Clarity of a Common Man

I am not a health expert, I don’t even play one on TV, but what I do know is what I feel and how I think and what works for me. I’ve read many of the books that have come out over the years about self-help, or building a better you (me), or how to meditate, or how to pray, or whatever. I guess that each of these egocentric pursuits has had an impact on how I think and feel, but none was, in itself, the answer for me.

I believe we, as inspired beings of nature, nurture, and imagination can find what works for each of us, but it requires that we question everything. If you are brought up within your family’s belief system and you find something within you that cannot accept that system for yourself, question why that is and pursue and research ways of thinking similar to what you have/had in mind. Personal meditation techniques are just that, personal; what you find works for one person may not (and often probably will not) work for you. That doesn’t mean you need to abandon your pursuit of peace, just tweak it a bit maybe and see what happens…after all you are the most knowledgeable person when it comes to you, right? Use what you know of yourself to make the quest for your peacefulness and insight more concise and adaptive to what you wish to accomplish. I find that imagery works best for me. I picture balloons suspended above me, within each balloon a thought, or stress, or task, or whatever that I need to deal with. I hold tight to each of the balloon strings and close my eyes, then release. Just as I feel that last string sliding out of my hand I open my eyes and look up to see what it is that was last to leave or float away and THAT is the thing I deal with first. I know this is a fairly simplistic approach to problem resolution, but who says the journey needs to always be a difficult one?

Each moment is special and often, in retrospect, we feel we don’t get to enjoy it to the fullest. However, if indeed you are remembering back to an instance you feel you didn’t make special enough at that time, stop and think to yourself; If I am remembering that moment and wishing I had made it more special at the time, maybe that moment actually was special as (you) made a memory of it to relive whenever you wanted to recall it. Moments that we can cherish are those that we remember with more than one sense. People often speak of a song or a smell or a taste bringing back a memory. To me what that means is that you really WERE in that moment and enjoying it to the fullest and that certainly fits my definition of special.

“Every day on this side of the dirt is a good day.” I heard this once years ago and I do not know whom to attribute it to, but what I do know is if you can get past the aspects of the argument of afterlife and enjoy, REALLY ENJOY, your time ‘on this side of the dirt’…the little things that used to bother you, just seem to fade away.