Sitting in the Ever Expanding Universe
You can never step into the same river twice
My mood is pretty good today.
Summer is a wild oscillation of emotions about life and the future, mixed with stifling humidity and slushy drinks powered by thick flavoured syrup.
Many affluent young parents have a break from their kids, and I have a break from them because they are at their cottages.
If you can’t be happy right now where are sitting, then you will never be happy.
If I have gone through some low points in the past few months I would like to go back in time and tell those manifestions of myself this message that starts this area of the newsletter.
If you can’t be happy right now where you are sitting, then you will never be happy.
I would rather engage in the practice of meditation as a way to give thanks to the act of creation, rather than to seek a doorway to escape the horrors and frustrations of modern living.
Put in another way: I think it would be great to sit in meditation with the intention of paying attention to what is here, and where I am currently sitting in the ever-expanding universe.
Don’t wait for the news cycle to turn in your favour in order to be happy.
Because this is a recipe for getting exactly the opposite: Eternal dissatisfaction with the world. Like the person who shops and shops but the hauls never seem to hit the spot.
New projects are sprouting in my mind each day, one of them being what I have dubbed The Optimists’ Handbook.
Positive psychology is sometimes misconstrued by skeptics as “toxic positivity”.
People are afraid to see the glass as half full out of concern that these same skeptics are going to pounce on them for saying things are going well when there cuts to America’s emergency response programs, trade wars coming and going literally by the day, and actual wars in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and many more sprinkled around the world.
And to those people who say, “how dare you be happy”, I raise my middle finger to you because I am given a maximum of 85-100 years to work with and I refuse to spend it in such a pedestrian way.
As Michael Singer helped me realize many years ago through his writings in the Untethered Soul, we are sitting on a rock in infinite space, yet you are most concerned with the colour combination of the Hokas you bought or the way your in-laws make you feel.
The old alpha male would tell you to “grow a pair”, but I think you just need to “grow your aware...ness”.
Because consciousness is a dangerous tool.
To see beyond the world of form that is in front of you means your happiness can’t be bought with an Alfa Romeo or a politician’s promise to put more money in your pocket.
In this moment, we become free of the traps that are set by a world that is simply way too connected.
Cut yourself free of the human centipede: Tune in, turn on and drop out. Not by taking mind-altering substances but by altering your point of view on happiness in general.
To be happy in this moment means you go against the grain, and are simply a renegade.
If you choose to deny this mission, I invite you to hit the unsubscribe button as soon as you can.
I have all the faith in the world in you to make the right decisions.
Love,
🥯 Elliott 🥯