I have a good feeling about this blogging thing. I actually find it quite relaxing to write down your thoughts on topics you like to talk about.
The outline of my current posts are beginning to get into such shapes that every post finds itself a niché in a new category. In a while I wont be needing to rearrange them into new categories, but publishing new posts on the existing categories. And I like to talk about meditation and self reflection.
The mind makes you and is yours only. You have to do anything to keep it healthy and functional. Aside from learning new things and doing brain work, meditation is a good way for one to maintain their mental health.
Mental health and meditation are linked together by the exploration of consciousness and its parts whose existence one is normally not aware of. Carl Jung call this part of our consciousness the Shadow. The Shadow represents the unknown in our subconscious and it consists of both the known unknown and unkown unkown. Our shadows are more darker and denser the more we ignore them. And they’re dangerous for the mental health, as they might cause disturbances their sources we can’t address to. Both of the unknown and their sources can be addressed successfully if one masters the art of self reflection, insight, and mindfulness. As a result our daily lives can divert from being a reaction against unknown and we can start being aware of what we feel and why we feel it.
I try to do that. I try to isolate myself from my past experiences and future hopes in the moment of mindful insight. I’m trying to see inside myself. I’m trying to see inside my shadow and break its density down, eventually bringing light all over the place. Is it possible? I don’t know, but it’s worth pursuing.
Playing instruments is a good way to demonstrate mindfulness. While playing, the players soul connects to the musical realm and feels the tingling rhythm of the song. In some occasions I have drifted asleep while I was playing the guitar and I kept playing. In some other occasions I was too caught in the music for my brain to process anything but the guitar at that moment. They were beautiful moments.
Over the years of meditation and playing instruments I have explored a big part of my shadow. The source of my insights had begun with my education about self and the present in YGA and I have tried to implement what I have learned into my life without missing a beat. I tried breathing exercises to concentrate on the present. I had my ambitions and goals in my mind, which I tried to follow through. I have reassessed a lot of things in my life. One of the things I have explored about myself is this: Life is too short to live in a mess, if you don’t want it to end in a mess.
There is not enough time to not care about anything and to be irregular and unregulate yourself. To live life like a leaf in the wind brings us to different pathways of others, which only the dedicated followers of that path can make use of. Even though experiencing many paths may sound colorful, no progress can be made but superficial progress.
The extreme opposite of lack of discipline, also living in full control, is also wrong, harmony should be in place. This harmony begins with our birth and continues until the end, and in some cases our legacy of harmony descends generations.
If we keep on worrying, being angry, or be full of what had happened and what might happen, now will slip off of our fingertips. But we can only control the moment we’re in. Even that is partial. It’s the only ability we have and throwing it out the window restricts ourselves from reaching our goals. It may be logical in some minds to be busy with future and past so we can learn from past mistakes and be ready for the future. But when we do it excessively and remove ourselves from the picture, we will cease to exist.
See, both extremes are harmful, and we need to find a balance in the between which will enable us to live our lives without constantly getting lost in temporal problems. To live our life to the fullest we need to just live it.