I have another blog called River of Discontent that I started about a month ago and haven’t done much with, yet. A full-time job, two blogs and the many daily distractions that bombard me make it difficult to find the passion to write for this one, though I will. I’ve had two positive comments on this ill-attended blog, so I am reposting it here.
julie-gurusm500 I’ve read books on Buddhism, I’ve tried mediation in the traditional way it is explained in many books, I’ve dieted and exercised, tried various methods for kicking bad foods, getting angry and so on. I’ve tried to jump into the cookie-cutter molds for all the things that are supposed to be good for me, but nothing ever seems to work for very long.
I have a friend who has helped me see different side of the personal experience we can have with ourselves. He has chosen to follow a course away from conventional religions in order to communicate with his own “higher power”, and it made me think about a few things:
We are all the same in many ways, but what we don’t usually acknowledge is how different we are, too; I don’t mean the obvious differences, I mean the unobvious ones. For example:
A woman in my office was telling me one day that she used to take a lot of different vitamins. Then, she experienced some problems and went to a nutritionist who told her that she was taking too much of certain things and not enough of others. The message was, “You need to take tests to determine what to ingest because your body is unique, and what works for someone else won’t necessarily work for you.”
I found this fascinating, because I tend to think that we all have the exact same needs. It’s a general misconception, but ultimately, why would we? And then religion came up:
I have a friend who gets his inspiration from the Star Wars theories. He meditates and follows a route that directly connects with Jedi principles and philosophies. It makes him happy. It reminded me that I’ve always thought religion should be a personal experience. We put too many parameters on everything: education, religion, diet, fashion, talent, everything! What if we didn’t draw lines? What if every day we figured out a practical way of communing with ourselves to find the answers to the questions we’re all looking for? What if we were our own self-help gurus?
Since every moment is a new moment; an unrepeatable instance, and we don’t all have time to do what monks and athletes do to get healthy, what if we just asked ourselves what we should be doing; no one else, just ourselves.
So, let’s say I wake up and feel unenergetic. I stop and talk to the invisible me and I say, ‘What do I need to do to get my energy up right now?’ Then, I get on with the next thing without dwelling on it too much. Without even realizing it in an obvious way, I put on my gym shoes and walk – not drive – to the store for a breakfast bar or an energy drink, or an apple. I’ve done this a few times and this is just the sort of thing that happens.
By creating a subtle dialogue, I’m guiding my mind through suggestion and not force, which is much more effective. And I really emphasize asking yourself a question and then dropping it, because it’s not the same as the conversations we have with ourselves in our head. I find, just in myself, that if I dwell on anything for too long, it becomes a distraction from doing anything at all. I also find that the voices that speak up, come from the influence of other people. As a child I might have just known what to do because I wasn’t clouded. Yet now, with judgment waiting closely at the sidelines, too much thought is counterproductive. I find that by letting it go, I am, in essence, really talking to me, and not the people who have their own morphed shape, in me.
It doesn’t mean I don’t rely on other people. I don’t rely on myself for everything, exclusively, but I am proposing a route for relaxing and determining the little things in the personal daily experience; an on-the-go form of meditation that is still effective. It’s an exercise that doesn’t hurt anyone or anything. Asking a question is the most innocent thing we can ever do, so it makes the effort of doing something new, quite effortless. One question, when it’s needed, and then see what happens. Or don’t see what happens and let someone else see what happens.
classes or something. I wonder if she even realizes that no one likes her when she acts like a caveman. Ha! I think she just actually beat on her own chest. Freak! When will he leave??? I’m still too freaked out to relax in my own home. I’m dying here!!! If he stays one more day I’m going to commit suicide!