“You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings.” — Elizabeth Gilbert

So far, I’ve shared my thoughts on why awareness is important and I’ve detailed a few strategies for staying awake: (1) minimizing distractions, the biggest of which for many is technology, (2) filling our lives with the kind of beauty to which we must attend, and (3) being conscious of what’s going on behind the scenes of our pain that will lead us to peace. Now I’d like to offer a few tips and daily practices to help some of this stuff stick. 

“Just be sure to notice the collateral beauty. It’s the profound connection to everything.” — Madeleine, Collateral Beauty

Overwhelming Unconsciousness

My mother is a mortician. Once upon a time, she had the great misfortune of performing her rather unique skillset on a very young child. The child was not killed by an illness or a freak accident, but by her mother. When she shared the story with me, my reaction surprised me. The tale is anything but lovely. It exists outside the fringes of what is acceptable in our society and breaks our rules to the most extreme degree. I was just as likely as the next person to react with judgment and anger and to sanctimoniously discuss what a terrible person the mother must have been and how I – benevolent as I am, pillar of patience, model of compassion – could never have done something so heinous.