December 12 – Willingness: At least for today, choose to willingly do everything you do. Do so especially during those activities you feel that you “have to do”; activities that your ego normally detests but that you engage out of a sense of either obligation or fear … Don’t want to get out of bed? Choose to want to get up. Don’t want to go to work? Choose to want to go. Don’t want to pick up your kids or meet with someone? Choose to want to do so … Simply resolve to pause and consciously say “YES!” to every opportunity to Live today, regardless of whether or not it’s something your ego wants to do.

Bonus Activity: Choose to not only willingly engage your day’s tasks, but do so Joy-fully as well …

This was a fun task, as it allowed me to rediscover the Joy available within even the most mundane of activities. It reminded me of the Truth that my happiness really is always my choice – regardless of my life’s external circumstances.

For the past several years, I have been attempting to reprogram my consciousness to remain primarily in a similar state of “joyful volition” – a mindset where every activity is engaged only if I choose to want to do it. Essentially, I have adopted the motto: Want to do it or don’t do it at all. This has been critical to my success in experiencing a sense of Oneness during the challenging moments of my life, as merely doing something “because it’s the right thing to do” or because “it needs to be done” is not enough to “pierce the veil of duality” and experience the Inner Peace that comes with it. It does no lasting good to self or others to do anything unless you choose to sincerely want to do it, which requires simply pausing and choosing to choose.

And today’s task allowed me to remember that my desire related to any activity is always purely a matter of choice. Even when my ego seriously desires to avoid a particular task, I can always pause and choose to want to do it anyway. Often overlooked in today’s “self help” circles, this ability has immense power, and indeed has proven critical to accessing my True Self during life’s more challenging times.

So this morning, when my ego yearned to remain in the hot shower (which would have been a fine thing to do), I chose to want to get out and helping. When my ego yearned to “get right to work”, I chose to want to pause and brew a cup of green tea. When my ego yearned to get frustrated during an administrative phone call, I chose to want to remain on hold. When my ego yearned to drift off and daydream, I chose to want to focus on answering some important emails. When my ego yearned to skip dinner, I chose to want to pause and cook something healthy. When my ego yearned to let the dishes sit until tomorrow morning, I chose to want to clean the kitchen. And when my ego yearned to stay up late, I chose to want to go to sleep.

Note that what was ultimately chosen was not that important. Rather, it was critical 1) that I chose to do things for the benefit of others (or for my own health, that I might better serve others) & 2) that I paused and consciously chose to want to do whatever I did.

And doing these things in this manner allowed me to realize several potent Truths:

* Wanting to remove myself from a pleasurable situation in order to help another dramatically enhanced the power of that subsequent giving.

* It is almost as powerful to pause consciously & intend lovingly as it is to extend acts of kindness to others.

* There is absolutely no need to “balance” my time between activities that care for others and those that care for myself. In a purposefully selfless state of mind, even acts of “self-love” (e.g. eating right, resting, pondering the moment) are done ultimately for others’ benefit. In this sense, a truly “Balanced Life” is completely dedicated to serving others (especially once one realizes that such “practical selflessness” is actually the best way to care for yourSelf).

* The best time to do any activity is now. The best situation to do any activity is here. The best person for whom to extend any act of kindness is the one nearest you. Remembering these Truths makes it relatively easy to choose to want to do anything.

* And finally, today’s task allowed me to experience the different degrees of volition that are available to us in any moment of choice. Most of the time, our egos would have us believe that uncertainty is inevitable – that we can’t ever know “the best choice” or act at “the right time”. Or maybe our egos have us believe that we are essentially powerless – that we are “only human” or “only one person”. As such, we tend to succumb to the myth that our ability to choose is weak; that our success is somehow dependent upon external circumstances.

And yet sometimes, we “graduate” to a higher level of awareness – an understanding that, despite the self-fixated instincts of our reptile brains, we can indeed choose to “be kind anyway”, for example. And we come to glimpse the Truth that every one of our actions has a profound impact on our surroundings, whether we can directly perceive its effects or not.

And then we “graduate” again, to the realization that we do not need to believe in the effectiveness of any particular act of selflessness or morality; that we can simply act in accordance with our all-Loving conscience, regardless of whether or not doing so is “right” or “practical” or “productive”. We choose to simply say “yes” to every opportunity to care – while seeing every available alternative as just such an opportunity.

And at some point, if we persist in choosing to want to joyfully engage our moments, we attain sense of a state of being labeled by some masters as “choiceless awareness”; where we realize that there are indeed selfish & superficial options available to us, and that we have every right to engage them – and yet to do so is no longer a real alternative. We come to understand (via our past experiences of Oneness) that every moment of selfishness, while not “bad” in and of itself, is a moment of caring that is lost. And as we wish to do as much Good as possible during the time we have left, we begin to recognize only one alternative in each moment – the caring alternative.

And finally, near the end of the day, all this analysis was washed away in a true epiphany: that the true power of any choice was not tied at all to what was done, and was only marginally tied to why I was choosing to do (i.e. for myself vs for another). It was not enough to simply say “yes” consciously, and it was not even enough to blandly say “Yes” to benefit another. For my consciousness to fully blossom forth and for my actions become powerful, I had to pause and gladly do the deed in question. At this level, choice leaves the realm of the intellect and enters the realm of action – exuberant action that is consciously steeped in raw gratitude for being able to choose at all. It is the final graduation – the shift from reluctantly mumbling “whatever” to cautiously saying “OK” to joyfully shouting “Yes!”

See You when I see you …

… and until then, be Now!

Scaughdt

Filed under: 366 Days of Kindness by Scaughdt