Meditation Archives - Finding my Nature

Pressure to do something

I didn’t want to write this article. When I started this blog it was fun, then a few days of inactivity I thought I should write something new and I started to feel pressure about it. But whenever pressure comes, there comes resistance as well. The bigger the pressure, the stronger is counterforce against it.

What I really wanted was entirely different – go outside, get some fresh air, walk a few miles. Consciously do nothing and have the best outcome of that. Possibly take some pictures and have fun doing photo editing later. So, this was what I finally did and let me share that with you:

This is what I really like – forests, woods, mountains – occasionally big city life as well, as counterbalance.

I think I like all those activities because they come naturally, I don’t have to them – nobody forces me to go outside, I have no deadlines to publish my pictures and so on. Total freedom.

I believe this topic is worth exploring little bit further. I just need to grab a cup of coffee before writing next chapter (and before I decide to ditch coffee for long time again – read one old story about it here: 10 days without coffee)

Recipe for quality

Fine, let’s continue with this story. During the last few weeks, I thought a lot about our approach to any activities we do. This is what I’d like to highlight here – the focus was not on actions taken but on our perception of them. It doesn’t really matter if we talk about small, usual tasks like declutter a desk or big projects like building new spacecraft. If we talk about attitude towards those activities, the focus is somewhere else.

When we realise that the same rules apply to whatever we do, we’ll understand that it is not the activity itself and not even scale and complexity of it which has influence on our success or failure. It is also not the thought about success itself. It is all about how much we’d like to do it and how much fun we’ve got doing that. Really. Have all those pictures in this article as example – can you feel excitement in them?

On the other hand – whenever you find poorly assembled furniture, low quality equipment, unusable software – how much excitement do you think there was among people making them?

Instead of next chapter, have some more pictures:

More pictures

Where do you put your energy?

So, is there any point doing anything you don’t want to? Regardless of all “rational” reasoning – if there is any type of pressure coming with it – where do you think your energy goes in such situations – creation or resistance? Doing stuff or finding excuses to avoid that? Focus on quality or quick finish to not come back to it anymore? What if you put your energy into something you really enjoy instead?

Fancy some more pictures of nature?

How does it relate to mindfulness?

Mindfulness is about being here and now. Would you say you’re entirely here while thinking about doing anything else? My view on mindfulness is that it’s about living in harmony with our own nature. About being fully aware why we do what we do.

I don’t have to write summary

Or anything at all. None of us must do anything. Except of breathing. Drinking and eating sometimes. Do whatever you enjoy, ditch everything else.

Option to consciously do nothing is a great alternative to living in conflict within yourself. So, if I don’t write here anymore, find me on Instagram instead: https://www.instagram.com/findingmynature/

Welcome to the real world

If you live in countryside or somewhere in the mountains, you can probably skip this article, as most of what I could say, is probably obvious to you. If you’ve lived all your life, like me, in a big city, it can be entirely different. City life can be exciting – there possibility to meet new people, go for all night parties, immerse in fascinating job projects, go to cinema, concert, art gallery and so on. Everything in beautifully architected buildings, wonderfully designed grid of streets, pavements and colourful lights. Furthermore, some beauty can be even found in post-industrial buildings, partially destroyed, covered by graffiti, reminding of past years of greatness. All the world people created, built and are proud of.

Outside of that brick, concrete and tarmac world, there’s another one – made of trees, mountains, rivers, lakes and more. The world created by Nature – place where big city rules do not apply. Where’s no need to rush, to seek artificial excitement, to chase after money and be actively engaged in all activities known only in towns. Like watching TV to get frustrated about politics or your football club losing another match. As there’s no politics or football clubs in the nature, simple.

When we go to such places, we lose all benefits of civilised world, what can be really frustrating at the beginning, as we can feel we lost something we used to have. On the other hand, we also lose all problems known to civilised places. Like traffic, pollution, stress, anxiety, “rat race”, politics, crime and many more. Go to any place not inhabited by humans and you realise all those issues are non-existent there. Fot that reason, wherever you find a place which isn’t man-made creation, which is there as it used to be for hundreds or even thousands of years, you realise you can feel absolutely free there. That’s the real world given to us by this planet.

Connect with nature, disconnect from…

Should we all leave cities and move to some remote locations then? Possibly. But that would be quite radical step, which only a few are either brave or desperate enough to do. Most of us, including myself, wouldn’t. If we aren’t ready for such revolution in life, we can still benefit from the wisdom of the Nature. Anything needed is just to find a spot outside a town, or at least a closest park. Stop and observe. Maybe sit down, disconnect from any problems of daily life and just observe. Start to realise how do we feel about what we see. Start to realise WHAT we see. How any other life on this planet is similar or different to ours? Start to understand how connected or disconnected we are from this entire world.

Connect with yourself

When we begin to notice entire life around us, we’re starting to be more focused and more present. So we’re getting opportunity to forget, at least for a moment, about all our problems rooted in the past. Or related to the future. We’re able to cut off this stream of thoughts filling our heads with constant problems, solutions, memories, plans and any kind of internal chatter. It just happens – we begin to connect with our surroundings. We’re more aware and we’re more here. That’s what some people call mindfulness (find something about it in article Be here, be now. Why mindfulness is bad for you).

When we are more integrated with our surroundings, there’s one interesting side effect – we’re getting more connected with ourselves. Consequently, we’re getting more conscious of our presence here, of our thoughts and feelings. Also, more or less consciously, we feel somewhere inside that we are integral part of this world. We’re closer to our true selves. And overall happier.

Tag: Meditation

Consciously do nothing and have the best outcome