Welcome to the Buddhist Boot Camp Podcast. Our intention is to awaken, enlighten, enrich, and inspire a simple and uncomplicated life. Discover the benefits of mindful living with your host, Timber Hawkeye. People often say, "I just want things to go back to the way they used to be." It's a common but impossible wish because everything is constantly changing. Things can improve or get worse, but they can never go back to the way they were.
For example, it took me a very long time to heal when I kept trying to return to who I was before the hurt, but that person is long gone. Only after breathing life into a new me, did I start developing into the person I am today. Even if you bake an apple pie using the same recipe as always,
each comes out a little different because the apples aren't the same. If you want your dessert to taste exactly like when your grandma used to make it, you might be disappointed with a perfectly delicious pie simply because it didn't turn out identical. When we hit a snag in relationships, we want to smooth things over by trying to get the relationship back to the way it was before the bump in the road.
But since each experience changes everything and everyone involved, we cannot recreate yesterday's outcome with today's ingredients. Real growth can only come when we embrace the newness of one another. I can't tell you for how many years the only pictures that my parents had of me on their walls were from when I was a child. All of their disapproving sentences start with, "You used to be such a good kid." But, heck, I used to be a lot of things, yet none of them define me.
After playing a lot of volleyball in my 20s, for example, I took a break for a couple of decades and then decided to play again in my 40s. I was shocked and disappointed that I couldn't jump as high as I used to. Instead of having fun on the court without comparing myself to how I used to be, I made the mistake of trying to keep up with the younger players, but I just ended up with a bruised ego and a busted knee.
My hair is turning gray, metabolism is slowing down, but I do have more patience and tolerance than ever before, better time management skills, focus, and inner peace. We can never be who we once were, and I think that's a good thing IF we can celebrate who we are becoming in this moment. We already know that happy people focus on what they have while unhappy people focus on what's missing, often regardless of how much they have.
So when it comes to our health, wealth, and youth, instead of focusing on what's missing, let's focus on the abundance in our lives today. In other words, stop looking back; you're not going that way. Since this episode is being recorded as we head into the year 2020,
where is your focus? This podcast is available commercial-free thanks to listeners just like you who find value in these episodes and show their support with just one dollar a month through Patreon.com/BuddhistBootCamp People all over the world are still just now discovering Buddhist Boot Camp for the first time thanks to you sharing the book and podcast with them. Thank you for spreading the message and sharing the love, I appreciate you.
Timber Hawkeye is the bestselling author of Faithfully Religionless and Buddhist Boot Camp. For additional information, please visit BuddhistBootCamp.com, where you can order autographed books to support the Prison Library Project, watch Timber's inspiring TED Talk, and join our monthly mailing list. We hope you have enjoyed this episode, and invite you to subscribe for more thought-provoking discussions. Thank you for being a Soldier of Peace in the Army of Love. 🙏🏼