From superficial to stupendous

Have you ever experienced the relief when a car alarm that has been going off for the last hour, stops?

Suddenly you can take a breath and think clearly again.

But, if it isn’t a car alarm, it’s some other distraction that’ll keep us out of our heads.

I love distraction because the reality is that it stops me from thinking. More specifically, it stops me from thinking about myself. And, it stops me from living an authentic life.

I like to keep it light and superficial because sometimes it is hard to deal with myself. I don’t want to have to ask (and answer) questions like, “why am I where I’m at?”, “am I happy and do I even know what will make me happy?”, “why am I not achieving my goals?”.

Because if I’m forced to answer these questions I might not be happy with what comes out.

I may just come to the realisation that I’m 100% responsible for the how my life has turned out. And, when I have nobody to blame but myself … that’s a bitter pill to swallow. Because once you come to that realisation that there’s nowhere to hide, then you have to deal with yourself. And, that can be hard.

Thus, I keep myself busy so that I don’t have to face the reality of what I have created … my life.

Theologian Frederich Buechner puts it more eloquently than I ever could, “We shy away from introspection because however fearful the surface seems, we fear the depths still more.

Of course we fear the depths and try and keep things light and on the surface. But, it is only when we go deep that we can really figure things out for ourselves.

And, when we truly plumb the depths of our hearts and souls and realise that, yes, we really are 100% responsible for creating our world, it can be quite liberating.

Because if we’re 100% responsible, we have the power to change any situation we’re in right now.

So, if you’re not happy with something in your life, you have the choice to do something about it right now.

Take yourself off the grid for a while and shut the ‘alarm’ off so that you can come to grips with who you really are.

Have the courage to go deep so that you can turn your life from superficial to stupendous. The journey is worth it, I promise you.

Photo by Zsolt Zsigmond