Kay:

Hey, hey, there Questers and welcome back. It is Tuesday, December 7th, and this is episode 482. Today’s quote is beautiful and comes to us from Thornton Wilder. Thornton Wilder was an American playwright and novelist who even won three Pulitzer Prizes for the novel The Bridge of San Louis Rey, and for the plays Our Town and The Skin of Our Teeth. And he shares with us, “We can only be said to be alive in those moments where our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”

Shi:

Ooh, Thornton, bringing us a gratitude reminder and such a good one especially as we’re bumping into mid-December here. I’m sure you’ve, at some point in your life uttered Merry Stressmas! We certainly have. This time of year is like it’s full of delight and wonder and magic. But for those of us who are adults, it’s also full of a lot of obligations and expectations and things that you’ve got to get done and money you have to spend and time that you have to give and all of that can mount up to this feeling of overwhelm of frustration and sometimes you’ll just want to go through the motions. So, if, as you approach your mid-December, you’re feeling that way, then this Wilder quote is a good one for you to grab onto. It’s a good one for us to grab onto as well because it reminds us that when we grab onto that gratitude, when we get in alignment with appreciation in our hearts and we anchor there then we can channel the most life and feel the most alive, which is, I think, that feeling of joy, of excitement, of enthusiasm, of positivity that most of us are striving for most of the time.

Kay:

Well, I think that the emotion of stress is one of the fastest ways for us to feel like the walking dead. You’ve got all this cortisol running through your system. You’re only thinking about the things that need to get done. Your brain has been completely hijacked. Your experience has been hijacked by this idea of stress and we get that too. We get that way. I’ve been that way. I’ve been that way recently and had to pull myself out of it. But that is what feels often like being in that walking dead moment. I’m not even in control, that I, being the consciousness and that awareness. So, he says, “We can only be said to be alive in those moments where our hearts are conscious of our treasures.” So, becoming conscious of the greatness and abundance around us, whatever the abundance is that is available to you. It looks different for all of us, takes us out of that walking dead waking nightmare situation, where we’re almost slaves to our stress and the problems of life.

Shi:

When we put that spotlight on stress, I think it helps us to understand where we can lose that focus for ourselves and really that consciousness as he’s alluding to here. It’s not that the treasures go away, and I think that’s one of the big lessons here. It’s not that the things that we can be grateful for go away. It’s just that we turn that spotlight or that consciousness away from those things, or we’ll feel that emotion of stress or we’ll get wrapped up in the obligation or the expectation and we move the spotlight away. When a spotlight isn’t focused on treasures then it’s not glittering back at us.

The things that we treasure, the things that in our lives are gems whether those are metaphorical or actual or real, or somewhere in between, they are the things that sparkle and shine and that we hold so dear. For most of us, that’s family, that’s the privilege to live where you do, to have access to what you do, the opportunities that are available to you, your support network. Those are the things that are our treasures but when our spotlight of consciousness isn’t shining on those treasures then we’re wasting it on something else. Often, we’re wasting it on something like stress or worry or frustration or anxiousness and that’s not the way that most of us envision living, the true definition of living our lives. That’s precisely what Wilder is getting at here.

Kay:

Now, if you heard Shila’s list of blessings there and said, “I don’t have any of those things. I have no family. I have no friends. I have no people. I have no access. I have nothing,” well, the fact that you are even here listening to us today means that you have breath in your nose. You have a beat in your heart. You have ears that can hear, or you have eyes that can read the transcription of today’s podcast. So, even if you can’t anchor down on those external things, there’s a whole host of amazing beauty that has to go right every single day just for you to open your eyes, even if things are going wrong. So, it’s such a great reminder for us to stay truly conscious of our treasures in every moment.

Shi:

I heard on a workout montage video this morning something like 1,208 mechanisms have to go right in your body just for you to wake up in the morning. So, literally, thousands of things have already gone right for you today if you’re listening to us right now. So just to remind you of what Thornton Wilder says, “We can only be said to be alive in those moments where our hearts are conscious of our treasures.’

Kay:

So, today’s quest is a Tip Tuesday. We want you to spend some time today connecting to yourself and your breath through a little bit of quiet meditation and reflection. Just be in the here and now, enjoy maybe just one of those 102,000 things that had to go right. Allow yourself to receive that inner, intuitive voice and be grateful for the miracle of being alive, breathing, and being healthy. Are you ready?

Shi:

Let’s quest!