Getting some exercise (1)

[netpositive]

Who looks outside dreams;
who looks inside, awakes.
-Carl Jung

Is this sympathetic magic?

Whenever you find something you don't like,
write it down and throw it into the trash.
By doing this, you are telling the universe,
"I want to be done with this problem, please
help me work through it and be done with it."

Something to try...

When you arise in the morning, think
of what a precious privilege it is to be alive
- to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
-Marcus Aurelius

Comments

I had wanted to comment on this earlier...

[daecabhir]

...but trying to wrap up the old job last week just kind of left me with little or no time. I am amused (?) that you posted this bit about "sympathetic magic" around the same time that I was in a bit of a funk about personal failures (perceived or otherwise) and had decided to just simply post a list to my LJ titled "I am sorry that I have failed at..." as a form of catharsis. Say it out loud in a manner of speaking, and allow it to be taken away on the wind (or in this case, electrons). Perhaps yours is a better idea, as it is more truly a banishing of the unwanted, while still looking the issue in the face before setting it aside [hopefully] for good.

I had hoped to find this one story a friend had sent me many moons ago, but I will just have to recount it briefly, because it is in a similar vein. A carpenter invites a co-worker to dinner after work, and the two walk to the carpenter's house after a very hard day of work. When they arrive at the carpenter's house, the carpenter hangs his bag on a branch of a tree outside the house, and then proceeds to the door. His co-worker thinks this is odd, and asks the carpenter why he would hang the bag on the tree instead of taking it inside with him. The carpenter explained that when he entered his home he wished to not bring all of the stress and strain of the day's work with him, and the hanging of the bag outside the house was his way of leaving those things behind so that they would not intrude upon his family. Furthermore, the carpenter noted that in the morning the bag always seemed lighter, as if many of the worries and cares of the previous day had disappeared overnight.

I guess more often than not it is how we choose to react to the things that happen in our lives, and not the things that happen themselves that either do us harm or make us stronger. Heck, look at what life dealt Mattie Stepanek and what he did in the brief period of time he was given.

Sorry for the long post... but your brief post sparked quite a bit of thought for me...

Re: I had wanted to comment on this earlier...

[netpositive.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear about the job shift, and commentary is always welcome, however belated. :)

I think it's becoming very difficult for many people to leave work "at work", esp if/when a lot of one's activities at home are so similar to work ones (phones, computers, email, recordkeeping, etc.). I know for me there's a lot of bleed-over -- and despite current best efforts to get a handle on it. it's not getting better very quickly. It's affecting my home life (and vice versa), and I'm trying to work out ways to deal with it that work for me. If it were just myself to consider, that would be one thing... but there are other people involved, both at home and at work, and I feel like I have to consider them to some extent as well.

One of the reasons I'm highly reluctant (some might call it actively resistant...) to be a high-level volunteer in any organizations or groups is because, basically, a major part of my job right now is "running things". Sure, I think I'm good at it, but I'm finding it very stressful. The very last thing I want to do outside of work is to "run things" as well. The only busman's holiday I want is a book by Dorothy L. Sayers.

Frankly, I find volunteering to be a wonderful idea in theory, but my own experience has been that organizations have no soul and no sympathy. Also I've run into too many people who are seeking validation - or worse, sheer power - from their volunteer work that (for whatever reason) they don't get in any other parts of their life. It's bad enough in my mind when the "needs" of the organization get in the way of its ostensible mission (for example, charities where fundraising takes a larger and larger share of expenses), but when someone's main sense of identity is bound up in their volunteer work, I start to ask myself why that is... and I find I don't always like the answer.

I look at my life overall, and there's a lot of good in it. I try not to lose sight of that when I'm feeling overwhelmed or panicked. Plus I'm not much on complaining, at least not in a serious fashion. I exaggerate some "disasters" for comic effect to entertain my friends -- let them know I'm not perfect. ;) But things that really bother me, I work on quietly.

I do like that carpenter story, though. Hmm, I wonder if maybe I should start hanging my backpack under the side portico. :)