Feeling lethargic and tired last 24 hours or so. I want to get out of this feeling. Caught up with Jaspreet yesterday for the first time in a couple weeks. So it was nice hearing what's been going on in his world recently.
Quote by Sifu David a couple weeks ago when he was teaching me a move. "If it feels wrong, it probably is." LOL. Obviously he said it passingly and jokingly but there's clearly truth in that not only in a Tai Chi context but in many areas. It's almost a fundamental truth of the Universe. If it's unnatural to our body or mind, why fight it? The natural way of the universe will unfold as it will. It's not going to happen any differently if I put pressure on it to or if it doesn't feel like something that'd naturally happen. Bringing this to the health perspective, people put all kinds of things in their body and put themselves in unnatural physical, mental, emotional, moral, and spiritual positions all the time. But we as a society have been doing these unnatural things for so long that they've become natural. Things like eating meat, drinking alcohol, lying, putting our work before our overall health, prioritizing financial gains over a commitment to our values and ethics. They've become normalized so no one bats an eye when something like this happens. It's almost weird if someone doesn't do these things. They're applauded for not following the 'norm.' But what society deems the norm now is not the natural way of life. Sometimes we may feel guilty for taking time off from work to be with ourselves, to improve and grow ourselves. Why? Why do we have to feel guilty when we 'play' vs 'work'? Why can't they be just 2 aspects of a natural life? Why can't they be the same things? When we are born, play is natural. It's through the systems and environments of life and society that we've prioritized work over play. They are really the yin and yang. Both vital parts of a balanced life. A natural life. We have to "be serious" about what we're doing, accomplishing in our careers and relationships. We feel natural when we're doing something we like to do. There's more fun and play naturally occurring in those situations. Learning, even, is a 'serious' matter. Formalizing and factorizing it into an assembly line of 'education.' That's not natural. Why are people unhappy at work? Many factors but a major one is you don't like what you're doing. So the stress levels increase because of the incongruity on 2 levels. One between the head, heart, and hands and the other between what we think, say, and do. That misalignment is unnatural. It feels wrong. But we push it aside because why? Because we've been taught to equate financial freedom to personal happiness. Because we've been taught that the destination will give us happiness. These are both norms that exist in society. They're both unnatural. We can choose whatever we want to make us happy! Better yet, we can choose whatever we want because we are happy. Happiness is the Universal natural state of being. Work and play are both natural in that state of happiness. Alignment between our thoughts, words, and deeds, alignment between between our head, heart, and hands is the natural state of physical, mental, emotional, moral, and spiritual balance. All we have to do is stop fighting the natural way. Then, happiness and love will be natural and only way we live, from which anything and everything we want to be is possible. Let's rediscover that happiness within!
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