It all starts here.

This is the beginning. This sunset. A sunset. One more day to come, god willing.

No big deal you say, as the sun sets every day. But how many sunsets do you actually attend to and experience, per year? Just taking the time to appreciate the passing of another day, noting the cycle, reflecting on the day and maybe the days to come.

One of 33 thousand days or so days that you might experience in your life, if you live to 90. Let’s just say. The sun cycle is primordially influential to us humans as we all deeply know what a day is, the sun is one of our core always-ticking cycles with big dials. Heat, cold, light, darkness, sunrise, sunset. The day, and the night. Ruled by the sun.

It’s also the on-off switch to the other part of our life, the sleeping state. Where we truly don’t exactly know where we go, and what is going on. Yes it’s true that our physical bodies are stationary-ish, and generally recovering. Recharding and resetting.

Perhaps most interestingly, the daily custodian of our consciousness - our embodied personality (the I) and ego - also takes rest. And so we enter another state of consciousness. Sleeping and beyond. Dreaming, living out experiences in a much broader reality-like space. Most dreams are forgotten, even by the time we awake. But sometimes these are viscerally felt and remembered, like we actually spent the night physically in those spaces. Weird, no?

And then it starts all over in the morning, right? The wheel continues. And yet, I have agency here. More than I think we often give ourselves credit for. I can influence the “container” that is me, the Julian of this day. How he answers questions, meets people and spends his “inner time”. In all that I choose to “do” on that day, and with the mindset that I bring to the doing, I can come to know and influence my beingness, and intentionally. WTF. I am not fixed nor stuck nor completely hostage to the circumstances. I choose how to react to all that happens to me.

It starts in gently observing my own patterns, and noticing the quality of my mindset and presence throughout the day. Deepening my self-observation. Not self-obsession, self-less-ness, nor selfish-ness. Bringing awareness to my “operating system du jour”. And with a curious eye, with no judgment for what I observe, I come to contact this current me, and ask - where do we go from here? What’s the tweak, the move, the corrective action or bold invitation. What do we need to let go of, metabolize, reach for?

I will bring to mind at the beginning of tomorrow’s sunrise those exact things which I am critically endeavouring to learn. And choose ways during the day to move, shake it off, and nourish the body with delicious foods full of love. And choose just the right mix of activities and so encourage the system to learn. Working through all with a steadiness of spirit, and all the while being so human, honouring and loving the current me.

The hard work of the day is done. Time to relax, reflect, rejoice and rest. And so begins the next sunrise.