Wayne Dyer
I just wrote an entry and I think it turned out to be an article...so I saved it instead of publishing it here until I decide what I am going to do with it.
In that article I talk about the importance of measuring our day by being rather than doing. So many of us, however, are so inclined (me included) to measure our days by what we accomplished. If, at the end of our waking hours, we have a check mark beside everything on our to do list we determine that we have had a great day. If we get most of it done and some of it done well...that's a good day. If we get little done and/or what we got done was not done well...well that's a bad day. Hmmm!
We are so inclined to do and we forget somehow about the importance of being. Doing in today's busy world seems to be everything. It is an addiction almost.
I have been blessed with this amazing learning opportunity. I have a body that wants me to rest and to simply be for a while. I see the spiritual significance in that. It leads me further on my journey to the truth I seek. I have come so far!!!! Yet, I am still inclined to do.
My physical symptoms make doing so challenging...The physicality of my life experience right now is like a doorway opening to my being ( which I am consciously seeking) rather than my doing but I turn my back on it. Despite how far I have come, I still turn my back on it.
My mind, my ego tell me if I want to have a good day, a great life and be the best I can be, I must do...so I do. I push myself to get those things done on my list. I must push harder, faster and with greater difficulty to prove my value. It doesn't matter how I feel when I am doing the activity or task I set out to do. It doesn't matte if I am enjoying it or if I am enjoying the world around me. Heck sometimes I am not sure if I am even noticing the world around me when I am so focused on my doing.
This drive to do pulls me forward. Or is it backwards? I am quite sure it is backwards:). This ego drive to do that I have yet to master pulls me away from the goals of enlightenment ( or something like it)that I seek.
At the end of the day when I am reflecting on the hours I spent, I still find myself thinking "Oh this was a good day because I got this and that done." or "This day sucked because I never got anything done. I never did anything." I want to get to the end of my waking hours and say..." This was a great day simply because I was loving, kind, peaceful, joyful, supportive, mindful, still and very appreciative of everything that showed up in it."
I have a ways to go.
An Example:
D. purchased Kayaks for us. They were not bought to increase physical fitness or to encourage rugged outdoor pursuits...they were bought as tools that would allow peaceful, tranquil moments on the water, surrounded by nature. They were bought to help us relax and enjoy life.
Well, I get in mine...and the next thing I know, I am paddling and I am paddling hard. I get so consumed by the act of paddling, the athletic pursuit of it and getting from one place to the other at a certain clip that I miss out on the scenery around me...not only that I drive myself within a 5-10 minute span into full fledge symptoms. Chest pain and all.
D. on the other hand, being the person he is, just glides slowly along the water . He takes a few easy strokes...than allows the water to take him...a few more strokes and farther he goes. It is a very graceful, purposeful but leisurely movement. So different than mine. He relaxes and takes in everything (between the moments he is warning me to slow down before I end up in trouble...that is). He enjoys it more, exerts himself less and has a better being experience than me, the pathological doer, does.
There is so much to learn from simply watching this man's approach to kayaking and to life.
If I keep going the way I am going in the kayak I won't be able to continue or something worse will happen. I know that. I am shown over and over again...the beauty of simply being. I can find a certain being in the this new adventure without overexerting myself or causing symptoms. If I paddle easy and then let the boat and the water carry me I will be taken to a wonderful place of beingness.
The opportunity to just be has been laid out in front of me like a red carpet for years now. All I have to do is step on it, embrace it, live accordingly. If I did I would crawl into bed at night knowing I had the day I wanted to have...one full of peaceful, joyful, grateful and loving being.
I still have to learn welcome the wonderful grace and wisdom my physical symptoms are offering me. I have to stop resisting them through my pathological need to do.
Most importantly, I have to say goodbye to the criteria for determining a good day through doing and know a day's value by the being that takes place in it. I will get there!
All is well in my world!
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