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THE BIG IDEAS A Daily Dose of Sanity

Being in Integrity
A Five-Minute Soul Recharge for Every Day of the Year
Live unapologetically. BY ALAN COHEN · HAY HOUSE © 2010 · 384 PAGES

Blink!
And lighten up!

The Voice
That keeps knocking. “Acts of genius are less a matter of doing, and more a matter of allowing. Less
trying, more flowing. Less forcing, more being. You quit being the doer and you
Replicate Yourself
Not someone else. become the vessel.”
Go For the Light Inside ~ Alan Cohen from A Daily Dose of Sanity
Not your name in lights.
This is the third Note on one of Alan Cohen’s books and it won’t be the last.
Inner Fan Clubs
vs. Inner critics. As I’ve mentioned in the Notes on Why Your Life Sucks (and What You Can Do About It) and
Angry? Relax into Wealth, Alan has become one of my favorite writers and people!
What are you afraid of?
He’s awesome. And so are his books.
Mastering Love
Starts within. This one, A Daily Dose of Sanity, is precisely what the sub-title promises: “A Five-Minute Soul
Riddikulus! Recharge for Every Day of the Year.”
Boggarts begone!
If you’re into more wisdom and less time you’ll love the book. (Amazon it here.)
Bamboo & You
Embrace the seasons and grow. For now, let’s jump in with a quick peek at a few of my favorite Big Ideas!

BEING IN INTEGRITY
“I have a very simple definition of integrity: you are in integrity when what you are doing on the
outside matches who you are on the inside. I respect people who live unapologetically. I know
people who do things I do not agree with or would not do myself, but I honor them for being 100
percent who they are. They are in integrity.”

“Consider a question you Are you integrity?

are wondering about. If Does what you are doing on the outside match who you are on the inside?
you knew the answer, what
If not, what can you do to get in integrity?
would it be?”
~ Alan Cohen As you ponder that, keep this wisdom from Alan in mind: “The secret of success is to be total.
If you are going to do something, really do it. Do not second-guess yourself, let guilt undermine
your joy, or wonder if you should be somewhere else. Either do it with a whole heart or do not do
it. Be total.”

Osho has some *great* wisdom about being “total” as well.

See the Notes on The Book of Understanding where he tells us: “When you are total, it is good;
and when you are divided, it is evil. Divided you suffer; united, you dance, you sing, you
celebrate.”

And: “It is not a question of which part you follow, it is a question of whether you go totally
into it or not. To be total in your action brings joy. Even an ordinary, trivial action done with
total intensity brings a glow to your being, a fulfillment, a fullness, a deep contentment. And
anything done halfheartedly, however good the thing may be, is going to bring misery.”

Buddha echoes this goodness. He tells us: “If anything is worth doing, do it with all your heart.”

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 Back to you.

How are you living?

What can you do to become more “total”?!

BLINK!
“My friend Ernie and I were granted an audience with the revered Swami Satchidananda, an
enlightened yogi who introduced spiritual practices to America beginning in the 1960s. He
opened the legendary Woodstock music festival with his invocation. My friend and I were
ushered to the swami’s inner chamber and seated before him. At that time, Ernie liked to make
deep, heartfelt eye contact with people and he did his best to peer into the swami’s soul. After
a few minutes of our conversation, the swami turned to me and asked, “Why is this guy staring
at me?” We all broke into laughter, including the swami’s very serious disciples. It was truly a
moment of enlightenment!”

That’s hilarious.

I don’t know about you, but the “unblinking ones” (as Alexandra and I like to call them) freak us
out a bit. :)

I’m all about intimacy but, as Michaela Boehm describes in her Art of Intimacy class at the
en*theos Academy, locking someone into your penetrating, unblinking gaze isn’t intimacy—it’s
more like walking up to someone you’ve never met and shoving your hands in their pants.

True intimacy involves respecting social norms and healthy boundaries while allowing a true
connection to form over time rather than trying to prove your spiritual superiority through
unblinking stares.

Ah...

Glad I got that off my chest. :)

Here’s to blinking normally and not taking ourselves *that* seriously as we lighten up and enjoy
the ride!

P.S. Swami Satchidananda is amazing. Check out the Notes on The Golden Present for some of
his wisdom goodness!

THE VOICE THAT KEEPS KNOCKING

“The difference between those who move the world forward and those who stay stuck in a rut is
“God is a circle of which
that the world movers trust the voice that keeps knocking, and they act on it. You can and will be
the center is everywhere
among the movers if you listen to the persistent call of greatness and move with it.”
and the circumference is
nowhere.” We all have a little voice that comes knocking. The question is, will we answer it?

~ Attributed to Empedocles Here’s how Joseph Campbell puts it: “To refuse the call means stagnation. What you don’t
experience positively you will experience negatively.”

And, Jesus says this: “If you bring forth what is inside you, what you bring forth will save you.
If you don’t bring forth what is inside you, what you don’t bring forth will destroy you.”

* knock knock *

...Hear that sound?

It’s your destiny calling.

Time to answer. :)

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 REPLICATE YOURSELF
“When you discover your
“My friend Ben admired his spiritual mentor so much that he took a summer to live and study
mission, you will feel its
with the master at his retreat in the Northwest. One day Ben asked his teacher, “How can I be
demand. It will fill you
more like you?”
with enthusiasm and a
burning desire to get to The healer smiled and answered, “The best way to be more like me is to be more like yourself.”

work on it.” This brilliant answer contains the wisdom of a lifetime! If you are trying to imitate someone
~ W. Clement Stone else’s greatness, you have missed the point of greatness. The secret is to find your own unique
style and talents and bring them forth. No one has ever attained mastery by replicating another.
The truly great simply replicate themselves.”

Amen to that.

Emerson comes to mind. And so does Leo Buscaglia.

In his must-read classic, Self-Reliance, which is pretty much an ode to this Big Idea, Emerson
tells us: “Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with
the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another, you have
only an extemporaneous, half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can
teach him. No man yet knows what it is, nor can, till that person has exhibited it. Where is the
master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed
Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? Every great man is a unique. The Scipionism
of Scipio is precisely that part he could not borrow. Shakespeare will never be made by the
study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned to you, and you cannot hope too much or dare
too much.”

—> Insist on yourself! Never imitate!!

—> Do that which is assigned to you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much.

Wow.

Leo Buscaglia (see Notes on Love) puts it this way: “You are the best you. You will always be the
second best anyone else.”

Are you in integrity?

Being total?

Replicating yourself?

How can you be all of those things *even* more powerfully?!

(And, as always, is NOW a good time to make that happen? :)

GO FOR THE LIGHT INSIDE

“When asked how to remain an individual in the face of great commercialism, Bradbury
suggested, “You just live your life and write your stories. If you set out to write a bestseller, it
can’t be done.... People who try to make a name for themselves are usually surpassed by people
authentically expressing their joy and talents.”

Those who live to see their name in lights usually miss the light within themselves. They place
fame and glory at the top of the ladder of success and overlook personal satisfaction and creative
expression. People who sweat to become stars rarely do, while those who live to share their gifts
and enjoy the ride often find their way to the upper echelons of success.”

This is amazing: “Those who live to see their name in lights usually miss the light within
themselves.”

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 Fact is, when you obsess about achieving some extraordinary level of fame or power or whatever,
“If you are struggling, stop
you’re less likely to get it.
and ask yourself how you
would proceed if you made AND...

creative self-expression the Perhaps most tragically, you’re also less likely to ever discover and live with abiding happiness.
platform for your vocation
It’s the whole intrinsic vs. extrinsic dealio we come back to again and again.
rather than ambition for
glory.” Science *unequivocally* shows us that those who go after the fame/wealth/beauty and other
EXTERNAL markers of success are significantly less psychologically stable than those who
~ Alan Cohen
focus on deeper relationships, personal growth, making a contribution and simply expressing
themselves authentically—the INTRINSIC stuff we want to pay attention to that leads to
fulfilment.

Yah?

So, where are you putting all your precious energy?

P.S. This wisdom from Howard Thurman is good to keep in mind as well: “Don’t ask yourself
what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because
what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

INNER CRITICS & INNER FAN CLUBS

“Fire your inner critic and reinstate your inner fan club.”

Love that.

Time for a little role playing...

::

You: “Inner critic?”

Your Inner Critic: “Yes?”

You: * Insert Trump cobra-like hand gesture *

—> “You’re fired.”

::

With that out of the way, it’s time to promote your inner fan club to the most important job in
your head!

ANGRY? WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

“Anger is fear under pressure. Behind every angry upset there is a fear. If you attempt to deal
with anger at the level of anger alone-by either venting it or repressing it-you are manipulating
the symptom without addressing the cause. If you can discover the fear behind the anger and
dismantle it in the light of awareness, the anger dissipates. The next time you are angry, ask
yourself, What am I afraid of?”

That’s powerful.

To repeat: “Anger is fear under pressure.”

Are you a tad angry these days?

What are you afraid of?

Odds are the inner critic is running the show and creating compelling visuals of all the things
that will go wrong in your life. That fear bubbles up in anger (usually about something unrelated

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 to whatever it is you’re supposedly so upset about).

“Choose to live, rather than So...

study how to live.”
Next time you’re feeling angry, check in and see if you can identify what you’re afraid of.
~ Alan Cohen
As Alan so wisely tells us, if we can “discover the fear behind the anger and dismantle it in the
light of awareness, the anger dissipates.”

MASTERING LOVE
“Psychic self-injury is neither heroic nor practical. You cannot say that you have mastered love
until you include yourself in its embrace. If you make everyone in your life happy but yourself,
you have missed the point of living and loving. Self-honoring is the beginning of true service.
When you practice self-nurturing, others around you will catch the energy and you will create a
wave of well-being that far supersedes the illusory benefits of self-sacrifice.

Do not do anything to yourself that you would not wish on anyone else. Instead, do everything
for yourself that you would do to make others happy ... and the world will be a happier place for
everyone.”

Reminds me of Ayn Rand’s gem that we cannot say “I love you” until we can say the “I.”

As Alan so beautifully shares, love starts within.

Tal Ben-Shahar echoes this wisdom in his great book The Pursuit of Perfect (see Notes) where
he tells us: “Why the double standard, the generosity toward our neighbor and the miserliness
where we ourselves are concerned? And so I propose that we add a new rule, which we can
call the Platinum Rule, to our moral code: ‘Do not do unto yourself what you would not do unto
others.’”

I love that.

—> The Platinum Rule: “Do not do unto yourself what you would not do unto others.”

Tal also tells us: “When the Dalai Lama was then asked to clarify whether indeed the object of
compassion may be the self, he responded: ‘Yourself first, and then in a more advanced way
the aspiration will embrace others. In a way, high levels of compassion are nothing but an
advanced state of that self-interest. That’s why it is hard for people who have a strong sense
of self-hatred to have genuine compassion toward others. There is no anchor, no basis to start
from.’”

Here’s to including ourselves in our loving embrace and remembering to rock The Platinum Rule
as we remember to love ourselves first!!

P.S. How can you do that a little more today? (And tomorrow? And... :)

RIDDIKULUS!
“The film Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban depicts a group of young wizards in
training standing before an imposing armoire—a boggart box—which contains terrifying shape-
shifters assuming the form of whatever a person fears the most. Luckily, instructs Professor
Lupin, a very simple charm exists to repel a boggart: “Riddikulus!” After the students practice
the chant, the professor explains that what really finishes a boggart off is laughter. One by one
the boggarts come forth, and when the students proclaim them “Riddikulus!” and laugh at them,
they shrink to humorous, nonthreatening forms.

A truer teaching was never revealed.”

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 That. Is. Awesome.

Are you getting all freaked out by boggarts?

Time to grab your wand and get your inner wizard on with your “Riddikulus!” charm, eh? :)

Seriously.

Try it the next time you’re getting harassed by your inner gremlins.

BAMBOO & YOU

“The record books never list “Bamboo is a fascinating plant, the fastest growing in the world. A bamboo stalk can grow six
the score at halftime.” inches or more in one day! I know a fellow who swore he actually saw it growing.

~ Source Unknown One of the clever adaptive qualities of bamboo is that it grows its leaves in the summer and its
roots in the winter. It takes advantage of each season, and while it appears dormant, it is not.
The roots grown in winter prepare for rapid branch and leaf development in summer.

We, too, go through seasons, all of which afford us opportunities for different kinds of growth.
In a prosperous economic season, there is a lot of building and external expansion. When
an economic winter comes, with little activity in the outer world, that is the time for inner
deepening.”

Are you going through a challenging time?

If so, remember that we all go through seasons and be like the bamboo and take advantage of
every season as you develop your roots and get ready for your next phase of rockin’ it!!

Brian Johnson,
Chief Philosopher

If you liked this Note, About the Author of “A Daily Dose of Sanity”
you’ll probably like… ALAN COHEN

Why Your Life Sucks

Alan H. Cohen is the author of 18 popular inspirational titles, including The
Relax into Wealth Dragon Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and Dare to be Yourself. A frequent guest
A Joseph Campbell on television and radio, he conducts life mastery seminars in Hawaii and on-
Companion line, and is an acclaimed keynote speaker for educational, health, church, and
Love corporate groups. He lives on Maui, Hawaii. Visit www.alancohen.com to learn
more. (from Amazon)
The Pursuit of Perfect

About the Author of This Note

BRIAN JOHNSON

Brian Johnson is a lover of wisdom (aka a “Philosopher”) and a passionate

student of life who’s committed to inspiring and empowering millions of people
to live their greatest lives as he studies, embodies and shares the universal truths
of optimal living. He harts his job.

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