We live in an age of ‘more’. ‘More’ is king because it seems whatever it is we don’t have can be obtained by some possession or other sort of thing to be acquired. If we are overweight many people might agree we need more exercise. If we have a mental problem some may say we need more therapy. If we drive too much we need more gas. Always supply the demand for more and we will forever be left unfilled. I am slave to this. I always think I can buy something, or obtain a skill, to remedy a problem I usually created myself. Interestingly enough the problem I created was likely a result of getting more of something else for a different thing.
I saw a headline on a magazine while waiting in line at a grocery store. I think these magazines are very distracting. So bright and colorful. They are right in the place where people have a chance to talk to one another. Not that anyone talks to one another. Its very scary because we, or at least I, assume I will likely hear some tragic story if I talk to someone else. Usually though, the reasons I do not talk to people, are all made up in my head. Which is pretty interesting. Since all the reasons I talk to myself, are also made up in my head. I hope you get my joke, do you get it?
The headline I saw said “How to be more mindful.”. It struck me funny and I guess my mind kanoodled it away. It sort of put the thought in the furnace I guess and later on a rant popped out. It went something like this..
It is ridiculus to seek more of something that can not be measured in the capacity of more or less. You can not be more mindfull or less mindful. You can just be mindful. Words like more and less are attached to ideas to monetize them. The word it self is mindful and once something is full it can not be more full. This is really important to me because I think it is very dangerous to sell an idea like this.
More More More. Always more. More is like a Stephen King monster. Its ceaseless breathing and ever expanding maw is perpetuated by a culture obsessed with monetization. Even to obtain less is advertised as more as I see it. These are phrases that are so easily used as flowers to attract a certain type of person. That certain type of person is usually most of us. A person seeking more happiness.
I think happiness, probably like all feelings, can also be described not as something you have more or less of but something you either have or don’t. Of course you can feel it stronger at times than others and sometimes we are happy and sometimes we are not. My theory and belief is that we always have it. It’s just a matter of it is on or off and how strong it is at the moment.
More mindful is what I came here to write about. The phrase more mindful and its misleading nature. “Be Mindful.”. What does it mean to you? If you are comfortable with your definition then just do that. You are now being mindful always. How much attention do you give your choices? That may be the idea behind ‘more mindful’ but a concept like mindfulness is not something that should be thought of as being able to obtain more of. More is likely always followed up by price or transaction of sorts.
click the link to buy more premium limited edition Capitalist Pigs T – Shirts !!
My fear is that with all the ads, magazines, life tips, hack tips, credit cards, scores, accounts, kids, accounts, favorite resturaunts, yoga classes, creativei outets, jobs, roles, relationships, family criss, back muslce pains, reasosns to take medications, depressions, lonilness, hobbies, cars, trucks, cable subscriptions, cell phones, grocery savings, retirement plans, travel plans, home decorations, furniture, iltellectual interests, phisological interests, books, movies, music, art, rug collection, stamp collections, etc….. Having a mindful concious and healthy body as something we need to be reminded of us is a big warning that as a culture we have distracted ourselves away from simple practices engrained in our basic concious.
Enough is enough. This thought parallels to why I believe I see so much landfill overflowing and waste in our oceans. The good news though is that we are connecting are’nt we? People are doing this and talking about it and I probably am wrong about it all. If the idea is being spread that maybe we are achieving more mindfulness. I’m not sold though.
As soon as I attach a word like more or find, seek, grasp, obtain, I think of something outside myself. A mind is not outside myself so I will not find more of it outside myself. It is completely in me and when I know that all of it is accessible. I can very easily weight a decision “Yes or No”, usually, in a clear mind and know the answer. The one that rings most true in my head. Let me say though that just because it is the answer that rings most clear in my head does not make it the correct answer outside my head. Sometimes it can be a very bad answer and this will create a lesson.
What is convenient about a phrase that creates an objective to seek outside the self is that creates the opportunity for a transaction. This could be in the case of guidance or exchange for ideas and knowledge of perhaps a commodity of some sort. There are no doubt methods for sale that lead to great satisfaction in the ways of meditation, peaceful living, or any path really. There are, for certain, methods for sale that can guide almost any person down any path they wish to go. They are useful resources. They are not more mindfulness. Not in my opinion but I am just an Internet, and, only recently former a mind rambler. Everything I write here is based off a thought I had after looking at a magazine cover in a grocery store check out line. It occurred to me that now we are selling healthy mind practice guides sold in the same place that causes extreme noise for the mind. It was just very juxtaposed and oddly balanced. A health magazine that points out flaws you probably have seems ridiculous to me. Its all just so very ridiculous. If you want to help me please leave a comment. We are not flawed. We don’t need more or less of anything to be who we are. Choose it or do not and be mindful or do not be.
I am trying to look at it with the idea of this “I am being mindful. I always am. It is just how I choose to do it that make the difference of what my actions are in this world.” That brings me into focus when I initiate myself onto this world. This allows me to consciously weigh my decision and ask myself, is this right? Is this true to me? It does’nt always have to be. Breaking the rules is ok. The answer to the question is not what is what we are talking about here. Just asking the question is harmless right?
Of course I am being completely ridiculous which I like to do. If you search more mindful practices you will find many amazing resources to increase your chi flow and start kicking ass! What is even better is that most of them are free and there are tons of different things to try because not everything works for everyone! hahahaha!!
https://www.psychologytoday.com/
https://www.nosleeplessnights.com/mindfulness-exercises/
https://www.amazon.ca/Mindfulness-Dogs-Sam-Hart/dp/184953781X
Please don’t buy anything from anyone!