#verameum

[verameum]

Anyone with sincere interest in self improvement must invest in physical health. Fitness is one of the most clear cut opportunities to better oneself in ways that have meaningful and tangible impacts on our wellbeing. The blueprints are well-defined and have withstood the test of time. Eat a balanced and healthy food regimen, exercise routinely and move often, and get sufficient rest and sleep. The answers are obvious and manifest; what is wanting is the discipline to adopt and maintain routines that support these objectives. If we cannot employ discipline and objective reasoning to our physical pursuits then what makes us think we stand a chance of doing so in the more complex and ethereal mental arena?

[senecasredoubt]

Thanks to @verameum for sending me a copy of his new book! Enjoying it with a pipe on this cool Texas morning.

[verameum]

If we want to consider ourselves tolerant people then we must tolerate intolerant people. We must tolerate people we consider to be bigots, ignorants, and fools, in as much as it means to listen and engage in meaningful dialog with them. To aggressively shut everyone out with whom we disagree and then wave the flag of tolerance is hypocritical and degenerative for a progressive society. Real tolerance is stomaching difficult conversations with the aim of achieving some degree of understanding and reconciliation. Destroying or annihilating those with whom we disagree is not a realistic outcome, so why do we pursue such a path as our primary method of dealing with conflicting worldviews?

If our tribe or way of thinking is the “right” one, then we must acknowledge that people in differing camps will view us as the enemy. They will not tolerate our perspective or engage in constructive dialog to better understand our viewpoint. They will shut us out and seek to annihilate our worldview, just as we do for theirs. Such behavior is not tolerant. We should cease pretending to be tolerant people if we cannot respectfully engage with people differing perspectives, no matter how distasteful their philosophies may seem to us.

[Caveat: this is not to say that we should sanction or support grossly immoral or criminal behavior in the name of tolerance.]

[verameum]

When stressed, we may shift into a fight or flight emotional response. However, sometimes we may experience both fight AND flight responses. It is possible to be simultaneously scared and brave, angry and forgiving, tired and patient, and many other such combinations. Our emotional states are more complicated than our simplistic thinking allows.

We must learn to acknowledge and accept the tumultuous brew of often conflicting emotions that we delicately balance upon like a surfboard atop the waves. As we await the next wave to ride, we should not assume that the next undulation will be a of a particular size or orientation. Instead, we should learn to sense the simultaneous push and pull of the ocean below us and learn navigate the unique combination of currents that constitutes the wave before us. It is this art form that defines the act of surfing; we are either navigating with intention and skill towards our target destination on the shoreline or we are getting tossed about or altogether swept out to sea by indifferent and arbitrary tides.

[verameum]

What we are meant to do, our calling, is not limited to one thing. Our meaning and purpose can and should change across a lifetime. We possess innate talents as well as skills developed with time and effort. The competencies that benefit a professional career may also be tremendously valuable for parenting, volunteering, or some other worthy end. We mustn’t think that because we have invested many hours into one pursuit that we should therefore be limited to only that pursuit for the rest of our lives. There are many potential applications for our talents and the discovery of new applications of our capabilities can be an exhilarating and rejuvenating process.

[verameum]

When we say we don’t have time for something, it usually just means it’s not a priority for us. Either that or we don’t have the discipline or will power to begin something new or something we perceive to be difficult. Most often when I hear someone say they don’t have enough time, I question what things they do have time for, which I imagine must include watching television, eating long meals, or all kinds of other unnecessary entertainments and diversions. We should learn to say “that’s not a priority for me” rather than “I don’t have time for that”. We need to be honest with ourselves about our priorities and stop pretending that time and availability are what are keeping us from improving ourselves or our situation.

[verameum]

If we walk down the street, each person we encounter has a tapestry of interwoven histories and experiences that orbit around them at all times. These include narratives of loved ones past and present, anxieties, joys, sorrows, and a heavy load of to-do’s that swirl about, seemingly at random, though often in fairly predictable and cyclical patterns.

We must pause to take a look at ourselves and our own emotion-memories that that dance around our atomic centers. We must recognize that we are but one solar system amidst an incomprehensible galaxy of other personal star systems, embedded in the depths of innumerable social galaxies that make up our known universe of peoples plunked on this obscure planet.

How silly is it that we delude ourselves into believing we are alone in our troubles and journeys? How unfortunate it is that we look upon others only in relation to ourselves, as if they somehow orbit our solar system rather than hurdle through space on their own prescribed paths.

We should take heart that we are not alone in our predicament. We must also recognize that our own mass and movements produce a certain gravity that impacts those around us. A thought, a word, a scowl, or a smile may be enough to alter the trajectory of others, for better or ill.

[verameum]

We should establish healthy and rewarding routines such that going through the motions becomes an act of joy and fulfillment. Such routines do not require lavishness, excess, or novelty to achieve this objective. In fact, the more basic and mundane the routine, the more likely we are to maintain consistency in our practice. A healthy routine repeated regularly creates a familiarity and sense of steadiness that comforts us just as a child’s special blanket or bedtime routine might do.