Tiny Buddha

Category: Meaning

  • Tiny Wisdom: You Make a Difference

    Tiny Wisdom: You Make a Difference

    “Act as if what you do makes a difference.  It does.”  -William James

    Last year, someone emailed me Seth Godin’s inspiring blog post You Matter. That one act made a huge difference in my day, so I’d like to build on that now.

    • When you show up for the people in your life, even though you’re having a hard day, you make a difference.
    • When you share what you’re dealing with, even though it makes you feel vulnerable, and help other people through your honesty, you make a difference.
    • When you practice what you preach, you make a difference.
    • When you honor your needs to create a sense of inner calm and well-being that permeates your interactions with others, you  make a difference.
    • When you cut yourself some slack so you can use your energy to love, create, and inspire, you make a difference.
    • When you give people the benefit of the doubt, you make a difference.
    • When you listen fully, instead of waiting to talk, you make a difference.
    • When you focus more on being kind than being right, you make a difference.
    • When you find beauty in the world around you and help other people see it, you make a difference.
    • When you realize that your everyday actions are your greatest legacy, you make a difference.

    Photo by Brent 2.0

  • Tiny Wisdom: When Things Feel out of Control

    Tiny Wisdom: When Things Feel out of Control

    “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” -Charles Swindoll

    “I can’t wait to leave LA. Seriously, we should consider moving within a year.”

    I said this to my boyfriend as we were sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic a few streets away from our apartment, anticipating at least 10 more minutes of chaos. All around us, drivers were weaving in and out of lanes, honking at each other, and, in some cases, hurling swears at each other. Despite just meditating, I felt agitated.

    Since we moved here just recently so my boyfriend can pursue film, moving isn’t the smartest option. And truthfully, I don’t want to move. I said it because I felt stuck, and in that moment, professing my desire to leave felt like a proactive alternative to simply sitting with that out-of-control feeling.

    Suddenly I realized that this was good practice, because I will feel out of control in far more troubling situations many times in my life. We all will.

    We may have to wait to find out if we’ll lose our homes, or our jobs, or our health, or people we love. Or we may lose those things and wonder how we can go on, knowing we’re not sure how things will turn out. We may have to watch people we love struggling, knowing we have no clue how to help, or if we even can.

    It’s inevitable that we’ll feel out of control in life, over and over again. The good news is that we can always control how we respond to our circumstances, and we can practice this skill a little every day if we’re willing to breathe through uncomfortable feelings.

    Today if you find yourself scrambling for control–over your time, your circumstances, or the outcome of your efforts–take a deep breath. Then remember: It’s far more productive to learn through this moment than it is to resist it.

    *Email subscribers: This was the post from Thursday, but due to an error on my part, it didn’t make it into the email. Photo by fakelvis

  • Tiny Wisdom: On the Illusion of Tomorrow

    Tiny Wisdom: On the Illusion of Tomorrow

    “There is more to life than increasing its speed.” -Gandhi

    If only tomorrow were here.

    You’d have that promotion you feel you’ve earned. Your bank account would have an extra zero or two. You’d be finished with the improvements on your house, and ready for new ones to make it even more comfortable.

    Your kids would be in that school you can’t yet afford. Closer to graduation. Closer to adulthood. Closer to leaving your home.

    You could plan that vacation you’ve wanted to take. And take it. And come back. And want for another.

    If only tomorrow were here.

    You’d be one day too late to enjoy today’s sunset.

    Twenty-four hours too late to savor today’s lunch, today’s cool breeze, today’s little lessons.

    One night too late to tell someone you love them—someone who could move, or change, or even fade away.

    Smack dab in the middle of another today, when everything is still imperfect. And yet still so beautiful.

    Tomorrow will come, and tomorrow will go. Take a deep breath and enjoy right now. This is what is real.

    *This is an updated version of a post from September, 2009. Photo by lostintheredwoods.

  • Tiny Wisdom: On Realizing You’re Complete

    Tiny Wisdom: On Realizing You’re Complete

    “On a deeper level you are already complete. When you realize that, there is a playful, joyous energy behind what you do.” -Eckhart Tolle

    In The Power of Now, Eckhart Tolle explores how people attach their happiness to achievements in the future. A perfect relationship. A promotion. A salary increase.

    Since all of these things exist somewhere other than now–and they’re all impermanent, even if you do achieve them–this thinking creates pain on multiple levels.

    First, in the present, when you’ve yet to achieve what you think you need. Next in the acquisition, when you realize even though you’ve met your goal, you’re still wired to look for happiness somewhere in the future. And later, when life changes, and you no longer have exactly what you had.

    Life always changes. Nothing is permanent.

    That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pursue goals. It’s just that we’d experience a deeper sense of joy on the journey if we realized there’s nowhere to get to. There’s no someday when I’m someone, or someday when I’m happy. There’s no salvation in the future. It’s an illusion that strips the present of joy and makes it a stressful experience.

    Life is now. It will always be now. At some point we have to decide now is a perfect time to be happy, peaceful, satisfied, and complete.

    As you work toward your goals today, tune into your underlying motivations and ask yourself: Am I focusing all my energy on a happy tomorrow to the detriment of my today?

    Photo by jamiehladky

  • Tiny Wisdom: On Finding Your Purpose

    Tiny Wisdom: On Finding Your Purpose

    “There is not one big cosmic meaning for all, there is only the meaning we each give to our life, an individual meaning, an individual plot, like an individual novel, a book for each person.” ~Anais Nin

    Someone asked me recently if I feel as though my life has changed since I found my purpose and started living it. This struck me as odd because it seems to imply before I discovered a professional path that felt meaningful to me, my life was meaningless.

    It’s a logical conclusion: The opposite of having a purpose is being purposeless, doing without intent or value.

    But in retrospect, I have always had a purpose, even if it wasn’t work related.

    When I was at some of the lowest points of my life, my purpose was to get strong. When I was trying to find what I want to do professionally, my purpose was to explore. And I’ve learned we’re all born with a shared purpose we can acknowledge or deny—to simply be good for other people.

    These things may not seem significant in the grand scheme of things, but they’re absolutely meaningful.

    We might not always feel like we’re making the impact we’d like to make on the world, but that doesn’t mean that what we do doesn’t matter. Just like every action has its own purpose, every day contains its own meaning. It’s up to us to decide whether or not it’s something valuable, for our own evolution and for the people we love.

    What does today mean to you?

    Photo by Rose Zhang

  • Tiny Wisdom: On Living with Honor

    Tiny Wisdom: On Living with Honor

    “The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.” ~Socrates

    Most of us live the majority of our lives for other people—trying to do what they want us to do, aiming to meet their expectations, and hoping to be seen as we’d like them to see us.

    Trying to sway perception is exhausting and oftentimes fruitless because we can never dictate what other people think. We don’t get to control our reputation; we only get to shape our character.

    Today, if you find yourself fixating on other people’s perceptions and judgments, shift your focus to what you think about your choices and actions. Are you being someone you’re proud of? If not, what needs to change?

    Photo by zackzen