13 - 'There are both healthy desires and unhealthy desires. Know the difference. Then find freedom in their midst.'
Now when we talk about desires in this context, they are desires in the realm of wanting a chocolate day vs eating healthy, or staying up late verses sleeping properly, this is not a post about obvious unhealthy desires such as hurting ones self or others in a violent fashion. Within the realm of day to day thoughts and desires, we have heathy and unheathy wants, some are border each other so closley it can be a challenge to disern which is which. We go around wanting and wanting and wanting, all we ever really think about is what we want, from life dreams and goals, down to whether or not we want to get off the couch and wash our teeth after dinner.
Step one: just observe the thoughts that fly through your head all day long. To begin, just notice all your thoughts for 1 minute, then in your meditations practice noticing your thoughts (aka your wants) for 20 min, then 30, the 45 then 60. Soon you'll be able to just notice your thoughts through out your day.
Step 2- once you are able to notice your thoughts, without judgement, you'll start to pick up on the patterns of what is healthy (for yourself and others) and what is not. Again a visual: the difference between healthy and unhealthy is as subtle as your mood. For instance, we often get cranky, or fussy, bitchy, moody, pissed off, depressed, and when we get in these emotional states we tend to stay there for hours, maybe days, why? because we want to! Let's face it, we are only as happy or as miserable as we want to be (refer back to my hospice post). If we didn't want to be upset, then we wouldn't be. We find ourselves 'stuck' by our own doing. This is an example of an unhealthy desire, the desire to just 'sit there and take it' to not 'get over it'.
Step 3- freedom! Once we have accepted we have desires all day everyday, when we can observe them and decern one from the other, then we can free ourselves from their grasp and control!
Now when we talk about desires in this context, they are desires in the realm of wanting a chocolate day vs eating healthy, or staying up late verses sleeping properly, this is not a post about obvious unhealthy desires such as hurting ones self or others in a violent fashion. Within the realm of day to day thoughts and desires, we have heathy and unheathy wants, some are border each other so closley it can be a challenge to disern which is which. We go around wanting and wanting and wanting, all we ever really think about is what we want, from life dreams and goals, down to whether or not we want to get off the couch and wash our teeth after dinner.
Step one: just observe the thoughts that fly through your head all day long. To begin, just notice all your thoughts for 1 minute, then in your meditations practice noticing your thoughts (aka your wants) for 20 min, then 30, the 45 then 60. Soon you'll be able to just notice your thoughts through out your day.
Step 2- once you are able to notice your thoughts, without judgement, you'll start to pick up on the patterns of what is healthy (for yourself and others) and what is not. Again a visual: the difference between healthy and unhealthy is as subtle as your mood. For instance, we often get cranky, or fussy, bitchy, moody, pissed off, depressed, and when we get in these emotional states we tend to stay there for hours, maybe days, why? because we want to! Let's face it, we are only as happy or as miserable as we want to be (refer back to my hospice post). If we didn't want to be upset, then we wouldn't be. We find ourselves 'stuck' by our own doing. This is an example of an unhealthy desire, the desire to just 'sit there and take it' to not 'get over it'.
Step 3- freedom! Once we have accepted we have desires all day everyday, when we can observe them and decern one from the other, then we can free ourselves from their grasp and control!
posted from Bloggeroid
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