Simply... be who you are at this moment! If you are cold, be cold. Hot? Be hot. Sad? Be sad. Thinking, anxious, mad, whatever! Just be that. Listen to it all, feel it all. Be IT all. Acceptance is key at this point. You cannot "be it all" without acceptance of what is. Once you accept what is, which is to say what is true or what is actually being experienced, an inner peace will take over your entire being. If this is not done you will stay trapped within your thoughts and deny the moment, hiding away in fear.
Remember, you change with the moment. You move (and yet stay) with your environment, you shape and create each other (even though there is no "each" or "other" for it is all one process). You are not something separate to experience, you are experience itself. The moment is spontaneous and so are you. The best way to put this is to use as little and as simplistic words as possible for the moment is undefinable...
Be that!
Eric,
ReplyDeleteI especially enjoy Thoreau's quote, "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation", so let's consider this: What about despair?
To provide some context, there have been times when I've thought that most people have it all wrong by labeling sadness a "bad" emotion; too quickly defining it as nothing more than "absence of happiness" and in conflict with what they see as the basic human goal to maximize happiness. I believe that sadness serves a much more important role in the human experience (one example might be its transformative potential during the grieving process).
But what if one could calmly say that the defining characteristic of their "now" is despair? Not for dramatic effect, not subject to mood swings, but a reasonably analytical assessment that their present situation is exactly that, despite repeated best efforts and all the creativity and optimism they can throw at it each day?
I concur that remarkable things can happen in life through the power of acceptance. During some very important events in my life, I've surrendered my own desired outcomes in favor of acceptance of whichever way the situation goes, and found true tranquility in this.
But how can acceptance help the rationally desperate person? It seems like if they've been motivating themselves with one tiny thread of hope against the odds for however long, an unconditional acceptance of how they perceive their reality would be the final step toward giving up. Wouldn't acceptance of their condition make it worse for them?
Thanks for the post.
If one is unhappy, they are most likely in a situation that requires change. Acceptance is, to me, the first step in change. First you accept the situation for what it is, not what you THINK it is, but for truly what it is. Face the facts if you will. Once this is done, from a place in you that has less to do with thought but more with the observation of thought itself and everything else, find what you need to do. Once done, take action when appropriate. Of course, if this is at 2 AM, perhaps it isn't the best time to make the move. But the realization that the now, this moment, is all we have, will help you realize that you can't wait for another time to do it. Now is all you got.
ReplyDeleteAlso, indeed we need to be sad in order to be happy. If we were happy all of the time and never sad, we wouldn't even know we were happy because we would have nothing to compare it to. Therefore, the two are the one, just like you and your environment.
:)
Thanks for the comment!
It is so true. Sometimes I think about how different I am in different settings. For example, in a yoga class versus with my children versus with my girlfriends versus online. Right now, though I am being a mom and sitting in a dark room while my daughter falls asleep, I also want to be a writer. And so I am going to publish this comment and go write. I'm not going to think about who will publish what I am writing or who will not, I am just going to write for the joy of it.
ReplyDeleteDo it! :)
DeleteI am not sure why everyone just doesn't do that, actually doing what they love. My first blog post on this is all about that. It was originally written for myself but I decided to share it :)