Work & Life In The Year Of The Tiger
It’s 2022, a year of the Tiger. I’m excited. Here’s why . . .
A few years ago, I found myself at a crossroads.
Fresh off of a breakup and free of location constraints, I decided to honor my bucket list and head across the ocean to live in Japan for an indefinite period of time.
Before leaving, I made an appointment with a local shaman to do some healing work and pattern clearing before making a new start.
After she performed a series of mystical procedures, we chatted for a while about what she found.
Among other things, she told me an animal spirit wanted to come through to help me.
A tiger.
..
When I finally made it to Japan a month or so later, I visited a 17th century castle (Nagoya Castle) known for its beautiful gold paintings.
In the gift shop, I found a replica of one of its tiger paintings printed on a postcard.
I immediately bought it and brought it home to my meditation altar.
…
One night, while sitting on my bed in my little Yokohama apartment, I was feeling apologetic for my existence in one way or another. Y’know, as one does.
Frantic for not doing more, being more . . . I can’t remember the exact anxiety script du jour, but you know the drill.
(By the way, If you think Americans wear busy-ness as a badge of honor, wait ‘til you get a load of Japan.)
In that moment, I remembered the Tiger.
I turned to my right and found the little golden postcard hanging on the wall above my altar.
…
“What is Tiger medicine?” I thought. Here’s what immediately came to me:
Tigers lie around for most of the day.
When it’s time to eat,
they pounce,
they slaughter,
they get on with their lives.
Tigers value rest.
Tigers are efficient.
Tigers are effective.
Tigers are not busy.
Tigers are not sorry.
…
Since having this realization, I’ve done my best to remember it and channel my inner Tiger whenever I find myself being a squirrel or a chihuahua or, let’s be honest, a woman socialized in a patriarchal culture that tells me that my goodness is directly related to how far I bend over backwards (or forward) and how comfortable I can make everyone around me feel.
…
Who do you want to be in your work and in your life?
What kind of energy do you want to bring to what you do and how you live?
I’ll tell you what I want to bring . . .
Big. Cat. Energy.
Rawr.
…
One of my strengths as a marketing consultant is creating systems for efficiency, not so my clients can make time to do more, but so they can make time to do less.
However, even if we find more efficiency, and therefore, more time on our hands, as long as we feel apologetic for our existence, we’ll never actually use that time for rest, play, community, dreaming, or living.
As long as we stay squirrels, we’ll find a way to stay busy.
And squirrels can’t even remember where they bury their food, which, y’know, is great because it means we have trees.
But still.
It’s not just about rest.
It’s about efficiency and effectiveness.
It's about working smarter, not harder.
It's about “ceasing with sufficiency” as my teacher likes to say.
It’s about being economical with our energy so that when we spend it, it counts.
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