because we grow up with adults who have funny relationships with money. Just know – our relationship with money is heal-able!

Art is the meeting of mind, body and heart. The existence of art relies on the collaboration of all three. Nothing can dominate over the others or the imbalance will shift the art into a mere exercise.

Whole body dancing would be reduced to movement on command.

Full lung-ed singing would turn into noise.

Hands to keyboard typing an inspired story devolves to empty tapping.

However, art starts as mere exercise. It is the practice of bringing together mind, body and heart over and over again that we can finally actually create our art.

Hiding is a choice.

A choice means that there are alternatives.

When we hide from something, it may not feel like it’s a choice because every fiber of our being believes otherwise.

It was not always this way.

When we were infants, there was no hiding. Hiding from others would have meant the end of us. Humans are meant to be seen and heard, and our lives depended on that. At some point, that changed and hiding turned into our survival mechanism.

Our job now is to make it safe again for us to be seen and heard.

I’ve been in a state of minor floundering the past couple of weeks. Whenever I’m in doubt or a state of limbo, I pull out a paper or open a document and start writing. It doesn’t matter what I say as long as I don’t leave anything unsaid. While spelling and grammar are important to me, they aren’t necessary when brain dumping into a very, very rough first draft.

Rough first drafts are how life is made. 

If we are afraid to write something poorly (especially something that no one will see!), how are we to go about life? Our comfort in creating our art imperfectly is a reflection to how comfortable we are in creating our life imperfectly. 

We’ve got to rid ourselves of this perfectionism that plagues our soul and society as a whole. It does not serve us and never will.

Each moment is a moment to rewrite, to revise, to recreate.

If we are afraid of making mistakes, we will miss out on the entirety of life because mistakes are part of life’s magic. 

So much that is good comes from the unexpected situations that mistakes and imperfection give us.

Second drafts only come after rough first drafts.

World changing theories come from incomplete and incorrect ones. 

A better iteration of a product can only come from a worser prior iteration. 

Creating is a non-negotiable for me and something I recommend to my clients. Of course, my preferred medium is writing, and it is one that I find universally beneficial, whether you consider yourself a “good” writer or not.

If you are looking to release some of those perfectionist tendencies, write that rough first draft. And then let me know how it went.