Sunday Story…Enlightenment

There is an old saying that goes something like this:
If you think you are enlightened go spend the holidays with your family.
It isn’t that there is something wrong with Your family; it’s that your family knows what buttons to push on your console. Your family knows what will and won’t light you up. Your family has a dynamic that you have been trying to navigate (both successfully and unsuccessfully) for the last few decades.

It’s easy to maintain your calm and considered demeanor in your daily life. You get to set your life up in ways that fuel your highest aspirations. You keep people around you who inspire and help you find your highest and best.

You don’t get to pick your family though. You don’t get to kick out the ones who are way less than inspiring or who are actually people you would never choose to hang out with. You are stuck with them; they are the ones who are here to really challenge your aspirations.

In those stressful moments with our families is when we can find true peace and contentment. In those moments we can find peace when we are no longer resisting any feeling or thought no matter if it is positive or negative. My family is my family, it is up to me to decide how I will react and find the peace no matter what they do.

Enlightenment is found in my every day not just in the quiet moments of self reflection.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412
Coming soon: www.johnmariotti.com

Sunday Story…Wakey, wakey

Way too often we are not 100% awake. Maybe we are dazed, or sleepy, or zoned out but we are not awake. When we are awake, fully aware of our surroundings, present to the moment, hearing for the first time, seeing with new eyes, approaching life with a beginners mind, it is a gift to ourselves and the universe.

This is the dilemma of our life. Awake feels good. Awake honors us and the people around us. Awake is the currency we use to pay for the change we want to see. Yet, Awake is fleeting and hard to hold.

The world we live in is conspiring to keep us asleep. Bored, distracted, over-occupied, busy all excuse us from our true nature. Our true nature is awake and fully present in the moment. When you are awake and I am awake we can move mountains.

All too often we find it easier to not be awake. Sleep walking through life is easy. Awake is hard to get there, harder to stay there, and nearly impossible to share with others. Getting there is a quest. Remaining there is a labor of love. Awake is a state to be cherished and reveled in.

Wakey, wakey.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412
Coming soon: www.johnmariotti.com

Sunday Story…Insanity

Is often defined as doing the same things and expecting a different result. For most of us, this is an obvious principle. It is not always obvious when we are talking about the stories that run our lives.

Shifting those stories may be one of the hardest things to do. We built those stories piece by piece over our entire lives. They are comfortable, like a favorite blanket. They feel good to us. They validate our worldview. They create a cocoon for us to feel comfortable in. But from the outside, they look tattered and worn.

Putting those stories away and creating new ones that serve you where you are today is difficult and scary. After all, if the old story isn’t really serving, isn’t really representing who and where you are; what good is it anyway?

Find a useful story will serve you better in the long run. A story that will help us do the things we desire make the changes we want to make in ourselves and the world and feel happy and satisfied. Now that's a worthwhile pursuit.

If you can’t do it yourself…get some help creating and placing that new story. It will be worth it.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412
Coming soon: www.johnmariotti.com

Sunday Story…Mindful Moments

Many years ago before you could go to kindergarten you had to be able to do a couple things; you needed to be able to tie your shoes and you had to know your name, address, and phone number. Considering there were no Velcro fastening shoes at that time you might be able to see why tying your shoes would be important. That address and phone number have long escaped me but I can still tie my shoes (well, sort of, right now).

When I turned 18 a couple things happened then as well…I registered to vote and for the selective service---the draft. I have no idea what my draft number was in 1974 but I’m still voting all these years later.

We can often guess what is going to be important many years later. We will be right about some of the big things that become unconscious…walking, tying shoes, driving, and things like that. But we are often wrong about the little things…the chance encounter, the thing that gave you momentary pause and a hmmm, or a simple choice of an a over a b.

It’s the little things going on around you that are going to make the difference down the road. Little things you may not remember when their import becomes apparent.

Be mindful of your moments.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot .com
775-338-2412
Coming soon: www.johnmariotti.com

Sunday Story…Pulling the Trigger

As we enter the season of feasts and parties and over-indulgence it is important to recognize this fact: We all have triggers. Thos things that start us on a cycle of overeating or drinking, a cycle of social media rage, or something that feels like it forces us back into our shell. That trigger leads us into a cycle, or more likely a spiral where we continue our behavior even though we know it is detrimental to our overall health/fitness/mental state.

The first question is can you see the cycle? Can you see how it doesn’t work for you in your life? The continuous twitter war with some internet trolls that gets you fired up over something and keeps you fired up for days returning over and over again to the scene of the crime? To break the cycle, to stop the spiral stop pulling the trigger.

Do you know your triggers? Do you know what will start that downward spiral? It is hard to stop a spiral once it starts. It takes a tremendous amount of willpower to cease a cycle once it has taken hold. It is much easier to not pull the trigger at all. It is much easier to control that trigger, to eliminate that trigger than it is to stop the cycle.

Decide to stop pulling the trigger before you are in the pull of the spiral. Eliminate the trigger, eliminate the cycle. Simple, not easy.

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412
Coming soon: www.johnmariotti.com

Sunday Story…Before ABC

A=Awareness
B=Boundaries
C=Confrontation

I have taught self-defense (Fear Adrenaline Stress Training) to hundreds of women, men, and children. The ABC’s was where we started and finished. But as I have listened and read the stories from #metoo, #whyididn’treportit, the recent SCOTUS hearing, and more I have come to the realization that I should have been teaching something before awareness.

Once I am aware of a potential situation (or even just having heightened awareness) it can be too late. Now, that awareness can give me the knowledge needed to recognize the “golden moments” that occur so I can avoid further complications. But what happens before that?

What happens before that is the way we speak about each other. I’m sure none of you have ever said, “that’s gay” and meant it as an insult. I’m sure I’ve never called anyone a p#$#$y and meant to call them weak and powerless. I’m sure no one has ever said things like, “Indian giver” to demean someone who isn’t honest or “trailer trash” to insult a person who isn’t as wealthy or as smart as you. No, none of us has ever used any of those turns of a phrase. Those are just a few of the insults we throw around casually. Often we find them buried in our speech and thought patterns without really knowing they are there.

What happens before that is not owning our no. How many times were you forced to hug or kiss a relative or friend of the family when you didn’t want to just to be “polite or a good boy/girl?” How many times have you asked your children to do the same? We need to proudly own our no. Not say yes when we mean no just to get along or not cause any ripples. On the other side, we also need to say yes when we mean yes. Too often we say no or I don’t know when we want to be asked again or to be pursued. No means no, it shouldn’t mean try again, or not yet, or maybe later (after I’ve had more to drink.)

When we start to fix what happens before awareness we might have a chance to stop the endless cycle of mindless violence. Ending it starts in my mind, my language, and my actions. It starts with me.

Be aware of your internal dialogue first. Own your no and when you are a yes be an unequivocal f%&*k yes!

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.com
775-338-2412
Coming soon: www.johnmariotti.com

Sunday Story…Sinners

And saints. Cops and criminals. Perpetrator and victim.

I am both things. We all are. Think about it.

I have done things that weren’t right, weren’t OK. I have had things done to me that weren’t OK, that weren’t right. I have overstepped my own boundaries and overstepped other people’s boundaries as well. Both things are true. For me to say otherwise would be an untruth.

Admitting this doesn’t remove the stain, nor does it make it worse. What it does is make me more human. My foibles are mine. I need to own them. I need to forgive myself for all the times I didn’t stand up for one of my own boundaries. I need to hope that the boundaries I transgressed weren’t so egregious as to cause permanent damage. If they were, I am sorry. I didn’t realize what I was doing at the time. It wasn’t intentional. I will do my very best not to let it happen again.

We live in a changing culture, one that is almost quicksand. I look back at our attitudes 50 years ago and I see that we were badly mistaken. There were so many things we (especially the we that is I) believed, picked up from various places, said, and did that were, looking back at them now were wrong, very wrong.

As I said, I am sorry. I’m not perfect but I will do better. We (all of us) need to do better.

“There is a field beyond right and wrong. I will meet you there.” - Rumi

John Mariotti
www.crossfitodyssey.com
www.sunday-stories.blogspot.com
775-338-2412
Coming soon: www.Johnmariotti.com