how to be aware in an unaware world

Tag: awareness

Home
“For there we loved and where we love is home, home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes
I jotted this quote down on my phone in a common area at the college library I used to attend in Nashville, Trevecca University.
It was at least 7 years ago, and yet I remember it so well, standing in the open library foyer, right by the windows, pondering the words, considering how much they meant to me then and how much they will mean to me when I’m older.
After all my travels, I’ve found this urge from time to time to return home, or something that resembles home (a place, a person, a feeling). But each time, I remember that this “home” I seek is an illusion to me because I had no single place that I grew up.
My heart belongs not to a border, city, town, or neighborhood, but to a people, the people of this country. Yet even that is inaccurate, for the Earth reserves my heart in its entirety, and its people are so diverse.
My childhood was a rare and uncommon one. I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, the most visually beautiful place I still claim as “home”, then moved around at a rate only few have experienced.
North Carolina to Germany to Washington DC to Jordan to Oman to Tennessee to Missouri in 17 years (visiting many more places in between).
Then, on my own this time, I moved to Nashville for college, staying in one place longer than I ever had before, 7 years. It was near the middle of this stay that I deeply questioned what “home” meant to me.
I discovered a love to travel, sprouted in my youth, as well as a love for comfort and stability, rooted in my college years.
I knew I had to choose one or the other, but I let the decision linger for another few years. Somewhere near the end of my senior year in college, I made a tiny decision that changed the course of my life.
Sitting behind my laptop in my Marketing 101 Class, half listening to my professor telling me what I should do, I went online and did what I wanted to do. I ordered a credit card, bought a 40L backpack, and booked one-way flights to New York City, Boston, and Chicago in the middle of January.
I didn’t have the money to pay for the trip, but I had the time to pay off a credit card.
I didn’t have a clue of what I was doing, but I had a deep desire to just go.
This trip would spark the ambition to see the world that set me on a course to discover not just the world but the very nature of discomfort and happiness.
Today, home is much more than a physical place or even a specific community; it is a feeling that I can produce at any time and in any place.
1. It begins with meditation, recognizing where I am and the fact that I am alive and well right here and now (awareness).
2. It moves into an even deeper recognition that I am truly blessed, from the solid ground I sit upon to the air moving in and out of my lungs (gratitude).
3. It carries into the rest of my day, the rest of my life, with the deepest recognition that I have all I need to step out of the ego, “I” and “Me” and “Mine”, and into unabashed service, expressing love at every turn (compassion).
I encourage us to consider the place where we grew up or a place that holds special meaning in our lives.
Does this place conjure any strong feelings or thoughts? What are they? Can we learn to detach from them?
Thank you so much for reading this post on home and what it has meant to me over my short 30 years of life.
If you found any value whatsoever in this post or other posts, please share this post. And if you feel so inclined, you may support me over at Buy Me A Coffee. Much love!
Three More Things:
April 14, 2025
Reason
“Our civilization is still in a middle stage, scarcely beast, in that it is no longer wholly guided by instinct; scarcely human, in that it is not yet wholly guided by reason.”
– Theodore Dreiser
Instinct and reason both help advance the human species. However much of our evolution has relied on instinct as the primary driver for survival, we now rely on reason to propel us.
Instinct is defined as an inborn pattern of behavior characteristic of a species and often a response to specific environmental stimuli.
Reason, on the other hand, is the capacity to apply logic consciously by concluding new or existing information, to seek the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, mathematics, and art, and is normally considered a distinguishing ability humans possess.
Reflection
We are hard-wired to use both as a means of survival and evolution. There is a popular movement going on right now that concerns me, the movement away from reason, to act solely on impulse and instinct when guided by emotion and sensation.
Because of this, I believe there is a greater need to practice mindfulness than ever before. Mindfulness is characterized by an awareness of oneself in isolation and with the world around them.
If we reach a point where we use reason as a deduction and primary method of decision-making, we will inevitably make smarter, more mindful choices.
This is a point reached with mindfulness practice, deep contemplation, and deliberate action.
Such catalysts are meditation, gratitude, manifestation, deep conversation, open-minded thinking, and Tai Chi).
One thing recently revealed to me that I started for the new year is Gratitude Manifestation.
I’ll write a whole post on it soon, but basically, you express gratitude, on paper and out loud, for things and situations you want as if you already have them in your life.
One of them for me is saying, “I am thankful for a place of my own, near the mountains, filled with plants and artifacts from around the world, good people, and tall, wide windows allowing sunlight to stream in like a river flowing”.
I may not have this place yet in reality, but it’s clear and concise there in my mind whenever I look and recite it, and that holds the power to get it!
Also, the more descriptive and imaginative the manifestations are the better. Just make sure they’re realistic enough to achieve too (a nice-sized apartment vs a 6-bed mansion).
Instinct ought to be reserved as a survival mechanism for ourselves and others (like when we or someone else is in real danger and we can do something about it).
This property of our mind, the human mind, has allowed us to evolve into such safe living today, without fear of a lion eating us or the cold freezing us. Our instinct is our safeguard and we do need to tend to it too.
Such activities include camping, cold therapy like ice baths, heat therapy like saunas, strenuous exercise, and extreme sports.
Instinct and Reason balance on a scale as close as life and death do, both necessary for the nourishment of life.
This is a scale we must balance acutely though. We are more connected to the world than ever before and yet more disconnected from the person down the street.
Instinct tells us to stay away and take care of ourselves, but reason says to connect and include that person in our life.
Encouragement
I encourage us to ask: “What does this balance look like in my life?”
“Am I more guided by more feeling or thinking?” “Do I tend to act impulsive or mindfully?
This is no easy task, it takes practice to be reasonable, but the beauty is that it is obtainable! Keep meditating ya’ll!
Thanks
Thanks for reading these long, stream-of-consciousness posts ya’ll, your feedback keeps me writing them!
As always, feel free to share, print, comment below, or tell a friend. You can always support me too at buymeacoffee.com/mindfulnessand
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January 8, 2024
Surprises
“Man is a deterministic device thrown into a probabilistic universe. In this match, surprises are expected.”
– Michael Lewis
The only thing we can truly predict in this world is that the world will be unpredictable. This can scare some people, as we naturally don’t like surprises, but acceptance is the cure.
Another way to describe this is with impermanence. The idea that everything changes, balancing, moving, and the only thing determined is our awareness of that change.
When we step back and simply observe the world around us, we see impermanence in everything, from the clouds moving through the sky to the rain falling, not chasing, not transfixed.
Reflection
My understanding of surprises is that it is truly unknown, unseen, and unrecognizable, thus taking us off guard.
Like a rainstorm that comes in the middle of the day, without any notice or warning (happens quite often in the mountains really).
Surprises can be downright frustrating too as we get older we want little to no surprises, and then get flustered and confused when they arise.
Surprises can be scary, say when we lose a loved one or find ourselves a near-death experience, and have to re-write our narrative in the aftermath.
Surprises can be wonderful and joyous when we see someone we haven’t in years get a new job or are gifted something we’ve always wanted (likely during the holidays right now).
But what surprises me about surprises is how surprised we are so often in our world today.
I can’t think of any other time in human history when humans have been so distracted, so transfixed, and so dull, it’s surprising.
Awareness of ourselves and the world around us doesn’t diminish the surprises, it gravitates them, to a state of real connection, like when the surprise of a gift is received and is cherished or when the surprise of a death is felt so deeply and remembered.
Encouragement
In mindfulness, surprises will still come and go, but there is a pattern of rolling with the punches (and kisses) if you will.
I encourage us to seek understanding and empathy in our surprises, even when they frustrate, scare, enlighten, or brighten us.
Try today to pause, even if it’s for 5 minutes, and follow the breath naturally changing in your body.
Thanks
I have been planning a drastic change in my life that in time would leave this blog and newsletter at a standstill for a while. I have been planning to thru-hike some of the longest trails in the US, embarking on a journey that anyone can follow on YouTube and Instagram.
Thank you so much for reading my rambling, thinking mind. You can find all of my posts on the blog and even search for keywords and as always can support me over at buymeacoffee.com/mindfulnessand if you feel so inclined. Thank you in advance!
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December 29, 2023