My oldest frienemy.
Have you ever been overwhelmed by the incessant chatter spewing forth from inside your own head? You know, the one who carries on about why everything sucks or isn’t going your way, but never offers up any plausible solutions. Mine is one of my oldest frienemies.
Countless years of pursuing one sort of goal or another while fostering an inner-dialogue of negativity left me with little to show for my life. What else could I expect! That highly opinionated, mental figment of discouragement was occupying the better part of my thoughts nearly every day.
So as a means of quieting the mind, meditating was suggested several times, but I’d repeatedly ignore the inclination to even get started. Then one day I literally saw the writing on the wall. Written, in black Sharpie, was the note: “If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine it’s lethal.” That’s when something inexplicable swept through me like an electrical current.
And for a brief moment, all of that negative dialogue suddenly was replaced with a strong sense of being destined for greatness. What if I were? Greatness, of any measure, will likely never be earned by thinking weak, irresolute thoughts. The fact of the matter is, we are what our thoughts are.
Instead of living out the remainder of my days with those same-old irrelevant, nonsensical chatter, a line was finally drawn in the sand. If exploring this vast, magnificent, little blue planet, was my primary aim, reorienting all of those self-defeating thoughts would have to become the immediate goal. Otherwise, there might never be another opportunity aside from right now to finally make some forward progress in this life.
I’ve found that every thought, on some level, is a form of meditation. Often times I would be focusing on where my money was coming from or where it was about to go, but that’s still a level of meditation.
Any thought repeated over and over again eventually inspires every one of us into some sort of action. Repeating these actions eventually transforms them into habits. Each new habit we develop ultimately shapes our character. And character is what guides all of us toward our uniquely exquisite destiny.
To begin reshaping my new character I adopted a whole new set of affirmative beliefs. One was simply, “All of my needs can and will be met, effortlessly.” Furthermore, by examining the actual negative dialogue, a stark realization suddenly became clear. I was paddling against the current of my own happiness. That negative voice was, in a sense, a gift because it made me realize, I wasn’t following my bliss!
As a professor of mythic studies at Sarah Lawrence College in New York, Joseph Campbell’s advice to his students was simple, “Follow your bliss!” Whenever anyone of his students would ask him, “Do you think I could be a writer? Do you think I could write?” His response, “Do you think you can take ten years of not making it?” But if one finds the courage to follow the risks, doors will open where none existed before.
Once I dedicated myself to following my bliss full-time, letting go of all things frivolous became the logical next step. And soon enough, what felt like, a natural sense of ease began reorienting my vessel, downstream, towards Bliss.
Love and Aloha,
Alexander Demetrius
