I’m a huge fan, in theory, of reflection, processing, and being engaged in your daily life. That said, in practice I feel like I’m constantly on the move and pulled in a million different directions and really, the last thing I have time for is to just sit and meditate. So, to help somewhat overcome this rather disturbing disparity over the course of one week I engaged in intensive reflection (mainly through writing but also some experimental typography) and came up with five main ideas that summarized my experience…kind of like a song in five movements. It’s super hard to be intentional about stillness, yet I want to be better and this process made me realize just how vital it is to my creative well-being. So here goes…
ATMOSPHERE
Truly our most dire problem is not a lack of planning, but a lack of imagination. We’ve reigned in reality and been logical long enough. We’ve not found the answers we seek—the answers that will inspire people to things larger than themselves. Now is the time to throw off this logic and the restraints that accompany it and allow ourselves pause to imagine the wildness and inherent potential in our lives. We must imagine again that reality is often stranger than fiction. We live in a time when each moment is super-charged with so much meaning.
So, today is a day to celebrate the absurd. Today is a day to remember that moments are deeply significant and all the voices that say, “it will not happen….” “it cannot be done….” “it’s not worth trying…” are most decidedly wrong. Today is a day to renew our minds. Remember that in the face of a very grim reality, it is okay to dream up new possibilities. Indeed, it is our only hope. We must write our stories with joy and abandon. They are larger than we could ever imagine.
*Our mental environment impacts our quality of life.
BREATHE
We push ourselves and we work and we go and go and go until we can no longer move. We find our significance in output and production. We think that our value comes from what we do.
We hurry and we move and we travel endlessly. We do not sit. We do not reflect. We do not have time to be quiet. And yet, if we never slow down, never stop to reflect, we will indeed bulldoze through our day, our relationships, our psyche, and end up with an empty shattered day rather than a beautifully orchestrated one.
Deep breadths all around. We must take time to focus and time to breathe. We must take time to be.
Breadth in. Breathe out slowly. Breathe in. Breathe out slowly. Relax. Relax. Relax.
Be……..
and then sometimes we do slow down and remember anew that the world does not really depend on us to keep its rotation going. We are deeply significant in a chaos theory way, but we are also finite and sometimes rest is just as important as curing diseases or campaigning for a cause. Time passes, light shines, and it’s good to be a part of something larger. It’s good to be loved.
*Sometimes our boldest move is to be still.
DISCONNECT
Stress, pressure; we are always defined by our response to adversity. Oh to consistently have the right answers—the correct and healthy compartmentalization that leads to a fully balanced life. But instead we carry it all with us—carry what we were never meant to hold. If only we could see the potential in the moments rather than the incovenience of the action. The trials deepen and mature us, yet increasingly the universe feels like it is spinning out of control.
There is value in passion. There is value in speaking up—fighting for our beliefs—and yet it requires an engagement and an investment of time—it requires another piece of ourselves and we are so fragmented.
So we are quiet. So we are passive. And we push to the back of our minds that our inaction defines us just as much as our action. The consequences of the undone weigh heavily on us. We want to change and erase and redo. But will tomorrow really be any different?
*We are defined by our reaction to adversity.
HARMONY
Sometimes everything works out. Sometimes the right place and the right time coincide and the ideas come out and it feels totally natural.
Sometimes the voices that scream that, “you are not enough” or that “you cannot do it” are silenced. Sometimes they cease to exist. You are so happy to be—so happy to do life and be a part of this world; to serve others and know that you make things better. Sometimes you are certain that your life makes the world a more beautiful place.
Days like this make the disconnect a faded memory, more like a late night movie than grounded reality. People respond and praise, but even more there’s a deep internal assurance that you have value and that you matter. It’s not just you adding to the noise that is contemporary life but rather it is a new song, a new melody and it is deeply significant. Sometimes you feel totally loved and totally confident and it doesn’t matter what you are wearing or how much you’ve drunk but rather that it worked and that this whole mystery of existence actually does mean something and perhaps you have made the correct choice—it is good to be alive for this day.
*Life is redemptive and for a greater good.
WONDER
It is vital for us to reach out to others—to risk the awkwardness and unfamiliarity and take a risk. We are so quick to judge others and get too comfortable in the small world that we create. Reaching out, learning from others, and allowing them to speak change brings the uncomfortable realization that labels and judgement are often easier than listening and truly understanding someone’s story.
We often don’t want to discover the stories of others. It is too inconvenient, too messy or just too much of a strain on our already over taxed schedules. In many ways we are willing to give up what we know to be reality and embrace a sort of para-reality because it is easier.
And then we meet people who are real and who are fine with the person we are behind all the masks and who aren’t shocked by all the gross parts of us that we try to hide. And it’s pretty amazing really.
It is good to get out of the center of our lives. It is good to hear how other people are writing their stories—living their lives. It is good to see the world and experience it on a gritty person-to-person level. We tend to get fixated on our own security—fixated on if there will be enough, if we will be good enough or if we will make the right choices and be responsible. We’re afraid that we’ll mess up and there won’t be anything larger than the mundane details that we hold onto so tightly. We forget that there is indeed an intoxicating freedom in being ourselves—part of such a massive and beautiful web of people. There is an amazing world that we can’t forget about as we live in our own little life.
*Moving out of the center expands my world.
