I haven’t blogged in a while, my apologies. At first it was deliberate, I had a school project to finish and I decided not to blog until I had finished it. I finished said project and then got swallowed up by a couple of events and things around me. The past three weeks have been difficult, going through them has been a bit of an emotional strain, I haven’t felt as clear headed as I usually do. It’s one thing to think clearly on a normal relaxed state, it’s another thing to keep thinking clearly in the midst of intense emotion.
This blog is a place for me to write about my thoughts, musings, and ideas as they arise within me or are inspired by the writings and thoughts of others. I have read a number of books and started others in the past few weeks and as a result have quite a few ideas (nuggets) swirling in my head at the moment. I will try my best to briefly highlight a few and hopefully expand on some of the ideas over the next few weeks.
Habits
I read a book called “The Power of Habit’ by Charles Duhigg a few weeks ago, and he discusses the vital role habits play in our daily lives. Habits are those default patterns we fall into, often unconsciously. They can be good or bad, and consequently can make us or break us. I’ve been interested in the idea of automating success and installing within myself specific habits and patterns that would enable to reach my goals with relative ease over time. It’s the idea of making time work for you. I don’t need to take one massive impossible action at once, I just need to make a small action a habit (for instance a routine of pushups, sit-ups and squats before I shower everyday) and my life can dramatically improve over months. The main potential for me in this idea is applying the power of habits to thoughts, emotions and reactions. You can actually work at building the habits of courage, creativity and clarity, changing your mental/emotional states and eventually your entire life. Obviously the power of habits in our day to day lives has always been there, but conscious knowledge of how habits are formed, how they work and how powerful they are, releases a great deal of power in directing our lives.
Self Awareness/ Self Honesty/ Self Acceptance
Self awareness/consciousness is the first step to be taken on the road of personal development. You cannot change what you do not recognize. It is amazing how much people go through life without understanding themselves, how they tick, what belief systems and patterns are running amuck in their subconscious and are at the mercy of things installed in them as children or at the mercy of the multiple impingements of society on our psyche.
You gotta know yourself. I have been uncovering more and more about myself, things that I glossed over before, patterns I did not recognize before. You have to be honest with yourself too, call yourself out on your own bullshit. You may deceive anyone around you, but not yourself. Know exactly what lies within you, the things you judge as good and the things you judge as bad. Face everything, absorb everything, resolve everything. Become one with yourself. Self acceptance is the first step to self evolution.
Conscious growth
This is one of the highest values for me personally…conscious growth. Growth is one thing, it’s a function of life and experience. It tends to be haphazard, it kinda happens or it doesn’t. Conscious growth is a completely different animal. This is a lifelong commitment to growth. This requires a high level of self awareness to self diagnose and then self medicate. It is about taking your life and your growth, your education into your own hands and taking total responsibility for your experience. This means reading, this means thinking and contemplating, this means experimenting, this means taking action (even when it is difficult). This requires being comfortable with uncertainty and being comfortable with the state of strain. It means being willing to change and disrupt the status quo. It is not an easy road by far, but it is a rewarding one.
Contrast
This idea I gleaned from the writings of Erik Karjaluoto on the Deliberatism blog. You know how a cold glass of water tastes extra good on a hot summer day after walking in the sun for hours…that’s the power of contrast. It has the effect of heightening our experience of life. I’m coming to appreciate the power of contrast and duality in the drama of the day to day, especially in human relationships. It seems like times of absence, dispute, and strain are as necessary to keep any relationship alive as are time spent together, fun, calm and ease. Maybe the duality of night and day, summer and winter also apply on this level. Or perhaps that’s just bullshit.
