Have you lost your way – or – has the way lost you?
How can you recognize the state of your way and what can you do about it?
There is no avoiding present circumstances. The world is in the midst of turmoil and change like nobody has ever encountered before. Between COVID-19, ludicrous politics, greed on levels never before imagined, and countless other negatives I could point out here – everything is uncertain.
Not just a few things. EVERYTHING. Currently, life IS uncertainty. With a few exceptions, people are finding themselves coping with environments and experiences they didn’t plan for, certainly didn’t desire, and cannot see the end of.
We can’t go back and undo the past to change how we got here. The future is in motion and clouded in many ways. All we have is today, the present, this moment, the here-and-now.
To best work with that truth, it’s important to make a practice of mindfulness. Being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions makes you conscious, which puts you in the now.
Your subconscious is like a sponge. It is super-absorbent and will hold things you probably don’t want. Mindfulness is the act of wringing out the sponge to get rid of the ick.
Because of the amount of uncertainty for the future, the inundation of negativity because of the past and fears about the future, it is easy to lose your way. You may have had amazing plans laid out – but with a few exceptions, many are on hold, waylaid, or otherwise altered. The way you have been traveling may have become lost.
Or, it’s also possible, the way has lost YOU.
What’s the difference and why does it matter?
Where did the way go?
Because you are being bombarded by information, and it is often contradictory, your subconscious mind is absorbing a lot of info. Every news article, post on social media, email, and conversation lodges itself into your subconscious mind in one way or another.
Because of present circumstances, and the level of uncertainty about the future, even the most mindful people are getting inundated. There are days I just back away from Facebook and force myself to place my attention elsewhere for the sake of my sanity.
To be fair, there ARE people still living their life as they would choose – but even they are having to make choices and changes to protect themselves differently than ever before.
Let’s say that you were working with mindfulness and conscious reality creation. You were on a path, taking a way to get from point ‘A’ to point ‘B.’ Then a pandemic put the world on hold.
All of your clarity has become clouded. The plans you were making cannot be worked on because you have to stay at home. Adapting to this new way of being, for some, is a shift in mindset – while for others it requires new practices and plans.
Even practicing mindfulness and being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions, the way you were going can be lost. You may have shifted your path in a manner that you can still find your way. Or, the circumstances of the pandemic mean your way has shifted.
How can you tell if your path is lost or you are lost?
To best examine this, we need to look at a couple of examples.
Let’s say you were building a life-coaching practice. You had plans to hold seminars that would draw people and make you money. Now that’s out the window. No public gatherings, no seminars.
This, however, is the way losing you. When you adapt and shift your approach you can find alternatives. Hold an online webinar, for example. You can still draw people and make money – hell, in theory, more people and MORE money. The way was lost but can be found by choosing a new approach.
Let’s say you are a massage therapist. You currently can’t practice because of the pandemic, and perhaps you simply can’t imagine practicing again until there is a cure or vaccine. That’s probably further off than is practical – so you determine you need to change your career choice. Hence, you lost your way but can use mindfulness to choose another.
It is entirely possible to lose your way and have the way lose you at the same time. You had your heart set on doing this thing in this way and that’s no longer possible – so you lose interest in it, too.
Fortunately, you can adapt, change, and alter your path. This is often a matter of practicing mindfulness.
Mourning the loss
When you lose your way – or the way loses you – it can be a loss equal to a death. Who we are and what we seek to do with our lives can produce existential dread because it can be a deeply personal desire which can take up a lot of your being.
Thus, when such a loss occurs you can and should mourn it. Grief is perfectly natural.
One of the largest issues of toxic positivity is denial of negativity. That simply doesn’t work. Negative things happen – they are unavoidable.
You will experience negative things. And, frankly, you should. Life is never just happy-go-lucky-always sunny. Part of the human experience is bad things.
The key is learning from them. Some people make the bad their lives. For example, “If I didn’t have bad luck, I would have no luck at all.” This fatalistic attitude makes it hard to change – especially since like attracts like and consciousness creates reality.
Twenty years ago, I got hit by a car and had to spend a year recovering from my injuries. I endured physical and occupational therapies, multiple surgeries, and fighting my body to work as it had before. The experience sucked – and it could have broken me.
I saw before me two choices. Curl up in a ball and whine, cry, complain, and rue my life – or – fight, heal, push to get back all I had before.
The lessons learned from that experience have carried through to now. Sure, I had incredible medical professionals work on me and get me well – but my mindset and belief in nothing but total healing played its part, too. For the first time, I used conscious reality creation and recovered with greater speed and totality than even the doctors had expected.
Empower yourself and find your way
Whether your way has been lost – or you have lost your way – here-and-now you can make a choice.
- Find and/or create a new way
- Just go with whatever life throws at you
- Give up
Mourn the loss and experience the grief as long as you need – but – be mindful of doing this. Be cautious and make sure that grief and loss are not dictating your life. That way lies madness.
Use mindfulness to be aware of what you are thinking, what and how you are feeling, and actions you intend to take. That will help you to find and/or create a new way to be.
Even during this pandemic, and these uncertain times, life happens. Here-and-now is the most real reality there is. Be present, be conscious, and see all the potential and possibilities available to you. Keeping that mindset helps you move past this – and in turn, can influence and inspire others the same.
If you have lost your way – or the way has lost you – you’re capable of finding it again, finding and/or creating a new way, and deciding for yourself what it will take to best experience the now and see hope for the future.
Do you know your way?
This is the four-hundred and fortieth article for my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and 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 further 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 expanded ideas, is available here. My additional writing, both fiction and non-fiction, are available here.
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