Stick With The Plan

You will catch up with yourself

A dear friend of mine in Chicago told me this is what he does when he begins to feel like his life is a redundant loop of meaningless tasks, banal activities and inconsequential responsibilities. When life seems to lose its point.

So what is the plan?

Well, I suppose it’s different for everyone. For he and I it is similar.

It translates into getting to the gym. Continuing to eat properly. Showering regularly. Or at least occasionally.

Not quitting your job, selling your house, consuming pounds of chocolate or retreating into a closet or other cave-like dwelling.

In short, not checking out of life as you are living it.

These suggestions may seem obvious but for anyone who suffers from periodic bouts of crushing despair or stretches of acute hopelessness this strategy is critical.

Because speaking from personal experience… part B does happen.

Even though it seems absolutely impossible.

The hopeless cynical part eventually catches up with the fun, loving, optimistic part. And if you stick with the plan, there is way less collateral damage.

Less apologies to make, less weight to lose– less general cleanup.

Plus, it usually shortens the time spent in emotional limbo because there aren’t additional issues you’ve created that require solving.

However, simply sticking with the plan is not enough.

It does not offer a way out of the malaise.

It makes the transition back to joy less complicated but it doesn’t provide an exit strategy. As I’ve gotten older one thing helps me in that regard.

Silver linings.

I have become a student of silver linings. Genuine ones. Not fake positive outlooks but real opportunities buried in the darkness.

I look for these when I get stuck in pointlessness. When I feel anxious, overwhelmed, depressed or deeply shaken and confused.

It is my intention every day, no matter what the outside circumstances may look like, to know the universe is conspiring to help me.

This is not easy.

It requires a fierce kind of discipline because you have to see what your eyes cannot. And you have to believe what facts tell you isn’t true.

When my cynicism comes up, I have to fight it. Along with apathy, resignation and sadness. It is a low energy emotional weather system.

I have to remind myself that it does not require any ‘doing’ to move out of it.

It requires sinking into radical receptivity.

Getting really quiet.

Remembering all the dead ends that have turned into magical paths. Imagining beyond circumstantial illusion. Asking my sadness for what it needs, what it needs me to know, what gifts it has come bearing.

There are always gifts.

GUEST HOUSE

This being human is a guest house

Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,

some momentary awareness comes

as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,

who violently sweep your house

empty of its furniture,

still treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,

meet them at the door laughing,

and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,

because each has been sent

as a guide from beyond.

– Rumi