Focus on Life™

Is your life in distress – maybe your career, personal direction, relationships, work, or all the above? A cul-de-sac can be a major issue with no easy way out. Still, the answer might be closer than you have realised.

Our reality is the product of our own thinking. It is built upon our assumptions, beliefs, past experiences, and knowledge. In other words, we often repeat the same record over and over again, and even without noticing it. Alas, this is the reason for the unbearable difficulties and ‘impossibilities’. We are stuck.

Instead of looking into future with great distress and trying to work one’s way out, how about pausing for a while and truly looking around you? Where are you and how did you end up here? Where did you come from and why did you choose to be here now? Don’t be surprised if you just simply don’t know, or you don’t have a good answer. That’s how it often is — life just happens if we are not proactively making conscious decisions. We drift and react on daily basis; days turn into weeks and weeks into months, even years. No wonder things may start to seem and feel the same!

Understanding where you are coming from often helps to get a bigger picture of the choices and experiences leading to the current stage. But don’t take it for granted that you have to continue in a similar manner. Each moment you have a chance to make a difference and do something else. We do not have to repeat ourselves like robots —day-in and day-out. Many times the only way to realise the repetition is a major distress factor coming into our lives. It wakes us up since we simply cannot continue like nothing happened. The old record is broken — it just does not play again. We are lost.

If you acknowledge where you are coming from and definitely know that there is no way going forward it leaves at least one possibility left: the current moment. One can focus on the present moment, and try to figure out and observe the surrounding reality. After all it may not exactly be like one has thought it would be — the same old and boring as it ‘used’ to be. But since we only know what we know, it might first be a bit difficult to see something else than what we are expecting to experience. However, there is one great advantage that we haven’t used yet, and that’s exactly the discomfort factor. We know for sure that there has to be something else since things aren’t working the old way again! We have nothing to loose.

If you cannot change the circumstances, the past, and the future has not happened yet, you still have the current moment. So, you have something! And surely you have plenty of more as well. Many experiences, personal assets and resources that you have accumulated along the way in forms of developed talents, skills, knowledge, and so on. In another words you do not have to start from scratch like a newborn baby into this world. You have something to build upon. Maybe not exactly like you used to do it in the past, but perhaps even something better than before?

Getting nowhere and being just here is a great point to start to create something new. It’s very easy to change the direction and do something ‘unpredictable’. Find again the things you like to do and are passionate about. Start to live again a life that is meaningful and full of fun – just by purely being and doing things that are enjoyable. After all, why should we do things we do not like or believe in? It is just so easy to forget to enjoy our everyday life until we have almost entirely lost the track of the whole concept. Then it is time again to rediscover the joy of living and do something else. Life is not about achieving but about being in a manner that is fulfilling and content every moment. A distress can be a blessing in disguise. Carpe diem!

We know only what we know. This sounds very simple and naïve but still it is a powerful statement. It also defines what we do not know, which is very important to realise as well. One could say that we limit our world and experiences by our awareness.

Learning new and being open to new opportunities and possibilities is not easy. This can be clearly seen from the above axiom, or just by looking around you and observing how the people you know carry on having their usual habits and routines—often unchanged for decades. As if this would not be enough to restrict and narrow our potential we do it also proactively, and others do it for us.

Imagine that you are faced with a new situation that is somewhat awkward or cumbersome. To whom will you tell about it? Quickly you scan through your friends and decide to share the information with people who can handle the news. In another words you do not bother upsetting the persons, who you feel with your past experience, would be shocked and would have hard time taking in the news. Everybody knows a relative or a person who is very uptight and square with his/her world-view. With those persons you are very careful how you put your words and what kind of issues are appropriate discussion topics. You filter your interaction and communication proactively, subconsciously.

So, who limits and what? Is it you or the rest of the world?

What’s reality like from eternity’s point of view?

Who talks by silence, does the most.

How can we see something we know nothing about?

As long as there is something that changes, the quest is not
over. Anything that is not permanent and independent is still
becoming; it depends on its external circumstances and,
therefore, more or less reacts to these.

A constant state is independent of any outside events or
situations as well as any temporal fluctuations such as day or
night. How stable is your consciousness?

Goes back only a short while,
forgets,
ignores,
leaves blank,
the things we did,
and are not proud about;

All the experiences,
of misery,
darkness,
abuse,
hate,
fear,
and betrayal,
we have not committed,
if you ask from your memory;

Still something in you,
reminds,
and remembers.
It tries to give you,
hints,
tips,
and kind notes,
but often we leave,
those without a blink,
turn the blind eye,
and hide away;

Opportunities come,
and go,
to settle the accounts,
straight,
leave our mark,
and balance the past;

Persistence of memory,
hidden deep,
and hard,
not easy by far,
is to bring into sunshine,
the old dusty,
deeds,
we rather would,
leave and bury deep;

Our memory is short,
and not for trusted,
feelings and the body,
better guides,
for the light and
the record straight;

Do not waste time,
to settle the accounts;
Your feelings lead,
to the deep mines,
of your secrets,
and sides,
way back,
far away,
you should stay
—awake.