Kay:

Hello there, Questers, and welcome back. It is Monday, December 6th, and if you’re anything like us, the holiday season is in full swing for you. This is episode 481, and we have a beautiful quote for you today from a wonderful Polish-American classical pianist, Arthur Rubinstein. Arthur tells us “I have found that if you love life, life will love you back”. And what a fun quote to kick off our week and what an admirable person. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time, he received all kinds of awards and acclaim.

Shi:

Many regarded him as one of the greatest Chopin interpreters of his time. So, truly a great artist who brought forward such beauty through music into the world and such beauty to us. And this quote today. well, this quote is so simple and yet can allude to so many of us in the idea of loving life. You know, he says, if you love it, life will love you back. But what I love that Arthur doesn’t say here is that if you love life, when it shows up perfectly for you. If you love or say, if you love life, when everything goes your way, or if you love life, when things are super easy, he says, if you found that if you love life, life will love you back and life can be pretty freaking messy. It can be really messy. There’s a lot about life that could steer you in the direction of not loving it or staying focused on something that is not lovable for forever per se.

Kay:

But that’s one of the beautiful things about life is that there is so much that surrounds us that we can be grateful for, and that we can love if we turn our focus on it. And so this is a beautifully said quote, and very lyrical to hear. But the principle behind it is one most of us are likely very familiar with. It’s even in Proverbs, right? “As you think so, shall you be.” And that’s precisely what Arthur is telling us here. If you love life, life will love you back. If you put out good, you’ll get good back. So, whether we’re talking Proverbs or karma or Buddhism or art, many of these sayings are a reflection of that. Same thing that what we put out is what we get back precisely. And if you put out love, life tends to give love back to you.

Shi:

And I want to expand on the idea here of love a little bit in that, you know, that particular includes so many positive things within it. He’s probably saying here that if you have this gratitude for life, a zest for life, you know, that we would call that a love for life. But that’s not just like a, “Oh, I love life,” right? It’s a person who is fully engaged in the immersive human experience and is right in the middle of it, loving it, how it shows up in that moment, training their brain to think in a way that’s most constructive for them. They find all of these other things in their life that are proof that life is exactly what they thought in the first place, which is something to love. Well, and it helps.

Kay:

I love that you brought forward that brain training piece, right? It’s that seek and ye shall find. It’s this very, you know, underlying principle that so many of the great masters through history and through ancient times have told us, and yet it can be so easy because the human tendency is to listen to our brain and the logical piece that is designed to keep you safe in the brain.It does that by surveying your surroundings constantly and finding the things that are going wrong now in modern times. It’s trying to do that, but it’s identifying things like email issues or car troubles, or, you know, the wrong brand of your thing being sold out or whatever it is. This plethora of things that can come forward, that our brain can lock onto and go, “Oh, that’s the thing.”

Shi:

And if we’re, if we’re not privy to the fact that we can grab the wheel and drive that focus and shift it to our perspective to something that’s more constructive, we might get stuck there and we might stay there. And then what begins to reflect back to us if we’ve made a habit of doing that, is something that we don’t necessarily love. And then it can be even harder to get out of that cycle. And look, we’ve all created these cycles for ourselves. I’ve been on occasion and I know you can probably. Maybe you’re in one right now where you know you haven’t been thinking constructively and you know that you haven’t been necessarily loving life and you’re feeling the effects of life not loving you back. And so, hearing “Well, great. Now I’ve built this habit and this consistency piece,” the best news is you can grab the wheel at any time.

Kay:

You can start making a change at any time. And once you start, now you’re now training your brain to do that scanning thing, but to do it for the reason that will help you reorient your focus to the things that will tell you, “I love life and life loves me back.” So, as a reminder of what this incredibly beautiful and simple quote from Arthur Rubinstein is today, “I have found that if you love life, life will love you back.” And today’s quest is in honor of Arthur’s melodious musical talent. And we are telling you to put on some classical piano and get in your Rubinstein mode and listen for just five minutes. Let yourself hear the story of the music. Hear the beauty. Focus on that loving of life through the classical music and see what love comes back your way. Are you ready?

Shi:

Let’s quest!