I lived for about a year, worrying about everything: the planet, wars, disease, love, accidents, death, meaning, etc. It is very wearying to think about all this, all the time. Time came that I realized that there is little point in perpetually pondering the unknown and the unavoidable. Well, I figured, why not sit down, relax, play some games, drink some tea, and figure out if I can do a handstand while playing guitar?

Since then, I’ve been a relaxed person, mostly. I think this has to do with philosophies that I had developed at the time.

Why One Should Care About Being Calm (Preferably All The Time)

1) Calmness is good for your health. Stress releases Cortisol, a hormone, into your system. This hormone causes a variety of problems including: high blood pressure and blood sugar levels, suppressing the immune system, and also, recent studies show that it likely causes infertility in women. Stress itself causes tension in the body, making one uncomfortable and irritable, amongst other things that I’m sure a lot of us are very familiar with. It also makes doing yoga a bit more difficult.

2) A calmer mind also makes it easier to do most anything. Because one doesn’t become stressed, one then can find more patience, and logical reason. Also, although stress and adrenaline can cause you to move faster and be stronger, a calm mind allows for dexterity: being able to be more accurate. Calm, therefore, a combination of reason and dexterity, means that one can solve problems much more easily. When one is very calm, something that would make one panic and run amok like a headless chicken, suddenly becomes a challenge that one has a seeming eternity to solve.

3) Mental calm often leads to physical calm. This means that the muscles, tissue, tendons, (tenants,) etc. are very much relaxed. This means that one will develop less wrinkles as well as being happier. If one is somewhat happy, then one smiles. If one smiles, then one releases chemicals that are linked with that motion, and therefore the person becomes more happy through those chemicals.

4) Also, from a business point of view, a person who is happy and relaxed is likely to be able to work longer without burning out and be more happy with themselves for doing the work. This creates an employee that raises the spirits of those around them and creates a positive work atmosphere. It also makes the person more productive in the time that they have because they don’t spend all their time hating their work. In turn, this person will likely be happeier because they will be promoted for their good work and feel good about themselves. Their family then also benefits… it becomes a positive cycle.

Philosophies

1) I became, slowly, what could be called a “subjectivist.” This could be loosely described as someone who bases themselves on what is within, rather than what is without. As in, I might buy into energy, souls, and theory that ‘all the knowledge in the universe is inside of you, and you simply have to remember it.’ It also implies that I believe that the entire world is “subjective,” as in more created by what one perceives, rather than it being created by something sometime, somehow, and one is just experiencing it. So, to me, since everything is so changeable, I do not feel the urge to worry about things, since I know that if my personal universe is in one state now, it could be in another state later. Also, in this mindset, any problems that arize might solve themselves if I ask nicely. You never know, maybe it is worth a try.

2) Also, when one comes to the realization that the planet will die eventually, that one will die eventually, and that the universe may die eventually, then one comes to understand that our problems are petty and therefore, being stressed about them is pointless. If the world will end, and one’s efforts end up being worth nil, then worrying about their impact now is fairly useless. (A bit like Ghana’s performance against Brazil in the 2006 world cup, which ended up with the score of 3-nil Brazil.)

3) Then, think about it this way: have people not been thinking “oh shit, this is the end of us all!” for thousands of years, about a variety of reasons? Yes, they have. Seriously. And we’re not all dead yet. It’s all natural: the civilization will rise mighty, then if that is not dealt with gently, then it will crash mightily. But the point is, it will happen when it happens. Does that mean that those of us that are alive now, and likely will not be around for this event, need to suffer about it? In this same way, a catastrophe in one’s life is also likely to happen sooner or later. Why worry about it now? Worry about it while it is happening, then move on quickly and live without regrets.

4) More so, it is pointless to worry about/hate what you can’t do anything about. For example, for a long time, I had lived despising smoking. I hated the smell, it made me sick. I hated the sight, it made me sigh. I hated the fact that people couldn’t help it, it made me insecure. But the point is, I will likely deal with people smoking around me at least once a week for the rest of my life. If this is the case, then hating it or worrying about it becomes routine self-torture. I don’t like being tortured by other people, and I certainly don’t want to do it to myself.

6) Worrying wastes one’s valuable time. Think of all the other things that you could be doing with the mind: dreaming about retirement; wondering about your true love; thinking back to pleasant times… Or doing something to solve the problems that you worry about. Try to think to the solution, not to the problem.

7) Finally, if you have a cat, then you probably have a great example to learn from. They are wonderful teachers for everything: they know how to relax, they know how to love, they know how to deal with their current problems, and they know how to live in simplicity, not having to deal with complete hassle all the time. One should also know how to relax, how to be happy, and how to make one’s life easy rather than hard. Worrying, for example, only makes life harder.

Action

The point is, there is no point in worrying. However, if everyone decided to “ignore it and hope that someone else takes care of it,” then nothing would be done to better anything. If everyone decided to “try, even if I fail,” then all is good. I intend to try, and failure doesn’t really bother me. Pick an area to fix and fix it. In life, one could pick out things in themselves that they don’t like, or things that another person may not like about them. In their relationships, they could pick out a few things that cause arguments and take them out. In the world, one could try to clean the air, or to find a way to stop war. In the garden, one could learn how to get those stupid rabbits away from the cabbage. One does not have to fix everything, and certainly not all at once. Just start with an area, and instead of hating that flaw, or worrying about how it is affecting one’s life, start finding an answer.

Solutions
1) I believe that living in the moment is the only sane way to live. You glimpse ahead, figure out what’s right, then you only think about now. Worrying about later accomplishes little. It may sound a bit strange, but it is very functional. For example, if one does not think ahead, one avoids all unneeded desire, such as the want for food. Instead, one could live currently, and when one is hungry, then one decides to eat. Basically, this means reacting to problems and going where the breeze of life blows. In modern times, however, it may be necessary to think ahead or behind sometimes (planning, I think they call it) — but the key is to do it when you need to.

2) It is also good to learn how to quiet the mind when it is not needed — try this, attempt to think of nothing for 30 seconds. Nothing at all. Blank. If you hear a whisper in your mind saying, “I’m doing it!” then, you’re not. This method conserves the brain for when it is needed. It calms one down, and prevents the mind from wondering so far out that it finds trouble. This is also one possible route to meditation. I suggest focusing only on deep breathing through the nostrils as a great start.

3) Another good solution is to find a philosophy to live by and relate everything to that. For example, taking everything one learns from some physical training, like karate and apply it to everything in life. Once one lives philosophically, then one has no mental problems — like worrying about the future. As part of the example of karate philosophy, one could say that one does not think too many punches ahead, but rather fights in the moment. One could say that if one does not fight, then one is running away, but, that sometimes, one needs to know when to run. One could say that a kick to the groin is not a bad thing if the result is only good. And one could say: if there is no first strike, there is no war (in karate, one never strikes first, except in training, but if a fight is never started then it will never have to end). Another good philosophy example might be nature: something about living like the breeze, taking various paths in life, not wandering too far out into the dark, and the beauty of a snowfall on a forested hill.

4) And also, trying to keep in mind that worrying is pointless is a pretty good tactic too. I think I might have already mentioned it, though.

Maintenance

A problem that comes up, is that despite the fact that one realizes how one should live in order to avoid worrying, one tends to forget. This can be solved through observation of one’s self. All one needs to do it ask one’s self some of these kinds of questions about the worry, hate, fear, or stress: why am I stressed about this; is is necessary; is this the end of my universe; etc.; until one realizes that the worry is pointless. The traditional methods of taking some deep breaths, relaxing the tense muscles, and smiling are also great relievers of stress. Personally, I also find that physical exercise can cause inner peace, and that yoga is particularly great for that kind of thing.

Conclusion

So please, stop torturing yourself, damaging yourself, and making the world unpleasant for those around you. Relax. Relieve yourself of stress. Rebel against hate.

Remember: I’m not worried at all.

And have a good day.

Summary/Stub: “Importance of calmness in everyday life — Refuse to worry, live in the moment, and don’t allow yourself to succumb to hate. Stress is pointless”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 11th, 2006 at 10:56 pm and is filed under Easifying Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.