The opening line of The Descendents–which I’ve just cracked for my next beach read–is: The sun is shining, mynah birds are chattering, palms trees are swaying, so what.

To my chagrin, I felt this in a real way: Here I am, blessed and fortunate to be taking an indefinite amount of time to kick it in Hawaii, and I still manage to worry.

• About money (I have plenty.)
• About my weight (I am at least 80% naked 99% of the time & entirely comfortable with it.)
• About who I am without my friends, work, gym, apartment, men & other things I use to just make myself BUSY.
• About moving to the West Side of the Island and how I can make this happen.

I have a Google Map of the places I need to visit while I’m here, hikes to traverse, beaches to lie on (For the first time in my life, I think I’m brown enough. Really.). I check off my morning routine like a compulsive recitation: Journal, Meditate, practice Spanish, Gym. And then I keep searching for something else to do.

It’s like my mind is actively looking for something to worry about. And while nothing is actually happening: The air is still sweet and wet, the waves are still crashing without missing a beat, I am feeling like a tanned Sea Witch–but one stray thought and I am pulled from this paradise into the old, tired way of worrying about nothing.

I want to tell this buzzing, chattering, agonizingly restless piece of myself:

Love, chill. Just be here.

Here’s the kicker: I work with this EXACT subject matter with my clients. We are ALL working with the Uncovering of our truest Selves. We are all 

This is what’s so precious about taking time off of what we normally do: We can notice all the bullshit we’re hiding under layers and layers of who we define ourselves to be. And we can do this from anywhere.

What’s helping me lean into the process is the realization that the only thing that keeps up from the pure ecstasy in each moment (and it’s always, always there) is the story we create in our heads. 

• Am I thinking about my bank account while I’m on the beach? Be on the beach.
• Am I planning a conversation I need to have while drinking fantastic cold brew? Just drink the cold brew.
• Am I agonizing over next steps, figuring shit out and making plans while on a morning run? Just breathe the air, sweat the sweat, pound the pavement.

I am continually fascinated by how we torture ourselves with imagined worlds, dialogues, and things that haven’t happened yet. I’m not sure if they ever stop, but we can get really good at acknowledging them and softening them.

Here are few mantras that work like a charm:

• Inhale: Love & Support Exhale: Soften into Abundance
• Everything is working out in my favor
• I am completely supported
• It’s all Love in Disguise
• There is nothing to see and nothing to do (I got that one from Ali Duncan this morning!)

To soothing the Busy & savoring the Paradise in this moment. And this one. And this one.