Ripples #856: Living As You!
Oct 19, 2015
PEBBLE
Wanting to be someone else
is a waste of the person you are.
-Kurt Cobain, shared by Jason in San Luis Obispo, CA
BOULDER
The one thing you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can. The moment that you feel that just possibly you are walking down the street naked…that’s the moment you may be starting to get it right.
-Neil Gaiman, Make Good Art, shared by Johnathan in Indianapolis, IN
PONDER
Most of us spend at least a chunk of each day feeling less than fabulous about who are are. Messages we’ve picked up along the way from people or situations that, intentionally or not, leave us with the impression that the current version of ourselves is just not good enough.
For example, we are exposed to countless marketing messages each day that suggest we aren’t quite complete without using a particular product or service. And while marketing isn’t necessarily bad, of course, it is important to be fully conscious of how a constant stream of “Ooh, look…things would be better if you bought our product/service” can leave us in a constant state of inadequacy and longing for things we don’t have. One way to counteract this longing is to cultivate appreciation for that which you already have, and enjoying the life you are living right now. Time spent thinking about things that you appreciate (and by “thing” I mean material possessions and also relationships and experiences and situations and random moments of joy) is time that you aren’t longing and striving. As a bonus these feelings of contentment and satisfaction serve as a counterbalance for the moments of longing that inevitably sneak into each day.
This week, let’s practice loving life just as it is, and living just as we are right now. It rocks, if we let it!
Peace,
Paul
The Ripples Guy
