Life is often compared to a game. And what is the purpose of a game? To have fun. But in order to have fun playing the game, you have to learn the rules and play by those rules.
Unfortunately, many people don't find their experience of life is fun. Instead, it seems more like a struggle and trying to keep it all together.
What if the struggle is the result of simply not playing by the right rules?
Join us to hear more.
We've been talking these last 3 weeks about non-resistance, non-judgement and non-attachment. These are concepts that aren't practiced much in today's society. But what if these concepts are a few of the rules that, when practiced, make life fun?
Many approach the game of life as being competitive and adversarial. This naturally leads to resistance when things don't go our way. When we resist life, we judge it as being wrong and that it shouldn't be happening. This is what turns life into an adversary.
Most of life then is competitive and we are attached to winning and not losing.
This is how Connie and I approached life for the longest time. And we had successful and prosperous lives. But things would come up, catch us off guard and upset us. Then we would go into the struggle to try to work it out.
What changed that for us is learning a few new rules. The main one was that our experience is created from the inside out. That is, if we get upset because someone cut us off in traffic, the upset isn't created by being cut off, but by the thoughts we have ABOUT it.
When I began to see this, it explained how it was that sometimes I didn't get upset in that same situation. And then I could see that I was simply having different thoughts ABOUT it, and that's what created the different experience.
It's interesting to look at this now and see that life had been showing me that it works that way all along, but I hadn't connected the dots.
As we have seen more and more that our experience is being created by thought, we find ourselves dropping out of our heads, out of our intellect and personal thinking ABOUT situations, and this drops us into our hearts.
The resistance, judgement and attachment that was common before wasn't coming up like it used to. And, as a result, we responded differently. Not defensively or competitively, pushing back about what was occurring, but with an openness and understanding. There was a sense of freedom and ease, even if what was happening was challenging or critical.
Life is always going to bring challenges. But those challenges don't have to upset us. Like a game of tennis. If we're in the game to enjoy it and use it to learn and develop our ability to play the game well, even if we lose, there's the enjoyment of having played. And our opponent isn't seen as our adversary, but the one who, by playing their best game, is supporting us to learn and grow into playing our best game. It's win-win whether we win or lose.
As an example, last week Connie made a comment that caused a reaction in me. I felt some tension and resistance to what she said. My first impulse was to clarify the way I saw the situation (defend myself) but instead, I used the charged emotion as an invitation to explore the feeling more deeply.
I took a moment to feel the feeling without the story I always had around this kind of comment. And in doing that, I saw that I was unconsciously holding on to an old belief, an old "rule" about how life works, that wasn't true.
For as long as I can remember, if someone pointed something out that wasn't "perfect" or they didn't like it that way, I immediately felt like I was being made wrong. And my natural reaction was to explain and defend myself. I never explored deeply what was behind this reaction.
This time, when that energy started coming, I didn't follow the old pattern. And by feeling the energy of the moment, I saw clearly that it wasn't true. And seeing that it wasn't true, it made no sense to hold on to it any more.
Since then, I have felt much more ease and freedom in everything I do. And I'm also feeling closer to Connie, even though nothing has changed on the outside. It was all an inside job. And that's where our experience of playing the game of life is fun.
Take some time and see if this makes sense in your life. See if life has been showing you that your experience is coming from what you think ABOUT what's happening, rather than what's happening is creating your experience.
And if you'd like to have a free consultation to explore this more deeply, leave a comment below. We'd love to go into it more with you.
The recipe this week is Spaghetti and (Seitan) Meat Balls. It's our version of one of our favourite "comfort" foods when we were growing up... without the beef. 😊
To your Amazing Health,
Connie and Bill
Spaghetti & (Seitan) Meatballs (Serves 4) (If you are gluten intolerant, skip the meatballs. They are made from gluten or Seitan.)
- 1 large potato, diced
- ½ cup cooked white beans
- 1¼ cups seitan, 227 grams (8 oz.)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 large onion (¾ for meatballs in large chunks and ¼ diced fine for Marinara Sauce)
- 4 cloves of garlic (3 cut in large chunks, 1 minced for Marinara Sauce)
- ¼ cup nutritional yeast
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 tablespoon dried basil
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy or red pepper flakes
- Green olives for garnish (optional)
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Boil potato until soft, mash and set aside.
In a food processor combine beans, seitan, soy sauce, ¾ onion and 3 cloves of garlic. Process until onions and garlic are in small pieces.
In a bowl combine mashed potatoes, nutritional yeast, paprika, basil, oregano, Mrs. Dash Extra Spicy. Add ingredients from processor and mix well with your hands. Shape into balls.
Place the balls on parchment paper on a baking tray and bake 25 minutes, turning the balls over after 13 minutes.
Let the balls cool if you want them to firm up. Add to Marinara Sauce to heat through and serve over spaghetti.
Marinara Sauce
- ¼ onion, finely diced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 2 large fresh tomatoes, diced
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 1 28 ounce can Fire Roasted Tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon No Salt Seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Add onion, garlic and diced fresh tomatoes to a large pan. Cook until onions are soft.
Add red pepper and Fire Roasted tomatoes. Cook on low until red peppers are soft.
Add No Salt Seasoning and black pepper and stir well.
Add seitan meatballs and warm through.
While meatballs are warming, cook spaghetti as per package direction. Drain and dish. Add meatballs and sauce to spaghetti.
Garnish with cut green olives if you wish.