9. Raise to rise
Everyday life is full of challenges and
pressures that can wear us out. Anyone who has experienced burnout knows how
it feels to have no energy to get things done.
If there is too much of everything in life, doing it no longer feels good. It is also hard to live if something feels to be missing.
A mind that works in time lives in the world of measurement. It evaluates and criticizes all the time. That is why it lives in an in-between state, swinging restlessly between right and wrong, good and bad, too much or too little.
An open mind lives in the midst of miracles. It doesn't make circumstances a problem but knows how to deal with the ever-changing phenomena of life without being distressed by them. It knows that even after the darkest night, the light will come in the morning.
Our mind needs freedom, but it also needs order. If chaos continues for too long, our mind will not recover but starts to accumulate bad feelings.
It's important not to store distressing feelings in our minds because before long that bomb will pop.
The mind needs to be looked after, and definitely more often than our car. We also need a good pause from time to time.
When the mind is set free, it reveals itself. It tells us, what we think about.
You could also use the one-minute method here: Ask yourself, "How am I?", and write an absolutely honest answer on paper, say, once a week. If you review your notes, after a while, you'll notice how different things are in your mind at any given time.
When you watch your inner speech, you can see what your mind brings out of itself and what it doesn't.
Many comments are often about people around us.
Energy Flows
Relationships with other people are always challenging. Some of them look down their noses at us, others poison the air around them. Yet, most people are decent and nice.
People can be roughly divided into three categories. At the top are those from whom we get energy. The lowest are those who drain us. The middle section is for those, who are almost indifferent to us.
If you go through your network, it's pretty easy to place people in each category. From the people in the first class, power flows into us when their character comes near us or into our minds.
There may be people around us who suck our energy, and there is no way to make them disappear from our life. In order to maintain peace of mind, it is important not to allow them to hijack and poison our minds.
My strong recommendation is also, that we clearly express our feelings to those from whom we receive energy.
Before I get to the heart of the matter, I would like to state, that no one should be permanently placed in any compartment. We must always meet people with an open mind, and let the situation guide us.
It is essential to be aware, that energy really flows between people and we feel it in our skins, quite literally.
In physics, the elevating power is called uplift. By definition, it is a force that "makes an object rise". It causes the boat to float and the hot air balloon to rise.
The same force seems to work in interpersonal relationships. According to my definition, "uplift is the force by which people lift each other".
It is proven that we get leverage from other people and things, but it is essential to understand that each of us is also a source of uplift for other people.
Now I come to the heart of the matter, the phenomenon mentioned in the title. By lifting another, we lift ourselves. Seeing the good in other people strengthens the good in our own minds.
This brings us to my
last thesis.