David J. Gailey Author

When our thoughts consume us, it can feel like we are living inside a dream — a dream while we’re awake.

Tara Brach writes about the trance of unworthiness.

The negative voices in our heads: judgments, labels, comparisons to others.

The quiet belief that we are somehow not enough.

I recently attended a security conference in Banff, where a colleague and I walked past the Old Banff Cemetery each day on our way into downtown.

Cemeteries have a way of putting life back into perspective.

All the things we worry about, all the negative self-criticisms, all the stressors that occupy so much of our attention and feel so urgent in the moment — zoomed out to the level of a lifetime, most of it does not matter in the way we believe it does.

This reminds me that the things I worry about most are often not the things that matter most.

Whenever I feel like some part of life is unacceptable to me, I try to come back to the present moment.

Let go of the past.

Stop rehearsing the future.

Return to now.

Be grateful for the opportunity to be alive in this moment.

And pay attention to what lasts:

Love.
Kindness.
Courage.
Presence.

And the way we make others feel.