 Hi everybody. So I've been reflecting on a simple way to think about my spiritual growth and this reflection may be useful to you as well. I call it the Four Rhythms of the Life Monastery. Those who haven't heard me talk about Life Monastery, I have a video about that where basically I look at my life as a monastery experience that I signed up for, my soul signed up for this particular incarnation, this time around the earth video game, as a householder, meaning someone who is not a monk, I'm not a monk, I'm not living literally in a monastery. I live in the quote-unquote modern world. I have, I work for money and I, you know, do the normal human, you know, not not human, I mean monks are human too, but the normal consumer things. So that's called a householder, a non-monk. But even as a householder, I try to see my life as a monastery experience and kind of to perceive my rhythms of my life, you know, prioritizing spiritual growth above all else, all else, or even you might say underlying all else. Like no matter if I'm, if I'm meeting with a client or I'm working on a spreadsheet or I'm cleaning the toilet or I'm eating food or I'm with my wife or I'm out shopping or whatever I'm doing, that the deeper purpose of it, there's a deeper layer of meaning and opportunity which is spiritual growth and spiritual aliveness, spiritual progressing on the spiritual path. So I want to share a simple four rhythm way of thinking about it, which is no matter what I'm doing, I'm, I'm, I'm doing one of these four things or I aim to be doing one of these four things anytime of day or night. It's one of these four things. One is to I'll start with rest efficiently, rest efficiently. And what do I mean by that is I'll just read the four rhythms to you and then we'll talk about it. So rest efficiently, get up towards love, nourish just enough, work without ceasing, those four. And I'll talk through each of these and how that maps on to every moment of my life. So rest efficiently is when I'm tired, I need to take a nap, for example, or even just close my eyes and just gentle breaths for a minute, something like that. Or obviously to get ready for bed for the night. Those are all examples of resting efficiently rather than, I don't know about you, but when I'm tired, it is so easy for me to play a video game or look at social media when I'm not being purposeful doing it. So surfing for too long, it playing a video game for too long, whatever other distractions in our modern world that entertains us instead of and really it's the opium for the masses. It entertains and addicts us, creates addiction to that entertainment that isn't, that is easy to overdo and that isn't proper rest. Like because after playing a video game, I still need to rest, right? Like I'm kind of amped up and I haven't really rested or, you know, Netflix or whatever. Like I still watch Netflix, I still play video game, et cetera, but that's in the nourish just enough column. I'll talk about that soon. Okay, so rest efficiently means whenever I feel myself tired and needing a rest, of course that is that required discernment to know when I need a rest versus when I need to work again, like to really reboot my energy and continue working purposefully on whatever I'm doing. But resting efficiently is definitely something I'm working on. Well, all four, all four of these rhythms I am definitely working on still, but I'm sending an attention to it and I'm sharing this publicly in part to give myself some accountability to work on these things and to keep talking about these things. And I, by talking about these things it gives me accountability and continued progress in them and hopefully that does something beneficial for you as well. I always welcome your comments below. Always, you know, take whatever I'm saying that might be useful to you, that sounds resonant to you and make it yours. You can borrow literally the language I'm using or you can change it up. You can do five rhythms, two rhythms instead of four, you can do 10. I mean, you know, each of us, I think the most longest lasting and powerful system that we follow is probably one that we have customized to our own style, energy, language, analogy, framework. So rest efficiently. That's number one. Number two is to get up towards love, to get up towards love. And that, that itself is so important to me because like when I'm taking a nap, you know, I want to just keep sleeping. And I take four naps a day. Those of you who don't know my, my productivity rhythm, I take four naps of about 15 minutes each per day, 15 to 25 minutes each. And I set an alarm for those naps. And when the alarm goes off, it's sometimes tempting to keep napping. But during my work day, I have purposeful things to do. So I, I need to get up. But, but so this getting up towards love is a useful reminder for me to, you know, I'm done resting efficiently. And now it's time to reboot my energy, get up towards love, let that love capital L love, draw me forth to getting up instead of being lethargic. Because it's too easy when we're resting to overdo it. Everything can be overdone. And the overdoing of it creates some desperation or some depression or, yeah, unhealthiness in physical or spiritual ways. So getting up towards love is a reminder for me whenever I'm resting, napping, closing my eyes for a minute, whatever I'm doing, okay, I'm done for now. It's enough for now. And that, that enoughness is always just a constant practice of discernment. What is enough? What is enough? And it's, it's, you know, no one can tell me, no one can tell you, no one can tell anybody like, okay, resting for 15 minutes is enough or four hours. I don't know. I mean, it's, everyone has their own needs, right? So getting up towards love is this reminder that, okay, it's enough rest. Let's get up and go towards love again, let love draw you forth into the, the other rhythms of life. So that's the second one, getting up towards love. The third one is nourish sufficiently or nourished just enough. And this is, you know, eating a meal. This is hanging out with my wife. This is, you know, playing a video game. It could be, but like doing it purposefully and like setting a timer so that I'm nourished just enough. Instead of just let myself go and like, I am so exhausted or tired or I'm so anxious or fearful and I'm just going to use this crutch of a video game, you know, just go on and on and on, you know, too much of it. Again, that's, that's a sort of underlying practice is what is enoughness and to sense that enoughness just enough and then move on to the next healthy activity as the, as the dow flows to the next thing purpose, purposeful movement towards the, towards, towards what's even better to do now. So nourish just enough is like I said, food, media, entertainment, hanging out with loved ones, friends. However, we rebuild ourselves other than rest. There's rest and then there's nourishment. So it's like both are, both are important and for self care, essentially. So nourish just enough is again also something I'm working on. Like in the evening when, when I'm having dinner with my wife, you know, like we're watching Netflix or whatever to do it just enough instead of like, oh my God, oh, this is such a great show. Let's keep watching and then don't go to bed on time, right? Like, and then next, next day I'm regretting it. Like I wish I slept longer or slept earlier, something like that. So nourish just enough, which then leads into the, you know, needs into either work or rest, right? So that's the fourth one is work with love or work without ceasing. I should actually say work without ceasing. That's the fourth and final rhythm. And work without ceasing. I've talked about this in another, in another video recently. So you can watch that one if you want to, but work isn't just working on my business. It isn't just working in a job. Work without, work without ceasing can also mean household chores, but anything that requires effort, like physical effort is probably work. It's either getting up towards love or it's work without ceasing. It's it's physical effort, mental effort. You might say emotional effort is, is also work. So it's not just, it's not just literally, oh, I'm building my business, but it's, it's, I'm working on myself too. You know, I am activating this new habit that I would like to install into my life. That is self, that moment of decision and intention and action is also work. It's also work. So work without ceasing reminds me of, well, I signed up for this life, not to play video games or to watch Netflix or to serve social media or to eat delicious food. That's all involved. That's all part of it. But that's more of a break. That's more of a nourishment for the main purpose of life, which is to work. That's my opinion. I think because after this life, we get to be in the spiritual realm again, where eternally, eternal soul connection, creativity, love, enjoyment, everything so easy over there. Again, I have a very strong faith about the afterlife and eternity and that this life is just a temporary blip, a video game, a soul gym, life monastery, whatever. I've been using different, analogies or metaphors for years. Soul gym is one of those analogies that has stayed with me for a long time and that's what this life is. We signed up for a gymnasium experience of about 80 years or so. Some people live less time in this gym and some people live much longer. But we didn't come to a gym to go to the snack bar or to hang out in the lounge or to use the restroom. Maybe some people go to the gym to take a shower. But we came to the gym to use the weights, to use the workout machines. The workout machines are the problems of this life, the opportunities of this life, the problems in the world, the problems in our consciousness, the problems in our families, the problems in our communities, the problems in our work, in our relationship, in our health. Those are the workout machines that make us stronger in spirit so that by the end of this video game earth experience this time around, we're like, wow, I learned and I grew through that experience. That was really, really intense. I didn't know this was a video game when I was in it. But wow, now I realize, now that popped out of my body after death, I'm like, oh wow, that was really real, that dream. I didn't know I was in a dream. But now I'm awake. And my gosh, those choices I made, many of them I wish I could do over, but many of them I'm proud of. And I made choices that grew my muscles, my spiritual muscles, and expanded my understanding of and wisdom about life. And so that's what I see this life being about. And I welcome you to join me in this framing about life, whether you call it life monastery, soul gym, video game, something else, whatever you want to call it, simulation, experiment, or just, you know, the game of life. I welcome you to join me and reflect together. You know, comment below and tell me what your reflections are. But these four rhythms are ones I'm going to keep in mind and keep working with for the next couple of weeks, months, see how it fits, see how it fits, and see whether they, maybe there's a better way of thinking about it, working with it. And of course, I will share that with you if I discover something that works better for me. And I hope you will share with me in the comments below in these life monastery videos what is working for you to treat this life sacredly, with great purpose, aiming not to waste a single moment. And yet, being always forgiving of yourself and your so-called mistakes, knowing that every moment, every choice you make is an experiment. And it's a test, actually, as well. It's testing your character and the mistakes that we make, which I make all the time, often, and are just another experience to hopefully learn from and grow from. And ultimately, it's okay, right? I made another video recently called All As Well, and you might check that out as well to understand the underlying security and well-being of this life, no matter our choices. But here, again, I'll finish the video by reminding us, reminding me at least of these four rhythms, rest efficiently, get up towards love, nourish sufficiently, and work without ceasing. And there's a reason why rest efficiently comes first is because most of us, many of us, are often exhausted in this life. And not just physically, but emotionally, mentally, spiritually exhausted, because life is hard. I don't want to say especially now, but it's, in many ways, life is easier now than it was 300 years ago in many, many ways, physical ways. But it's harder because we have way more choices now than we did 100 years ago, 50 years ago. We have way more choices now, and that choice overwhelms us. It's like a different kind of exhaustion that we experienced today is an exhaustion of choice, of financial pressure. It's so funny though, it's so funny, because even the poorest person today has more physical amenities and comfort than rich people of a thousand years ago, for example. Poor people today have all kinds of refrigeration, electricity, running water, I'm assuming, not talking about the depths of adjudic poverty, but most of us who are not wealthy have at least, we can at least pay the basic bills, and that's better than kings from a thousand years ago. We have a different exhaustion today, which is the exhaustion of opportunity, of choices, of envy actually, because we are tribal beings and we look at what others have and go, oh, it's not enough that I can pay my electricity bill and have rice and beans and have a roof over my head. That's not enough, because look at that influencer and they're traveling to, you know, this country and that place and they get to hang out in these events and I should have that too, and even if you don't consciously think that the things you see on social media and in the media create dissatisfaction. It creates, well, some people say it creates aspiration towards those kinds of lifestyles, but if we are, if we're not careful, we get attached to, well, I want that and the wanting of that creates suffering. It creates dissatisfaction. It creates not enoughness, and therefore all of these not enoughnesses that we see out there, oh, I want that, I want that, I want that, creates exhaustion, creates overwhelm, and the choices of getting there creates overwhelm and exhaustion. And so that's why rest efficiently is number one in my rhythm, is that probably we all need to practice yet again the skill of resting well, resting efficiently, including getting a good night's sleep, which means you need to close out the evening on time, work without ceasing to be able to say, all right, evening rhythm, it's got to be really disciplined. Discipline is work without ceasing, right, to have disciplined evening rhythms, so you can sleep enough, you can practice good sleeping hygiene and good yoga nidra, good ability to sleep well, rest deeply, rest efficiently, so that you can get up towards love, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So anyway, I hope this is, this video is interesting in some way, helpful in some way to you. I look forward to seeing any comments you want to share below. Thanks.