In my experience,
The more you meditate,
The more you start to understand the nature of reality and the nature of yourself.
Just the other day I was meditating and I had this realization that I had my social priorities out of whack.
I realized that I was doing my best to give the most of myself,
To be as positive as possible in a work situation and when I was meeting strangers and sort of dealing with the externalities of my life.
And that attempt to do so came at the cost to the relationships with my family and my close friends.
I was exerting so much effort and so much energy to put on a show,
So to speak,
That I didn't have much left to be my best self for my friends and family.
And then I realized that really it should be reversed in the sense that I want my son to have the best version of me possible.
I want to be the best model that I can be for happiness,
Well adjustment and all that sort of stuff.
Now obviously that means showing and expressing and explaining emotions,
But it doesn't mean that I should be tired and exhausted and cranky and short around him.
So what I realized was that I needed a little bit of a priority shift.
More specifically that I need to ensure that I'm not giving too much of myself too often to other people.
That really I should,
Even beyond the idea of giving my best self to my son and to my family and to my close friends,
I should really try and live in a way that I don't have to quote unquote give anything to anyone.
I'm just being myself as I am for who I am.
That I should drop all the acts and just be.
Now obviously this realization,
This idea,
This sort of insight into my own nature is all well and good,
But it's another thing to put it into practice to actually sort of embrace that.
So since I had this thought,
I've been trying to put it into play.
I've been trying to sort of step back and just observe myself both when I'm away from the home and when I'm at home.
How am I right now?
Am I being honest to myself?
Am I putting in too much?
How will this impact me later?
Just sort of stepping back and asking these questions and then making sort of micro adjustments to to best adapt myself to the situation.
And what this has resulted in is a little bit of a subdued approach,
A little bit of a calmer approach when I'm at work.
I'm not acting or my performance hasn't dropped.
I'm still as professional and as competent as I ever have been,
But I'm just a little bit calmer about it all.
I'm not trying to be something that I'm not.
I'm getting the work done,
But it's not costing me a bunch of energy that I'll have to pay back later on.
And on the other hand,
When I'm around friends and when I'm at home,
I'm making sure that I'm giving them moments of my complete undivided focused attention on them for who they are in that moment.
And what I found is that this is providing a far more balanced approach to my life as a whole.
I've got more energy and I feel less tense.
My anxieties have dropped and it's just all around working for me.
I'm sharing this with you for a couple of reasons.
Number one,
I think it's important to,
I think it's an important concept to be able to observe ourselves and to drop the act.
But more importantly,
It's good to see some of the results that a mindfulness practice can instill upon your life.
You will see positive results.
You will see insights into the nature of your own reality like this one.
Now don't get me wrong,
I've been looking at this one.
Now don't get me wrong,
This little insight is by far the only thing that I've discovered.
It seems like over time there's this perpetual nature that I sort of realize one thing,
Realize the next thing,
Realize the next thing,
And then I'm sort of striving to attain it or to implement it or to sort of realize it in my life.
It's like the meditation unlocks something and says,
Hey,
Consider this.
What would this be like in your life?
Or do you see that you're doing this?
Or have you thought about that?
It's almost like I've become my own friend.
Do you know how when you've got a friend who's got a problem and they simply can't see the way through,
But because you're external to that friend,
Because you've seen it from an external perspective,
You can see a simple solution to the problem.
If only they did this,
That problem wouldn't be a thing for them anymore.
But of course,
They're too close to it to see that truth.
And you know,
It can be hard to communicate that with them.
But through meditation,
Through this practice,
You can take that role on for yourself.
And it's just a matter of working out how to best communicate it with you so you can implement those changes where appropriate.
So with that in mind,
I encourage you to keep meditating and be open to suggestions that come from yourself,
Because you might find that there's a deep level of wisdom in there.
Happy meditating.
