“The art of living lies less in eliminating our troubles than in growing with them.” -Bernard Baruch

Here are the facts that I  am working to reconcile: first I have never been as clear and confident about what I have to offer the world as I am in these days and second as good as it feels to embrace the vision, the weight of the responsibility has been a little debilitating. As I was interviewing a potential candidate for the new leadership position at Good Clean Love, he commented, “That is a lot of responsibility on your shoulders…”

It was an epiphany that made me laugh and sigh over all the shoulder and neck pain that has followed me over the last week. Where is the meeting point of the mind and body? How do I translate my positive mindset about the sweeping changes going on around me into a healthy physical embodiment?

One answer to the question came to me as I sat with the other moms at my son’s basketball game. I was trying to combine watching, cheering and texting. They reminded me that the quickest way to do many things is to do only one thing at a time. Learning and practicing focused attention is the sane response to an over-committed life. Even as unskilled as I am in this intention I know that it is true that my results are faster and better at everything I do when I only do one thing at a time.

The clarity and positive outlook I have developed over the last year has been the result of studied practice, deliberate discipline and consistent intention in how I think. Extending this practice into living mindfully in my body seems the logical next step.  If I really want to reconcile my body and mind experience, then I have to listen and respond to my physical cues with the same discipline and intention as I do my thoughts.

There is nothing to gain from carrying the world on your shoulders. Over and over, I realize it is not what we do, but how we do it that makes life worthwhile.