What Will Your Today Look Like?
As you progress on a chosen path, today will be unique. You can decide what it looks like for you.
Today is unique. It is the only day of its kind. When today is done it will be gone. Tomorrow is another day.
Some people see this as an endless, pointless slog going on and on. Others see most days as bothersome necessities while looking forward to the weekend or some specific event.
There will be good days and bad days. Some of this is totally outside of your control. You can do nothing about the weather, traffic, other people’s mistakes, idiocy large and small, nor anything else apart from yourself.
Your life is yours. While there are obligations and expectations, you choose how to meet them. You get to decide, every single morning, what today will look like for you.
Today is not yesterday. When it comes upon you, it’s up to you what you will do and how you will handle it. Whatever is on your plate you alone can decide just what to do.
It starts when you wake-up in the morning.
Is waking-up feeling rested a myth?
I find it hard to believe that anybody wakes up, ready and raring to go. Alert, excited, looking forward to the day feeling perfectly rested and content.
I would love to experience that. Even after a technically perfect night of sleep, I tend to wake up groggy. My brain is foggy for a time. Generally, until I start caffeinating myself, it’s like operating at 1/2 to 2/3 capacity.
When diagnosed with sleep apnea, they told me the CPAP would help me sleep better. That, in turn, would allow me to awaken with more pep and feeling better rested.
I am sorry to report that’s not so. It has always taken me time to get going, and still does.
Maybe this is another matter of consciousness creating reality. I expect this to be how it is, so it is.
Nevertheless, I know more people who share this experience with me than those who awaken feeling rested.
However, no matter if you awaken groggy or refreshed, you have a day ahead of you. How do you approach today?
Some of that will be dictated by yesterday. Unfinished business may loom in the background. An unresolved conflict could await you. Ongoing struggles might continue.
This is anxiety-inducing for many people. Anticipation of all the things awaiting you can make you feel frustrated, anxious, uncertain. That, in turn, could dictate how today will go.
When you recognize and acknowledge this, however, you gain perspective. That opens you to see that you can take control over where today is going to go.
Practice mindfulness today
I have said time and again that I need to improve my own practice of this. So, I am going to put this idea forward and strive to practice it myself:
Before you get out of bed in the morning, ask these questions (preferably aloud):
All these questions make you mindful of your conscious mind. That allows you awareness in the now. Awareness here-and-now is how you gain control over your headspace/mindset/psyche.
To get into the depths of your subconscious mind via your conscious mind, you must begin at the surface. That works by getting in touch with your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions. The above questions do precisely that.
By starting your day opening yourself to being mindful, you can circumvent the carried-over issues from yesterday. No, you can’t avoid them – nor should you – but you can face them anew. You can face them aware of just what they are
Awareness of your subconscious mind opens you to new approaches, new opportunities, and options you couldn’t have thought about subconsciously.
This is so, so very easy. But it requires work. The effort to be mindful and consciously aware pays off.
Why? Because you cannot be blindsided by your subconscious when you actively seek to know it, recognize it, and acknowledge it.
Turning off the autopilot
I believe that self-sabotage and self-betrayal are rooted in not being mindful or particularly conscious.
For most people, today is made up of routines. Thus, the pattern becomes rote. Get up, go to work, come home, chill a few hours, go to bed. Rinse and repeat tomorrow.
Even weekends gain a routine to them. Run errands, do chores, spend a day doing nothing. A routine none-the-less takes hold.
To be fair, this can be a good thing sometimes. When you are having an awful day, for example, it might be easiest to just go with the routine and get through it.
However, if you desire more self-authority overall, you need to be more in control than on autopilot.
While performing your life by rote, your subconscious mind may be driving. Thus, there are no filters as you absorb your environment, interactions with other people, social media, information, and so on.
Without those filters, things that you take in may bounce off you. But they may also interact with old, long-buried beliefs that you don’t desire to believe – yet still exist in the depths of your subconscious.
Unintended and unwanted subconscious beliefs
For example, the belief that the best moneymakers in the world are doctors, lawyers, and businessmen was embedded in my subconscious mind throughout my childhood. Yet I had ZERO desire to pursue any of these vocations.
I chose to pursue various arts. This activated another long-held, unwanted belief: Making a living in the arts is super-difficult.
Just like everyone, as a functioning adult, I need to earn money to have basics, let alone more advanced necessities. Thus, for a long time, the pursuit of my true dreams was more hobby than a real desire.
When I pursued my dreams only in part, and not with ongoing mindfulness, I struggled. A lot. I managed, along the way, to betray myself and sabotage myself more than once.
Why? Because I did job ‘X’ or worked at company ‘Y’ not because I desired to. I felt that I had to. When it got untenable – for whatever reason, valid or made-up – my subconscious sabotaged me.
In the almost 30 years I have been a working, independent adult I have held a LOT of jobs. There are many similarities between them. But most were only done to participate in the routine of the expected workweek.
There have been jobs, however, more in line with what I desire to do with my time. Over the past couple of years, I have been in far fewer positions where my subconscious would sabotage me. Why? Because I was not discontent or displeased with where I was overall.
When I work mindfully, I can see multiple possibilities. I am aware of and attuned to a lot more potential. That’s not to say there are not still bad days – but overall, I feel more confident in what I am working to do.
Mindfulness is not just for today
Mindfulness is an ongoing practice.
That’s why, at least every morning, the above questions should be asked. But then, throughout the day, I need to continue to ask them. Maybe not all at once – but each along the way, from time to time. Especially if my mind is wandering, my attention is waning, or I am finding myself distracted.
Admittedly, there are times the routine, and living by rote, is useful. I don’t know anybody who wants to visit the DMV, the dentist, or the doctor’s office. But these are not things to be neglected or ignored. So, you do them and get through them as needs be.
But you can choose at any time today to be mindful. You can decide what today is going to look like for you. If you start off expecting a terrible, no-good, awful day – congrats, you will draw that to you.
Take control. Be mindful of your consciousness. Awareness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intent gives you control over your life experience. Today may not be perfect – but it can suck a lot less when you are mindful of all that it can be – good, bad, or indifferent.
Today will be unique. No matter what you presently expect, you can practice mindfulness. That will help you to choose what life looks like for you.
What will your today look like?
This is the four-hundred and fifty-ninth exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are ideas for – and my personal experiences with – mindfulness and walking along a chosen 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. Additionally, I 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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