Tag: empowerment

At all

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There’s not only joy. There’s not only pain.

There’s not only butterflies. There’s not only dullness.

There’s not only raising. There’s not only rising above.

There’s non only failure. There’s not only success.

There’s not only together. There’s not only alone.

And actually, it turns out that most of what we remember is because of the illusions we have made out of the one and the other.

We don’t know extremes. At all.

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere
Looked at clouds that way

But now they only block the sun
They rain and they snow on everyone
So many things I would have done
But clouds got in my way

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all

Joni Mitchell, Both Sides Now

Unlucky

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You are not unlucky. You are not going through a bout of bad luck. You are certainly not a failure.

Things, both positive and negative, happen all the time. And you need to keep your sense open to be able to perceive the good ones as strongly as the bad ones.

Luck is important, but it can’t be the explanation you give to what’s going on around you.

The number

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If the main goal of your job is a number. If there’s no larger purpose, no higher ambition, no bigger system. If when the goal is hit, the counter resets and you start from scratch. If you can do it all on your own, from anywhere, at anytime. If you not doing it, simply means that someone else will take over trying to reach the number.

Then, how long can it last?

Suffering

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The purpose of life is not to eliminate suffering. It is not to reduce it either.

The purpose of life is to get acquainted with it.

So that you can recognise it, manage it, and enjoy all the little moments when suffering is not there.

Taking control

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When a friend doesn’t reply to a message, a colleague treats us with distance, or somebody is not as kind as we’d wish them to be, catastrophism swoops in. It whispers tales of abandonment and rejection.

It’s a distorted thinking that breeds anxiety, nudging us towards assuming the worst about others’ behaviour. It tempts us to construct elaborate narratives of abandonment or rejection. And it fails to consider alternative explanations such as busyness, personal difficulties, or simply a momentarily distracted mind.

In the end, what catastrophism does is putting at risk the very same connection we would like to preserve.

Pause. Take a breath. Challenge any claims.

It’s a sure way to start taking control of your thoughts.