An Authenticity Movement

All good revivals start with a little doom and gloom.  Sorry.  But, I need you to hear this:  

 

We are starving for meaning.   All around us is a sea of inauthenticity.   People show up to work as someone they are supposed to be and pretend to care about a company to which they are dedicating their soul’s time.  Our “reality” TV is staged and edited to be entertaining.   Most of the food we eat is made of gluten.  What is real anymore?

We live in a world that has been stripped of substance.   We bypass pain as quickly as possible.   We cope with our day through mindless television.  We work to secure our securities.  And, we work so hard.  

We relish in the tiny moments in between when we get to go on vacation and ‘check out’ of our lives for a spell.  

We hug less often.   Eye contact has become difficult for us.   Meaningful conversations about real things – you know, those “deep” things are just too heavy.  

We are allowed to have some discourse or politically correct disagreements about politics, but in all my time in corporate America, I was never asked about the meaning of life at the water cooler.    

Somewhere along the way, the human experience has been numbed in the Novocain of conformity and idealism – but an idealism that has been sold to us through marketing, rather than what feels right in our hearts.  

But, the “big questions” don’t go away.   Instead they sit quietly waiting.   Our soul is patient, resilient, and tenacious. 

So… we cope with our world.  We check out.  We pass by.   We dissolve into routine.  We wait.   Maybe when it’s over, it will get better?  Heaven is waiting on us, right?

I think it’s time for an authenticity movement.  

 

Forget the badge you wear announcing your employment position.   Who are you?  What is the fabric of your soul?  What do you want deeply inside your being?  What do you dream about late at night?  

When is the last time you danced?  Or laughed so hard it hurt? How long has it been since you have tasted that moment when the world slows into the movie reel of perfection – when you look around you and you see the purity of joy, the warmth of love, the smiles of friends, or the laughter of children.  

When is the last time you fell on your face chasing something you believed in?  Or said what was on your mind, rather than what you were supposed to say? 

You are not your job.   You are not your social role.   You are not your position in life.   You are a thriving beacon of love and hope and joy and desire to BE what you are.   A rose is not interested in being a tulip, because she lives in a tulip field.   She is a rose.  

How about we FEEL again?

• to feel intense pain – to move into the center of our own sorrow and be real with it… to acknowledge it.  
• to feel genuine gratitude – for our blessings, our health, our children, our loved ones … to really, really sit in the space of sublime grateful thinking
• to feel loved – to let ourselves be cherished, appreciated, respected… to honor all the goodness within ourselves
• to be touched and to touch one another… to feel the wrinkles and softness in our grandmother’s hands, the aching tenderness of our mother’s hugs, the unbridled squeeze of our children’s cheeks  against our faces…

We have all been hurt.   We should be hurt when we are hurt.  

We have all been in love.   We should announce it to the world when we feel it.

We have passionate feelings about life, religion, and politics.   We should share them openly and respectfully.
We hate our jobs.   Or, we love them.   If we hate them, we should leave them.  If we love them, we should rejoice in them.  

We either live on the razor’s edge of life or we shrivel in the fear of future pain.  

Today, you are human.  You have the greatest gift the universe has ever created – to be alive and to know it.  Use this gift.  Hug a stranger.   Have a conversation with that homeless guy.  Smile at the person making your lunch.   Ask her a question about her life.   Skip.  Skip in the street.   Take in the beauty of a tree.   Breathe in life.   Breathe.   Wiggle your toes.   Smile.   Truly understand the unbelievable goodness of ice cream – what an amazing human creation!

I don’t want to know your story.   I don’t care to share mine.   This is my soul.  I am a sappy romantic.  I am a dreamer.   I am an idealist.   I am a contrarian in order to be contrary.  I am in love with love.  I am playful.  I am capable of being selfish, greedy, protective, defensive, and scared.   I am light and I am shadow.   

I am beautifully human, flawed perfectly.  

And, so are you.  

I can sit alone with myself now.   And, I like the company I am keeping.   Do you?  Can you?

I love you all.  Go be yourself today.  Be authentic.   Be real.   Say what you mean.  Share what you think you are not supposed to share.   Bravely love a stranger.   Remove your invisible personal space boundaries.   Tell your partner something that scares you.   Wake up!  You are alive.   And, as my friend Tim would say… “It’s awesome.”

Namaste,

Ryan

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  
For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com

 

 

Why am I doing this?

My body hurts.  It hurts now more than it did before I started yoga.  Apparently, I have a curvy spine.  And, a small sacrum.   Which, sounds bad to say out loud about myself, really.   Not many men would openly say this about themselves.   But, like most men, I didn’t even know what a sacrum was a year ago. 

Why am I doing this again?

I think this to myself all the time.   I think about this, and I think about the bills I need to pay.  I consider my next consulting project or speech.   I worry over the selling of my house.   I remind myself of the household duties that need more than just a good considering, but an actual cleaning or filing away.   I regret a reaction I had. 

And, then I step into yoga.   And, I stop thinking.   There is not a past.   There is not a future.   The only thing that exists between myself and this moment is my mind.   And, my mind is too busy reminding my body to breathe, move, hold, twist, or undulate.   Or feel burning.  

Our minds, the Taoists will say, are like monkeys – jumping all around in an imaginary playground of either the past or the future or the analytical now.   My mind is more like a yappy Jack Russell, I am convinced.  But the theory is all the same.   We spend a lot of time in the imaginary future that hasn’t happened.   Or we spend it in a regretful past that we cannot control.  

Sometimes, when I am meditating and my mind is monkeying around – attending to all the things I need to do or worry about, I mentally slap myself and get to the now.   I say, “that’s it.  stop.  stop all this noise!  Count to 20.”  And, then I do.   I look around.   I breathe.   I focus inward.   I count to 20.   And, while I am counting, I hear, “why are you counting?  what are you doing?  do realize that you are sitting here counting,” and I reply, “shut up. be quiet.  and count.”  And, then I do.   I count.   Somewhere along the way, the counting steps into the background and awareness emerges and takes the wheel.  

In this moment, I see everything.   The Jack Russell has stopped yapping.  I smile.  I sit in the full awareness of my soul – as my soul.   I am connected to everything.   I stand in this moment knowing that I am fully alive.  I feel peace.   And, I start to move through my world.

Ten minutes later I find myself in some imaginary future thinking about the things I need to do or worry about – the groceries  I need to buy, the upcoming event for my daughter that I need to put on the calendar.  

It’s hard to be aware and awake if you are TRYING to be aware and awake.   That’s because you are working at it.   And, that means you are engaging the mind.   See, in theory, Consciousness uses the mind like a tool.  And, when we are not awake, we are being used by the mind as a tool. 

Absolute awareness is a quiet observer.   It is not active, but is passive.   It cannot be called into being by the wants of the mind.   It exists now and always.   It is always available, but only available in stillness.   Awareness is more like a docile Lab.   

Yoga, on some level, is like counting to 20.   I remind myself to breathe.  I analyze the burning of my thighs.   I postulate how many minutes are left in the class.  Then, at some point, I stop all that mental quibbling.   And, I breathe.   I move.   I flow.   I am the Universe and all is possible in this beautiful dance with life and the perfect now. 

So… why am I doing this?  To train myself.   To train myself to spend a little more time with my true nature.   To remind my mental Jack Russell who is in charge – that relaxed, but clear eyed Labrador.    

We are all beautiful.   There is abundance everywhere.   Someone is not plotting against you or thinking bad things about you.   You didn’t say the wrong thing earlier today.   The things you fear have not happened and are not happening right now.  

So, practice finding yourself.   Find yourself any way you want.  Stop thinking about the future.   Stop thinking about the past.  Feel right now.  

Or, just count to 20 and let me know how it goes. 

Namaste! 

Ryan

 

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com

 

Get to Work!

Almost a year ago now, I left corporate America.   I was the Vice President of Human Resources for two of the largest furniture companies in the world.   I was being groomed to be an SVP of Human Resources.   I had health insurance, a ‘designer’ dog that cost at least one paycheck, and a small estate in one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in Saint Louis.  The interior of my house looked like a copy of House Beautiful and my car had heated leather seats.   I was living the American dream.     

Since then, like clockwork, my mother asks me at least once a week when I am going to “get to work.”

I thought it best to address, then, my latest work, so she doesn’t worry so much.

Lately, I have been asking people the question, “Are you happy?”  And, I have learned something about how people answer that question.  

When I asked some of my friends who are working, making great money, and “living the dream,” the answer is explanatory.   They say something like the following:

“Well, I suppose it depends on how you define happiness.  I mean, what does ‘happiness’ mean?  I have everything I want.   I like my job.   I take vacations when I want.   I enjoy my kids.   Hmmmm.     Yeah.  I guess I am happy.  I mean, it depends what you mean, right? I have moments when I am frustrated for sure.   I wish I had more time.  I wish I got along better with my partner.   I wish work wasn’t so crazy and rushed all the time.   I wish …”   

I also have a few friends who live ‘alternative’ lifestyles… those who have traded a nicer car for one that simply runs.   These friends have homes where dinner parties take place on the floor with a plate in hand, rather than on a dining room table.    When I ask them this question, the answer is always the same.   “Are you happy?”  

“Yes,” they reply. “Yes, I am happy.”

Today, I no longer work in corporate America, I don’t have health insurance (yet), I lost the dog in the divorce, and I am selling my house, because I cannot afford the mortgage.  This sounds bad, right?  But, one year ago, if you asked me if I was happy, I would have given you a long explanation to a short question.  

Today… my answer would be a very simple “yes.”  

Now, cue dramatic music…

The state of our world is in crisis on almost every measurable scale.  We are running out of oil, minerals, usable farmland, and even water.   We have 7 billion people on our planet and that number will double in my lifetime.   We are in the middle of a mass species extinction, which has been noted by biologists on every continent.   We are losing an average of 137 species every single day.   Over 50% of our existing plant life and the source for 90% of our medicines in existence today will be gone before I die.  Our food supply is made of less “food” than filler (check those labels on the back of the product).  We are quite literally poisoning our air, land, and sea – and our bodies.   

Sorry for the sour turn there, but an acknowledgement of ‘what is’ and acceptance of truth is the first step of any transformational process that has ever been – whether it’s the 12 step program or yoga or psychotherapy.  

Our Mother Earth is not well.   She is pretty darn sick.   And, the dis-ease that she is feeling is felt through everything and every person.   Our economy is failing.  Surveys of Happiness show that we are more unhappy as a country than we have ever been - EVER.   This is not coincidence.  Everything is connected.  This truth has been known and written in all the ancient Spiritual texts.   Our best science – that of quantum physics – has proven this many times over.   Everything is connected. 

What does this mean? For me, it means looking at “my truth,” acknowledging it, and doing something about it.  

The question is this:  “Is this a world that I want to live in?  Is this a world I want my daughter to inherit?”

The answer for me: “No.”  

The next question then is “What do I want to do about it?”

In my past, I would have suggested sweeping changes to legislation.  I would have railed on the corruption of government.  I would have slapped the water bottle out of your hand and educated you on the commoditization of water and the waste of resources required to make that single bottle of water.  

As Einstein said, though, we cannot change any problem with the same thinking that created it.   And, fighting fire with fire only makes a bigger fire. 

As Martin Luther King said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction....The chain reaction of evil -- hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars --must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.”

The world does not need more activism.   The world needs more love.   It needs peace.   It needs teachers to demonstrate a new way to live through a new vibration.  

The best of our science has proven that we are all connected.   Every thought and every belief we hold creates a frequency that we broadcast like a radio station.  The only way that we will change the music is to change ourselves.   

After leaving corporate America, I immersed myself in myself.  I took a sabbatical from life and absorbed myself in the readings of the Ancient truths found in the sacred doctrines – that you, too, may find in your spiritual book of choosing.   I began a daily practice of yoga and started to observe my own thoughts.   I began to meditate.  I began to write again.  I began to feel again.    

For me, I realize that what we are doing as a society is not working.  And, if I choose to get up, go to work, and help produce more sofas, I do not change anything.   I may live in a better house or drive a nicer car, but at what expense?  My daughter will be the one to inherit a very sick world and perhaps worse, an unhappy dad. 

Happiness exists inside of us.   It is felt when we come into alignment with ourselves.  And, when I am unhappy, I impact not just myself, but you too.  

I can no longer pretend to be someone that I am not in the name of having “things” that I don’t really care to have.   For me, this is my truth.   This is my heart song.   Today, my vibration has changed.  

This time period is critical.   We are at a tipping point.   What you can do now is to live your purpose.   Live your truth.   Give love.   Live from your heart.   Be authentic.   Be honest.   Move toward your vibration.   Dance to your rhythm rather than the expectations of others.  

When you open yourself to yourself, you open to your inner Divinity, and God will flow into you and pave the way.   Grace will come swiftly and free you from guilt, resent, regret…  You will stand confident in your truth and in the warmth of self-love.   This will enable you to see with different eyes and the world will literally change right in front of you. 

Be the change you want to see.   Change the world, by changing yourself.  

SO… As my mom would say:  Get to work!  

Namaste,
Ryan

Dr. Ryan Pride is the owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and leadership development.   A profit-for-purpose company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in order to transform striving into thriving.  

For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com