Tossin and Turnin

Last night I laid awake tossing and turning, for whatever reason my head was spinning, my mind would not shut off and the world around me seemed oppressively hot. The irony of it all was it was all in my head. The bed was perfectly comfortable with a light feathery down comforter, soft pillows, and cool to the touch. Air conditioning was on making the room feel a perfect and breezy 75 degrees.  Then I got to thinking of how much of reality is based on what goes on inside our head.

is it the little hamster the runs our minds?

or maybe its like this guys mind....

It's most likely a little bit of both what goes through our heads on a daily basis is a startling amount of thoughts, processes, and data coming from our senses.  Just take a moment and think, quiet out outside directions and think about how much goes on in the mind of yours. Hopefully there is a lot going on inside, a lot of thoughts, emotions, and feelings jumbled into what I like to think of as a highway of constant information and thought processes. Its up to you to decide what you process what you perceive and what you do with al this information.

Thinking about this got me thinking about how subjective our perception of the world is. Really it is our own reality, each and every individual holds the ability to view the world in their own way.  You can see this in the faces of depression-era survivors,  holocaust survivors, who despite their tortured pasts seemingly live happier and more robust lives then the majority of us. It's all in our mindset, it's all in the way we see things. I don't know how many times countless friends and family have told me that its the way I perceive things that changes the way I feel and act. So all those moments of fighting, bickering, and hurt often come from our mind simply ACCEPTING that we should be sad angry and hurt.

Think about it like this, beyond the time-tested adages of looking at the glass half full and there are always to sides to a coin, think about how cultures perceive death. If you look closely at Western Culture one can see the prevalent nature of grieving death. The classic all black and somber funeral, with quiet eulogies, a wooden casket, and a quiet dreary day. On the other hand look at how other cultures also treat death. Dia de Los Muertos is one of the largest celebrations in Mexico every year. In much of Asia one of the biggest days to get together with family is what is known as Burial Cleaning Day. It is a day where the entire family including aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, and cousins all make it out to the family burial site and prepare food and blessings  for the loved ones. In this way we often celebrate the life of the ones we lose in a way that helps ease the pain of death and suffering. 

It is in the mindset of positivity and happiness that we must go about our days. It's not easy when obligation, pressures, and stresses at home pile up but I really do believe the most important thing in life is happiness. The pursuit of it, the maintaining of it, and the loss of it. Life is beautiful when you can see it like that. Life is worthwhile when happiness brings love and people into your life. 

So in a way it's weird to say but even though I'm barely old enough to have any sway or authority on the subject matter of "the meaning of life", I think I've found mine. The pursuit of happiness whether its through a career, a hobby, family, whatever. When we're happy money doesn't matter, material things are worthless, and the moments are the only things needed.

-Til Another Day

-Jonathan