Sunday Thinking

"In everything you choose, you must first ask: but what will this do to my soul?"

November 05, 2023

The weekly Sunday Thinking newsletter is quick-hit content that aims to provide a booster shot to your thought process as you end and start your week.

"Some periods of our growth are so confusing that we don't even recognize that growth is happening. We may feel hostile or angry or weepy and hysterical, or we may feel depressed. It would never occur to us, unless we stumbled on a book or a person who explained to us, that we were in fact in the process of change, of actually becoming larger, spiritually, than we were before. Whenever we grow, we tend to feel it, as a young seed must feel the weight and inertia of the earth as it seeks to break out of its shell on its way to becoming a plant. Often the feeling is anything but pleasant. But what is most unpleasant is the not knowing what is happening. Those long periods when something inside ourselves seems to be waiting, holding its breath, unsure about what the next step should be, eventually become the periods we wait for, for it is in those periods that we realize that we are being prepared for the next phase of our life and that, in all probability, a new level of the personality is about to be revealed."

― Alice Walker, Living by the Word

I. The Art of Showing Up

A habit must be established before it can be improved. 

  • If you can't learn the basic skill of showing up, then you have little hope of mastering the finer details.

  • Instead of trying to engineer a perfect habit from the start, do the easy thing on a more consistent basis. 

You have to standardize before you can optimize.

Source: James Clear, Atomic Habits

II. Elevate Your State of Mind

The brain is an antenna, and you can tune into a negative frequency that lowers your state of mind or you can tune into positive, higher frequency that raises your state of mind.  

Here are 7 ways to tune into the positive and elevate your state of mind:

  1. Look Inside, Not Outside 

  2. When You Experience Doubt, Choose Trust 

  3. Speak Truth To The Lies 

  4. Appreciate To Elevate  

  5. Encourage Yourself 

  6. Choose Love, Not Fear  

  7. Remember You Are ONE Not Separate  

Source: Jon Gordon, The One Truth

III. Train Your Mind for Peace

Accepting who you are today, in this moment, is the kindest thing you can do for your past, future, and present self:

  1. Be really conscious about who you keep and let go in your life. Just because you have history doesn’t mean you have to force a future. 

  2. Take care of your body and mind like your life depends on it… because it does.

  3. It’s ok to ask for help or a hug. If you’re trying to be there for others it’s easy to forget you also need to be held and embraced emotionally. 

  4. Don’t buy into your own hype. Stay connected to why you started and remain a humble student of life. If you forget this, life will remind you. 

  5. People will always try to tear you down no matter your intention. Trust that the people that know you love you and invest deeply in those relationships to protect yourself.

  6. Different levels come with different problems. Focus on developing new skills and strengths because they will lead to peace.

Source: Jay Shetty, Author, Podcaster, Speaker, Coach

IV. Question

How can I ground myself in the present when my mind starts to wander to the past or future?

V. This Week, I Will

  1. Apply the lessons learned.

  2. Appreciate the moments in the present.

  3. Take notes of the moments I feel the most alive.

  4. Lean into uncertainty as a form of empowerment.

  5. Be more interested in how my life feels than how it looks to others.

The Last Words…

"My hope for us all this month is to be more grounded in where we are right now. Sometimes, our seasons of quiet and ease ask us to take up more space in our lives. There will be times when we have to anchor our hearts in the stillness. Life moves so fast. We are often rushed to get to the next thing without absorbing or observing what just happened. For me, that feels disorienting. I did it for so long, and I’ve finally started slowing down more to actually appreciate where and what I am in this world. I’m learning that if we don't start being with the now more often, we will miss the most important and valuable moments."

― Alex Elle, Gratitude Journal