A brief exploration of the Franciscan concept of thin space as a present-moment practice; the host explains how attention often drifts to past or future and guides a short breath practice to anchor into now.
Hey there, Cadre. How are you doing out there, wherever you are? Did you have work today? Do you have people you have to take care of? No matter where you are, no matter what's going on, I hope you're great.
Thinspace is a concept that Franciscan monks use to help them be present. It's the space in between everything that has been and everything that will be. Most people spend 48% of their time unpacking the past and 48% on planning the future. In reality, we only have power in one moment.
Think of the last thing you did. Now think of the next thing you're going to do. Take a deep breath in. Think about what you're doing right now. Say it in your mind's eye and exhale. Whenever you need that reminder that where you are holds the power.
Hey there, Cadre. Good morning. How are you? How are you doing out there, wherever you are? Is it a time of rest? Are you still in bed and picking up your Cadre? Did you have work today? Do you have people you have to take care of? People you have to go ahead and get up and move in? People who you have to feed, people who you have to go ahead and help do things that maybe you can do on your own? Or don't you have anybody around? Maybe you're in an empty house. No matter where you are, no matter what's going on, I hope you're great.
And everybody in the Cadre sphere hopes you're great too. Hey, Luke. Hey, Jules. Nice to see you. Sunday crew. Yeah. The sun is a shining. It's not super warm out, but it feels kind of warm today. You can sense the days are getting longer, which I think yesterday or the day before the 10 darkest weeks of the year just wrapped up. So we're not in the 10 darkest weeks of the year. Hey, hey. We're in the 16 second darkest weeks of the year. It's all perspective, right? As Luke says, this is thin space.
Thinspace is a concept that Franciscan monks use to help them be present. But it's more than that. It's a calibrating tool. I guess most of the things I talk about are calibrating tools like enoughness, the outward facing click, followership. All these things help you go, how do I exist in the world? I guess that's full sentence. How do you exist in the world? Not in the world that used to be. Not in the world that will be, not in a world that other people exist in. But how do you exist in the world that you're in?
And this concept, I think, is simple to understand. And then you start peeling back the layers and you go, oh, yeah, I guess I don't do that naturally. So the thin space is the space in between stuff. So maybe light and dark, or the good times and the bad times, or the loud and the quiet. Maybe the easiest one to see all the time is existing in between everything that has been and everything that will be. You know, we often look at where we spend our time. It was like where you spend your time matters.
Yeah. And here's what I see from most people. We spend 48% of our time unpacking the past. We spend 48% of our Time planning the future. Especially this, especially in January. January is all about resolutions and goals and looking ahead and looking ahead and looking ahead. Both those things are great. Looking Back learning from the past. Gosh, we don't. Well, we don't do that very well a lot of times. We could probably actualize the benefit of looking to the past a little bit more, and we don't look for the future.
We may end up missing out on really good energy. The energy of excitement or the energy of motivation, the energy of considering what could be. But in reality, we only have power in one moment, and that moment is right now. Now. That moment just passed. So now it's this moment, and now it's this moment, and now it's this moment. Whenever I say that, you can see people kind of go, oh, shoot. I never actually spend any time in the moment that I'm in. It's always, where am I going? What am I doing next?
Okay, how did that thing go? Let's think about it. Let's ruminate. Let's look back. Okay, now what's next? Okay, how did that go? And it's never really going to the proximity of where we exist. So my invitation for you today, because we could also beat this pretty hard, and because it's in the nuance of the moment that we're in, I invite you to do this a couple of times today. Like, right now. Think of the last thing you did. Go. Okay. Now think of the next thing you're going to do. Go take a deep breath in, think about where you are, and exhale.
So, like, the last thing I did was I signed into this call. The next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to go to Walgreens to buy some first aid tape. And right now I'm hanging out with you, and all of a sudden, my brain goes, ooh. I have the opportunity to be right here with y'all. That exercise not only is good for a quick hit of good energy, it's also how we train our brain to go, huh? Where am I right now? Wow. I look around, and there's no wind. I guess that's why it feels warm today. That was a realization I literally just made.
I'm looking at the field in front of me, and there's nothing moving. It looks like a painting. Ever since I walked outside this morning, I'm like, oh, it's not that cold. I thought it was supposed to be cold. It's not that cold. And that's as far as I got in the present, because I'm like, okay, I need to get to the place to do the thing, and I need to go to the other place, do the other things, and Then, oh, my gosh. And then my body's not responded well today and my stomach's messed up again. And do I need to go to the doctor again?
Am I going to have in the hospital again? And then dah, dah, dah. And then all of a sudden I'm thinking about this and these people. And then I absolutely didn't even take the moment to go, wow. There is not a moment of win today. There's benefit being where you are with what you got. And that's what the thin space offers. So again, that exercise. Step one, think about the last thing you did. Go reactively, okay? Now think about the next thing you're gonna do. Go reactively. Take a deep breath in.
Think about what you're doing right now. Say it in your mind's eye and exhale. Do that again and again and again. Whenever you need that reminder that where you are holds the power. Y'all, you got a great lineup coming at you today. Just like the best of lineups. You're gonna see Ms. Shannon Paul later. You'll see. You'll see Tiffany later. You'll see Jason later. You'll see Gene this morning. You'll see Seth this afternoon. It's a great lineup of lives today. But if you're not jiving with the jives.
If you're not jiving with the lives or. Yeah, that's right, right. Jiving with the lives. Check out pre recorded content. Pop in here, scroll around, see what you find. Let that be your thin space today. Talk to you later.
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