Paddle Your Own Boat
Paddling downstream means spending one’s life working on the one thing we can change-ourselves.
Body Voices
There is a certain reluctance, for most of us, to exit our heads and to pay attention to our bodies, senses, emotions, and spirits. We begin to look at how to barely listen to the voice of our body, and in this way to become more centered and calm.
The handy dandy 5 step cure to what ails you
Left to our own devices, we are never better than our list of rules. Right and wrong discussions lead precisely nowhere. Here are 5 ways to step out of this swamp, giving you the chance to free yourself, and let others be.
On Cleaning Out
There’s nothing particularly helpful about blame. And yet, it seems our minds revel in blame’s appeal. We fill our minds with slights, we tell ourselves how hard-done-by-we are, and we make ourselves victims of the past.
In this article, we look at cleaning out our minds—letting go of what does not work. From this ‘cleaned place,’ new choices emerge.
Have your feelings. Act responsibly in spite of them.
Emotions arrive unbidden. Infants / children experience them without the filters later applied to them. Soon, the tribal ‘take’ on each emotional state is force fed to the child. “Big boys don’t cry.” “Sugar and spice and everything nice…” “What have you to be angry about?” or “I’ll give you something to be angry about.” “If you keep pouting your face will freeze that way.”
Now, you may think that this is unimportant, but I can guarantee that you have a whole list of internal and not-thought-through ‘rules’ about emotions.
The Myth of a Self
Consider: How often do you find yourself miserable, judging your life to be awful or [tag]meaningless[/tag], and what happens then? Do you not find yourself asking some form of this question: “Why is this happening to me? Why is my life like this?” Is it possible for you to explore the possibility that this is the wrong question? It is the wrong question because there is no “you” that has a life.
Zen Based, Present Living
