Seeing The Opportunity

It is said that people see what they want to see, and know what they want to know. And whatever may fall on the outside of that paradigm goes unnoticed. If that is the case, how much do we miss because we have created our own little universe, where we learn it’s means and ways, how it operates, and know what to expect of it? Where is the wonder and excitement of exploring something new, be it a place or learning a foreign language? How does this world engage our thoughts and imagination, or does it at all? Small children experience this wonder all the time as literally everything they encounter is unknown, and they delight in taking in all of these new things. As we get older, and life becomes more complex, with more demands on our time and our resources, do we continue to seek the unique, the foreign, the unusual, or do we begin to stabilize things so that the demands can be more easily handled? While our lives are usually a mix of these two, far too often we begin arranging things so that we are creating time to enjoy…what? Is the time spent ‘arranging things’ time we could be planting flowers or trees, or taking a walk through the autumn leaves, or simply enjoying a cup of coffee as we watch the early morning mist clear? Probably. But which do we choose? By choosing to concentrate only on those things our society deems important—work, finances—we have chosen to put our mental, spiritual life on the back burner, and our lives become unbalanced. This creeps in surreptitiously, and we seldom notice it. What we notice is the feeling that there is ‘something more’ out there that we could be experiencing, but we’re not quite sure what it is that we seek.

Stillness of the mind is one of the things we all desperately need, and seek, to a certain degree, but how to do it is the question. Anyone who has tried meditation, journaling, or yoga has had those feelings of ‘this is a waste of time’ or ‘will this ever end’ or perhaps ‘why am I doing this, because I don’t get it.’ Each of these disciplines—meditation, journaling, and yoga—is, indeed a practice. It is a ritual in our day, and no matter how long or short the practice, it is time well spent. Why? What happens when we do this, and what are the long-term benefits of continuing to do so? Quite simply, our mind becomes quiet as we write the random thoughts that enter our heads, be they brilliant, or simply unconnected, extraneous thoughts, simply getting them out of our head and onto the paper when we journal. They may bring up new, good ideas, or they may make us think twice about how we are moving through a particular situation. The simple act of putting pen to paper and recording our thoughts allows us to get these out in the larger world, and in a form we can go back to, if we choose, to analyze or contemplate, as we need. We can also simply leave them alone, as they have stimulated us to a certain degree, and, having expressed them in writing, we are able to leave them and move on to other things. Meditation and yoga, while quite different in form and practice, also allow us to bring us closer to where we need to be, where we need to focus, and parse through the thoughts that sometimes overwhelm us, and leave us confused. In each case, with whatever practice we choose, we have given our mind the opportunity to express what intrigues us intellectually, spiritually, and have given ourselves the opportunity to mentally ‘vent’, but more accurately, to explore our thoughts within the context of our physical beings as well. It has been noted, from the ancient philosophy of ‘Mens sana in Corpore Sano’—a healthy mind in a healthy body—that the body/mind connection is so very close, which is why the physical act of writing, meditation, and yoga, to name a few of the possibilities available, of bringing the mind and the body together for the same purpose, of releasing that which does not build us up, is so vital, if only we see it. While we all see what we want to see, there is also that five-year-old, perhaps hiding deeply inside us, that wants to discover new worlds, or see the familiar in a different way, and so remain engaged with traveling forward on this planet, marveling in its wonders, and staying open to the new and exciting things it presents.