On the Verge. Cara Bradley

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СКАЧАТЬ it is at these junctures that plants and wildlife thrive more than in any other area on the river. This special place is called “the verge.”

      As a human-potential junkie, I was ecstatic to learn that a place like the verge actually existed. Imagine the feeling of living on a verge in the Amazon. It made me wonder if, like the plants and wildlife, the people who live on the verge thrive there too. It made me wonder if there was a verge closer to home, and if such a place or state existed, how I could get there and live there.

      I started experimenting with techniques and practices that could help me thrive as if I were living on the verge. I took thousands of yoga classes, sat in meditation for hundreds of hours, spent days in silence, chanted, prayed in sweat lodges, had my chakras cleared, read countless self-help and spiritual books, studied the great world religions, bungee-jumped, zip-lined, and walked on hot coals. I searched for a place like the verge where I could feel as awake and fully alive as I did when I was nineteen.

      Intrigued ever since, I’ve discovered you don’t have to go deep into the rain forest to find the verge. It is, in fact, available to you in every moment. It’s at your fingertips all the time, because this moment is the verge.

      In this exact moment there’s a gap, a split second of time, when you’re not quite in the past and not quite in the future. In this moment you are on a threshold, you are on the verge. Do you feel it?

      If you’re distracted or busy, you’ll miss it. You may speed right by it. Poof! Just like that, this gap in time will be gone forever. The verge, by nature, is fleeting and elusive. You can’t hold on to it, and you can’t search for it. You simply need to show up on the verge — on the threshold between a moment ago and a moment from now.

      The verge, this very moment, is not just where your mind and body go through the motions of life; it’s also where you feel awake and fully alive.

      The verge is not only where nature thrives; it’s also where you thrive.

      The verge is where you wake up, show up, and shine.

      On the Verge is based on my own direct experience of being awake and fully alive and on my curiosity about human potential and what it means to thrive. Although I stand on the shoulders of many teachers, the insights I share with you flow from my own investigation and discoveries. My intent for this book was not to try to rehash the words of great masters of philosophy, science, and religion. So you won’t find quotations of great sages or references to scientific studies.

      I am offering a raw and unfiltered expression of what I have experienced in my own practices and in teaching thousands of people. I attempt to express as simply as possible how it feels to break free of the confines of my own cluttered, often chaotic mind and be conscious in a human body in a busy world. I humbly offer you my experience of what it feels like to wake up, show up, and shine.

      On the Verge emerged from my thirty-five years of teaching fitness and yoga and my lifelong dedication to coaching thousands of people to experience life fully — and to do so over and over again. By taking this journey with me, I hope you’ll learn to do the same — to adopt a few practices and strategies that will help you show up in this moment and embrace life fully.

      On the Verge isn’t about changing your body, love life, or finances. In the pages ahead, I’m not going to tell you what to eat, how to exercise, or how to pray. I won’t ask you to sit still for hours at a time, nor will I tell you what you need to improve. There’s enough advice out there and, in my opinion, the more you read about what you should be doing, the less likely you are to actually commit to anything.

      Living on the verge is not about doing more, but about being more. It isn’t about achieving more; it’s about experiencing more. It’s not about being someone different, as there’s no “better version of you” on the horizon. Everything you’re searching for is available to you in this moment. Everything you need is right here on the verge.

      You’ll discover that when you show up in this moment — when you are 100 percent engaged right here and right now — you arrive in a space where you are fully aware. In this space, beyond your busy mind, you glimpse your naturally occurring state of being awake and fully alive. In your natural state your mind is clear, your body bright, and your heart open. On the verge, in your natural state, you show up and shine.

      In the pages ahead you’ll learn practices and strategies to help you shift your perspective beyond your busy mind, glimpse your natural state, and live on the verge. But don’t assume you’ll wake up and show up just by reading this book. Don’t just hope that somehow you’ll be ready to shine when you need to shine most — during the big board meeting or the last play of the game. That kind of thinking is risky business. Don’t hope you’ll miraculously feel awake and fully alive when you want to or need to most. Instead, commit to taking this journey with me and discover through practice what it feels like to show up and live on the verge over and over again.

      You are already awake and fully alive. You are already on the verge. You just may not believe it — yet. I want to help you believe in your extraordinary human potential to show up and shine in even the most ordinary moments of your everyday life. I want to help you show up and shine as I did on the track thirty years ago, and to do so not by accident or once in a while, but on purpose and all the time. So buckle your seat belts and get ready to break your own records and achieve your own personal best. Let’s get started.

PART I

       WAKE UP AND SHOW UP

CHAPTER ONE

       “Let Me Do”

      I was born Carolyn Marie Ferrara, the only daughter sandwiched between two sons in an Italian American family from the Coney Island section of Brooklyn. As a fiercely independent child, I didn’t take orders well, resisted advice, and insisted on doing everything myself. My three favorite words were “Let me do.” No one could tell me what to do or show me how to do it. I needed to do it myself, thank you very much. My need for autonomy carried through my teenage years, when day in and day out I insisted on being left alone to figure things out for myself.

      This “Let me do” attitude worked both for me and against me. I developed some useful skills, such as not believing everything I read, standing up to peer pressure, and possessing a readiness to try most things at least once (as long as it doesn’t involve jumping out of planes).

      In early adulthood I became impatient and impulsive, making hasty decisions without consulting the experts, a.k.a. my parents, including a last-minute transfer in my sophomore year of college, quitting a sweet position at a New York investment bank, and dropping out of a fast-track MBA program at New York University. I married in my twenties, changed my name to Cara in my thirties, and got a tattoo in my forties. I’ve taught everything from step aerobics to hip-hop dance, performed on Rollerblades around the world, and started a handful of businesses, including selling hair bows in Greenwich Village, ice-cream cones in New Hampshire, and figure-skating apparel in Nova Scotia.

      So here I am, Cara, the “Let me do” risk taker, who must see, hear, taste, smell, and touch everything before I accept it as the real deal. I don’t like gimmicks and steer clear of big promises. Don’t try to BS me, because I’ll smell it a mile away. Before I buy, I need to touch. Before I sell, I need to trust.

      Being СКАЧАТЬ