Ever have one of those hectic days? When from the time you wake to the time you put your head down there is nothing but activity after activity. Sometimes more than one at a time, and it just seems that there is never enough time. Sorry to say it, but I think this happens, more often, for many people than they would like or would even have planned for themselves. To what purpose is all this commotion and is it really doing us any good?
When we were young we seemed to have more time. We surely had fewer obligations and much less to worry about. Funny, those concerns were our parents' job, and now when we've arrived at a point in our lives where that is perhaps one of our roles, we are surprised to find out that we're flooded with obligation and demands of our time. How did this happen? Can it be simplified or is it just the nature of life, to be herded through time and to feel desperately out of control. How do we regain that child-like freedom and joy in our adult lives?
This is no easy task. Part of the problem is time. How do we manage it, and will that management serve to bring us closer to freedom. Priority must be placed upon things that matter and things that don't. What's urgent and what can wait. Who we spend our time with and whom we do not. Even harder, Why this or that should be done or left for the next opportunity. When is the right time or when is not. Pretty daunting and all of a sudden we're back into a maelstrom of activity. Uh oh, we've reflected the physical world into our mind. Back at square one again.
While time can get away from us, it is not the sole point of focus to bring a sense of peace and control back into our lives. However important, if we focus too much on time management we will only cycle back into a desperate circle. Usually this occurs because we lack confidence or lack a sense of control. Time can be much more manageable if we are able to place value upon its expenditure and application. The Why factor perhaps, or a combination of all the what, when, why, where, and who factors together. The key to time management is likely the ability to establish a value or Purpose to it. Setting values to our decisions. I'm sure this is not news to anyone.
We typically use some sort of personal meter to establish these values. This personal meter is established over time by our exposure to family, friends, and a variety of other influences. We use these as a model to establish our own method of prioritizing our actions. Other methods exist as well; one could ascribe their decisions to religious systems, or secular ethics. There is however an inherent meter that we possess as well, our conscience. It seems that we all have one, although there are some we say have none, but I'm convinced that we all do. Fundamentally, we're all wired in the same basic fashion. This raises the question to some sort of universal or absolute system to which all things must adhere. The science of the soul. An inherent system of value determinations that will provide us with a clear path to freedom and peace of mind. Now the trick is learning to access this system.
We've all heard that little voice in our heads telling us that something is wrong or something is right. Unfortunately it probably tells us alot more than that because its confused with the millions of thoughts we produce every day. We've heard our conscience before but when we really hear it, we know it; there is a deeper recognition than some passing thought. Our conscience is there as a guide. It takes practice to hear it more often; almost like establishing a habit. Trust you conscience they say; just be discerning enough to know the difference between your conscience and your will; two totally different things.
The Conscience and a sense of Purpose are accessible and they don't need to be achieved with great effort. Everything comes in increments, even those things we can perceive to be instantaneous have been established through steps of preparation, for that moment of change. The more often we think actively about simplification, the more our eyes are opened to the opportunities to shed those activities that enslave us to chaos and helplessness. The more often we hear our hearts tell us what is right, the more often we establish a sense of order to what is really valid to our lives.
We yearn for calm and orderly progression through our days, but without the challenges, it would be just as mundane as just resigning to the chaos and commotion. Every moment is an opportunity to achieve freedom. Freedom is a state of mind. While the world around us can be in all sorts of disarray, it is how we maintain an ordered and calm mental and spiritual state that will preserve that sense of freedom. By evicting thoughts that serve no benefit to true harmony, we can hear our clear conscience and step humbly, yet confident, on a path of freedom.
Monday, October 22, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
From Adversity To Serenity
Adversity. What is this thing, this monster, to some? Where does difficulty dwell? Is it an entity of its own? Does it have some misguided life force at its core, fueling its dastardly purposes?!?!?
In every dynamic, whether it be work, home life, social structures, everywhere you turn it seems that there is always a hurtle to be traversed before there is any sense of completion. For the sake of simplicity we'll call it adversity. It's the texture that makes life seem less than fluid, it's the bumps in the road that make the journey anywhere from irritable to downright jarring.
We can take a variety of approaches to determining what adversity means to us, personally. We can look at other people and contrast our own ideas of adversity against theirs to get some sort of consensus about what to do to determine If This then Do This. This may help for a time but you might find that after using this approach for a while you'll be in the same boat as those people you've adopted the ethic from, to sometimes undesirable outcomes; the result of bad advice. Albeit I'm sure that a true friend doesn't want to steer you into adversity but to help you rise above it, but how does that friend define adversity to themselves and what is their manner of dealing with it and to what outcome. In this strategy one must choose wise counsel.
In order to overcome adversity it is important to define it; know your enemy as they say. Adversity is, simply stated, the lack of freedom. It has no form unless we give it form. Freedom is an unnatural state of being when we look at our physical world around us, everything is within some sort of boundary or contained by some force. We stand divided from actualizing our goals by these boundaries. Traveling through the boundaries seems the only way to get to a different state of existence, the other side of our current circumstance.
The boundaries in life can be viewed as a wall, an obstruction. Conversely they can be viewed as opportunities, steps higher to our goals or ideals. Attitude is everything. When someone has an "I can't do it" attitude, the likelihood is that they won't and never will do it. Whatever the case may be, negative thinking wont get you anywhere.
Adversities are there to teach us, test our ability to overcome, to challenge our reasoning and resolve. We can either be enslaved by adversity or we can master it , by our thoughts. Thinking positive is the key and keeping those thoughts realistic or in balance is the beauty or grace that makes the journey enjoyable. Actively thinking and discerning, or weighing the pros and cons can be a daunting task but we are thinking all the time anyway; one might as well be doing it actively instead of passively, passivity is stagnant and counter-productive. You'll wind up standing in front of a wall and never climbing it if you only see it as a wall and not a step to be overcome.
Once one wall is traversed, we understand the If This then Do This for ourselves, its been the product of active and positive thought processes. The next wall is less daunting in the face of this personal knowledge and it can be climbed that much easier with the confidence of previous success. Each subsequent step becomes more familiar in accomplishing the next wall. This familiarity with our ability is confidence which is great, but too much of it leads to cockiness. We can use that same method too much and become lazy and arrogant. Not an admirable trait. we've been lead back to passivity, we creatures of habit.
The real goal is Serenity. A balance to the reality of our situation, not allowing adversity to be our master but mastering it. Accomplishing difficulties with active yet calm deliberation. Not allowing our successes to get to our head but keeping humility, because the next adversity has much to teach us and reveal to us of our inborn ability to succeed, by active thought. However we also have an equal amount of ability toward failure through passive thought; this being recognized and keeping its balance shows true humility. Serenity is accomplished by keeping the balance between the two poles of thought, Active and Passive. Serenity is a quiet calm in the face of adversity.
In every dynamic, whether it be work, home life, social structures, everywhere you turn it seems that there is always a hurtle to be traversed before there is any sense of completion. For the sake of simplicity we'll call it adversity. It's the texture that makes life seem less than fluid, it's the bumps in the road that make the journey anywhere from irritable to downright jarring.
We can take a variety of approaches to determining what adversity means to us, personally. We can look at other people and contrast our own ideas of adversity against theirs to get some sort of consensus about what to do to determine If This then Do This. This may help for a time but you might find that after using this approach for a while you'll be in the same boat as those people you've adopted the ethic from, to sometimes undesirable outcomes; the result of bad advice. Albeit I'm sure that a true friend doesn't want to steer you into adversity but to help you rise above it, but how does that friend define adversity to themselves and what is their manner of dealing with it and to what outcome. In this strategy one must choose wise counsel.
In order to overcome adversity it is important to define it; know your enemy as they say. Adversity is, simply stated, the lack of freedom. It has no form unless we give it form. Freedom is an unnatural state of being when we look at our physical world around us, everything is within some sort of boundary or contained by some force. We stand divided from actualizing our goals by these boundaries. Traveling through the boundaries seems the only way to get to a different state of existence, the other side of our current circumstance.
The boundaries in life can be viewed as a wall, an obstruction. Conversely they can be viewed as opportunities, steps higher to our goals or ideals. Attitude is everything. When someone has an "I can't do it" attitude, the likelihood is that they won't and never will do it. Whatever the case may be, negative thinking wont get you anywhere.
Adversities are there to teach us, test our ability to overcome, to challenge our reasoning and resolve. We can either be enslaved by adversity or we can master it , by our thoughts. Thinking positive is the key and keeping those thoughts realistic or in balance is the beauty or grace that makes the journey enjoyable. Actively thinking and discerning, or weighing the pros and cons can be a daunting task but we are thinking all the time anyway; one might as well be doing it actively instead of passively, passivity is stagnant and counter-productive. You'll wind up standing in front of a wall and never climbing it if you only see it as a wall and not a step to be overcome.
Once one wall is traversed, we understand the If This then Do This for ourselves, its been the product of active and positive thought processes. The next wall is less daunting in the face of this personal knowledge and it can be climbed that much easier with the confidence of previous success. Each subsequent step becomes more familiar in accomplishing the next wall. This familiarity with our ability is confidence which is great, but too much of it leads to cockiness. We can use that same method too much and become lazy and arrogant. Not an admirable trait. we've been lead back to passivity, we creatures of habit.
The real goal is Serenity. A balance to the reality of our situation, not allowing adversity to be our master but mastering it. Accomplishing difficulties with active yet calm deliberation. Not allowing our successes to get to our head but keeping humility, because the next adversity has much to teach us and reveal to us of our inborn ability to succeed, by active thought. However we also have an equal amount of ability toward failure through passive thought; this being recognized and keeping its balance shows true humility. Serenity is accomplished by keeping the balance between the two poles of thought, Active and Passive. Serenity is a quiet calm in the face of adversity.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
What is it with people Today?
There is a pervasive feeling in our American society today of an oppressive nature. It's hard to pin it down. The news is never good (I can't remember the last time I saw a newscast that didn't feature some atrocity against some individual or group against group conflict). I'm not wanting there to be some rose-colored-glass-police that paints something rosy for our peace of mind, and the token Human Interest stories don't seem to satisfy at the end of the newscast either. Maybe it's just that Smut Sells and we're all buying. Capitalism at its best. Conglomerates have invaded our Internet to propagate more bad news , heck you can even get it sent to your cellphone or some other mobile device, if you so choose they'll never leave you alone. I don't want to pin this negative vibe in our culture only on the media, although I think it's central to its force of reproduction.
There comes a point when enough is enough. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who simply choose not to acknowledge the news and its soured homogeneity. Just turn the channel and watch re-runs of a sit-com and feel happy again. This certainly can help in restoring some of the personal balance we so desire. But there's still more that can be done. Random acts of kindness could help if we weren't so scared of each other or, sorry to say it, intolerant. Keeping a positive attitude helps if you don't offend those who want to wallow in their miserable bliss, who from their misery balk at your joy as some kind of insane dreamworld. Being realistic requires one to know the nature of reality. One can ascribe to a whole plethora of systems to define their reality- church, work, cultural identity, education, even apathy, just to name a few.
Unfortunately I feel we are ill equipped to discern. We are taught in school to cram information and vomit it out upon a test just in time to be crammed with more information again. A vicious cycle with poor results. We barely have enough time with the information to assess its value or application to build any knowledge. especially when we are constantly bombarded with frivolous impulses to buy this, or get that haircut, or tan in a booth(when the sun is for free). Activity rich and knowledge poor.
Enough is Enough. The ability to discern is an acquired trait. One must apply oneself to the process of making choices of value. Making mistakes and realizing their consequences. Having successes and truly enjoying those benefits and, I think, sharing in them as well. Actively choosing to walk a path through life will sure feel better than just trudging along with the herd over a cliff.
There comes a point when enough is enough. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who simply choose not to acknowledge the news and its soured homogeneity. Just turn the channel and watch re-runs of a sit-com and feel happy again. This certainly can help in restoring some of the personal balance we so desire. But there's still more that can be done. Random acts of kindness could help if we weren't so scared of each other or, sorry to say it, intolerant. Keeping a positive attitude helps if you don't offend those who want to wallow in their miserable bliss, who from their misery balk at your joy as some kind of insane dreamworld. Being realistic requires one to know the nature of reality. One can ascribe to a whole plethora of systems to define their reality- church, work, cultural identity, education, even apathy, just to name a few.
Unfortunately I feel we are ill equipped to discern. We are taught in school to cram information and vomit it out upon a test just in time to be crammed with more information again. A vicious cycle with poor results. We barely have enough time with the information to assess its value or application to build any knowledge. especially when we are constantly bombarded with frivolous impulses to buy this, or get that haircut, or tan in a booth(when the sun is for free). Activity rich and knowledge poor.
Enough is Enough. The ability to discern is an acquired trait. One must apply oneself to the process of making choices of value. Making mistakes and realizing their consequences. Having successes and truly enjoying those benefits and, I think, sharing in them as well. Actively choosing to walk a path through life will sure feel better than just trudging along with the herd over a cliff.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)