mind your own business

My teacher Derek O’Neill says that the highest spiritual teaching is “mind your own business.”

He also says: “eyes on your own paper.”

Derek is a high level master with powerful healing abilities, and he’s spent decades having people come to him with all manner of issues they want resolved.

So it’s notable to me that this message is what he repeats as a foundational teaching. (Along with the importance of proper meditation.)

Here’s what I think he means by "mind your own business":

- Stop looking around at other people and forming opinions about them, and redirect your focus inward.

- Stop believing in the illusion of the 3D world and understand that you are the creator of your experience, no matter what other people are doing.

- Take responsibility for what you can control: YOURSELF. Your beliefs, your reactions, and your choices.

My version of “mind your own business” is: water your own garden.

The water is your attention. The garden is your life. (Which may or may not include a literal garden full of flowers and fruits and veggies.)

Your attention is a creative force. It nourishes and gives life to whatever you're focused on.

That could be: your most important relationships; your emotional, mental, and physical health; fulfilling creative projects; community connection; joy, play, optimism, etc.

That could also be: the lives of people you follow online; collective trauma drama; surface-level communication; numbing entertainment; worry, conflict, pessimism, etc.

Your focus is a valuable currency. (Which is why there are multi-billion dollar industries designed to harness your attention and direct it for other people’s profit.)

And the cost of misplaced focus is high.

Putting our energy on things other than our own business sucks the life out of our lives in two ways: 1. We have less capacity to create our dreams, and 2. We are actively creating what we do not want.

Last night I was talking with friends at dinner about the teaching from Neville Goddard (and many other mystics) that whatever you believe about someone else, you’re also believing about yourself.

Florence Scovel Shinn calls this the “boomerang” of judgment, resentment, and lack. If someone isn’t willing to take on your projection, it comes back around and smacks you in the face.

If you’re watering the seed of a certain reality, even if it seems like it’s in someone else’s garden (because your mind thinks it's "their problem") and you’re just peeking over the fence to take a look...

That seed is actually in your garden. And the fruit isn’t gonna be very tasty!

This has been one of the major benefits of me leaving social media. It’s allowed me to take in less data about other people’s lives, which means I’m having fewer unconscious reactions and my precious life force remains MINE to do with what I will.

(By the way, in 2018 Derek famously smashed his iPhone on stage at a workshop and left social media. That was the year I started posting on social media in earnest, so I'm finally catching up and understanding why he did that haha.)

It’s never felt more important to be mastering the art of consciously creating.

Because we’re already creating all the time.

The facts of our personal lives.

The collective chaos we see unfolding, however seemingly outside of our control.

All of this has a cause within ourselves. Whether we see it or not.

We have the power to create ANYTHING!

In my opinion, this is what our “divine mission” / “purpose” ultimately is: to consciously create a life that embodies our deepest values. And let that be our gift to the world.

A big part of this conscious creation is learning how to look beyond any fear, lack, or limitation that would say that what we dream of is impossible. Because it’s not. We’ve just been programmed to think it is.

It’s felt SO much easier to be a responsible creator since leaving social media. There’s a lot less noise in my head, a lot less energetic static in my field, and a lot more space to stay in my own lane and focus on my goals.

If this discussion is resonating, here are some reflection questions for you to consider:

What seems to get in the way of you minding your own business? What regularly pulls you out of presence?

What part of the garden of your life needs more water?

What matters most to you? Are you giving it the energy, focus, and love it needs?

Perhaps you want to take a few minutes and journal about these questions.

And if you’re feeling activated about the topic of distraction and creation and want some support navigating it in your life, I've got a resource for you: REVIVAL.

REVIVAL is a 21 day journey that guides you to release distractions, reclaim your focus, and redirect your life force toward what matters most.

The program focuses on the main distraction of social media and technology, but you’ll find that it gently leads you into a new relationship with anything that you’re putting between yourself and presence. (That can include everything from gossiping to consuming content to unconsciously rushing.)

Once you've gotten a handle on the distraction (and me and God have got some awesome tools for that!), you call back your drained energy, give it to what matters most to you, and reap the rewards.

REVIVAL participants have reported massive increases in clarity, calm, and creativity. They’ve completed projects they’d been putting off, solved problems that had been weighing on them for ages, reconnected with their loved ones...

And they've overall reported a genuine, vital feeling of coming back to life.

Which is the whole point. Yay.

The medicine of REVIVAL has been life-changing for me too. I know I’ll look back on everything I’ve created this year and identify the program tools as a key part of what helped me actually bring the next level of my dreams to life.

These are tools I've used for years, but the specific way I've sequenced them in REVIVAL has made a big difference for me. And it might for you too!

There are two ways to join right now:

There’s a self-study version of the program, in which you receive an email with the day's teaching and practices each day for 21 days.

There’s also a VIP option to be personally guided through it by me (which includes 2 coaching sessions and a full month of voice-note support).

Sound good? Sign up for REVIVAL here.

Alright, I’m off to go water my own garden :)

Which right now means investigating the big snake my partner just found in the garden outside our house. (I’m not kidding, this just happened as I was finishing writing!)

After I receive that potent animal medicine, I’ll write in my journal, review my goals, and make a plan for the rest of my consciously created day.