1/7/11

Is Your World Spiraling out of Control?


‘As it turns out, the world isn’t spinning, I am.’ That was a funny realization I came to not that long ago.

It essentially goes against the laws of nature, but it’s meant to be metaphorical. I don’t actually think the world is perfectly still. In fact, the world is working in a frenzied state all the time, but it doesn’t really offer up anything too unpredictable overall. There seems to be cause and effect for just about everything.

While I think the world operates in such a way to continue its existence with all the necessary volcanic eruptions and crazy weather patterns, it isn’t out to get me or to test me. It isn’t on the same wave of thought as I am in and doesn’t actually have a personal agenda to see me fail.

People on the other hand are full of agendas; conflicting agendas, selfish agendas, hateful hearts and are looking out for number one. It’s easy to think therefore that the world (people) are out to get me or that a big spirit in the sky is trying to test me.

The thing about being chased, if you don’t want to be caught, you won’t be caught. If someone tries to anger us and we don’t allow it, we can’t be angered. We are not in control of the world or people in it, but I believe we do have control over one thing; our reaction.

How we react to being punched is the key to surviving the hit. If you have ever taken any kind of martial arts class, you will know there is a fine art in learning how to block someone’s hit, but you also learn how to fall if you have to take one. It covers the bases. The smart thing would obviously be to not walk the dark alley where gunmen can hunt you, but in the event you wind up there, you kind of have to be equipped to defend yourself and fall elegantly in order not to break anything.

The world however has been known to break into our homes; you know, the place where we think we have peace…the place where we are minding our own business. Our spirits should be prepared for that to.

The thing I am learning especially lately when all my technology (which is what I rely on for work) is breaking down is that the only way to come to a solution is to be perfectly calm and incorporate systematic solutions one by one with zero emotion attached. As soon as we allow our emotions to spin out of control, we just added a problem onto our pile which will not allow any other problem to get fixed. It will always be number one on the list. When we become emotional over a massive snag in our life, it’s imperative to get a rein on that first so it doesn’t cloud the intelligent judgment which is needed to come up with a solution. I see this in too many places where real problems have been replaced by emotions which not only get in the way of solutions, but actually amplify the problem to a level where we can’t even begin to find a solution. The problem becomes insurmountable.

Generally, solution-oriented people are not overwhelmed. They might be overworked, but not utterly snowed under by it all.

The biggest hurdle is to gain perspective of our own environment. I’ve talked about how my dad used to fly above our farm and would say certain problems were not problems if he couldn’t see them from hundreds of feet. That is perspective. When satellite images zoom way out from our kitchen table like I have mentioned before, we gain perspective on our place in the universe. When you stand one feet away from your art, you can’t gain perspective until you move 15 feet back. It’s the same as when I mentioned about cutting hair for years. I could tell if my cut was straight until I stood back.

This is difficult to do when we are hurting or being attacked. Unless the gunman is on a roof a city block away, there’s a chance you have to fight off the attacker who is within inches of your face. It’s difficult to gain a wider perspective when they are so close.

How do we do this? Oh geeze, I have no idea. Ha! I would suspect we have to react in such a way that makes it seem like the problem is smaller or farther away from us than it actually is. Gaining a perspective inside us that could be one-size-fits-all perspective seems unreasonable, but maybe it’s what we need. If I can apply ‘act accordingly’ instead of ‘react quickly’ that might be a good start. Maybe the best combo is ‘act quickly’ or ‘react accordingly’.

All in all, the thing which seems to be working for me so far (and I say ‘so far’ because who knows how I will react next time) is to detach the emotional aspect. If I have a task to do, I need to do it without added emotional strain. ‘Action is the antidote to despair’ still rings loudly in my ears.’ Generally, life has a huge list of complications, tasks, jobs and hurdles. It will ALWAYS be this way. I believe we can get to the first job on the list if we cross, ‘Get really, really upset’ off the list. Nothing else will ever fall into place when that is taking the number one position.

Loving systematically,

Karen

It makes no sense to worry about things you have no control over because there's nothing you can do about them, and why worry about things you do control? The activity of worrying keeps you immobilized.” ~Wayne Dyer

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