I turn 30 today!
I spent a couple of hours early this morning and wrote down 30 thoughts or pieces of reflection/wisdom so I can nostalgically reflect on this moment of youthful maturity somewhere in my latter life
I hope you enjoy
1) The greatest sense of meaning is found amidst the journey and not at the point of destination. Remember to appreciate the entirety of your quest, to slow down, rest, laugh, enjoy and inhale each moment, for before we know it the sun will be setting and we will be at the home straight.
2) Suffering, pain, trials and tribulations are not a bug they are a feature.
3) We have an external home – a house, a suburb a city, the earth and we also have an internal home and garden – our body, mind and spirit. Treat them all with the utmost respect – clean, nourish, water, nurture and listen.
4) Learning to love with every part of your existence and allowing every part of your existence to be loved is no easy feat. It is a life long journey which will be full of many dragons which will require slaying by you and sometimes you alone. Never forget this process, it is worth every single battle, defeat, drop of blood and tear.
5) It is difficult to speak the truth in all forms, including speaking void of secrecy and omission. It is uncomfortable, provokes anxiety and dread in the best of us. However, this is the way we must move to become whole.
6) Few will truly earn your respect, keep a keen and watchful eye for these individuals.
7) Providence will have it’s way with us for we are all children of providence. Remember to navigate the rivers waters yet respect the direction of the current and placement of it’s banks.
8) We all have a shadow. Do not neglect the parts of you which lay in darkness. Bring them to light, understand them and then integrate them. There is courage in becoming the peaceful warrior – knowing how to wield a sword or being able to harness a very serious level of aggression does not mean we need to use it – it means we understand, respect and know it’s devastating power – with this understanding, exhausting every other avenue and civil measure as a primary becomes of paramount importance.
9) Take the time to listen and respect the wise words of our elders, they have lived through years and times which you have not.
10) When things get crazy go back to the basics (eat well, nail your sleep hygiene, move your body, de-stress, align your life once again with the things that create meaning for you and reconnect with the natural environment).
11) Never discredit rest. You need more than you think. Resting has many personas, recognize them and be present with each form.
12) Food is literal information. What you put into your mouth and digest is information for your body, mind and spirit. You want health? Then feed yourself the information for health and your system will respond.
13) Consider people’s actions rather than their words. What they do and how they act will determine and communicate to you their character, intentions and value structure.
14) When the bonfire of understanding grows it illuminates the surface area of ignorance. The path of knowledge makes you realize how little you actually know. As my father told me the other day while we were deep in philosophical discussion. “There will always be an equal balance between the known and unknown” “The more you venture into the unknown the bigger it becomes” “The greater your known becomes the greater your perception of the unknown becomes” – Reflect on point 9
15) Be the man in whom you wish to influence others. This saying I have heard many times but it only struck home when I read a piece by Carl Gustav Jung on this topic. The teacher, healer, practitioner must embody the method he teaches his students with or heals his patients with. He must live the way that he prescribes to others.
16) What is your intention? “Your intention is the mission statement for your life” -Maestro Don Howard Lawler. You need to have an aim, objective or mission in life. You must know where you are going or more importantly where you truly want to go. This cultivates meaning and purpose in your life. A fundamental for positive emotion and fulfillment. This sentiment takes time to figure out. You must traverse deeper than your surface level thoughts to figure this puppy out.
17) Listen. Listen better. Be completely attentive and present when you are listening. Listen not only with your ears but with your eyes, your touch, your smell, heart and your intuition. Listen carefully to your friends, family, lovers and most importantly to yourself. They all have important and valuable things to tell you. When you listen like this you will seek what you are searching for.
18) Another wise sentiment from my father. When you boil it all down; eat, drink, laugh and make marry. Don’t get too overwhelmed nor caught up in the depths of self-discovery – it is a windy path that has no end. Walk the path yet do not hold attachment to the path.
19) Everyone that you encounter is both the maestro and the novice. Adopt this attitude with yourself and all you meet.
20) Learn to grieve properly – it is one of the most powerful and healing medicines.
21) Notice the power of the collective. Socially we are something like 90% primate and 10% bees. We have a unique ability as human beings to come together and create something much greater, just as bees can unite to create a hive. This is referred to as the Hive Switch by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. Having an aim, mission and going through trial and tribulation with a collective elevates our individual morality, love and consciousness.
22) Turn up every single day and get it done. Do this for you and not for anyone else. The desire, want and motivation must be intrinsically generated. Find the catalyst and flick the switch.
23) Movement is literal life. If you are not moving, you are dead. Even when you appear to be completely still there are still infinite amounts of movement.
24) The interconnection of all things. We cannot segregate our bodies from our emotions, mind and spirit. If you have a physical ailment or illness do not disregard underlying emotional and spiritual reasons and causes. Western philosophy tends to zoom in and often forgets to zoom out. When we are zoomed in we can only see the horse. When we zoom out we see that the horse has a rider, there is stable, a lake, a mountain and a setting sun. It is only when we zoom out can we see the entire picture clearly and do the work that is necessary.
25) The individual is sovereign.
26) We are all filling in time in our own unique way between the “awkward moment of birth and death” .
27) A lion does not concern himself with the opinion of sheep. Do not think too much about how those that do not ‘really’ know you perceive you – this sacred position of constructive criticism is reserved for your trusted friends, comrades, mentors and advisors. Having said this, do not completely ignore the perceptions of people from the greater stratosphere either. Find the right balance of assessment and be open to micro-adjustment.
28) Sim, you have lived a life of extremities in your 20’s with specialised achievement and hedonistic pleasure seeking experiences making up prime components. I would not have done it any other way. The next stage of your life is now ebbing towards embodying balance of the yang with the soothing essence of the yin. “All the myriad things carry the Yin on their backs and hold the Yang in their embrace, / Deriving their vital harmony from the proper blending of the two vital Breaths.” And secondly “ To know when you have enough is to be immune from disgrace. / To know when to stop is to be preserved from perils. / Only thus can you endure long” — Tao Te Ching
29) What really matters when you strip away everything from an egoic sense? Love and Connection. We are all searching for love and connection. They are at the bedrock of all the things that we do. The window may be opaque, the path may have many bends and twists but they all lead to the same source.
30) Have empathy for the human condition. This is to not be mistaken as moral weakness. “Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto”, or “I am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me. – Terence the Roman Playwright.
I very much look forward to older Sim, one day his children, friends and family looking at what thoughts a ‘youthfully mature’ Sim was thinking at a point in time which was somewhere between both ends of infinity.
With Way Too Much Love,
Youthfully Mature Sim