Showing Up For Your Life

Each morning I receive a daily thought on my cell phone that is directed towards people with my personality type.  Some days it affirms me and other days it challenges me.  Here is an excerpt from today’s thought.

 

“How do you postpone showing up more fully in your life?  Where and how do you typically hit your snooze button?  What conditions do you require to wake up”?

 

I must admit that my natural tendency is to be withdrawn, disengaged, and solitary.  I am an off the chart introvert.  One could say I was even trained to be this way during my time in the monastery.  I admit that I find a day home alone to be bliss while group functions are often hell for me.  I also have a tendency to zone out no matter where I am.  When I am listening to a live concert on my iPod, I am at the concert in my mind.  Having said all of this, what conditions do I require to wake up and show up in my life?  In order to do this the situation or the task must interest me.  If it’s a philosophical challenge, I need to believe in it.  In most cases I also need to be challenged.  If it’s too easy I am bored.  If it’s too hard, and possibly beyond my abilities, I am stressed.  For me to be fully engaged and present, I need to feel like my strengths are being utilized, I believe in what I am doing, I see its value, and I must feel a sense of accomplishment.  If I am operating from weakness in a task that I find meaningless, and it has no apparent value to me, I am mentally and emotionally checked out and I am hitting the snooze button repeatedly.