Sunday, October 14, 2012



Obstacles
 
I realize that the obstacles in my life are mostly self imposed and are not as worthy of complaint as others who have real barriers and obstacles. Many people have to get past serious traumatic experiences, racism, sexism, economic struggles, health issues and the list goes on and on. Here I am thinking of the obstacles in my life and I can’t even begin to feel sorry for myself…but somehow I do.

 No matter where we are in life though we seem to put up walls and barriers to our own success and self-actualization. I want to be a better person, more successful, harder working, more focused…but I let things get in my way. When I thought of what got in my way it became a little suffocating. I imaged a moat between my home and me, with no bridge, no boat, and no way to get across.

                        When I thought of how lazy I am, how it keeps me from accomplishments…I took a nap.

 When I thought of how much fun I like to have….I stopped my homework, party time.

 When I thought of my insecurities and fear…I avoided looking further.

 When I thought of how nice the sun would feel on my skin…I went for a hike.
 

The usefulness of understanding what gets in your way, of naming it and seeing it is that you can become aware of it and with awareness you can modify your behavior and make positive change. The Indigenous knowledge of naming your fears or obstacles makes sense. When you name it, you recognize it and then you can do something about it. It is self reflection and it is taking inventory of where you are and where you want to be. It does seem useful for oneself and within any helping profession.

2 comments:

  1. Your thoughts make so much sense and what comes to my mind is that what stops us (or at least some of us) are our own intrusive thoughts of self-doubt, or fear, or..or..the list can go on. I believe that the silence, the quiet times help to refocus, yet it seems as though some of us need to have a buzzer go off for a reminder.

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  2. Thanks for the wonderful visuals Levi and how they coincide with the writings in your post; that was very clever. It is interesting that you note that you do not necessarily have anything to complain about, but this is not really how humans work; I think we all beleive somehow that our problems are more difficult than others, that if we were to put all of our problems into a hat and then draw out what we think were the worst problems, we would inevitably select our own. I think sometimes too that we often say we stand in our own way as an avenue to assume some last bastion of percieved control over our lives, that if we just changed something about our behavior that all would be well. This is perhaps a common misconception. Improvements certainly can be made, but we must be realistic about what changes and what does not when we alter our behavior. Good poem too. I hope you are not expressing disparaging remarks toward naps though, I find them quite appealing.

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