...You Take Them Both
Facts Of Life Theme Song
Facts Of Life Theme Song
Here begins my voyage into the exploration of the spiritual with the usage of pop culture, specifically that of 80's TV sitcom references, at least for this entry.
The theme song commences with, "you take the good, you take the bad". In life, we often happily take the good, singing happy praises on social media, beaming with how we are hashtag winning; then the bad comes along, social media is similarly flooded with posts but this time about how life is cruel, sucks, and beats you down. I am not immune to this either, not a perfect human I will happily admit, although I am not that prone anymore to sharing my private life, positive or negative, on the social media platforms, preferring to maintain it primarily as a professional arena.
All this to say, this tendency is an aspect of human nature's reactivity as well as a component of life that the highs follow the lows, the lows the highs. It has been said, life is hard, but suffering is optional.
Per example, last week I was sitting at the DMV waiting for my number to be called, but took that opportunity to cross some other items off the list, one of which was responding to a call from a casting director about a part in a feature film, a major opportunity of growth for my career, definitely a #winning moment. I took the call, accepted the part, and recorded the particulars in my planner. Then, I got called to the charming little lady at the DMV desk who gave me the wonderful news of the hoops of bureaucracy. I was a bit peeved.
But, I share this as an example, of how in life comes the good, sometimes instantly followed by the bad. Neither reflects aspects of karma or whether or not you are "hashtag blessed". It is not an indication or a reaction based on how good you have been doing in your "spiritual walk" as it were, in any regard. It is just a simple fact of life.
Along comes the positive, then the negative. If you are at all like me, prone to depression, you have the all too keen ability to overly dramatize the fortitude of the negative, claiming how horrible your life is, how cursed, how everything seems to continuously fall to shit. Perhaps that is merely because its where you and I have a tendency to put our focus...
What if we were to not? I'm not saying let's live in the blindness of bliss, forever plastering a glossy smile on our face. That brings up flashbacks of my Calvary Chapel Fundie years and I'd like to take a pass on that, thank you very much.
But, what if we were to choose to take each moment as it were, to truly begin to breathe in and out, following the flow of life, without judgment, without concern that we aren't where we should be? Who set this shoulds of our life we so dutifully follow? The who is regardless as it comes down to our choice to follow, to believe in our always not measuring up, not attaining that goal set in some arbitrary fashion based on some arbitrary rule of social norms that are indeed not at all important to who we truly are and our well-being.
I think once we can choose to breathe in and out, not judging the moment, becoming overwhelmed with gratitude of something good but turning to frustrated when the bad comes in, we can begin to internalize a change on our mental focus. And, mind you, this is an active choice. As I write this, I know I will fall short, will fall back to the annoyance and pain of hardship, possible mere moments after feeling the thrill of the win, but I will persevere towards the goal of mental health and wholeness.
Not happiness alone, but inner peace that abides no matter the external circumstances. For the highs will come, the lows will as well. We will find ourselves on the high mountaintop of life, only to come crashing down into the lowness of the valley. Our emotions will flow upwards and downwards along the tides of life.
These words bring to mind the Christian thought and rhetoric I learned in my fundamentalist years,which I believe is not accidental. No, I am not returning to the faith, as it were, because indeed I never left. Increasingly in my studies and as the years forward time, I am of the opinion that all spiritual faith and thought is intersectional in its overall end result. All profess that by becoming a believer of said religion or spiritual belief, true inner peace will be made apparent no matter the joys or trials of life. If that is the eternal lesson from life brought down from the ages from a myriad of gurus and spiritual leaders, mind we take a listen and not balk it off as some form of woo-woo bull-shit.
This is not an easy life course to follow, we are none of us perfect and all are on the path towards enlightenment, according to our own journey, purpose, and belief. I would just gently suggest that as we breathe in the moments of life sans judgment, we nudge ourselves closer to not overly intensifying the bad but instead allow it to flow through, teaching the life lesson that is needed and as we do so, adjust our mental focus on what we desire, for as the very true quote on the top of this blog says, "What You Visualize Becomes Your Reality."
The theme song commences with, "you take the good, you take the bad". In life, we often happily take the good, singing happy praises on social media, beaming with how we are hashtag winning; then the bad comes along, social media is similarly flooded with posts but this time about how life is cruel, sucks, and beats you down. I am not immune to this either, not a perfect human I will happily admit, although I am not that prone anymore to sharing my private life, positive or negative, on the social media platforms, preferring to maintain it primarily as a professional arena.
All this to say, this tendency is an aspect of human nature's reactivity as well as a component of life that the highs follow the lows, the lows the highs. It has been said, life is hard, but suffering is optional.
Per example, last week I was sitting at the DMV waiting for my number to be called, but took that opportunity to cross some other items off the list, one of which was responding to a call from a casting director about a part in a feature film, a major opportunity of growth for my career, definitely a #winning moment. I took the call, accepted the part, and recorded the particulars in my planner. Then, I got called to the charming little lady at the DMV desk who gave me the wonderful news of the hoops of bureaucracy. I was a bit peeved.
But, I share this as an example, of how in life comes the good, sometimes instantly followed by the bad. Neither reflects aspects of karma or whether or not you are "hashtag blessed". It is not an indication or a reaction based on how good you have been doing in your "spiritual walk" as it were, in any regard. It is just a simple fact of life.
Along comes the positive, then the negative. If you are at all like me, prone to depression, you have the all too keen ability to overly dramatize the fortitude of the negative, claiming how horrible your life is, how cursed, how everything seems to continuously fall to shit. Perhaps that is merely because its where you and I have a tendency to put our focus...
What if we were to not? I'm not saying let's live in the blindness of bliss, forever plastering a glossy smile on our face. That brings up flashbacks of my Calvary Chapel Fundie years and I'd like to take a pass on that, thank you very much.
But, what if we were to choose to take each moment as it were, to truly begin to breathe in and out, following the flow of life, without judgment, without concern that we aren't where we should be? Who set this shoulds of our life we so dutifully follow? The who is regardless as it comes down to our choice to follow, to believe in our always not measuring up, not attaining that goal set in some arbitrary fashion based on some arbitrary rule of social norms that are indeed not at all important to who we truly are and our well-being.
I think once we can choose to breathe in and out, not judging the moment, becoming overwhelmed with gratitude of something good but turning to frustrated when the bad comes in, we can begin to internalize a change on our mental focus. And, mind you, this is an active choice. As I write this, I know I will fall short, will fall back to the annoyance and pain of hardship, possible mere moments after feeling the thrill of the win, but I will persevere towards the goal of mental health and wholeness.
Not happiness alone, but inner peace that abides no matter the external circumstances. For the highs will come, the lows will as well. We will find ourselves on the high mountaintop of life, only to come crashing down into the lowness of the valley. Our emotions will flow upwards and downwards along the tides of life.
These words bring to mind the Christian thought and rhetoric I learned in my fundamentalist years,which I believe is not accidental. No, I am not returning to the faith, as it were, because indeed I never left. Increasingly in my studies and as the years forward time, I am of the opinion that all spiritual faith and thought is intersectional in its overall end result. All profess that by becoming a believer of said religion or spiritual belief, true inner peace will be made apparent no matter the joys or trials of life. If that is the eternal lesson from life brought down from the ages from a myriad of gurus and spiritual leaders, mind we take a listen and not balk it off as some form of woo-woo bull-shit.
This is not an easy life course to follow, we are none of us perfect and all are on the path towards enlightenment, according to our own journey, purpose, and belief. I would just gently suggest that as we breathe in the moments of life sans judgment, we nudge ourselves closer to not overly intensifying the bad but instead allow it to flow through, teaching the life lesson that is needed and as we do so, adjust our mental focus on what we desire, for as the very true quote on the top of this blog says, "What You Visualize Becomes Your Reality."
