Okay, in continuing the exploration satisfaction, what I am noticing today is how important it is to detach from outcomes in order to stay happy and satisfied. Today I noticed how easy it is to get unsatisfied when trying to get something to happen the way I want it, and it just doesn’t seem to be cooperating!
The insight I am getting is that, when that happens, I will be happier by letting it go and thinking about something else. It’s amazing how easy it is to stay fixated on a problem, when that attention does no good to help it. On the other hand, how quickly a problem will simply solve itself, if you just let it be for awhile (I’m sure I have written similar words before, can’t quite recall the post).
And here, with a few words on this topic, is Ye Old Higher Self:
Thank you, Chris, for giving me a chance to talk on this very important topic. Satisfaction is a wonderful subject. It is so satisfying! And yet, sometimes in people’s daily lives, the nitty gritty of your day can consume our attention, and hook our focus, to the detriment of being able to stay centered and balanced. This is especially true when, in our desire for certain outcomes, things don’t go the way we expect.
This is not a new topic, and it is one we touched on before. And yet, it continues to be relevant to talk about because overcoming the attachment to outcomes, and the suffering it brings, is one of the most difficult things for humans. It is so tempting to hook onto a desire and be unwilling, even if we are “kicking a dead horse,” to stop. Even when we are “barking up the wrong tree,” it is so enticing sometimes to just keep barking! And yet what does that do? Does it help? Not usually. If you are doing the same thing over and over again, and it isn’t working, it may be that you are not taking in the feedback of the moment. So get in the now!
How? By letting go of the need to keep kicking that horse, barking up that tree! Stop and just be for a moment. Calm down, put your head in a bucket of ice. Do whatever you can to interrupt the impulse to keep barking and kicking. If it hasn’t worked so far, why do you think it will suddenly start?
Sometimes people act automatically, as if they are running a program rather than responding to the moment. That is why it can be so hard to let go, to take in the feedback of the moment, and course correct. Yet it takes that presence sometimes to get a fresh perspective, to see past one’s own attachment to a course of action.
Sometimes, when you realize you have been going down the wrong road, it makes sense to turn around. Yet oftentimes that is easier said than done.
Yes, I certainly can relate to that. I have numerous times in my life realized I had badly gone the wrong direction, on the wrong road. And yet I was so resistant, so stubborn about it, that it took awhile to finally admit it to myself, and to change directions. It is as if there’s this sense of needing to “finish the job,” even when we realize that it is not the right job! Almost a compulsive need to act, without making sure we are taking the right action.
It’s not a need, but it can feel like that, especially when your own desire to not be wrong comes into play. That can make it harder to face reality. Because it can be hard to put aside your own sense of pride and realize that what you have been doing has not been working. And then to make a correction. Not an easy thing to do.
Yes. Indeed yes. I have been guilty of that pride numerous times. Thank you for the clarity!
So in summary, part of reaching for satisfaction is having the courage to admit when you have been wrong, and correct accordingly. To align with what is satisfying may require getting over your own ego.
It often does. Your own sense of importance can often interfere with your own desire for alignment. Yet alignment, and joy, and satisfaction, do not arise from a sense of self-importance. They arise from doing and being and saying and thinking things that give you joy and satisfaction! This is not an “ego” process, it is not about satisfying your pride. It is about doing what is spirtually sound.
It is about the question, “Would you rather be right, or would you rather be happy?” Many people learn the hard way the futility of always being right, because it rarely makes you happy… not borne out of ego and denial of reality.
Yeah, that makes sense. Thank you very much!