There is such a powerful message shared in Sasha's words below, and it is shared through one of his routine activities, which I love. I too do a dog walk every afternoon and I use it not only to break up my work day and get some exercise, but also to gauge my mindfulness. What I mean - some days I notice I am sluggish and move slowly, other days I feel more stressed and am tugging on their leashes to keep moving so I can get onto the next thing on the agenda... but most days I use the 30 minute walk to focus on simply being conscious and present. This looks like taking a moment to pause and look up at the cloud formations, or taking a few deep breaths as my dogs stop at a hydrant, or sometimes I take a few minutes to have a short conversation with another fellow dog walker. There is definitely something beautiful in discovering new little gems in even the same routines I do each day, and in doing so, it inspires me to be more present, attentive, and even grateful in other areas of my life too. Thank you, Sasha.

- Amanda

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I love that Sasha brings to light this approach for setting oneself up for success. It had me think of my meditation practice in the morning. It takes maybe 10 minutes, and sometimes I brush past it because I think I do not have the time and just fall into the first "to-do". When in reality, my mindfulness practice doesn't actually "take time," it makes time ... because I am getting myself into a valuable position for the day. This is true in the physical sense in that I focus on relaxing each part of the body, and also of course in the mental and emotional sense as I take deep breaths in and ease the mind of any toxic lingering thoughts or anxieties that may interfere with upcoming tasks/events. Often those ten minutes make a bigger difference for the subsequent hours of the day ahead than I initially realize, allowing for higher quality work and a more connected presence with those around me.

- Amanda

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After reading this piece, I don’t think I have too much to say to introduce it besides.. YES!

Thank you Sasha for the hopefulness and encouragement that is finely planted in your words. Your writing is positively captivating and I love the beautiful symbolism woven through as well.

I hope you all enjoy this one as much as I did. Have a wonderful weekend everyone

- Amanda

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When Francesca and I were dating, we agreed we definitely wanted to have kids. Then when we got married, it was a mystery how anybody had the time. Don’t you basically spend every waking moment taking care of them, and then planning for them when you aren’t together? What about, well, other important stuff?

Now that we have them (and are so very happy we did) I’m still not sure how everything that gets done in a day gets done. But somehow, as Sasha writes, we figured out how to make the time for the essential without adding hours to the day.

- Corey

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I dig the thought: in times of changing tides

One word of thanks can make the spirits rise.

Sometimes I’ve missed the chance to say it plain,

So thank YOU, Sasha, sharing once again.

- Corey

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Sasha's blog below is a wonderful portrayal of all the good that has come out of this pandemic. Honing in on the silver linings is surely what has kept me motivated during this time. And I appreciate him taking the time to actually write them out; I think the act of writing is a powerful tool for sculpting the beauties to come alive in a more tangible way. That way, we can look back at the words and be reminded of the new doors that had opened even amidst a global crisis.

Sasha, thank you for sharing this. And huge congrats on the newest member of the family. She is so cute ... what a perfect time for some extra puppy lovin' !

- Amanda

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I think of collective consciousness and collective compassion and perhaps a yang imbalance to the individual, our “privacy” and “democracy” when it goes awry to only voting on near term impacts/promises and with media so so ingrained.

Where governments can step in and gain high compliance rates using their greater (hopefully benevolent) authority the speed of change is so much swifter… our individual freedom and sense of independence seems to be collapsing it and, as our friend Irwin suggests, we have a chance to see how our “individual” freedom is interdependent on so many. (I am not at all confident in our specific culture in the USA to swiftly adjust widely).

- Pip

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A week ago, I felt ahead of the coronavirus curve. Our town had closed schools as of the prior Sunday night, so our kids were already at home. Our community had started social distancing and I was already staying home from work. Meanwhile, the rest of the country, and most of the rest of the world, was going about business as usual.

What a difference a week makes.

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From dear dear friends (really family at essence) in South Korea who have been in their small apartment w two kids Well they have been out only for 60 minutes a week in the park for the past seven weeks. And she will give birth to her third!

We do adjust. She sounded well.

It takes a lot to put this back in the bottle. To full stop its existence without it popping back up may well be a process that eventually has us see deeply our interdependence and community here in the US. There are a lot of growingly conscious understandings of interdependence and our impermanence.

Pip

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I can very much relate to these theories from Sasha; I walk to my internship every morning, and because I have to be there at a rather early hour, I've always found it best to wake up as late as possible to maximize sleep time.. which in turn means that sometimes just hitting snooze one or two times (maybe 4..) means I am behind three minutes. And then, I'm forced to make up for that time by speed walking and sometimes even spilling some coffee :) I feel disheveled, which is never a great way to start the day. This piece below makes me reflect on my own priorities and consider how they can be revamped to make my mornings (and hopefully days!) a bit less urgent, and more pleasant. Thank you, Sasha.

- Amanda

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This week a good friend of mine texted me late at night asking if I could talk with her. She had experienced an unfortunate event recently, and I knew right away it had to do with that. I was in the midst of multi-tasking and was working on getting an assignment done before the 11:59pm deadline, and so with so much on my mind, I had a feeling I wouldn't be able to give her the best advice and share my thoughts/ideas as I would have liked. But I picked up the phone anyway and I just listened to her. She vented for a bit, and I acknowledged her feelings without directing her to think or feel a different way.

I was actually taken by surprise by how impactful the conversation was. By asking questions and not pushing her in any sort of direction or telling her how I thought she should handle it, she was able to navigate through her own emotions and feel better about the situation afterwards. This whole incident reminded me of Sasha's blog on advice that he wrote about a year ago. Sometimes just being there and being active listeners is all someone needs to get unstuck and keep the decision-making in their own hearts and minds. Thanks Sasha!

- Amanda

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A long long time ago (perhaps in 1996 or so) I asked one of my coaches if he preferred to work with certain people more because of the potential ripple effect that perhaps working with a CEO of a company as compared with a small shop owner and I was really surprised by his answer. He was indifferent between the two. To be clear, he wasn’t indifferent to working/helping or not. He wanted to work and help. He was indifferent as to who he was helping. This was at odds with my notions of “making the BIGGEST difference I can” which was I think burned into my software.

He wasn’t comparing potential “ripples”.

He wasn’t hooked by “scaling”.

Sometime not long after that rich discussion I started to get suspicious of “scaling”. I would hear Silicon Valley dismiss ANYTHING that couldn’t “scale”. I could hear humans at times “de-humanized” even by those aiming to “Save The World”. Maybe – ironically – particularly by those aiming to “Save The World”. I thought that the “grandness” of a “Save the World” mindset could seduce me in to a waaaaaaay false importance of ME and essentially become one of those who might dismiss the cumulative benefit of maybe each of seven billion people just doing a couple nice things for a couple other people each day and nothing more and see where appreciating that “every ‘LITTLE’ thing matters IS the BIG thing” re-orientation.

Thank you Sasha for elevating making a difference to “just” ONE other human… maybe we will get rid of the “just” in that phrase one day as we see more so that maybe moment to moment there is that one person in front of us…

Cheers… pip

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I have realized lately more so than ever that I have been feeling somewhat confined in an obstructive and restricting mindset that has been hurting my self-esteem. My boyfriend Chad has always been so supportive in helping me to break free from the boundaries I create. So ALSO lately, more so than ever, I have been actually listening to the kind words he speaks to my soul - and rather than my thoughts responding back with, "He's probably just saying that because he's my boyfriend and wants to lift my spirits," I try to think.. to truly believe that .. "Maybe he's right about that." Thank you, Sasha. I found this piece so relatable and emotionally moving.

- Amanda

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This piece reminds me of my frequent 20-minute speed walks to classes each day. I only recently starting viewing those speed walks as a form of exercise and stress-relief in itself. I don't break a huge sweat and no fitness machines are involved, yet I always feel more energetic and rejuvenated afterwards. And I think it's really wonderful to find the joys and satisfactions in these not-so-perfect experiences or practices, just like you did Sasha. Thank you.

- Amanda

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This Thursday holds one of the last official sessions I will have with a wonderful life coach I've had the last six months. Looking back on this journey with her, I realized one of the most powerful acts/habits she inspired me to undertake was to attach specific dates to ALL of my goals. Every time I completed a form stating my upcoming goals, and every time we closed out our calls with next steps moving forward, I had to be sure I included the intended date for completion of my next planned goal(s). For example, "I am able to get 4-5 productive workouts in per week by January 1st, 2019." Or "I am able to speak much more kindly to myself by December 15, 2018." Or, "By our next call, I will have taken two relaxing day trips!" My life coach always helped me exercise the muscle of accountability with practice with tying dates to everything. My goals became far more real doing so. Thank you Sasha for reminding me of what I find to be a truly significant and meaningful practice.

- Amanda

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One of the best habits of mine is I let even the smallest things bring me joy and elevate my mood. One of the worst habits of mine is I let the smallest things bring me down or make me feel like I'm sinking in endless negative or fearful thoughts about the future. As a senior with the most hectic class schedule I've ever had, this blog reminded me to not let setbacks, downfalls, or disturbances feel permanent. Circumstances and problems eventually change and get better, even when I least expect. Thank you Sasha for reminding me of the beauty and possibility of change :)

- Amanda

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I read this blog a few days ago, and then again today before taking the GRE exam. I thankfully got the scores I needed to after a long trauma-inducing five hours. And so... Sasha - I was sure to, simply in honor of the sincerity of your blog, whip open a pint of Haagen-Dazs ice-cream afterwards for the sole reason of basking in this academic leap I made after quite some dedicated studying. That was really the only reason I ate it! Ok but really, this blog really speaks to me, and it reminds me to keep on loving and accepting the ups and downs of this crazy journey, rather than seeking out the destinations. Thank you Sasha... what a gracious and memorable perspective you share.

- Amanda

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