at dawn, at the morning of the day, all things become clear

Conscious thinking is what we do when we don’t know what to do.  When you don’t really know how to drive a car, you have to think about it.  When you can drive your subconscious mind takes over and leaves your consciousness free to do other things ~ like try to work out WTF you’re lost.  For 95% of the time your subconscious mind is running your life.

Yesterday, while I was out taking my meditative walk, my subconscious mind came up with an idea ~ a plan for living the rest of my life.  Except it wasn’t just an idea, it was the whole plan, almost fully formed.

Take up one idea.  Make that one idea your life ~ think of it, dream of it, live on that idea.  Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone.  This is the way to success, that is the way great spiritual giants are produced.  ~  Swami Vivekananda

This plan is simple, complete, integrated, mindful, and self-contained.  There are only 5 parts and each one is important to the whole;

1. Live a Healthy Life.  It is health that is the real wealth, and not pieces of gold and silver.  Gandi.  For most of my years my lifestyle was unhealthy: too much work, too  much stress, too much booze, not enough sleep, not enough exercise, and no spirituality whatsoever.  Now I have an eating plan in a Paleo Diet, I walk 10,000 steps a day and do a little yoga, have a good sleep routine, and I am sober.
2. Travel Far and Wide.  The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page.  Saint Augustine. I have travelled the world, but mostly I have done it with my eyes and heart closed, and mostly I have travelled alone.
3. Enjoy Time with my Friends.   ‘Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.  Charles Lamb.  For most of my years I pushed people away, now I hope I can welcome new friends into my life.  And what better way to travel the world than with a special friend.
4. Words and Pictures.  Write what should not be forgotten.  Isabel Allende.  I do not need to work but I need to be creative.  Reading, writing, photography ~ hell I may even learn to paint ~ people, places, things, ideas, beliefs…..
5. Spirituality.  A healthy mind in a healthy body ~ Juvenal.  And this is the crux of the whole plan.  I lived in a straight-line, goal-oriented, competitive existence, and I was wealthy in money, miserable, sick, and suicidally depressed.  I cannot learn spirituality, I need to live it.

I believe in this plan, that it will work for me.  Thinking about it, my plan doesn’t work without integrating all of these 5 elements, but I don’t need to add a number 6.  Even Love is encompassed and runs through the whole of it

Some say that no plan survives contact with reality.  And that they could live happily if only…..  All I know is that tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today.

~

jack collier

jackcollier7@talktalk.net

evening, a time of rest and reflection