Living my Philosophy
Living my philosophy is an ongoing practice.
Some days are easy, other days take far more work.
When I began the process of Pathwalking, my original intent was to create a subject matter I could write about weekly.
It wasn’t long before this evolved into my personal life philosophy. The more I wrote, the more I desired to share it with the world.
This began as a self-directed journey through life, employing conscious reality creation to find and create the reality I desired to live in. Sharing this journey is a part of the process, and it wasn’t long before I weaved in the concepts of mindfulness and positivity.
Initially, when you are living from your subconscious more than your consciousness, it takes a lot of work to practice mindfulness and be aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions. While it does get somewhat easier to do this over time, by no means does it become permanent, flawless, or effortless.
Pathwalking, like yoga, meditation, and medicine, is a practice. As I have experienced with practicing fencing for 28 years you have good practice days and bad practice days.
For example, some days I can maintain proper distance and make my opponents work their asses off to tag me. Other days, though, I fence as though I am still a rank newbie, and I move like someone in a pool of Jello.
Living my philosophy is an ongoing practice with all the associated ups and downs.
Practice, practice, practice
You have little to no control over the vast majority of what happens in your life. For those of you who have control-freak tendencies, which I know I sometimes do, that’s a bitter pill to swallow.
Unfortunately, it is the truth. You cannot control what anyone else chooses or does not choose to do. There is nothing you can do to control the weather or any other aspect of Mother Nature. You have zero authority over airline schedules, traffic, or wait times at the doctor’s office.
The only thing over which you have any control is YOU. Externally this means you can control how you look, but apart from that your only control is over what is in your head. This is the reality of practicing mindfulness, and being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions.
It is, for the record, impossible to be completely aware 24/7. Impossible. Why? Because firstly, you get rest and sleep. During that time you are just about as far from mindful as one can be.
Secondly, shit happens. A break-up, a car accident, a death, getting fired, a natural disaster, and other matters utterly out of your control can and will overtake your consciousness.
This is unavoidable, but it’s important to recognize and acknowledge that it will happen. You’re only human, after all, and no matter how hard you strive to be mindful and consciously create your reality you’ll drop the ball along the way.
Nobody’s perfect (or everyone’s perfectly imperfect)
Perfection, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. Ergo something I perceive as perfect you may see as an utterly imperfect disaster.
This ties into the notion that reality is an illusion. As Einstein said,
“Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
The practice of living a philosophy requires a certain level of acceptance over what you cannot control. What’s more, you also need to recognize that reality, and how it is perceived, is utterly, completely, and totally variable.
I think the Star Wars movies are an incredible work of science-fiction. Yoda and his wisdom have been a real influence on my thought process, and though The Force is a fictional energy field that binds the galaxy together (much like duct tape) the very concept of The Force is a legitimate description of Universal energy.
You might have a very different perception of this. To you, Star Wars may be a fantasy for children with relatively poor acting and a well-worn story trope. You see Yoda as just a Muppet or CGI goblin. To you, The Force is a silly notion of magic and it’s all just ludicrous escapism.
We are both correct. This is an example of how variable perception is.
Perfection ties right into this. Everybody is perfectly imperfect because perfection is a standard that means something different to every individual. The perception of perfection will be advised by your life experience, education, practices, activities, happenings, and things that occur every day.
This is why living my philosophy has its ups and downs, good days and bad. Because perfection is impossible. Recognizing this can go a long way towards how you approach the things you desire and do.
For this reason, it’s also important to not beat yourself up when your practice falters.
Every day is new
Today will be different from yesterday. Yesterday morning the sun was hidden behind the clouds. Today is a bright and sunny day.
I have a lot of things on my plate today, and that presents me with a choice. I can be apprehensive and concerned with how many things I need to do…or I can be excited and confident about what my day could hold for me. This is a choice that is wholly mine to make.
Along the way, I will have moments of mindfulness and moments without. This is not something to be concerned about or to worry about because it’s the nature of the beast. Practicing my philosophy is an ongoing project, and mindfulness, positivity, and conscious reality creation are worthwhile because I desire to live life rather than let life live me.
So here’s the thing to keep in mind. No quick-fix option is everlasting. There are no magic pills to make you happier, wealthier, thinner, stronger, and more attractive. Instant gratification may seem desirable, but it tends to be hollow and lacking.
Achieving a goal takes time, energy, and work. While that might elicit a groan from you, the work you do makes the victory and success that much sweeter.
It’s not about how much work goes into a thing you desire for your life, nor how hard the struggle is…it’s about the work you do. The journey to get from here to there matters.
Sometimes that’s easy. Other times it’s not. Every single day is a new option, new choices, possibilities, and potential. You are empowered to make choices and decisions that will drive your life from where you are now to where you desire to go.
How you approach any given day is up to you. The choice is entirely yours.
What personal philosophy are you following?
This is the four-hundred and eleventh entry in my series. These weekly posts are ideas for, and my personal experiences with, walking along the path of life to consciously create reality. I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world along the way. I also desire to empower myself and my readers with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-blog and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including some expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing works, both fiction and non-fiction, are available here.
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