Pushing Through—Or Not
Recently I read an article whose headline drew me in. It was about how not to get caught up in negative thinking. The bottom line, according to this author? You have a choice. Either stay in the cycle of negative thought or decide to break the cycle. No middle ground.
More simple put, in the words of Yoda: Do or do not. There is no try.
(An aside here: if you are a Star Wars fan and have not already sprung the $6.95 a month to subscribe to Disney + streaming, do so, IMMEDIATELY. There is no try. Then set aside a couple hours, since you are not caught up, to watch The Mandalorian where you will coo, ooh and ahh over the most adorable character in the Star Wars universe—Baby Yoda.)
I was looking for something with a tad more heft, as this is what I teach in most of my classes. You always have a choice to make it better, even if only in increments. Celebrate what you can do rather than focusing on what you have decided you can’t. Yada, yada (or Yoda, Yoda). The do or do not mantra doesn't take into account the often monumental gulf between those two sides. Often there's a mountain load of work which needs to be done before you can make what is not infrequently a seismic shift. Just ask Luke Skywalker.
Sometimes it feels to me as if this is not much more than pushing through, which has basically been my modus operendi. If things are not going well, or going your way, or the challenges feel insurmountable, or all you see when you look up is the crap coming your way: what other choice is there but to push through? You don't want to do it but you have to? Push through. The needs conflict mightily with the wants? Push through. The rules of the game keep shifting under your feet? Push through. You're tired as all get out and more malingers on your plate? Push through.
Lately I've been challenging myself about pushing through. Staying busy is the ethos in society, and it is severely overrated, if not damaging to our aggregate mental health. I'm feeling the strain of pushing through, perhaps because it's the holiday season and a short one at that. Even in retirement, I can load up my days so that there's precious little time to sit and read, or do the crossword puzzle or watch General Hospital (Nikolas Cassadine is back, in case you want to know). If I don't push through, I sometimes feel guilty. When I was working, I always felt guilty so perhaps this is an improvement.
The push through of shorter days is glorious sunsets that bathe the sky and the landscape in colors that defy photographing. The other afternoon, this particular sunset showered the neighborhood in pink that saturated even the snow. My grandson Jackson first pointed out how beautiful the sky was, and we all stopped what we were doing to marvel at the sunset. A reminder, I think, that while we all need to push through, sometimes the better choice is to just not.
Maybe I need to repeat yet another Star Wars mantra that will help get me through.
I am one with the Force and the Force is with me.
More simple put, in the words of Yoda: Do or do not. There is no try.
(An aside here: if you are a Star Wars fan and have not already sprung the $6.95 a month to subscribe to Disney + streaming, do so, IMMEDIATELY. There is no try. Then set aside a couple hours, since you are not caught up, to watch The Mandalorian where you will coo, ooh and ahh over the most adorable character in the Star Wars universe—Baby Yoda.)
I was looking for something with a tad more heft, as this is what I teach in most of my classes. You always have a choice to make it better, even if only in increments. Celebrate what you can do rather than focusing on what you have decided you can’t. Yada, yada (or Yoda, Yoda). The do or do not mantra doesn't take into account the often monumental gulf between those two sides. Often there's a mountain load of work which needs to be done before you can make what is not infrequently a seismic shift. Just ask Luke Skywalker.
Sometimes it feels to me as if this is not much more than pushing through, which has basically been my modus operendi. If things are not going well, or going your way, or the challenges feel insurmountable, or all you see when you look up is the crap coming your way: what other choice is there but to push through? You don't want to do it but you have to? Push through. The needs conflict mightily with the wants? Push through. The rules of the game keep shifting under your feet? Push through. You're tired as all get out and more malingers on your plate? Push through.
Lately I've been challenging myself about pushing through. Staying busy is the ethos in society, and it is severely overrated, if not damaging to our aggregate mental health. I'm feeling the strain of pushing through, perhaps because it's the holiday season and a short one at that. Even in retirement, I can load up my days so that there's precious little time to sit and read, or do the crossword puzzle or watch General Hospital (Nikolas Cassadine is back, in case you want to know). If I don't push through, I sometimes feel guilty. When I was working, I always felt guilty so perhaps this is an improvement.
The push through of shorter days is glorious sunsets that bathe the sky and the landscape in colors that defy photographing. The other afternoon, this particular sunset showered the neighborhood in pink that saturated even the snow. My grandson Jackson first pointed out how beautiful the sky was, and we all stopped what we were doing to marvel at the sunset. A reminder, I think, that while we all need to push through, sometimes the better choice is to just not.
Maybe I need to repeat yet another Star Wars mantra that will help get me through.
I am one with the Force and the Force is with me.
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