My three pillars

A good day for me is built atop three pillars: meditation, movement, and writing.

The meditation helps me reconnect to a sense of presence. It gives me a window into seeing how often I’m interfering with experience, and an opportunity to drop that.

The movement starts each morning with a walk. Either without headphones or listening to an audiobook. I also train 5 or 6 times per week. I can’t imagine life without training. I love the challenge of it and my general well-being drops significantly when I’m not working out—I feel achey and ratty. I don’t know how others live without this.

Writing has both therapeutic and creative arms. The therapeutic side means that I have a powerful avenue to articulate and express the maelstrom of thoughts and emotions that are going through my head on an average day. The creative arm means that I’m able to put new ideas together and share stories with people.

What’s interesting about each of these three — meditating, moving and writing — is that they are not, for the most part, striving towards particular outcomes. They are hinge practices; unassuming rituals that open big doors.

As long as I nail these pillars, the particular outcomes seem to take care of themselves. They keep me happy and engaged. And from that place, everything else seems to flow.