How far should I look?
Every assumption, belief, rule, we have about how things should be, makes us stiff, frozen and even motionless. If you have a strong opinion or conviction against something and when that something appears in a circumstance in your life, you might find yourself fixating on that circumstance not being able to move on with your life.
The more opinions and rules we create that criticise a specific topic, circumstance, people, the world, the stiffer we become in our own freedom in life. Did you ever try to convince or teach an elderly person something? If you did you might have wondered about that an old saying – you can't teach an old dog new tricks.
But it is not completely true, it is just that the more you live with your convictions and beliefs the harder it is for you to let them go or break them, the more it hurts when you try to break them, the harder it is to convince yourself otherwise about your own beliefs. You cannot just ignore your already formed solid belief system that was built over many years. It will take time to break free from the limitation of these beliefs we've created for ourselves.
But this is not what I wanted to talk about. Once we begin to notice our feelings that are being triggered by our beliefs we begin to see clearer and clearer – our belief system. At this point, you cannot ignore the elephant in the room anymore but you find yourself unprepared for the situation since you cannot just substitute your belief system with something else because there are emotions tied to it.
All we do is feel feelings and emotions. It helps and brings relief to know the origin of each, to know the logic, the meaning. But that doesn't move you from your current belief system. In fact, there is no need to do anything about your current belief system, because everything that is, is by choice. What is already created doesn't require readjustments, modifications or fixing. Our focus on what we believe in is what makes us frozen.
Imagine walking on a dry sand on the beach, you can focus your attention on every footstep you take that is leaving a footprint in the sand. You can look back and see your previous footprints. This is how most of us live our lives. We focus on what is and what was. Driving conclusions from what is right now and from the past. Staring down at each step we make, checking our previous steps. Driving conclusions.
Think about it, every footprint that is created right now is already created. There is no point staring at it if you don't like it. There is no point looking back. There is no point fixating on emotions that are clear to your awareness. There is no point fixating on already formed beliefs if you understand what they represent. Stop looking back. Stop looking down on every footprint that you're making. Lift your head and look as far as you can see into the horizon. What is the farthest you can see? Fixate on that.
Start walking on the beach where the waves are pulling back to the sea, leaving behind them a wet sand. Imagine walking on that sand. You can see your footprints being created with each step. But from time to time a wave will come along and wash away all your current and previous footprints. Don't worry about your footprints they will all be wiped out eventually. Look ahead as far as you can see. And go there.