how to be aware in an unaware world

Category: Quotes

Inaction
“Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind. So we must stretch ourselves to the very limits of human possibility. Anything less is a sin against both God and man.”
– Leonardo da Vinci
This is one of my favorite quotes of all time as I especially like to recite it when sometimes I’m told meditation is a lazy practice.
I also just realized I already wrote an entire blog post about it just a couple of weeks ago (Mindfulness & Action). But the message is a powerful one, and my thoughts are different.
Meditation is not about sitting and doing nothing, watching the world go by. It is about stepping back and observing the world before jumping in recklessly.
I like to best compare it to being both the player and the coach at a soccer or fútbol match.
Whereby we stand and sit on the sidelines watching and observing most of the game and jump in only when we feel most inclined to as well as stepping off to rest when needed.
I like to think of Messi, who as a forward or striker loves to walk around the midline or near the defenders, positioning himself strategically, while also sprinting as hard as he can to get the ball and score when presented with the opportunity.
There are so many opportunities out there to give it our all: Work, school, relationships, passions, creativity pursuits, etc. Meditation simply equips us with the clarity and composition needed to give it our all.
Reflection
Leonardo is elegantly comparing stagnant water to a lazy mind, even calling it a sin against God.
Sloth, is one of the seven deadly sins elaborated by St. Thomas Aquinas when he writes in his first epistles that “to flee vice is the beginning of virtue and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom.”
Leonardo was best known as a Renaissance Man or a man who wore many hats: a polymath, inventor, painter, sculptor, politician, writer, poet, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect.
Although there is little account that Leonardo Da Vinci meditated or promoted meditation, it is safe to say he was mindful about all that he did and said, careful to articulate himself in an esteemed manner.
Times are much different today than in the late 16th century, but the danger of laziness and inaction is much the same.
We must step out of our discomfort and sloth-like attitude to achieve purpose and vigor. It’s quite logical, that the more we do what we love, the more we get out of life, quite literally.
But sometimes we have to do shit we don’t like to. Sometimes we have to get our hands dirty when we prefer them clean so that we can turn to what we enjoy most with a renewed, vigorous mind.
Encouragement
I encourage us today to do just one thing you find uncomfortable, whether it be a workout or a difficult conversation, and do it with the knowledge that it is stimulating the mind in wondrous ways.
Workout? I remember once, while living in Nashville, deciding quite randomly one day to bike to school each weekday, which was a 6-mile one-way ride, in late fall.
Maybe not the smartest timing, but hell I had just found this quote and was determined to take action, and I did. I rode 13 miles daily for about 3 months straight and felt incredible through it all.
Difficult Conversation? I remember needing to tell my best friend, co-workers, boss, friends, and family that I was selling 99% of my possessions and moving to Europe for a while.
Even though it was more of a sad message than a difficult one, those conversations were the catalyst for a much-needed shift in my life. They required nothing short of mindful action.
We are capable of so, so much, and sometimes all it takes is the right push from the right person or message to get us moving.
Thanks
Thank you deeply for all the kind feedback and encouragement ya’ll have given me these past few months as I’ve bombarded your inboxes.
As always, feel free to leave a comment or share this post. You can also Buy Me a Coffee if you are inclined to do so. Thank you in advance!
Links
October 28, 2023
Nothing
“Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing”.
– Lao Tzu
Doing nothing is surprisingly difficult. It requires a shift in thinking that our time must always be occupied, our to-do list must always be filled, and the busier we are the better.
In this non-stop culture, we herald those that ‘get sh*t done’ and seem to do a million things daily, but we forget how stressful and unbalanced that person can be.
Anytime we do too much of anything, one after the other, we forget to pause.
Reflection
Multi-tasking, as I see it, is a myth. The mind can only truly focus on one thing at a time. The more we do, the less attention we have to devote to a single task.
Dopamine is released in rapid succession in the brain, increasing the heart rate and stimulating the nervous system.
That feeling of constant productivity can feel good for a short while, but in the long run, it has adverse effects by actually encouraging a less productive cycle over time.
Our ancestors held roles that consisted of one task at a time, which reduced stress and increased overall contentment with completion, they were more mindful of their productivity.
Now please don’t misread this, doing nothing doesn’t imply watching Netflix all day or doom-scrolling TikTok until the mind blows up.
It means pausing, reassessing what and why we are doing something (work or personal), and then moving forward in a clear, concise direction.
Mindfulness is the deliberate act of noticing the present moment in an open and kind way, or in other words, the simple yet profound act of doing nothing.
The Good Ole Dictionary defines mindfulness as the practice of purposely bringing one’s attention to the present moment without evaluation, a skill one develops through meditation or other training.
As a therapeutic technique, mindfulness has the potential to change our lives in positive ways. When mindful, we are naturally kinder, more compassionate, and clear-headed.
The present is a gift for all to discover. Our only job is to notice when the mind has been lost in thought, judgment, or sensation and softly return to the breath or another object bound to the present.
Judgment and criticism are thoughts, no different than thinking about what to eat for breakfast or what project to work on.
When seeing it this way, the object is the same: see the judgment, recognize it, and then let it pass.
Encouragement
I encourage us to reflect on what mindfulness means in our lives. Take 3 to 5 minutes to write down or think of what activities and experiences bring you a sense of contentment.
And yes, I encourage us to meditate for at least 10 minutes each day, building the foundation of a lifelong practice of doing what we truly enjoy by doing nothing for just a fraction of the day!
Thank You
Thank you deeply for your time and attention in reading this post or newsletter, it is a rare gift these days.
Feel free to leave a comment or share this post. You can also Buy Me a Coffee if you feel inclined to do so!
Three Links
October 21, 2023
Advertising
“The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads,” Jeff Hammerbacher, an early Facebook engineer, told me. “That sucks.” Silicon Valley began to look an awful lot like Hollywood.”
Above is an excerpt taken from the popular and fascinating biography titled Elon Musk and the Quest for a Fantastic Future by Ashlee Vance.
I think Jeff is completely right in his sentiment. The unfortunate truth is that the majority of advertising stems from a morally unstable business model.
Advertising produces a lot of meaningless work, invisible products, and unnecessary services.
It’s also a huge waste of human potential and talent.
Reflection
If a product or service is good enough, it should sell itself. It actually needs zero advertising, beyond the initial release.
Rather than advertising, we should outreach aka talk about the things, services, etc, that we actually use and enjoy every day.
I see marketing differently than advertising too.
Marketing is just that, placing a product or service into the market and spreading the word about it. Talking about tried and tested products is far more effective and sustainable than plastering advertisements all over every place possible.
So why is advertising still so prevalent and still so widely used?
Well, for one, advertising is imposed along with a quota in mind, and structured around that quota. And boy do business love their quotas.
Really good marketing is also completely free. Because again, the product or service should sell itself.
People talk, share their interests, and slowly, with honesty, that product or service grows traction and people support it, not because they are fooled into supporting it, but because they actually intend to use it to better their lives.
Same with production, if a company sells something faster than it can produce, it will fail (or fail, re-coupe, fail again, then slimly succeed someday down the road).
Encouragement
My intention in creating these cute little blog posts is to encourage. Encouragement to live mindful, meaningful lives. Without this, my musings come very, very short of having a purpose. So this is why I share a small, completely voluntary encouragement!
I encourage us to consider what we feed the mind. To illustrate this encouragement, below is an old Cherokee parable:
A grandfather is talking with his grandson.
The grandfather says, “In life, there are two wolves inside of us which are always at battle.
One is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery, and love.
The other is a bad wolf which represents things like greed, hatred, and fear”.
The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?”
The grandfather replies, “The one you feed.”
There is an awful lot of control we forget we have when it comes to what we watch, listen to, read, and spend our hard-earned money on.
I encourage us to write down the ten or so things we buy most daily. If we’re unsure, we can either download a spend tracking app or simply take a small notepad with us everywhere we go and write down everything we spend money on and the amount associated.
I did the latter and got an excellent grasp on where my money was going (cough Amazon cough). And slowly but surely I was able to reduce my dependence on the service and the cost associated with it to zero. That’s right, I completely deleted my Amazon account and haven’t used it for the past year or so.
Thank You
At the very end of each blog post, I also want to thank you, the reader, for tuning in to my cute little tidbits on mindfulness.
Thank you so much for reading or listening to this post, I am so incredibly blessed to have the opportunity and space to write what I love. If you have found any value in my blog, you can support me over at Buy Me A Coffee!
Three Links
And at the very, very end of every blog post here, I want to share just three links that inspired me before, during, or after each post. I will try to have an article, audio bit, and video (for those who learn from different mediums).
October 17, 2023