BEING

I had been consistent in my blogging. I was putting out two new posts each week. And the first post this week went out right on time. Then Wednesday, Thursday and Friday came and went and I had not received the inspiration that I had come to count on. My second post of the week was late and might not happen at all. I could feel my anxiety rising!

Somehow I did not feel ok in this situation! Why not, I asked myself? Of course, I was feeling the pressure to do. And not from an external source, from within. Just being wasn't enough for me! Much has been written about man's inability to just be and I was confronting that inability in me. We are called human beings and sadly in this ultra competitive world we have become human "doings," moving from one task to the next. As they say, we no longer have time to stop and smell the flowers. We feel incomplete unless we are in action – doing, creating, producing!
So I took a breath and began to talk myself "off the ledge." "It's ok, an idea will come. It's ok if there is only one post this week. I am ok just being. I don't have to be doing all the time." I began to feel better! And I found my new blog topic!
 Once again I have been able to see the human condition through the lens of my experience. I have come to know more fully the unrest in me and my fellow men (I can't be the only one, lol) caused by the pressure to do. We have learned early on that doing will get us the love/approval we seek from others and ourselves. Then we live our lives performing like circus animals. The problem is this becomes, for most, a never ending cycle of performance after performance. Like the hamster in it's wheel, we run endlessly and get nowhere! Our reward for this endless running is exhaustion and then an early death! At least, we finally can stop running.

Of course, there is a better way. As I return to sanity and in light of new understanding I have choices to make. I can monitor and relax out of my endless state of doing. I can choose to be ok just being, knowing that my efforts do not ensure happiness. Happiness will come from loving myself just the way I am and wherever I am, whether that brings the love and approval of others or not. I can know my worth without the need to list my accomplishments. I can choose to just be and know my sufficiency from that place, whatever it may look like.

I think this is why I like meditation so much. Meditation is certainly, when practiced with the right mindset, a practice of being. This is also why I like to share the practice of meditation with others. More information on meditation can be found on the Meditation Page of this site.

It is the doingness of our lives that causes our unrest and it's manifestations – chaos, disease, disconnection, etc. Being, best practiced in meditation, is the cure for what ails me/us on all levels – physical, mental, and spiritual.