Do you ever come across a quote, song lyric, or book excerpt, just by chance, in your travels that perfectly describes what is going on in the world or what your thinking or experiencing at that point in time?
You have power over your mind, not over outside events. Realize this and you will find strength.
– Marcus Aurelius
Lately I have been feeling pretty defeated by everything that is going on in the world, from the pandemic, to people’s behaviour and reactions; as well as government behaviour. This has all left me somewhat exhausted to be honest.
Everything that has been happening is tiring to most people, and having to hear about it in a constant barrage can leave one feeling mentally and emotionally drained.
I’m no exception to this. It’s been getting harder and harder to find inspiration to do what I want to do and I am finding it harder and harder to tell myself to just keep going.
This quote however, rings true, especially in times like these. We see people trying to control what is going on outside to suit their own wants and feelings. This is crystal clear looking at the Commander in Chief south of the border, to normal people that feel that getting a haircut is absolutely essential to their survival. They will lie, cover-up, fabricate, threaten, believe, protest and do whatever they feel they need to do to get their way. They are trying to control not only a virus, but every other element outside their house. This can range from posting conspiracy videos on facebook, to deciding it is necessary to commit murder because you’re told to wear a face mask. There is only one obvious ending to this… It doesn’t work, and things will escalate until someone gets hurt. To people like this, an overreaction or an emotional explosion is almost always a part of this. I can’t imagine what it’s like to feel like this on the inside.
While we are living in a very strange time and there are a lot of things that have happened that have been relatively out of ours, or anyone’s control. It’s a good time to remember, that you can still very much control how you react to everything. And that you are in complete control of yourself.
This is something that I’ve been trying to practice since all of this began and I find most of my time spent these last couple months to be, quiet. My world has been, for the most part, quiet, even with all of the chaos going on outside. I personally find some structure in my life to be very Zen. This is why I chose to ride out this pandemic with a very structured daily routine, much like having a job. I still find myself getting exhausted with all of the social media posts and news articles by people that are choosing to let outside conditions determine how they are feeling and thinking that day, so this week I turned all notifications off on my phone. This has been a nice change and I have been feeling a little lighter mentally. Time will tell if I decide to turn them back on, maybe when the noise has quieted down a little.
Be mindful. That is the lesson in that quote. Be mindful, and you will find peace and strength to get through this dark period.
Non Zero Day #14
Today:
300 word blog post.Run 9 km.Study 4 hours.Leg Day.
Tomorrow:
- Run 9 km.
- Read 2 hours.
- Study 2 hours.
- Upper body and abs.
- Fold laundry.
My Avocado Toasts 
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