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Enjoy

What if there is only one thing to master in life? What inner thing would you choose?

I would choose to “enjoy” myself in every moment. Then no matter where I am or what is happening I can enjoy the moment. Because all it takes is making a conscious choice, to look for what I enjoy. I bet no matter what is going on, I can always find something I enjoy.

In my life I have had a lot to deal with. For example, burying my entire family. Yes I am the last man standing. I have always been able to look back on my ,one and be grateful for everything that has happened. Even when people die, even when my grief has been heavy. I have always been grateful for the connection with family and friends during these traumatic events. So yes I have been able to find the enjoyment of funerals, only in the rear view mirror.

Now that I’m writing this new book, Enjoy. Do. Be. Free. the opportunity and the challenge is to find the “joy” in every moment. Joy is a feeling of pleasure in the moment. To enjoy is to take pleasure, posses and benefit from. To me, this means giving myself permission to to “take pleasure” or even find the “pleasure” in the moment. Whether it is the tasteful coffee ship music in the background or the taste of a really well crafted Americans Misto coffee.

To enjoy is to choose. To recognize something which brings me pleasure. I can choose to enjoy it I can choose to not enjoy. Both are arrived at and at through choice. Sometimes through conscious choice and sometimes non-conscious reaction. Whether conscious or not, whether to enjoy or not-enjoy all are decisions. Choosing to enjoy is a decision to recognize a pleasurable experience, to consciously allow oneself to feel it.

To not-enjoy is often an unconscious emotional eruption, a reaction to some stimulus, event or person. These unconscious eruptions are often preceded by automatic negative thoughts. Or triggered by negative memories, old, well worn patterns of thought and beliefs based past experiences. What gets forgotten is what has handed in the past does not necessarily translate as the truth in this moment.

All are choices.

This is the first public post ever about a book concept I am working on, “Enjoy. Do. Be. Free.”

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Mornings without Social Media

Audio Version

I’m surprised at the amount of extra headspace, room to think I am experiencing. For example, I am actually writing instead of listening, recording or reading. Of course, I wonder if anybody will be reading this. There’s a part of me that says it doesn’t matter, because I’m writing for myself. The purpose of this test is to take the time to be reflective and truly be with my own thoughts.

This is the first morning where I have not indulged in social media activities. It’s pretty interesting how pernicious the desire to see what other people are doing and talking about actually is. The attraction to open apps is not as strong as I thought it would be. I feel drawn to see what other people are doing and talking about. Apps like Bumpers, Anchor, Facebook, Twitter all provide the opportunity to observe and listen in on peoples lives. However, I could accomplish the same thing by picking up the phone and calling them.

I wonder if I will call some people? I wonder how the conversation will go? Will they have time to talk? Will it be different or weird?

What I’m most fascinated with is the extra mental bandwidth I am sensing. Room to think, far less expectations and far less of the accompanying tension. This is a creative tension, a drive to “create” and share it with others. Which is the very reason I decided to take the break from social media.

I sensed that there was a great deal of my creative energy being consumed participating in social media. This creative energy and flow is now available to be used for my own side projects, books or other creative endeavours. This is the reason I decided to eliminate social media temporarily. Intuitively, I sensed this was happening, now I have my own post facto rationale and results which confirm my conclusions.

Anxiety & Fear of Missing Out (8:43 am)

I am now on my iPad Pro and I forgot to modify my notications on this device. I am surprised at the anxiety I felt as I turned off Facebook and Twitter notifications. I had already compeleted a significant pruning of my notifications months before.

I feel free… (9:02 AM)

I am sitting here looking out the window and am noticing the absence of the tension to perform. I definitely feel much more in control of my day. No longer filling up every moment it’s social media pasts, recordings etc. Ahhh…

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The insanity of maintaining multiple online presences

I realize that headline may not be grammatically correct, too bad. Since the demise of anchor version one I’ve noticed that I’ve been chasing engagement. Engagement on the original anchor application was effortless. It was rewarding. It was mutually beneficial. Not so with version 2.

I found myself attempting to engage multiple presences on social networks. It has become unmanageable, not to mention unrewarding. I realize that a lot of these issues are “my issues”. However, I am the only one that can choose to deal with it. Increasingly, it seems to me that be successful in social networks, you have to be willing to subjugate your priorities for the priorities of others.

Everyone talks, few listen

Doesn’t seem like people are interested in listening, only talking, projecting and broadcasting. Exchange of different ideas is frowned upon. People are posting stuff that is not their own as if it is their own. That shows a distinct lack of intellectual honesty. I realize that in some cases it’s absolutely possible that one could forget where you learned something. I know it happens to me.

FYI, this idea of intellectual honesty I first heard from my friend Rosa Say.

Quoting ones teachers and providing citations of the author or originator is the essence of intellectual honesty.

But we don’t have “teachers” anymore do we? Now we have Google.

Google, social networks of all kinds have of become our teachers and influencers. We have become conditioned to the wide availability of information. We have also stopped thinking for ourselves, thinking critically.

We were given two ears and one mouth.

We should listen more than we speak. However, that seems to be very difficult for the unwashed masses. Largely unaware of the intrusion of performance based acceptance into their awareness and consciousness, the march of marketing, hype and other people’s agendas has clearly infiltrated their minds. It has clearly happen to me, hence my declaration of a new practice. dIgital hygiene.

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What does hope look like?

Remember, today might be the day that … simply by being you, you give someone hope… give someone a little energy to keep going, an encouraging word, a simple thank you, I smile or… give them the gift of your time and attention.

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Could the mind be a battery? 

Could the mind be a storage receptacle of energy? Awaiting the connection of neural pathways, nerves and thoughts to make the connection? 

Metaphysically this would mean that the power comes from the act of making a connection to a memory. Or a memory becomes “charged” with a certain quality of energy which gives the memory the power to influence us. 

If so, then we need to be careful of what we hook up with and connect to.