Friday, October 30

This is the last issue before election day in the US. So! If you’re able to vote, and if you haven’t yet, GO VOTE. Learn where and how to vote at Vote.org – an excellent non-partisan resource. We’re building the future here, and it won’t be the same without you. 💪

lightward.com/newsletter

 

A Perspective of Joy

Joy is dancing in the rain.

Joy is taking off to your favorite destination.

Joy is available, right now.

Abe here! I’m beyond thrilled to share this project with you – A Perspective of Joy, a coffee table book that explores the forms and appearances of joy. I know for me, the practice of focusing on joy and positivity has profoundly impacted my life and continues to do so every single day. I started this project in 2016 and to be honest, I let imposter syndrome win. I didn’t touch it for years. When we moved to Denver a few months ago, I read it for the first time in years and I was moved – how did I not share this sooner?! Here’s the exciting news: I no longer let imposter syndrome win (thank you, 2020, for giving me space to really start loving myself and my talents!), and I have recreated this book from an inspired place of hope, optimism and joy.

In a time where joy can seem like a concept that feels so far away, I invite you to read this book, and be reminded of all the beauty that life holds for us.

Holding on that joy and hope has been one of the main factors in helping me get through and thrive in this year, and I am so excited to share that A Perspective of Joy is now available for purchase!

In this book, I share some of my favorite images from our world travels, with more than 150 written moments of joy. Whenever I finish reading this book, I always feel more aware of the opportunities for joy, more able to see them waiting for us at every moment.

If this book is for you, buy it! For yourself, for those around you. It’s honestly perfect holiday gift material. I’m so excited to offer this finished work to you, and I’ll be celebrating with every copy I ship out. :D

 

Trust fall

How do you feel about the fact that everyone has agency? What’s your relationship to the idea that everyone you relate to has a choice about how they relate to you?

I think about this most in the context of business, feeling out Lightward’s way in the world. And in that extended exploration, I’ve found this test important:

As you interact with others, are you encouraging agency, or discouraging agency? Are you making it easier for people to decide for themselves, or are you working to force their choice to suit your preference?

This creates an easy litmus test. The next time you encounter some advertising, ask yourself how it’s designed to work. Some commercials evoke fear, and promise you safety. Some commercials show you happiness, and offer it to you on sale. (The language of “deserving” is popular – and deserves to be interrogated thoughtfully.)

Broadly, I think that the movements that discourage agency are tantamount to operating in scarcity. If I don’t trust that there’s enough out there for you and for me, then it makes sense: to guarantee that I’ll be okay, I need to guarantee that you’ll make choices that benefit me. I have to remove your agency, force your choice, to ensure that I’ll be cared for.

But that is not the only option!

Movements that encourage agency are what the future is made of.

If I encourage your agency, it’s because I want to know what you’ve got inside you, and I know, for sure, that coaxing it out of you is going to be good for the world. It’s because I trust, absolutely, that all of us stepping into our personal choice will result in more and more good.

I suggested a litmus test earlier, and here’s where the full definition of that term applies: to pass this litmus test, you’ve got to be encouraging agency.

This is a massively important part of what I’m doing with Lightward. Our pay-what-feels-good pricing is based on this idea, that encouraging your agency is good for us all. Our every interaction with customers is based on this idea: though we do excellent work, we don’t give a shit if you choose our products or not. We only care that you are equipped and encouraged to decide exactly what you want to decide.

Does this pay off? Obviously! There’s freedom in this, and people like freedom. People will keep coming back to places where they feel free, which means this stance of ours is a major contributor to our success. But to call this a success strategy would be missing the forest for the trees: life wants to be free, to act in freedom, and I think that whatever forces encourage agency naturally rise to the top, because raising those up serves the entire system of life, which is about ever-increasing choice. Not more choices, but more choice. More choosing. More pristine determination (to borrow an idea I heard this week). And I’m pretty sure that anything that works in favor of that gets an automatic leg up in the system of life, because it is acting in favor of the whole system.

Now, anytime I see someone offering a strategy for getting a leg up, I’m very, very careful about how I relate to it. And that applies here. But here, I think this is perfectly okay, and good, because this boost I’m describing is not accessible to anyone who’s working to drag the system down. I’m proposing that a business (but it needn’t be a business) is going to benefit from the nature of life itself if it encourages the freedom and choice and ability and power and taste and preference and determination and agency of all of its customers. If I’m right, then a business whose top priority is growth can’t afford to try and force a sale, because in removing agency to achieve a transaction, they’ve just sabotaged their standing in the overall system.

If I’m right, then life is irrevocably oriented towards more and greater choice, more and greater choosing. And it doesn’t matter if you participate or not – it’s happening.

If I’m wrong, I do not care. :D For myself, engaging in this way is infinitely more interesting. To do work in this way is to be in a constant trust fall, because my every choice is predicated on the belief that encouraging your choice is something I’ll be able to do again tomorrow.

A trust fall is exhilarating. You cannot know exactly what the outcome will be, but in a trust fall you have chosen to trust the choice of another. It’s one of my favorite things! I’m learning to do it in more and more parts of my life, and it just keeps getting better.

In the spirit of all of this, I’m not telling you to work this way. This only works if you find it for yourself. So, if you will, watch those around you – people, companies, whatever – and ask yourself if they’re working to encourage your agency, or discourage it. (Or straight up remove it, because that happens too.) Develop your own relationship with this. And, if you will, let me know what you find. :)

Love,

-Isaac

 

Wellness,
for you and me

Breathe. Pause your reading, for a moment, and take one minute to breathe, inhaling and exhaling through your nose. It’s powerful what a few minutes of focused breathing can do for you! Have you tried intentional breathing before you fall asleep? One of my clients was experiencing insomnia for quite some time and I had them breathe for five minutes while laying down, shutting their eyes and breathing slowly before laying down for bed, inhaling and exhaling for five seconds at a time. It really helped, and they now sleep like a rock. Try it!

ENJOY THE RIDE

Hey. I’m going to keep this simple and direct. This year has taught us a lot, and it continues to do so. A perspective that has helped me everywhere (in my weight loss journey, in building our businesses, in relationships, etc) has been to enjoy the ride. You have agency in your perspective and how you respond to your circumstances. I’ve noticed when I’m not hyper-focused on goals or specific outcomes (hello, my name is Abe and I’m an Enneagram 3 – this is real work for me), I’m able to fully sink into the joy of the now and, from there, create beautiful moments/experiences/environments for myself and those around me. And somehow, in the process, I find myself achieving those goals with better results than I would have without that joy. Enjoying the ride that you’re on in life is one of the best recipes for deep joy and peace. Trust that life/God/the universe/whatever you believe is working in your favor. Your mindset truly affects every single thing in your current moment and in your greater story.

So, how can you enjoy the ride that you’re on? Can you take things out of it that don’t serve you any longer? Can you shift your mindset from anger to appreciation? Can you forgive and not carry the weight with you everywhere? Can you focus on all of the incredible miracles around us every day? Can you trust yourself to create the life you love? All of these help in making the ride of your life into the ride of your life. Will you choose it?

I wholeheartedly believe in you.

-Abe

P.S. Remember the NBC interview I talked about last week? It’s live – you can watch it here!

 

Podcast update!

Empowered Human Academy! Our episode, in which we were interviewed by our dear friend Justin, landed on Tuesday. If you’re finding things in this newsletter that hit home, the odds are very high that you’ll find that in this episode, too. (And also in the entire podcast.)

Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and also everywhere else where podcasts are found.

 

Move toward joy. If you’re not feeling joy right now, don’t try to jump straight there – big jumps are hard to land, and if you don’t land it, you might feel worse. So, just take tiny steps toward relief. Anything that feels a little better is worth your time. :) You’re good, you’re good, and you can do it. 😘