how to be aware in an unaware world

Tag: reflection

Action
“Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation, even so, does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.”
– Leonardo Da Vinci
By design, some people think more and some instinctively act more. The head and the heart are at play in every decision we make.
But no matter how we approach the Book of Life, we have to write the chapters ourselves, we have to take action for our character.
Whatever we call it, inaction, laziness, or sloth, the result is the same.
Our minds need attention, purpose, and pause to stay vigorous.
For instance, reading can bring vitality and imagination to a stagnant mind. Whereas movies, television, doom scrolling, and social media do little to engage our minds in an active, rigorous way and can actually be detrimental to the mind.
Practicing mindfulness involves being fully present in the moment, and paying attention to our thoughts and sensations without judgment.
The Book of Life represents the unfolding story before us, with each moment and experience being a page or chapter.
Mindfulness encourages us to live more fully and consciously, recognizing the significance of each moment in our life story.
Reflection
Even waking up earlier can be the catalyst to a bright, purposeful day, with time to set our intentions and focus our energy.
There are 5 things I try my best to do every single morning: Wake up at six (much harder than it sounds), take a cold shower, work out, meditate, and journal.
I know that after doing those five small things (in under an hour and a half), I have set myself up for a great day.
And I’m not alone. The happiest people on the planet have a morning routine (see the link at the bottom).
Routines require rigorous action. It doesn’t have to be a giant, exhausting action either, often the smallest choices make the biggest impact in the long run.
It’s kin to building a house brick by brick rather than plopping the whole structure down at once, each brick laid is a deliberate voice, ensuring quality and craftsmanship.
Every small action relies on another even smaller action to complete.
Complete? But that’s not the right word. Is anything ever really completed? Are we ever finished with something, no matter the size and detail?
There is continuous improvement, evaluation, and backtracking to every endeavor.
These small actions, like brushing our teeth, rely on even smaller actions, like buying toothpaste or a toothbrush, which relies on going to the store, which relies having the means and health to travel, which relies on the knowledge that brushing your teeth is good for you, which relies on the ability to comprehend that knowledge, which relies on working memory to store that knowledge, which relies on an intact brain to store that memory, which depends on, well, you get the point.
This reminds us to understand the complexity of the world we live in and the propensity to often take it for granted.
It also points to a fascinating topic that some people study their entire adult lives: behavior. If we are a collection of our daily choices, then doesn’t that give us so much possibility to affect our behavior?
There is little fluctuation in behavior when we are grounded in self-disciple and good-natured, daily choices.
The one thing that is a constant in life is that everything changes, and the observation of that change over time is called mindfulness.
A person’s practice of observation (meditation) is at the core of every action, no matter how small.
Encouragement
I encourage us to pick up a good book today and read for a while, maybe go on a long walk in the woods or paint aimlessly, draw something completely random, pick up an instrument, or play a challenging game!
No matter the choice of action, make sure to focus on the intentionality and to note as always how you feel in the process.
Links
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September 30, 2023
Failure
“Every artist was first an amateur.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
What comes to mind when you hear this quote? What constitutes a failure to you?
When I think of failure, I don’t think of how unfortunate and frustrating it is, but rather how helpful it can be.
Failure is defined as the condition or fact of not achieving the desired end or ends or the condition or fact of being insufficient or falling short.
Failure is a choice that is reinforced as unacceptable by a high-achieving society.
But failure is a beautifully ironic thing. Without it, we would have no success, and yet it’s the last thing we want when pursuing success.
We must accept that we suck at something to ever not suck at something.
And even when we get as far as mastering something, we must be humble enough to act as if we’re still an amateur.
Children are a great example of this. They are amateurs at everything they try. They have seemingly unaffected beginner’s luck. A fresh, new, untainted, unafraid approach that is so beautiful to watch.
They may fail, cry, stamper, and pout, but at least they tried, without much hesitation, and eventually get up, dust themselves off, and try again.
We call it luck when they finally get it right, but it’s not luck, it’s a failure.
It’s like poker. Some play it for the first time and win hand after hand after hand, and the whole table chalks it up to beginner’s luck, but that’s no luck at all.
That’s both having no idea that their cards are the best at the table and playing without much care as to their card’s odds of winning the hand because they didn’t know that those cards made a good hand in the first place.
It’s a childlike carelessness.
Furthermore, never trying things that frighten us is one unhealthy habit to develop.
The fear of failure (or Atychiphobia) is a universal feeling, one that every single person on Earth has and will experience multiple times in their life.
Reflection
“There’s no way I can do that!”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I don’t want to!”
“I’ll never be that good!”
“What’s the use?”
I hear these phrases far too much, people giving up before the fight even begins.
We are selling ourselves short every single time we mutter those words, both inside and outside our heads.
We are selling ourselves short every time we refuse to try something new or retry something old and forgotten.
Forget what you cannot do and there is so much left over that you can.
Over time, that fear of failure will dwindle to but a speck in the mind, and eventually we will come to even seek out failure.
Failure is also different than letting go.
Failure implies that we are unsuccessful at accomplishing something less important to us.
Letting go implies that we are opening space for something more important to us.
It’s a matter of importance.
When something is important enough to you, nine times out of ten you will try over and over and over again to learn it with accuracy.
Encouragement
I encourage you (as I encourage myself each day) to try something new with the expectation that you will fail and to know that failure itself is an essential part of the learning process.
Then, I encourage us to keep that vision we try, over and over and over again.
It can be something as minuscule as a drawing, writing a poem, or cooking a new dish. Or it can be something massive like a trip outside the country, learning a new language, or getting a pilot’s license.
Links
Thank you deeply for your time and attention in reading this post, it is a rare gift these days.
Feel free to comment, like, and share it. You can also support me by Buying Me A Coffee. Thank you in advance!
September 26, 2023
Kindness
“Compassion has no limit and kindness has no enemy.”
What comes to mind when you think of a compassionate act?
What about a kind affirmation or encouragement?
When bestowed upon you, how do compassion and kindness feel?
Compassion and kindness are so similar that they often occupy the same space in the mind. A space that is essential to a healthy, happy life and needed every single day.
Though they may seem synonymous and are necessary all the same, there is a difference between the two.
Compassion is more about not wanting someone to suffer, not wanting someone to experience something negative and downtrodden.
Kindness is more about wishing that someone was well, hoping that someone does experience something positive and uplifting.
Equally, compassion and kindness must begin in ourselves, for ourselves.
Self-compassion is not wanting ourselves to feel unhappy, struggle, or have difficulty in our body, mind, and situations aka tender loving care (so we do the things that make this a reality).
Self-kindness is wishing ourselves well, telling ourselves that we are able, we are content, we are happy, and we are good aka affirmations (so we say the things that make this a reality).
Both are self-fulfilling prophecies (it sounds cliche, but it is resoundingly true).
If we wish to be more kind to others, we must speak kindly to ourselves.
If we wish to be more compassionate to others, we must show compassion to ourselves.
What we feed the mind is also key (equally cliche, but needed now more than ever).
When we feed the mind with sustaining and nourishing things, we speak with kindness, move with gentleness, encourage others, and overall feel amazed with ourselves.
On the other hand, when we feed the mind degrading and rotten things, we will speak with malice and spite, move with angst and anger, discourage others, and overall feel like shit about ourselves.
Despite what the world tells us on the internet and in the media, kindness is an innate quality that every human possesses.
We may lose sight of kindness or forget that we are born with it, but kindness is shown in every corner of the earth and every vessel of our hearts. The more we are aware of that fact, the more we can start to show kindness (beginning with ourselves).
The trouble is remembering that these qualities already exist in the mind and that we already have the desire to exhibit them.
For example, how do you feel when someone is truly kind to you?
Do you feel there is an inclination to do or say something kind back?
Affirmations at the start of our day, as a wake-up exercise, bring out this inclination more and more.
There are many incredible affirmations out there, but there are five affirmations that I have used for the past year or so, and I can truly say they have transformed my life:
You are capable (of anything you put your mind towards).
You are calm (using your breath as your anchor when stress arises).
You are clear (knowing where you are and where you’re going).
You are content (already having all you need to succeed).
You are compassionate (finding ways to speak your love languages).
Be sure to use the third person as if you’re talking to a dear friend (trust me, it works wonders).
And whether you believe these to be true or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that you simply say them, over and over every day.
Kindness towards yourself needs no reasoning.
Compassion towards others needs no justification.
A few more things:
Thank you deeply for your time and attention in reading this post, it is a rare gift these days. Feel free to comment, like, or share it. You can also support me by Buying Me A Coffee. Thank you in advance!
September 23, 2023