Take A Walk With Nick

Hey, f around the block with me. Maybe you want to hang out where you are. Maybe you're in your kitchen, maybe you're having some coffee. Whatever you're doing, just listen up for a minute and see if any of this resonates with you. These are just some. Some thoughts I have, some things I've been thinking about, and maybe some of it will resonate with you. So the first is to choose joy as much as possible. So maybe that's just 1% more today, you know, than yesterday. Maybe it's just that, that subtle shift.

A really cool expression I like is from Tom Evans, who's a meditation teacher, and he says, only act if it makes you joyful and only do what fills others with joy. And so I want to preface this all by saying that these are things that I'm practicing, and so I'm by no means doing any of these perfectly. I often am not joyful, you know, and so these are just things that we can move towards. And that might, you know, that one little nugget that might really shift things. So another one is I surrender to life.

I think this is a really powerful mantra. And so we all have our daily roller coaster ride. Hey, Katri. Thank you. I know that the shirt is solid. Thanks for hopping on the live stream and just talking about joy and the power of joy and the power of choosing joy. And this certainly is a joyful shirt. And my next thought is on surrendering to life. I surrender to life. What a powerful mantra, right? And we all have our daily roller coaster ride, right? Where we're going up and down. And if you're anything like me, I'm scared of roller coasters.

I'm. When I'm on a roller coaster, I'm just, ah, very, very frightened, you know? And, but what about those people who just let go and they're laughing and having an amazing time because it really is more fun when we just let go and enjoy. And once again, I find it very difficult to just fully let go. But if I can practice doing it just even a little bit, I can have tremendous, tremendous results from that. So my next thought is this. And it's kind of a mantra, heavy day. So this one says, relax.

The entire power of the universe is always with you, so just. Just relax, you know? And it doesn't mean that we're not going to do our work and take care of our commitments and responsibilities. But instead of trying really hard, what if you were to try easy, what if you were to. As the bassist Victor wooten, in his book the Music lesson has this amazing thing about trying easy. And so it's not about not trying, but it's about taking maybe some of that emotional intensity out of it and doing your thing, but not being so, like, I've got to do it.

I remember when I was twelve, I had a tennis coach. It wasn't you at that time, Luke. It was Craig Gordon. And he said, you just, you try too hard, you know? And I was out there, and I wanted to win so bad, and I wanted to make the shots so bad, and I would get so nervous, you know, and that could still happen to me today, you know? So to just try easy and to practice this relaxation in any way, a way that I practice it is walking, you know, around the block, looking at nature, you know, any way that you can get relaxed.

You look at the best golfers out there. They're so relaxed when they're hitting the ball. When I'm hitting the golf ball, I'm tense as a railroad rod. Try easy, Luke. Yes. I think you're an amazing example of trying easy. We're doing our thing, right? But we're having fun while we're doing it. And when we do this, we sometimes find the path of least resistance. Now, if you're anything like me, I will oftentimes go on the path of the most difficult resistance. You know, I will create a problem that's not there.

You know, whatever it is, I, you know, it's like I will take the path to the most difficult resistance. And so the path of the least resistance is, once again, I don't think it's about being lazy. Cause you might have to work even harder on that path, but it will feel more fun. Right. And smiling is gonna help. Is gonna help everything, you know, on this path. So these ideas, some of them are pretty esoteric, meaning they're a little bit out there. And so just if any of them, you know, thank you, Luke.

You know, if any of them resonate with you, just kind of see if you can go with them and give it a try. Right. It's like our friend James used to say, you know, catch it. Or like that great movie, catch. Catch me if you can. Catch it if you can. Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks. Directed by Steven Spielberg. Definitely check that one out. This is not a movie review, though. This is some thoughts. So another one I'm going to just introduce to a little bit here is the law of attraction. And we've all heard about the law of attraction, and it seems very illusive, but this is kind of like almost an intro to it.

And there's this awesome teacher called Bob Proctor, and in the book, the secret, he says, life can be absolutely phenomenal, and it should be, and it will be when you start using the secret. And the secret is that there's a truth deep down inside each one of us is that we deserve all the good things that life has to offer. And then they share the mantra, life is so good. Life is so easy. All of the good things come to me. And so it's kind of on this easy approach. And it's not to say that life is not incredibly difficult and that there aren't external circumstances that are difficult, and, you know, and we have our struggles, but this is just saying that it's that subtle perspective shift, you know?

What if we can look at it like that just for the moment? You know? What if we can take that heavy backpack of whatever it is that we all wear in different ways, take it off and just breathe and say, hey, life is good right now. All I have to deal with is right now. And life is so good right now. And so that leads to the final point, which is to this concept of radical gratitude. Thank you for everything. Thank you for everything. And this is a little bit too much information, but I've got a little bit of an ingrown toenail right now.

Not the best thing, you know, a little bit painful. But if I look at it as being thankful, I say, okay, it's gonna make me rest a little bit. I got some epsom salt. You do a little soak of the foot. Once again, maybe too much information, but if I can be thankful for that, you know, it's gonna help me in different ways. And let's be honest. We've all got these issues that come up every day, and if we can be thankful, even for those, it's gonna be really, really good. I was listening to this meditation the other day about this little bird out in the desert who was struggling and thinking that he had to wait seven lifetimes for happiness.

And this person comes by and is like, just say thank you for everything. And a week later, this person comes back, and the birds doing a little dance, and he's got a little plant that's going, and he's feeling better, and all he did was just started. Be thankful. Everything and gratitude really can change our moments, and our moments can change our lives. So, that's what I've got for you today. Wishing you peace, positivity, and prosperity while all remembering that we have a lot of work to do, but we're going to do it together.

Okay? I'll catch you on the flip side.