Lately, I’ve been involved in a number of training experiences where I’ve found myself focusing most deeply on the qualities and tone a person brings to an encounter – what we broadcast, verbally and non-verbally, as we move through the day. Each morning, I begin the day with a practice that allows me to “tune” myself, to connect with the parts of me that are centered and aligned with my commitment to practice compassion and that affirm my sense of connection with all living beings, among other qualities I seek to embody. I know that this small bit of morning time sets a tone that I then carry throughout the day in a way I wouldn’t if I didn’t make the conscious choice to do so.

Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t get out of tune any number of times along the way, but it seems easier to catch myself when I’ve begun the day with the experience of resonating with the particular qualities I want to embody as I move through my life. It seems that setting the intention, and then feeling the qualities that emanate naturally from that intention, set a tone that becomes the baseline for the day. As when a radio goes slightly out of synch and the station you’re listening to becomes a bit fuzzy, so when I go out of alignment with the tone I’ve set in the morning, I notice I’m not as centered – that I’m a bit fuzzy. Then, I have the opportunity to choose to get back in tune, to recenter myself.

For this week’s experiment, I invite you to explore the tone you carry into the world, the qualities you express and emanate spontaneously, and then to notice if there’s anything you’d like to shift or express differently. This isn’t an exercise in catching yourself doing something wrong. It’s closer to the process of choosing what you want to wear for the day – it’s a matter of feeling into how you’d like to move through the day from the inside out and then experimenting with how it is to set that tone and intention before launching yourself into your everyday activities.

Also, the point of the experiment isn’t to be able to set a tone and succeed at keeping it perfectly all day long. Instead, this is another opportunity to bring awareness and mindfulness to the stuff of everyday, and to practice having moments of choice where you can either bring yourself back to a way of being you set up at the beginning of the day or explore more deeply where you’ve landed in that particular moment.

As with all these experiments, the opportunity is to practice living more consciously, to practice truly being here, in this moment, aware of yourself and what’s happening around you. The companion opportunity is to have the chance to move out of judgment into noticing, and to develop a compassion for yourself that gives you the room to explore what’s working well and what isn’t. Then, a way opens to play with experiencing the different choices you make, and the impact they have, as you move through your day.