Positively Mindful
  • Home
  • About
  • GROUPS
  • Workplace
  • Coaching
  • BOOKING
  • Blog
  • Home
  • About
  • GROUPS
  • Workplace
  • Coaching
  • BOOKING
  • Blog

Blog! Seize the day, then let it go 

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

23/6/2017

0 Comments

 
This morning I woke up thinking busily and then worrying, relentlessly
 
This has happened before and I'm sure it'll happen again. It's conditioned into me, by me, and by the culture around me. I languished in it for a good 30 minutes, then meditated, wrote, read and remembered that I can't force this away forever, because I know that harms my body and creates more depression sooner or later. So, I can  acknowledge it, admit it to myself and imagine there is a gift in this for me somewhere.
 
So I admit it to you now - my voices of:
  • "You need to be more responsible"
  • "You don't have a clue!"
  • "You're living it wrong!"​
Picture
Getting it all wrong?
Steve Jobs once said:
"It is impossible to connect the dots looking forward - you can only connect them looking back. You have to trust in something, because this will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well worn path."
 
Last week, after finishing 5 days of 'Fooling School' with the enigmatic Holly Stoppit, I was left with a lot of insights and a lot of confusion. Fooling is the art of emptying yourself by allowing whatever is present to be acted out and seen as 'a mask'. Something you wear, periodically, and experience the world through. It could be a mask of smugness, or victimhood, or, as in my case this morning, the inner critic. In the workshop we had a lot of fun with this and also experienced a shed load of vulnerability, joy, tears and shared emotions with 7 other fools, 10-6 Monday to Friday!
Picture
The world's a stage and we all wear masks to play our part

One insight was the idea that perhaps it is when we have a glimmer of awareness that this emotion, feeling and voice in me is like a ‘mask’, one of many that we slap on ourselves and onto other people (seeing them as a character looking at us), that we can we hope to face it and relax our hold on it. But unfortunately it rarely just dissolve - It is there for a reason. I created it and wear it to protect me from feeling something. Failure, judgement of others, the deep painful reminder of something I bought into long ago - a belief that I'm not enough.
 
So how then do I move on with my day? Accept it and be interested in it. Give it some space to be heard and seen. Ask it some questions. Breathe with it and feel. Let go of pushing it away, just for some time, maybe 20 minutes and play with it. Maybe it has some undiscovered treasures for you. Perhaps it is good that it isn’t dissolving instantly. One of the most inspiring quotes I gleaned from Holly this weekend was the subtle art behind fooling: ​

"Be interested, not interesting."

Picture
What mask are you wearing now? What are you projecting onto others?
Picture
Can you see them as interesting, play with them?
When I stop trying to be interesting, good enough, appropriate, mindful and wise I start acting out and accepting that I'm imperfect, messy, ugly, fragile and weak. It doesn't mean I'm like this all the time. It means I'm like this right now and I can witness and follow that for some time, to see where it leads.
 
When I allow it, breathe with it and accept it then I sometimes find it transforms into an insight; a learning about myself and then it becomes something truly inspiring. My critic today reminded me to be more responsible for enjoyment of my day, to notice and appreciate my situation, to look at what I've got instead of what I don't have and to see if it's possible to vulnerably trust that it's all working out and then I find some inspiration to keep working, playing and looking for ways that this life is 'flirting with me' - things that I’m attracted to and keep me exploring. 
 
So, I went for a run, climbed a tree, came back and launched into work, following my inspiration (it  might ebb away again any time soon). I'm sharing this in the hope that you'll see some of your masks, and the masks you slap on others. Maybe you'll be inspired to work with Holly or me as we both offer playful and mindful ways to access inner acceptance. 
 
I'm very grateful to Holly and to Steve Jobs for 'reminding' me that I'm a fool and help inspire me to be hungry for more. I'll leave you with this video of Steve Jobs talking more about his passion and what helped him to stay foolish and stay hungry. ​
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Authors

    Neil Morbey is a meditation teacher, group facilitator and inspiration guide for Positively-Mindful.com

    Subscribe to our mailing list

    * indicates required

    Archives

    February 2021
    November 2020
    September 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015

    Categories

    All
    Anxiety
    Beliefs
    Benefits / Possibilities
    Breath
    Choice
    Communication
    Drama
    Education
    Enlightenment
    Influence
    Language
    Meditation
    Metta
    Mindfulness
    Obligation
    Pain
    Procrastination
    Productivity
    Psychology
    Qigong
    Retreat
    Schools
    Taoism
    Vipassana
    Work
    Wu Wei

    RSS Feed

    All blogs: 

    • Breath Works: practices to program BOLD focus.
    • Procrastination part 3: TURNING THE SHIP AROUND
    • Loosen your TIES to suffering. 
    • Understanding Procrastination Part 2: Just do it now.
    • What happens in a 1 hour mindfulness class?
    • Understanding Procrastination 
    • Transforming Hatred with Kindness - Storytime!
    • Radical Honesty and Non-Violent Communication
    • When Feedback hurts - Own your Shit - Take a SEAT
    • My Summer So Far
    • No pain, no gain?
    • Life is like an echo... echooo... echooooo...
    • Etymology and Mindfulness of Language
    • An Awesome or Choresome Life?
    • Mindfulness for Young People?
    • Explore the depths of your ocean.
    • Let Go and Be - escape the Drama triangle! 
    • The Importance of Self Expression
    • THE IMPORTANCE OF FEEDBACK
    • Don't Mindfill
    • Love is messy, scary, risky... Love and need?
    • Awareness of the road!
    • Dealing with the emotional drop
    • Tools for patience in meditation and in life.
    • Useful language and tools for creating healthy discussion.
    • Craving the crux: 10 lessons learned from my rock climbing addiction
    • PLAYFULNESS AND PRESENCE: TEDX BELFAST 2015
    • Orestes, The Furies and The Eumenides (Kindly ones). A story of vengeance, guilt and forgiveness
    • Learning barefoot: feeling more
    • Musings on Choice and Obligation
    • What is enlightenment and what's the process of getting there?
    • What is Mindfulness and Why Practice?
    • My Vipassana Retreat Experience

    ​


Proudly powered by Weebly