What Are You Doing Today and How Does it Make You Feel?
Today is one-of-a-kind. What will you choose to do with that?
I have just completed an annual vacation that was interrupted by the pandemic for two years.
Every summer since 1996, I have spent 1-2 weeks at a massive medieval reenactment event called the Pennsic War. It tends to draw 10,000+ people to it for numerous medieval classes, combats, glamping, and socializing from all over the world.
Due to COVID-19, the event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021. This year, however, it returned. Attendance was lower than normal – around 7500 people total.
On the one hand, it was nice to return to this annual gathering and see so many friends. On the other hand, it was odd. Half my usual campmates didn’t attend, and the even had a feeling to it that was nearly – but not quite – the usual.
Despite the oddities that came with attending this year, I’m glad I went. I had a good 9-day adventure with my chosen family. And each day was one-of-a-kind in its own way.
Today, I return to elements of the rote and routine. Back to work, back to writing, back to fulfilling certain duties and obligations.
But it needn’t be a bummer, or a let-down from the time I had away. Every single day we live is one-of-a-kind, and full of potential, possibilities, choices, and decisions we can make – or not.
What are you doing today?
How often do we pause and ask ourselves mindful questions? Not as often as would benefit our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health, wellness, and wellbeing as we could.
Much of this is due to living in a fear-based society where simple mindfulness – and empowerment that comes from it – tend to get readily disregarded. We are expected to be part of the machine – and anything otherwise is treated as suspect.
Practicing practical mindfulness is easy. It’s just a matter of conscious awareness, here and now. Genuine mindfulness is a product of the present, the now.
The present, the now, is the only time that is really, truly, real.
How do we be more consciously aware? By pausing to ask ourselves simple mindful questions, such as,
- What am I thinking?
- What am I feeling?
- How am I feeling?
- What am I doing?
- What is the intent behind my actions?
When asked in the moment, these questions make us mindfully aware. That awareness informs us about ourselves – and what choices we have already made and can make going forward.
What we are doing today might have rote and routine within it. And there is nothing wrong with that. But what is not necessary is living in a bad, negative, unpleasant space.
How does it make you feel?
When you approach your day dejected, unhappy, discontent, and expecting awfulness – chances are, that’s exactly what you’ll get.
And there are numerous distractions all around us to present exactly this. Life’s a bitch, and then you die. Is that really how it is?
No. Not unless we accept it and make no choices and decisions counter to that in any way.
When we spend too much time online, watching TV news networks, and worrying about matters that are far, far outside of our control – we disempower ourselves.
I am not saying that we should ignore the world and all that happens out there. That’s thoroughly unhealthy and leads to ignorance and willful ignorance that can do much harm.
But on the other hand, giving that too much energy and attention is disempowering. Why? Because what we can individually do with big-picture issues is massively limited.
Instead, to take control of our life experiences, we should work to be more consciously aware – mindful – here and now. Because then we are open to making choices and decisions that will impact us positively or negatively.
I don’t know about you – but I like to feel good, not bad. Content, not discontent. Positive, not negative. And this is not in a naïve, rose-colored way – but in a realistic awareness of choices and decisions for how my individual life can be.
Which brings me to an important point.
Choosing neither positive nor negative still impacts us all
What about neutrality?
When you are Switzerland – and avoiding conflict with your neighbors and the world at large – neutrality can be a perfectly reasonable choice.
Until it’s not.
When you are surrounded by suffering – and not choosing to recognize that and its impact on others – you contribute to it.
For example – when you stay neutral and don’t vote to protect the rights of individuals to choose for themselves, you will harm yourself in the process. The complicit and “neutral” cause hurt and harm because they think being neutral will keep them out of it. But it never does.
That’s not to say that there aren’t times to just go with the flow and be neutral. But choosing that as your default is as good as making no choices or decisions for your own empowerment.
We have so very much more power than we tend to recognize. But to employ it, we need to choose it. Make decisions that are positive or negative. Deciding not to decide and choosing not to choose can be empowering – but not in the same way.
The more each of us is consciously aware and mindful, the more we’re empowered. Then we can choose to make today special. Or not.
Today doesn’t need to be limited. Nor does today need to be like very other day. There will never be another day precisely like today. So how we choose to live it can make it something amazing. And that’s true of every today that we live.
I don’t about you – but to me, that’s pretty damned amazing.
What are you choosing to do today and how will that make you feel?
Choosing what we are doing today isn’t hard
It’s all about working with mindfulness of our thoughts, feelings, and intentions to direct our actions.
When we recognize the power of our conscious awareness – and practice being mindful – we can make today better than we might otherwise think it could be. Knowing that we are empowered to make our own choices and decisions regularly, we can see how much more control of our life experience is available to us.
This empowers us – and in turn, our empowerment can empower others around us. That can expand to change the bigger picture matters, too.
Choosing for ourselves generally leans positively.
Taking an approach to positivity and negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts matters in a way to open more dialogue. In that form, we can explore and share where we are between the extremes and how that impacts us here and now.
Lastly, I believe the better aware we are of ourselves in the now, the more we can do to choose and decide how our life experiences will be. When that empowers us, it can also open those around us to their own empowerment. And that is, to me, a worthwhile endeavor to explore and share.
Thank you for coming along on this ride with me.
This is the four hundred and forty-fifth entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.
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