It doesn't seem easy to stay right where we are in the purity and togetherness of who we are. It doesn't seem easy to listen with presence when job demands and targets stare at us, when performance is at stake, when we spent our days running from crisis to crisis. To develop deep empathy. And what if it were easy, anyways? What if we gave ourselves permission to listen to each other just a bit longer. What if we could slow down just long enough to connect? What if we get to be real?
Read MoreOur loneliness has long served as a message that we need community to thrive. Belonging is who we have become. To feel the warmth of bonding and the rhythm of our heart is to be human. We cannot ever solve loneliness by turning to external validation, though. We cannot belong from a place of lack. We cannot belong without true kindness. The big paradox then: To feel less lonely, we actually, first of all, need to hang out a little more with ourselves: Alone. And from the space of all-oneness, kind with ourselves, we can create community.
Read MoreJournaling comes down to simply setting time aside to organize thoughts and dreams with the aid of written language, utterly without judgment. This very act uncovers spaciousness. New solutions orient themselves in mesmerizing patterns like iron filaments around a magnet. We energize ourselves with the visibility of our own resourcefulness. Journaling is a powerful pathway into more effective leadership. which leaders like Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln have long known.
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