Are you taking your moments of sorrow too seriously?
Are you taking your moments of joy too seriously?
Are you taking your life too seriously?
Everything,
Literally everything,
Including your thoughts,
Your emotions,
Your feelings,
Your unhappiness and your happiness is impermanent.
And of course even your life as such is impermanent.
So don't ever take anything too seriously.
Now if everything is impermanent,
Then how can you find meaning in anything?
So,
Today's topic is impermanence and our goal is to accept that nothing ever stays the same.
We will also bring awareness to how you are actually never really stuck,
Even when you feel like it.
We will understand that change is always inevitable.
We will also make you trust your journey and your chosen path.
Heraclitus said,
No man ever steps in the same river twice,
For it's not the same river and he's not the same man.
Now let's look at your river.
The first thing for us to understand is that truly nothing stays the same.
Everything changes.
Now if you not only understand that in your head,
But also in your heart,
Your soul,
In your entire being,
Then your chances of happiness will increase because no matter how bad a situation,
It will never feel permanent.
Can you remember a moment in your life when you thought you were doomed forever?
And if you had such a moment in your life,
Were you truly doomed forever?
And even more important,
Was the feeling of being doomed forever worth it?
Now,
Impermanence might actually be the only real absolute truth in your life.
Things do not stay as they are and the quicker you can embrace this fact,
The better.
Everything constantly changes,
So hold on to nothing too tightly and do not take anything too seriously.
Like a wave in the ocean,
Everything that happens in your life,
Including your negative emotions,
Will pass through you and beyond you.
And everything will pass through you smoothly when you let it,
When you don't hold on to it,
When you don't take things too seriously,
When you understand impermanence.
Now how do you achieve that?
There's a fine line between the unhealthy not giving a shit about anything attitude and on the other hand experiencing the holistic lightness that comes when embracing impermanence.
So how do you find that line?
How can you learn to walk on the side of understanding impermanence while still being a caring human being?
Let's look at this with the help of an example.
Think back to when you had a big emotional event happen in your life that caused you pain.
Something like a breakup or loss of a close person.
Now an event like that is a massive emotional wave that hits you,
That rocks your boat,
That makes you fragile.
Those first reactions are perfectly fine.
Life is not supposed to be experienced without negative emotions.
But negative emotions are also not supposed to be experienced constantly.
So sometime after your emotional event there is a short first moment of clarity where the negative emotions take a break.
And here is your first chance to tell yourself,
To remind yourself this too shall pass.
This too shall pass.
Nothing stays the same.
Everything is impermanent.
This reminder to yourself in your short yet clear-minded moment is not designed to make your next wave of pain lesser or to ignore it.
Quite the opposite.
The clear-minded moment should allow you to experience them to the fullest.
Because now you can trust that,
Like everything,
Your emotions are impermanent.
You do not have to be averse or scared of negative experiences and emotions anymore.
You will live a life based on love,
Not fear.
Before we talk about the impermanence of positive emotions,
Let us talk about the importance of negative emotions.
Your human experience is not supposed to be easy all the time.
If you were to get rid of all unhappy or sad,
Fearful or angry moments,
Then your life would become incomplete and hollow.
Your life would not make sense.
It would be meaningless.
Embrace all experiences,
Negative and positive,
And you will live a life with purpose and meaning.
But be aware not to indulge in negative emotions unnecessarily.
Sometimes you might find comfort in your sadness because misery does have a certain ease to it.
Nobody has any expectations of you,
Including yourself.
And a life without expectations,
Even though living in sadness,
Might seem appealing to you.
But be aware,
Staying in negative emotions for too long makes you become bitter.
And being bitter is very hard to overcome.
So embrace impermanence,
Let go of your emotions as soon as they want to move on.
Now let's talk about the impermanence of positive emotions.
The absolute same rules of impermanence apply to joy and ecstatic moments.
Enjoy happy moments in the very moment to the fullest,
But do not hang on to them or expect the joyful state of mind to be your general state of mind.
This is very important to understand for all of us,
Because we are used to always being entertained by our cell phones,
Always being seen,
Always being heard,
Always having a feedback mechanism that fools you into believing that the general state of mind is to be entertained instead of being content.
So now that we understand the importance of experiencing the impermanence of happy and unhappy moments,
You might ask yourself,
Why anything?
Why bother with anything?
If everything is impermanent,
Why should you even have a job,
Build a house,
Have relationships and so on?
They're all impermanent anyway.
Let's look at this.
Now your goal is to be happy,
So what makes you happy?
Be very simple about it.
Does taking things too seriously make you happy?
Does not caring about anything make you happy?
Most likely what will make you happy is to do things properly without taking them too seriously.
So try and find this path and try and walk on it as much as you can.
It is absolutely worth your time.
Now lastly,
Let us look at the trust for your life path.
Once you start embracing impermanence,
You will increase your trust in your life path,
Because understanding impermanence means accepting change.
And accepting change means that you trust the unknown.
And trusting the unknown means you are trusting the future,
Also known as your life path.
Now let us look at the practical exercises of today.
First,
I would like to invite you to write down a thought about a person or an event that causes you to experience negative emotions.
Write down one sentence.
Then I would like you to sit still for three minutes.
You can set a timer on your phone for that.
Before you start your timer,
Read your sentence again and think about it and then say to yourself,
This too shall pass.
Make sure you remind yourself that this too shall pass for three minutes.
Pause the course now and come back to it when you have done the first pass.
So I hope you have started experiencing the impermanence of your thoughts and feelings already.
Now I would like you to write down a thought about a person or an event that causes you joyful emotions.
Just one sentence again.
And again,
Read your sentence,
Then say to yourself,
This too shall pass.
And sit still for three minutes.
Pause the course again and come back when you have done this second part.
Over the next few days or during this week,
I would like to invite you to say the sentence,
This too shall pass,
Whenever you experience joy or sorrow in any form.
It could be as simple as the joy of tasting an ice cream or the stomach pain after eating the ice cream.
Whatever happens in your life,
Tell yourself,
This too shall pass.
Be very mindful that it does not disconnect you or make you care less.
This too shall pass is very different from I don't care.
Make sure you are able to differentiate.
So they say,
This too shall pass in your mind or if possible,
Even out loud.
Try and find at least five moments per day where you can say to yourself,
This too shall pass.
And make sure the chosen moments are positive and negative.
