Where Is Your Priority?

When you wake up in the morning, what is the first thing you think about?

            When you think about where you will invest your time, what is the first thing you think about?

            When you think about where you will vacation, what do you imagine?

            I'm sure as you answer these questions, a wide variety of answers come for a wide variety of reasons. But I wonder how many people consider one thing: What is the best place for me to be. In other words, where will my presence best serve me and the universe?

            There is a Buddhist prayer that is something like this: Spirit, let me NOT seek to fulfill my own needs, but let me seek to be of use to those around me and the universe.

            I had a client yesterday who was listless with life and on the verge of depression, if he wasn't there already there. I suggested that he try the aforementioned prayer. He told me everything seemed to be the same in life. Nothing seemed to matter anymore.

             I asked him what he intended to get out of life. 

            He said, "That's just it. I don't think life has much to offer."

            I asked him to start taking a different path. Start with simple things, like a different drive home everyday. Pick different streets you never drove down before. Wear different clothing. Talk to the cashier at the super market and tell him he's doing a good job. Do things you don't do. Step out of your comfort zone and begin to interact with people you don't normally talk to by encouraging them. Come back in a week and tell me how you're doing.

            My entire life changed when I began doing this practice and reciting this prayer every morning. I laugh more. I smile more. I get in my car sometimes and just beam thinking about how the person I just spoke to probably hadn't had a nice word spoken to him/her the entire day. Maybe I just made a day a little more tolerable. 

            It's nice to get out of yourself and be in the world of doing good for the rest of existence. It's worth a try if you have never done it before.