By Ahsan
When an archer is shooting for nothing, he has all his skill. If he shoots for a brass buckle, he is already nervous. If he shoots for a prize of gold, he goes blind or sees two targets; he is out of his mind, his skill has not changed. But the prize divides him. He cares. He thinks more of winning than of shooting, and the need to win drains him of power. ¾ Chuang Tzu: Chinese Philosopher who lived 400 years before Christ.
Do you know that the source of all human misery is the same all over? What is it, you ask? I’m talking about the thing that is with you all day. It follows you around like a shadow, and it cannot be ignored.
It’s that voice you hear in your head.
We all start our day hearing the voice, and off it goes keeping us company until we conk out at night.
It would be fine if that voice gave us logical and lucid commentary, but 80% of its blather is nonsense. Not only is it nonsense, but it’s also random and mostly negative. And you and I get so caught up in it that we identify ourselves and our daily levels of happiness with it.
Here is what I think. Most of us are unaware of the power our mental chit chat has on us and need to become aware of it. Aware of what? Aware of our thoughts that only we can hear. This is what is meant by your thoughts determine your reality.
Coming back to Chuang Tzu, on one level, it seems he is talking about performance jitters on game day, but if you know a thing or two about philosophers, it’s probably a lot deeper than that.
Here is what I have in terms of a commentary on his allegory. The venerable Philosopher is talking about life and enjoying it.
How is that, you say? Simple. When your thoughts take you towards forcing people, circumstances or the weather to behave as you need them, you begin your journey to unhappiness, fear, anger and other such negative mental states.
On the other hand, if you use your archery skills and stay on target and not focus on hitting the target, you often hit the mark.
In other words, just allow your life to unfold and don’t force outcomes. You can certainly try, but you may find that you enjoy life instead of reacting to it like a victim if you drop this illusion.
How do you do this?
Try these action steps:
1. Take at least five times a day to reflect on how you feel and take over your mental chit chat by spending a few minutes in prayer or meditation. The best times will be waking up, just before sleeping and the other three spaced in between. During those few minutes, the technique will be to talk to God if you are praying and talk to yourself if you are meditating.
2. During your prayer or meditation, become aware of your thoughts. Knowing that the vast majority of them are random and malicious, ignore them and try instead to think logically about your feelings and lucidly. Relax your body, focus on your breathing and all that good stuff but most importantly, interrupt your galloping thoughts and make the horse slow down and pull the reign right as needed.
3. Become aware of yourself in a self-observational way. That is, notice your thoughts and notice your surroundings as though you are observing someone else.
4. Practice this daily. In the next seven days, you will get 35 opportunities to hone your new skills!
So, can it be said that you are a mental weakling if you become more aware of your thoughts? If you care to enjoy life more fully, live fearlessly, be more of your true self, have more mental poise and peace…re-read this article and verbally explain the concepts to at least one person you care about.
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