Trying means that we are yearning, which really means we aren’t quite in the present moment we are thinking about how we can get something in the future.

Yet when we are truly and fully in the present moment we become like extremely strong magnets that attract all those things into our life exactly that which we want, without trying.

The more we dwell in the present the more we start to see that which we want is that which we have. Gratitude is inherent in this space, again we do not have to try and be grateful, we are inherently grateful in the present moment. When we are present, and we look around we see that all we want is here right now and gratitude can not help but flow.

It feels good to be present, it feels really good.

Feelings Felt in Presence

When we are present we feel directly, without the confusion or need of words. When feelings are felt in the present moment, they are not labeled, they are felt fully for what they are and we get the sense that they are felt much more deeply. When we are not that present we usually feel feelings like how someone might touch water with their tows in the water before going in a pool. When we are present, when we are fully here, with our self, now, its like we are plunging into the water. Your whole body feels. Its not an intellectual word game anymore, your not feeling “grateful” or “happy ” or “joyful” (words) you ARE the essence of gratitude, you are happiness, felt. When we are present we feel without labels.

To feel without the mental chatter, feels freakin good. Even if its a “bad” feeling, a feeling felt totally for what it is fully is amazing. Its the joy of being human that we can feel, and feel so deeply. Again its obvious that gratitude is fundamental to the present moment. To be grateful is to be present, and to be present is to be grateful.

These words that I use to describe the present moment, like gratitude, really don’t mean anything by themselves, and in themselves they are empty and hold no value at all. Value is in the present moment. Value is felt, and somehow if these letter combinations help you feel the value of the present moment, they have done their job in my eyes. Letters, words, sounds, really everything is an invitation to the power of the present moment. I trust that these words will help you feel the now, and its power.

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I am so ever grateful on my birthday today. Twenty five years and boy I have seen so and done so much! I have a running joke with a lot of my friends where we say “kings don’t have it this good,” and they don’t. I can honestly say that much of my life I have felt this way; so grateful, so blessed.

First let give thanks first and foremost where it belongs first and foremost, my mother. I had the amazing luck to be born to a mother that always gently, securely, and lovingly lit my path without ever, once, indoctrinating me with her views. Mom, I love you.

My childhood was amazing, I grew up on the beach playing in the sand while my family surfed. I went to an amazing high school where I quickly learned that partying wasn’t my style and started meditating with my neighbors(!) around my senior year of high school.

After high school I had the privilege of going to an amazing college in the middle of the red woods. I lived in a place where the most profound and influential events life of life took place; our meditation housing CoOp we started called the Dharma Pad.

If you know me you probably have heard stories of the Dharma Pad. That place had so much love pouring out of it you could have tapped it and sold it at the farmers market. What an amazing time, and what an effect it has had on me. Those three years with those amazing people utterly and completely changed me. I am who I am now mostly because of that time spent with those friends in that house. The things we did, the memories… That house is when my journey into exponential growth started.

So many amazing times at the Dharma Pad. I couldn’t even begin to list them here. So much love. So much love, how can I even begin.

From there, I moved to Hawaii. What a blessed life I have lived! I lived in Hawaii for about 9 months or so and again had such an amazing time, that that place, those people I met there still, and will always, linger in my soul as a beautiful impression that I get to take with me everywhere.

Hawaii with its sweet tropical fruit, amazing sun rises, people and places. I am grateful for you.

After Hawaii I moved back to LA. And not just anywhere in LA, but on the ocean, in Venice! This was my view:

Now we are close to here and now. Now I live with amazing, absolutely, beautiful thriving housemates that inspire me to be better everyday. A living situation in LA like I always wanted.

From Santa Cruz, to Hawaii to Venice Beach, I have lived a blessed life.

And a blessed life I am to have more of! If the last quarter of my life was just me getting off the runway I can’t wait to see whats next.

In the end, how can I end a post on what I am grateful for without saying what I am most grateful for. My friends and family! You all shine my life with such amazing beauty, you all are the reason why I’m so happy all the time.

Love to you all. Blessings.

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It really feels good to give. It really does, for some reason our society has really hidden the fact, the absolute fact, that the more you give the more you get. Our society doesn’t really value generosity, our society quietly pushes values of greed.

Everything begits more of itself. So greed begits more greed. For a second now lets think about what greed is, and what it feels like.

Greed feels very contracting to me. There is a fear based element to greed for sure, fear that you must contract in order to save, this feeling of greed doesn’t feel very good at all, its a scary place, not pleasant at all.

Now lets feel into generosity. True generosity feels good, it feels abundant and expanding. It feels like there is plenty and that I can easily give, there is so much to go around It feels good to be giving. To be giving there is no trace of fear. I am giving and it feels good, I have nothing to worry about.

The feeling of generosity feels amazing. I love the way that generosity feels, (true generosity that is). Greed feels bad. Really it is that simple, take the time to feel it out yourself, greed doesn’t feel good and generosity does feel good.

Not only does generosity feel good but by practicing generosity you receive so much. When you give more and more flows to you, because that is the energy of generosity, flow and abundance. But when you take and are in the energy vibration of greed, more and more of that flows to you, contraction and lack.

So if you want a lot of abundance in your life be generous, and equally as true, if you want a lot of lack in your life be greedy.

But like I said earlier, its not that easy to be generous in a society that teaches you from a little age that to get what you want you must take.

It is actually a very short sighted way to see reality. You might actually get what you want through greed, but you won’t actually get what you want in the long term. You might physically get what you want in that moment, but by taking without giving, you create the energy vibration around you of taking, the vibration of lack. Other than not feeling good at all, being greedy doesn’t actually give you want you are really after, which is abundance which is things flowing to you without much effort, and being in a place where there there is no lack.

You can’t live in a place of abundance while still living in a place of lack. Greed necessitates lack, there is no greed without the feeling that there is not enough, that there must be withholding. Giving necessitates abundance, there is no giving without the feeling that there is enough.

So if you really want to create abundance around you, give. Give and don’t give because you are feeling lack and feel like you must give to create abundance in your life, that is just greed masquerading as generosity, but even so it is a good place to start .

Be generous give and you will surly get, give without feelings of want in return, and watch your life fill with abundance. As that is truly the energy state you want to create around you, one of abundance, one in which you can give and not worry, one in which giving is second nature, this is the only way abundance was ever created and is the only way abundance will ever be created, through giving.

So when that urge to be greedy comes up, remember generosity serves you so much more than greed. Honor your urge to hold, bring awareness to your fears and just remember that you don’t have to be afraid, you are creating the energy vibration of abundance through your generosity, and you can’t help but attract more, much more, abundance into your life.

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I have come to realize that what really helps people the most is not by changing what I do, but how I do it.

What really matters is the energy behind a gift, as we all know it really is the thought that matters. The energy behind your work, your gift to the world, has a ripple effect to all who come in contact with it. If you have a good feeling while you are doing what you are doing other people who come into contact will also feel this later.

Your attitude is apparent in all the small things, what we call dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s. This is really what matters. When you do something with a feeling of happiness everything about what you are doing takes on a good feel to it.

Your attitude really is the most important thing in your life.

When you do things out of ease, a feeling of ease emanates from what you have done, for the benefit of all.

So if you want to start helping others and yourself just start where you are. Start where you are with what you are doing now, you don’t have to change what you do, that naturally changes anyway, just start changing how you do it.

How you do what you do is far more important than what you do. The attitude you have while you do something is your energy state when you are doing what you are doing, and this is what leaves a lasting mark on your work. This energy leaves a lasting mark in the small little things that change while you are working from a state of peace or happiness or bliss than in an opposite state. When you are happy you are probably going to cross more T’s and dot more I’s, everything you do is going to have that feeling that you went the extra mile for it, and others will feel it.

By enjoying yourself and what you do, others will enjoy your fruits also.

So when you are thinking about what the best thing that you can do for someone or for others, simply just start doing what you are already doing but change the way you are doing it. Learn to enjoy those things that you are already doing and watch your world change for the better.

The next step of course is learning how to enjoy what you are already doing. I’ll talk about that in my next post. Until then, enjoy your day and whatever you are doing.

-W

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I just read an email on effective vs ineffective gratitude, and it really resonated with me.

Basically ineffective gratitude is gratitude for external things that can, and often do, change.

Ineffective gratitude may be things like:

• My job
• My relationships
• My health
• My house
• My finances

These things all change, and what makes them “ineffective” is that when you are grateful for them you can’t help but come from a place of lack. When you are grateful for these transient things you can help but tell the universe that you are not grateful when you don’t have those things.

If you want to take your gratitude practice to the next level and really start experiencing some amazing shifts in your life, then start being grateful for those things that are not transient, start being grateful for those things that are more permanent.

Some examples of effective gratitude include:

• The miracle of life
• The earth
• The universe
• The sun
• Consciousness
• All that is

Gratitude for these everlasting things is like a  leap in perception. When you start becoming grateful for all that is you start to become gratitude itself, you embody gratitude because it cannot leave you. You effectively have the mindset of gratitude all the time.

Notice how ineffective gratitude centers around things that are yours while effective gratitude centers around things that are you and also so much more than you. Ineffective gratitude is much more like a transient feeling or emotion, it will come and go and there is nothing wrong with that. But effective gratitude is like a mindset, it stays with you for much longer it becomes who you are.

When we have a mindset for gratitude our whole reality starts to change around us, we find ourselves much more at peace with the world, much more happy no matter what happens to us. With a mindset of gratitude we start to become happy all the time we can’t really help it, what we are grateful for can’t be taken away from us, its everlasting, and so is our happiness.

Maybe you find everlasting happiness in everlasting gratitude.

-W

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Anastasia makes such a strong argument against what she calls our “technocratic” world that its hard not to feel a sense of disgust for the current state of world civilization, and it is this feeling of disgust that I would like to talk about now.

I do not tolerate the saying “ignorance is bliss,” a life of ignorance is a life unexamined, and the unexamined life is not worth living! So if we are to examine our life and our current situation, and by necessity the current world situation, we are bound to feel a sense of disgust, especially after reading books like the Anastasia which explain other more joyful ways of living. So then what is one to do now?

What we do now is what we will always do first to achieve change, be grateful. The key to change is gratitude for what is now, already. If we don’t find ways to feel grateful for what we already have then we will just continue the disgust, disgust of what is disgusting only begets more disgust. But gratitude for disgust begins to beget something more more beautiful than what one is grateful for. Gratitude is truly the most amazing tool we have at our disposal it literally has the power to turn poison into medicine.

And what is gratitude? Gratitude is thankfully loving what is.

Gratitude works to get you to where you want to go by grounding you down in the present moment. To get to any point you need to know two things; where you are now and where you are going. Gratitude makes you aware of where you are now and it helps you develop the positive feelings needed to get where you want to go. Because you can’t get to where you are going on an empty tank, you need feelings of positivity to bring more positivity into your life.

So if we are to live this life we are bound to want something better, and to get something better we must first be grateful for what we have. Gratitude sets our current point and give us positive emotions that fuel our forward progress.

So don’t be distressed if you find yourself living in such a “technocratic” world. Realize that if you really, really, want to change it, you must change your feelings towards it, and it will change. Love it. Accept. And watch your world change.

Blessings to all.

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For my birthday this weekend, an amazing group of musicians gathered for a party at my apartment – most of whom play the hung drum, which is (in my biased opinion) the most beautiful instrument on the planet. As I sat in my bean bag chair listing to the impromptu music circle play these very pleasing instruments, someone passed me an extra hung drum to play with. I was honored! But as the hung drum sat in my lap, I couldn’t even begin to make it sound like my friends were so effortlessly doing… and it was at this moment that I realized: no matter what you have, even if it’s the best object in the universe, you cannot be happy if you don’t have appreciation for it.

See, I enjoy the hung drum so much because I am blessed to have dear friends who play it beautifully. But if I simply had this coveted hung drum by itself in my home, I personally don’t know how to play it and it would be of absolutely no real value to me! Even though it is one of the most highly sought-after instruments in the world, it wouldn’t really bring me much happiness… The key is that the happiness comes from my appreciation of the beautiful music it emanates when skillfully played, not from the hung drum itself.

This example might be a tad obvious, but I see many instances where people forget that the object itself doesn’t make a person happy – it’s the appreciation of the object or of the skill of using the object that makes one happy.

For example, what happiness is gained from having the best car on Earth if you don’t have the appreciation for its craftsmanship, how the design was settled upon, where and how the engine was tested or even the skill to drive it?

Instead of seeking pretty objects, it’s far more important to seek out appreciation and to especially to develop skills (which can be even more rewarding than appreciation alone), because without appreciation for what you have, or the skills to create something that makes you and others happy, what is the use of the objects or airplane rides or red-carpet-walks you wish for? When we reflect upon these ideas, it becomes clear that an internal development is far more useful and long lasting than an external one.

The key building blocks that create a happy person are dedication, patience, skill, and the ability to appreciate.

Wishing for external objects or experiences is fine – they can increase your quality of life immensely! It’s perfectly acceptable to want a brand new Porsche, but if you do, make sure that you also wish for courage and appreciation and skill, or else it will become just another object to take care of. With every wish for something new externally, wish for the ability to appreciate what you will receive in the future, and to appreciate that which you already have right now.

Develop your appreciation, gratitude and skills, because these are what really make things better in your life. Otherwise, external things will just be as they are now, only they will have taken a bite out of your bank book. What use is a guitar if you can’t play it? Just because you get a guitar doesn’t mean your life is going to change and you are all of a sudden going to become a rock star. It is the dedication and skill, the internal developments, that will eventually make you a rock star.

Similarly, and perhaps more importantly, wishing for a lot if money probably won’t change your life much either. Instead of large sums of cash, wish for the ability to know how to invest and manage huge amounts of money. Make wise choices in your purchases, learn how to find high quality products, learn to appreciate fine culture, learn moderation – or else you’ll just end up spending this new money the same way you spend it now, and nothing much will really change!

So learn appreciation, because appreciation will bring you happiness. No matter what you have, if you aren’t truly grateful for it you cannot sustain happiness.

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