https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC_cZqK6BhU
We’ve got an interesting scenario today. You’re producing great results in your life, and from the outside looking in it looks like you’ve got it all.
You recognize this, and believe you should feel good, but at the same time you still experience primarily negative emotions. Why? Well, there’s several different approaches we could take here, but I’ll offer all of them to you in the hopes that you’re able to find the one most applicable to your situation.
Focus On The Body First
When you experience mental, or emotional challenges it’s important to examine your body’s role in regards to them. The body is the foundation of your mental and emotional experiences. Without a healthy body you’ll lack the foundation required to maintain a structurally sound mental, and emotional ecosystem.
Understand that life is lived through the body, and do everything in your power to take care of yours. Eat foods that come from the Earth, rather than laboratory experiments.
Establish an exercise routine that you find fulfilling. Lift weights, run, bike, swim, tai-chi, yoga. What you do matters much less than the person you become through doing it.
Finally, establish a consistent sleep pattern. You’ll be the best judge of how many hours you need per night, but also be sure to make your room as dark as possible to ensure proper melatonin release, and wake up at about the same time everyday (bonus points if you do this without the use of an alarm clock).
Not Wanting What You Have
If you’re already operating with a reasonably healthy body realize that perhaps you just don’t want what you have. Often the goals we set for ourselves are too heavily based in the realm of intellectualism.
In general society has conditioned people to pursue security, rather than happiness. Understand that you’ve likely succumbed to this phenomenon if your goals look good, but don’t make you feel good. The heart knows what the heart wants, but often our heads place judgement on those desires, and repress them as a mechanism to avoid fear, risk, and social rejection.
Living For The Future
The final piece of advice I would offer you is that in this pursuit of self-improvement, you’ve lost your ability to remain grounded in the present moment.
Many people who set goals experience this to some degree, because of the nature of goal-setting. When you set a goal you project your consciousness to the future to determine what you’d like to experience at a later point in time.
This isn’t harmful in itself, but often this process leads to a limiting belief in the mind that you are not enough in the present moment. You then rationalize that while you’re not enough in this moment, after achieving your goal you will be enough.
And indeed after achieving your goal you feel better, but this is inevitably a fleeting happiness, that perpetuates a cycle of chasing goals for short-term validation as “proof” you are enough.
Recognize this vicious process for what it is, and commit to living in this moment rather than projecting your consciousness to the future. Understand that within imperfection lies perfection. If you’re walking the path toward your goals, there’s no need to beat yourself up for not yet reaching the summit.
Living for the future is living for a day that’ll never come. Your entire life is going to be experienced as the present moment, so you might as well learn to make the most of it.
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Picture was taken in January 2014 of a snowy day in Madison, Wisconsin.
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