All of us are chasing something.

Love, recognition, understanding, validation, acceptance, money, safety, security, peace…

We can spend our lives chasing for chasing sake, leaving us perpetually unsatisfied, confused, and very often sad.

I’ve chased all of these and countless others, mostly for reasons that I can scarcely remember now, but ones that felt so vitally important at the time. We can spend our lifetimes chasing people, material things, new experiences… But where does this compulsion to chase come from?

When we’re chasing we can feel that we are moving forward, making progress, and what we pursue in this life is important- it tells the world who we are, what we want others to believe about us, and what we want to believe about ourselves. But this is ego driven.

How many of us reach a certain point in our lives when we realize that the path we’ve been walking was for someone or something that is out of alignment with our true self.

Resentment, anger, sadness creep into our thoughts slowly building until we break down, give up, or explode.

Our true self is the vibration that rises to the surface when we sit in stillness. Our true self is the one who simply is without attachments or labels, in the words of Peter Marchand, “the one that never changes. The one that is ever experiencing but never identifying with its role within the experience.”

It’s less about the “what” that we are chasing that can leave us distraught but more about the “why” and the “who” that is doing the chasing.

Are we chasing from a place of mindFULness or a place of mindLESSness?

How can we learn the difference? Silent awareness.

“Only one task to do here: find out who you are. How do you find out who you are? Dive into silence and see.” -Satguru Siva Yogaswami

Quietly sitting with things as they truly are and not as we would want or wish them to be. Giving ourselves the space and grace to exercise self-compassion for all the things that have brought us to this moment. Moving with the intention to connect with our true selves in all that we do.

What are you chasing?

Do you know why or for who?