remembering who you are

the art of remembering yourself — of feeling into the embodied, lived sense of yourself, that deep resonance inside your body, heart, and psyche — is an inward journey and personal practice that one must deliberately seek every day.

this year, as I’ve been living-traveling in six countries over seven months, surrounded by different cultures, languages, environments, and people, sometimes I feel, for lack of better word… completely schizophrenic.

five weeks ago, I was living a monastic life in my red tatami mat room in the countryside of Japan. now I’m drunk off of sugar, coffee, intense gelato in the heat of an indulgent Italian summer. both are true versions of me. I cannot deny either — the side that seeks intensity and passion, nor the side that seeks solitude and repose.

but is there a core essence? is there a continuity within me that flows — even as all the other elements are changing?

what things bring me closer to myself, when the very essence of myself feels fluid?

perhaps it’s not remembering ONE self, but making space for a multiplicity of selves, and finding practices that bring you into the center of each self; each facet of the self.

I’m making an ongoing list of practices, which are simply different ways of being:

• any form of expression & creation — as a way of SEEING the world.

• deep intellectual & artistic engagement (with ideas, books, languages, cultural artifacts) — as a way of engaging with the world.

• contemplative introspection

• being in my body

• conversations with my intuition

• deep connection with people (friends, clients)

• tending to my garden & web house

in each country I live, I feel like I’m letting go of myself — and then, finding myself again. finding that which reminds me of myself — including that which are new ways of being. a continual rebirth and transformation, each time.

(perhaps, I can also create a toolbox? a series of notes, messages, journal entries, letters to myself? I am thinking that could be a good project. TBD).