The Beautiful Question with Scott Lennox

This week, we'll look at endings and new beginnings, and how finishing one cycle can lead to the start of an entirely new one. I hope you'll stay with me. Who knows, we might both learn something. 

As kids, we chanted, “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me.” Oh, if it was only that simple. Join me this week, as we consider the power words carry with them and ways of being more mindful about the ways we use them 

Especially when we're struggling, it's worth remembering that we're not stuck in the negative things we've been telling ourselves. We can choose to focus on things that are more enlivening and more liberating. With that in mind, join me this week as we consider the power of simple gratitude and how it can change our experience for the better. 

If you passed Manuel somewhere and he wasn't wearing the shirt he wears when he's working, you might be inclined to make up a story in your mind about him. But would you be sure about what you saw? And would your story be right? If you think so, I have to ask, “Sure about that?” Join me this week as we consider ways of busting some of our pre-conceived ideas and stepping out of judgment. 

We put so much pressure on ourselves to take care of other people, but are we overlooking something in the process? Join me this week as we take yet another look at taking elegant care of ourselves. 

When we know how to do something, we don't have to try—we just do it. That's especially true when we're giving ourselves the sublime gift of being who we really are.  Join me this week as we consider ways of returning to ourselves as we let go of some of the obstacles we've put in our own way. 

It's one thing to say, “That was then. This is now.” It's quite another to separate what happened in the past from the feelings we've held onto about it.  Join me this week as we consider ways of doing exactly that. 

We often push ourselves relentlessly to get things done. But is all that pushing necessary? Is it even healthy for us? You and I both know there's a better way. Come sit in the shade with me this week as we consider a few healthy alternatives. I think you'll be glad you did.

We often push ourselves relentlessly to get things done. But is all that pushing necessary? Is it even healthy for us? You and I both know there's a better way. Come sit in the shade with me this week as we consider a few healthy alternatives. I think you'll be glad you did.

While certain compromises are necessary from time to time, there are things that are not negotiable.  Join me this week as we consider what those things might be and how to keep them in place in our lives.

In a previous episode, we looked at ways of trusting the unfolding of the path in front of us as we take each step.  This week, we'll revisit that consideration from a different angle by following the remarkable north country journey of a hunting dog almost ninety years ago. 

As life swirls around you today, may you stay rooted and settled in the stillpoint that is always deep within you. Join me today as we consider ways of remaining calm, regardless of what's happening around us. 

We can only guess how far back in human history the offering of prayers and blessings had their beginnings. Something built into us quite naturally reaches out to the Divine and then, just as naturally, reaches out to touch the lives of the people around us in uplifting ways. Join me this week as we once again drop into stillness and allow our hearts and minds to connect with one another. 

From time to time, life can hit us pretty hard, taking an incalculable toll on us. But more often than not, the strength in us outweighs our fragility. Join me this week as we consider what it means to keep going in the face of adversity. 

We waste so much energy angrily holding on to things that have long been over. And when we do, we suffer for it and so do the people around us. Join me this week as we consider the true meaning of forgiveness and simple steps for allowing ourselves to let go and move on.

We often have no idea how deeply we've affected someone's life until long after the time we spent with them.  Join me this week as we consider what it means to be someone's personal sanctuary, perhaps even our own.

For better or worse, our lives can change so quickly, and all at once, everything becomes different in ways we could never imagine or foresee. Among many others, one of the most important questions is, “How will we choose to face change when it happens?” Join me this week as we consider ways of intentionally being with what is and making the best of it. 

Spring is a welcome time of rebirth and renewal, a time when the earth returns to being vibrant and alive after its deep slumber through fall and winter.  Are human beings so different? Join me this week as we consider ways of renewing ourselves from the inside out as well as from the outside in. 

Among the many kinds of nautical anchors are the long canvas “buckets” called sea anchors that keep boats pointed into the wind during a storm on the open ocean. My grandfather and his brother never left port without one stowed in the forward hatch. Join me this week as we consider practical options for weathering adversity without being capsized.

Unless you're a firefighter, you probably won't be carrying anyone who's in distress, and even then, you won't carry them far. We understand that intellectually, but how often do we cross that line mentally or emotionally, taking on what was never ours in the first place? Join me this week as we consider the differences between caring and carrying. I think you'll be glad you did.

In one of my early podcasts (Episode #49 “Easing Through The Week”), I suggested that we play a simple game to help us move through stressful times. Given the state of the world right now, this is the perfect time to play that game again, but at a deeper level. Join me this week as we slow ourselves down and ease through the days and weeks ahead of us. 

During the past few months, several subscribers have asked that I create a new guided relaxation audio. With all that's happening in the world right now, I can't think of a more fitting time to let go and lean into our Higher Selves.  So, this week, I offer you a gentle way to let go as you release the things you no longer need to carry and welcome into your life what is good and right and healthy and self-restoring. 

It can be easy to allow our fears to overshadow our days and nights, robbing us of peace and clarity, especially when we listen to the world more than our inner awareness. Join me this week, as we consider steps for walking out from under the shadow of fear and back into our own lives.

One of the clever ways we keep ourselves stuck is telling ourselves that we have to have everything worked out before we take our next steps. Join me this week as we consider the nature of the unfolding path of our lives. Stay 

Even if there are things you've been struggling with, are you willing to linger a while in silence and stillness as you wait for what is luminous and inextinguishable—what is utterly beautiful—to arise in you? If so, then join me this week as we consider yet another aspect of stillness. Stay with me. 

I open and close each week's podcast by inviting our consideration of “things that truly matter in a complex world.”. One of those repeating considerations is the power of mindful silence and the things that grow out of it. Join me this week as we consider the value of measuring the things we say and the things we don't say. Stay with me. 

When was the last time you stopped to ponder what you're really made of? Not just the skin and bones and blood cells and brain circuits, but what lies beneath all of that. Join me this week as we pull the veil aside and consider something luminous and filled with hope.

You wouldn't get far on a road trip without first stopping to fill your tank. We understand the common sense of that, yet how often we push ourselves without stopping to recharge from the inside out. Join me this week as we consider healthy ways of renewing ourselves.

The past couple of years have brought about subtle and not-so-subtle changes in how we spend our days and how we think and feel. Join me this week as we consider things we can do to offset some of those changes. 

Like pearls formed by the irritation of a grain of sand in an oyster, life's challenges can grow precious things in us when we allow it. Join me this week as we consider ways of bringing those good things into the foreground of our awareness. Stay with me.

What would happen if we “brewed” our days with as much focus and attention and care as we use to brew a great cup of coffee or a tea? Join me this week as we consider the right ingredients and best the steps to take to make our daily experience a truly robust one.

After the challenges of the past two years, this is just the right moment to ask ourselves where we're going in the coming year. Because you're the one writing the script for your own life, what shape do you want the next year to take? Join me this week as we consider ways of determining exactly that.

There are sleeping dreams and waking dreams. There are lucid dreams and even sacred dreams. The trick is to know which one we're experiencing. Join me this week as we consider the nature of dreams and what happens when we take control of them. 

The things that happen in our lives can seem completely random or disconnected, yet, without trying to sound particularly mystical, are they? Join me this week as we consider how the path of our lives continues to unfold—sometimes in surprising ways. 

Though I've spoken about power of play in previous episodes, it's an idea so powerful, so compelling, that is worth revisiting again and again. Join me this week as we consider the revitalizing nature of play and ways of making it part of our everyday experience. Stay with me.

 What will most likely happen when you began to live beyond the limits you've imposed on yourself or accepted from other people? Join me this week as we consider what it means to step into the fullness and freedom that is always possible in our lives.

Isn't it fascinating that the more we open our hearts and minds to gratitude, the more we find to be grateful about. Join me this week, as I offer my heartfelt prayer of gratitude as we step into the holiday season.

What happens when we hold on tightly to the pain of the past? What freedom do we discover when we take conscious steps to release ourselves from it? Join me this week as we consider some of the myths about forgiveness and then look at what it really means.

Pollution is not just an issue of the environment around us. It can happen inside us as well. Join me this week as we consider taking simple and decisive steps to end our mental, emotional, and behavioral pollution. 

What marvelous things are safely nested someplace deep within you, things that are just waiting to hatch and take flight when the season is right? Join me this week as we consider some of the amazing and life-enriching possibilities in each of us. 

How marvelous it is that we only need to open the doors of our perception a little bit to see miracles taking place all around us.  Join me this week as we consider the simple shift that can help that happen. 

There's a timeless maxim that says: “You can bend, or you can break.” When I stop to ponder that, I think of some of the people I know who are able to laugh in the face of adversity and how healthy they are.Join me this week as we consider the healing power a sense of humor offers us. 

The past year and a half has changed our lives in unprecedented and unimaginable ways. And yet, in the midst of it all, there are choices we can make every day. Join me this week as we consider what some of those changes might be. 

What is it about light that arrests our attention and captures our imagination? And why is it that we often overlook the light within ourselves? Join me this week as we consider these and other questions that could serve to liberate us even more. ·       

Dictionary definitions tell us that wealth is having an abundance of financial or material possessions or having plentiful supplies of a particular resource. Yet such definitions fail to consider the characteristics of wealth that have nothing to do with money. Join me this week as we take a look at some of the other forms of wealth. Stay with me.

Much is said about intention or about thinking and behaving intentionally, but are we considering both sides of the coin? Could it be that there are two sides to being intentional? Join me this week as we consider what that means. Stay with me.

We talk a lot about freedom, but what if I told you that true freedom is self-bestowed and that each of us is holding our own key to liberation? What then? Join me this week as we consider ways of liberating ourselves from the ideas we've been using to hold ourselves hostage. Stay with me.

Every once in a while, if we're fortunate, we're allowed to witness some of the very best of humanity. When we do, it can inspire us to keep going and to feel more hopeful and to bring out the best within ourselves. Join me this week as we consider what true compassion and caring can do to mend the fabric of humanity when they are put into action. Stay with me.

As I said when I introduced the last episode, I'll be away for another week taking great care of myself. It feels so good to follow my own counsel and my time will be well spent and revitalizing.  So, here's a re-broadcast of an earlier episode entitled, Watching Egrets. In it, we'll watch a flight of white birds as it crosses a line of dark clouds in the distance, and we'll notice the peace that comes as we become still enough to take in what we're seeing. I'll be back next week with a new episode. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this one. I'll see you soon. 

This week and next, I'm following my own counsel and taking some much-needed time off as I take elegant care of myself. When I come back, I'll have new things to share with you. In the meantime, here's the first of two re-broadcasts of my early episodes.  This week, we'll saddle up and ride into a storm with a few cowboys as they learn what it means to pay attention. Come join me.

Sometimes even simple things can calm us or bring us peace. Now, more than ever before, that practice is a lifesaving one. Join me this week as I share two stories about staying calm in the face of adversity. Stay with me.