On Being and Perhaps Descriptively, Perceiving

Busy, stressed, overworked, emotional, and simply too much.  Our days can be like this.  They can also be like this: lazy, unproductive, procrastinating, depressed and really empty-feeling.  I'm sure even some of the most well-rounded people who we look up to as pillars of strength and unwavering dignity experience days or moments that seem endlessly torturous like this.  People are emotional, if not perceptively stagnant.  We often have a set focus on the environment around us, and if not, we are setting that focus in our worried brains and minds.

We are often told to relax, to see it as if there could be something worse, or just tough it out.  This doesn't seem to work with everyone.  These emotions and the emphasis that your mind gives your thoughts are legitimate psychological processes with the power to really halt many other rational considerations.  I'm sure we've all noticed what kinds of recklessness we can have when we are angry, or what kinds of beautiful things we fail to appreciate when we're sad - and it is totally natural. 

But there are ways to condition ourselves to control our emotions better, not totally of course. Realistically, we can do that. Consider the following by David Foster Wallace.

http://www.metastatic.org/text/This%20is%20Water.pdf

Now, it takes effort to be self and world aware.  It surely seems worth it.  We can likely agree that most people in the U.S. allow their emotions to take control in many situations to their own disadvantage, often wasting plenty of energy.  If it also takes constant energy to also be self and world aware, then why should we even change our emotionally eruptive ways?  One could argue that we will become more efficient at managing our emotions, but one could also argue that overtime, our un-managed emotional eruptions also will lessen in their impact on us.  Surely they may effect others negatively more and more though.

Anyways, I find these proposed arguments silly, but I want you to understand these considerations so that you can ask what is worth managing?  Your emotions, energies, awareness?  Well, I think one of the greatest solutions is not giving a flying f%$& sometimes.  In layman terms of a docile style, "letting go" - of all energies spent on trying to see from their perspectives, trying to manage your emotions or just letting go of your emotions themselves, to not just relax, but totally stop.  There is a massive difference between trying and letting.  You will also find that those who let, often will effortlessly be more aware to begin with.  So it can take effort, or not, depending on how you do it - try or let.

It is this availability of options, a balance really, which I believe we often forget about in our Western culture.  A good friend and yoga teacher of mine recently studied Hinduism abroad in India, and truly enjoyed their easy-goingness, compassion, and disregard for things many Westerners would find appalling: rituals to stand in cow dung for better health, people urinating off the sides of the streets, the stench, lots of "dirty" things one might describe these as.  These people see the value, or perhaps necessity, in these things over the physical exterior that we can often overlook. Also, I can guarantee you the sacred Indian cows are much healthier than most cows kept in America for agricultural or petting zoo purposes, so there may also be a difference in whose dung you stand in, before you try it. 

Anyways, if we simply let go, if we just let ourselves BE... Just don't do anything, just breathe for a little.  See, it's calm, it's another of our natural states.  It's like freedom.

We might come to some great realizations without using any energy. We have alot to do nowadays, but we should really let go of more, rather than reach for more.  Simply let this.  There's nothing to do.  Be careful what setting in which you let go in: I let go of my will when I was vomiting painfully last week, and found myself had passed out in the vomit minutes later.  If I was face up, I could easily have choked and died. I happily did not perish. But when you are safe, even if you don't think you have time to, sometimes letting will make a better use of your time.  For my study breaks recently I have implemented a 15 minute timer and doing absolutely nothing, sometimes listening to music, being immersed in a busy environment, but I just let things be when I am there.  It may seem counter intuitive, but if you look at the battle you are fighting, the concept of a Sabbath, the wisdom of our elders and often counterparts reminding us of the need to rest, then you will see you have much more to fight with when you grab hold of life again.  Balance between trying and letting, and your battles will become that much easier.