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Welcome to another of my guide Melinda’s Friday messages about how to live life. If you’d like to know more about her and what she has to say you can find more in the first post in this series.

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I want to start talking about how to enjoy life. I want to talk about this idea of how we become tired of life, disillusioned, or fatigued with life. As you are reading this I want you to think about the idea of not getting caught up in these ups and downs of life, but instead focus on being present.

While you may be tired or disillusioned because of hard things you’ve dealt with. Often people have overextended themselves. The first question I have for you is where do you find your rest? Where is that place where you can rejuvenate yourself. I want you to consider that happiness comes from not being overextended in every moment of your day. That it comes from rest. That many people in the modern world are so caught up in all the wonderful possibilities that they fail to rest. It is certainly true of Andrew who has been struggling with finding balance around this issue for years.

I would like you to look at what you should say no to.

This hurrying that I am talking about feeds a kind of haste that is always living in another moment. It is always pushing or pulling us out of the now. Even leading up to reading this post what were you doing? How present are you right now? How much of what just passed is still in your mind or heart? How much of what is next? How can you be happy when you are not tasting the life that is flowing around you right now?

In my time it was different. There was more work in some ways and more ease in others. I led a very privileged life in that I had lots of time while traveling between towns to think, read, or do whatever. It was not like now though where there might be 100 great things waiting for me to read or do. I rarely got new books. I was often with the same six to twelve people. There is a gift of monotony in travel that pushes us towards the enjoyment of the passing landscape.

Would you like to be happier? Between now and next week spend 5 minutes in silence every day. Spend another 5 minutes watching something in nature. Let me know how it goes.

Thank you for listening.
Melinda

If you would like to get a reading with Andrew and Melinda to help you clarify the tangles of your life click here to book. Reading are available in person in Toronto or online from anywhere.

The Hermit’s Lamp is the blog of Andrew McGregor – Toronto Tarot reader, artist and teacher. The Hermit’s Lamp is also a storefront in Toronto selling metaphysical and spiritual supplies. Please visit The Hermit’s Lamp website for more information on readings and classes both online and in Toronto. You can also check out my podcast here.

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“Smile” image by Cubmundo used under Creative Commons License.