Live From The Core Of Your Being (By: Bo Sanchez)

I came across this last night.  Uncanny that something I had been mulling over was conveniently located after the day's readings.  Why am I not surprised that this seems so masterfully-planned --- unless everyone feels stressed this time of the year and this was a logical article to put there.

Live From The Core Of Your Being
 

It is not enough if you are busy.

The question is, What are you busy about?

—Henry David Thoreau

 

Happiness is not found outside of you.  It doesn’t come from cars, clothes, cash, or Caribbean cruises.  Happiness is found within.

But how can you find it if you don’t have the simplicity of time and space to discover the most important things in your life?  How can you search the depths of your soul if you are too busy impressing others, acquiring wealth, protecting your properties, and paying your debts?

Simplicity is NOT about the externals either: living in a doghouse, eating in a Hepatitis joint, wearing rags…

The best definition of simplicity I ever read comes from Janet Luhrs from her book, The Simple Living Guide.   There she says that simplicity is living from the core of your being.

I cannot agree more.

I believe that simplicity is having the time and space to embrace what is most important to you.  It is having the leisure to cherish them, having the freedom to glory in them, and having the power to live by them.

         Along the way, you’ll discover that the most important things in life aren’t things, but the persons that have been given to our lives.  But that’s something you’ll have to discover yourself.

         Give up shallowness.

         I repeat: Live from the core of your being.

Here’s my suggestion: Get a notebook and begin a journal for this book.  Write down your discoveries, insights, reflections.  What is your core?  What are the most important things in your life right now?  Do you allow your core to direct and empower your daily decisions and actions?

 

Live On Less & Delight In Them More

 

G.K. Chesterton said, There are two ways to get enough: one is to continue to accumulate more and more; The other is to desire less.

Let me clarify.  I’ll be the last person to tell you to stop trying to earn more.  Earn as much as you can and unleash your fullest potential, so that you can bless OTHERS.

But to protect yourself from greed, I urge you: Relish, taste, and immerse in the divine of the ordinary!  Because if you develop the capacity to suck all the joy that life has to offer, you don’t need expensive entertainment. 

I’m not ashamed to say that looking through an open window and seeing clouds drift by is Class A entertainment for me.  Doing that for just five minutes sets the tenor of my day.

         Some take their pleasure dining in classy restaurants, trips to Europe, and owning the latest home-theatre equipment.  Nothing wrong with those things, by the way.  Recently, I’ve been able to travel a lot with my family because God has blessed my businesses with abundance.  But I don’t depend on them for my core enjoyment.  For decades, I couldn’t do any of that, yet I was still very happy.  Why?  Because inwardly, I’ve chosen the simpler path: If I can simply be with my wife, or take a quiet stroll under a canopy of stars, or play with a child, or read a good book in my home, or laugh with friends over pizza, I consider myself richly blessed.

         Focus on what you have, not on what you don’t have.

         Because satisfaction doesn’t come from getting what you want, but wanting what you already have.

 

I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through him who gives me strength.

–Philippians 4:12-13

 

Think about it.

What do you have right now that you have been taking for granted?  List down in your journal fifty blessings you enjoy today.  Don’t stop until you reach fifty!

         Live on less and delight in them more.

 

 

May your dreams come true,

 Bo Sanchez