Monday, January 17, 2005

Learning when NOT to do something

is as important as learning when one must do something.

Michael Nobbs wrote a blog entry on giving up.

We have to listen to ourselves.

Does the doing the thing make you feel flat?, as something-that-must-be-done?, do you feel obligated?, do you feel tired contemplating it?, must you grit your teeth to get through it?, does your heart sink when contemplating an opportunity?

A good for you something may be difficult, you might even feel anxious about trying something new and unfamiliar, anxious and excited it good. Anxious and flat - avoid.

Yes avoid even if someone else says 'how exciting' - you are not them. We have to learn to listen very carefully to the 'still small voice' within which will tell us what is and isn't right for us. We have to listen to the voice however divergent it may be from our friends, family or society's wishes for us. We may even have to admit that our own wishes for ourselves are not right....

If we don't learn the art of listening to ourselves alarming things happen, accidents, bodies collapse, we enter a long arid desert of the soul, mechanically doing things because we 'must' 'should' 'ought' and we don't understand why we are unhappy.

It is easy to do something we have done before because we have done it before - it is far harder to stop doing something and instead experiment to find what is right just for you.

1 comment:

Lori said...

"It's easier not to." That's my problem--something I'm working on, never mind giving up or not. Just getting started is hard enough, especially if something's new!