First is a disclaimer that this blog is based on my personal opinion and experiences and is not intended to be used as a guide or scale for your life, but is just my food for your thought. LOL!
Most of my blogs link together one way or another, but anyway, I wrote awhile back on how I felt, that we could have control of our thoughts, if we so chose to.
Choosing to gain control of yourself is really self awareness and finding yourself; amongst living in the moment, living with intent and purpose. I have found that there are obviously things in my environment which have an impact on me, but it is how I choose to react which dictates the outcome.
This is not a written challenge, and maybe it should be, but I always want to become a better person, a better me. I feel that as I build in that direction, that most of everything else becomes easier. My stress level decreases and along with that is a multitude of goodness. The goodness typically just seems to linger, of course a good linger...like lint! I could use the word cling but I think linger best describes how It feels, it’s like an aura.
There are times when I lose my focus, and what happens....ya, stress builds, hopes, goals and dreams are lost in the back of my mind, even the smallest things that were easy to control become a challenge. At that point, I have found it very important for me to communicate. The people who communicate with are people who I trust, good listeners, also people who aren’t afraid to tell me the truth, whether it momentarily offends me or lifts me.
When I manage to stay on track, the feeling is overwhelming. When I say stay on track, for me that involves, how much and what I eat, my strong work ethic, communications with friends and family, exercise, maintaining goals, my kung fu training (physical), everything. Really if I look at this list, it is really, so much about mind control.
I know myself well enough, I say “well enough”, because I don’t feel that I know everything about myself and don’t know if I ever will. Wouldn’t that be cool to know everything that you were capable of? Off topic, but...I know myself well enough to know where my boundaries are, what impacts me in a good way and what impacts me in not such a good way. By staying within my boundaries and focusing on in a nut shell...who I want to be and what I want from my life, life becomes that much more pleasurable, it becomes easier, not a threat or challenge.
I can 100% fore sure say that one of the major influences to my personal betterment has been kung fu. Some might say.... How can kung fu do that much? There has to be something else to attribute your success or feelings to? Really the way I see it... life is a huge mind game! Once you are capable of controlling the main switch board, the smoother the operation of all the connected components.
Look at all the people affected by mental illness, this is not a game, but it is part of the realm of life; part of which we have the ability to alter. I feel that 80-90% of my kung fu training and benefit is mental. So, what I said earlier was essentially that my mental stability, self awareness and stress levels, are in a good place and is having a dramatic affect on who I am.
I still have lots to work towards and improve; goals to meet and challenges to face, but I like who I’m becoming.
Darcy Regier, Silent River Kung Fu, UBBT, Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada.