A mentally-active, communicative morning, here in Oakland. After a few weeks of admittedly focused self-absorption, I’m catching up on news from outside my bubble and piecing together my judgments of the world we share.

Revolution in Libya, the US empire in recession and Earth quaking because it wants to. Those are the bits I caught up with, today. Challenges from all over the world. Aliveness, indirectly transmitted to me by news sources from outside America. On Huffington Post, headlines about Libya catch my attention. I scroll down for more news of this magnitude, and I read words about Americans politicking. On the right hand side of the page, and in the header at the top of the front page, entertainment news. Pretty girls. Trivia. Pretty girls. I’m distracted. I want to click.

Not today, though. I keep myself on task. I want the news, what’s really happening. Not the Daily Show, today. I don’t want to laugh. I want the straight dope, no chaser. Neat – a tall pour, please.

I head to the Al Jazeera website, where I find opinions and perspectives about the events of the world without the distractions of American media. I find bold opinions about the decline of the American empire. I read news about Libyan defectors landing on Malta, and I wonder if my friends in Europe will be safe, if “the shit goes down.” And I catch myself, judge myself for being so American. I judge myself for living inside this bubble. And I feel like shit. I feel small and ignorant. I feel like I’ve been propagating an illusion, a delusion of grandeur, by living as an American. I feel short-changed. By my textbooks, my teachers and my story about why I haven’t traveled much outside the US.

So I retreat, back to my bubble, looking for validation, hoping for support: I switch over to Facebook, for news about real things, matters of substance, through the lens of people that Like, Share and Add me – and that I Like, Share and Add. My network. My informants. My fans.

On my Facebook feed, through my handpicked community of healers, conscious beings, visionaries and beautiful people from the many chapters of my journey, I consume the minutia and the musings of individuals. Each one, maybe as self-absorbed as I am. Each one, sharing for reasons only they can admit to with certainty. Hustling, bustling. Marketing their work, advertising their wares, celebrating their achievements, lamenting their shortcomings, propagating their viewpoints. Judgments abound, projections in multiple dimensions. People minding each other’s business. And I’m minding all of it. I contribute. I comment. I share. The musings of the comfortable and the laments of the fortunate. I judge it all. Because I can. Because they want me to. They put it on the Internet.

But my most trusted sources on Facebook are posting about visionaries, the innovators of this generation. Links to TED Talks, YouTube videos by contemporary philosophers. Quotes and links to the newest of the New Age thinkers. Positivity, empowerment, integration. Love, compassion, community, communication. Ah, my life. My purpose. I feel nourished, and I feel optimistic. I can’t change the other people’s business I shouldn’t be minding, but I can change myself – and I can share with the people that I journey with.

So, I reach out to you. My Public. My Dear, Beloved Reader. My family of friends and fans. To share. To chat. To be seen doing my inner work and my work in this world, in the best way I can. To connect with you about life and about living – through my lenses and infused with my light, my shadow, my judgments. Because I believe that I’m helping, by writing these notes in CyberSpace.

And I wonder if I’m thinking small, and if thinking small is the new living big.

I hear a call to reconnect with my work with youth education and mentorship. I learn so much from and feel energized by helping young people express themselves and be seen and heard in ways that nourish, strengthen and empower them.

I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to do it for my living, and for reasons very personal and integral to my present, I chose to step away from that part of my offering and into action for other parts of my mission. I suspect that, soon, I will create or enroll in an offering that aligns with me and strengthens the developing muscles of my community.

Today, I take this moment to bless the work of another:

I spent the better part of yesterday morning exploring the work of Staten Island’s P.S. 22 Chorus. Via YouTube, I consumed the work of young sound healers and their maestro, Gregg Breinberg – an inspired, generous and potent guide, teacher and mentor of these young people.

This chorus sounds, to me, like a gathering of angels. Their leader, seems to me a vibrant man living greatness and embodying true passion for and connection to the beauty in others. Together, they emit a sound that, in both my judgment and experience, vibrates on a frequency that feels expansive, healing and transformational. For me, and maybe even for them and for you.

I am grateful for and deeply inspired by their work, and I am so happy that P.S. 22′s chorus program exists for and in my hometown. I hope that, through my work, action and support, I can make the experiences of expression, collaboration and achievement accessible to more young people.

Some of P.S. 22 Chorus’ versions of popular songs softened the callous around my heart, reconnected me to the magic of commercial music; other songs have burst wide my eyes, to allow tears to fall onto my cheeks. This song, “One Day,” performed live at the 92nd Street Y (where I, once upon a time, took swimming lessons) with Matisyahu, has me dancing and singing since the moment I first heard it. Cracked open, exposed to my world, as Joy.

Let light in. Not just to brighten the darkness, but to flood my cells with light. Yes.

© 1999 Gracie Films

Whether I judge it as greed or selfishness, revere it as presence or consciousness, or celebrate it hopefully as my proximity to enlightenment, I notice that what fuels most of my decisions feels to me like ageless truth or timeless wisdom: I’m going to die, so I want to make the most of my time alive.

“Making the most of my time alive” has looked like many actions, habits, material possessions, fixations, intentions, accomplishments and activities, in my current incarnation – so I suppose that “living” means and shows up as different things to different people.

How are you maximizing your life force?

I judge that all of this – our credit, our iPhones, our champagne, our laws, our tax codes, our massages, our cars, our espresso, our Kobe beef and our free-range, cruelty free shampoos – are, at their most basic, practical and material manifestations of our desire to make the most of our time alive. Different strokes. Different folks.

What can you do to enhance your life experience?

Whether you do it yourself or you do it with assistance, there is definitely at least one action that you can take to enrich your life. Say something. Study something. Build something. Break something. Start something. Stop something. My advice: keep it simple.

Simplicity can help you experience achievement. The simpler the task, the more likely you are to achieve it. Line up and knock down a few simple tasks, and you’re on a roll. Get on roll, and you’re tough to stop, maybe impossible to slow down. That’s the momentum of achievement. You might already know it.

Want some suggestions?

In support of your power to create and enrich your own lives, I deliver personal growth coaching and media resources – like this blog and my show on BlogTalkRadio – via my wellness company, Alive & Direct. Explore my website for information about what I do, how I do it and how you can experience more of it.

In the meantime, I’ll project onto you some of my own core values, and hope that they help you experience more life while living.

Live With Purpose
I use a personal mission statement, to help me focus my energies and live with direction. I recommend a mission statement, if you don’t already have one. Your mission statement can be a powerful tool for living, because it can help you set goals, notice your progress and make decisions that feel good. Here are some resources to help you create your own mission statement, courtesy of productivity experts and assistants at Franklin-Covey.

What’s your mission? How are you living your mission every day? What support do you need – from yourself and/or the people around you – to embody and complete your mission?

Nourish Yourself
Whether your body is your temple, your vessel or your nemesis right now, you’ll need it to live with purpose. Same goes for your mind – it might trip you up sometimes, or it might be so sophisticated and brilliant that it might be too much for the world, if nurtured, but it’s integral.

How can you empower your vitality today and everyday? What decisions can you make and what habits can you either break or begin, in order to feel nourished of mind and body – and spirit?

Stay Curious
I know what it allegedly did to that cat, but curiosity informs, excites and connects us all. We’re learning animals, so I recommend that we use that trait for all its value. What do you wonder most about? What can you do to find out more about it? What can you do to learn more through experience, conversation or research?

This post was originally published as an article on Examiner.com.