This article is a continuation of the previous articles of the same name. I am now working through points I outlined previously which I deem important for successful self-discipline.
6. Methods of Developing, Training and Maintaining Focus
You are alone.
Accept this.
It's a hard fact of life to face. Life is painful. There is no avenue that you can engage in, in which you will experience no pain. Pain is a part of the 'body experience'. Fluctuations in nerve responses are subtle varying levels of pain. We feel by pain.
Pain is experienced alone. No one can be inside there with you. You have to face pain alone. You can get pointers and assistance and some emotional support here and there but ultimately you are in there with you - and you have to find a way to deal with it - alone.
You can spend your life giving your pain to others and finding ways in which others and outside things can remedy your pain or.. you can just face it and create a system of action and train yourself to deal with it intelligently.
To do this is actually the easiest option while simultaneously being the most difficult.
To give up your pain, is to give up your responsibility. Responsibility is accountability and facing pain is placing yourself as accountable to your own reality.
This is honesty.
No hiding here, no fluffed up conclusion based on a star alignment or energetic shift - just the cold, hard and honest truth.
I am alone.
We are a community in many ways and we can work together to create systems in culture to alleviate pain and to assist each other in living a satisfying life but we cannot go around living life as if pain does not exist - or try to avoid it like it is a dirty thing. Pain is real and it demands to be faced.
Nor am I suggesting you become a masochist either - I suggest you face the pain already present in your reality in your body experience that you are living now without finding a thought, a person, an emotion, a substance or a system to avoid it.
It could be something as simple as accepting that the dishes are there and that it is much less trouble to do them if you stop whinging and just get them done. Thereby creating a system of action everytime there is dishes and not engaging in a negative thought train (which actually requires a lot of energy). By training our minds to simply act without all this drama we alleviate more pain in the long-run. The alternative is that you can remain in a state of constant whinging for your dish-doing reality and this then rubs off onto other aspects of life - where you are in denial of the reality of the pain - hiding from life like a child and constantly looking for things to help you get away from living. Basically, I am explaining the majority of society trained into consumerism which features a large foray of products and industries predominantly designed for the avoidance of pain. lol
Avoidance of pain is BIG industry. You could face the pain of living a healthy lifestyle today or you could avoid the pain you cause yourself with unsustainable habits by taking medication to alleviate symptoms which causes greater pain in the long-run through chronic illness. On top of this, often we engage in unsustainable habits because we are avoiding other pain within ourselves - it is a spiral of dependencies.
Life is painful - deal with it.
Ironically, when we finally accept that, we give ourselves the key to alleviate so much pain!
I face my pain willingly as is necessary - which is mine and no one elses. It is completely normal to want to avoid pain - which is our animal body self doing its job.
The difference between a human and an animal is the ability to face pain intelligently - to say, yes, I will go through this thing willingly which causes pain now in order to experience less pain later - erecting a system of action and consciously doing the dishes which allows you the opportunity to grow an appreciation of them which can become an enjoyment later.
Who put pain in charge? We do so by avoiding it when it is necessary to face it.
We abdicate responsibility to our energy by constantly participating in emotional systems of pain avoidance. We use up all our mental/emotional energy in avoiding pain - by facing the pain directly, we unleash all this power.
I take responsibility for my pain to live a fulfilling and satisfying life. I take charge. I take responsibility.
I live my life to its fullest by facing pain when it arises and dealing with it and breathing through it in the moment - not fearing that it will come but accepting it as a part of life and in doing so I provide the right conditions and opportunities for a happy, healthy self which is a building block for a happy, healthy community.
