Our lives are constantly changing. There’s a natural ebb and
flow to every moment. At moments, we can make decisions where this natural
state of change becomes evident. In these decisive moments we can become
distracted easily. When we begin making decisions about our lives, we need to
be mindful of the distractions these decisions can create. These distractions
have the capacity to increase our ignorance, but we can, instead, use them to
open up our awareness and expand our presence.
The distraction of change is simple to understand. When we
make major changes in our life, nearly every aspect of our life is impacted.
These changes can be mental, emotional and even physical distractions. If we
are not careful, the distraction of change can mask our thoughts and feelings
of not only these changes but also of ourselves. This aspect of the distraction
of change is a distraction some people seek out and others avoid.
For those who seek out the distraction of change, often it’s
about masking thoughts and feelings about the self. These thoughts and feelings
are often overpowering for these seekers. For the seekers of distraction, there
can be no sustaining happiness. Once seekers find a moment of happiness, it almost
immediately becomes uncomfortable. The “sources” of this discomfort are
misplaced onto conditions as opposed to the discomfort with ourselves.
Others attempt to avoid the distractions of change. Those
who avoid change by choice do not want to challenge the status quo. There may
not even be happiness within the present structure of life, but to make a
choice to do something different places the onus back on the self. Those who
avoid change neither embrace reality nor the personal power of choice. To make
a different choice gives them ownership over any future results. This
empowerment is something that many wish to avoid and has a similar energy to
playing the role of the victim. As long as someone else is making decisions,
it’s not our fault.
The explorer nature to change in life can be powerful.
Whenever we actualize power in our lives, constructive and destructive energies
are both possible simultaneously. These are experienced as loss and gain. The
distraction of loss is not as simple as loss of material belongings. This loss
could even be loss of loneliness or hopelessness or even loss of happiness or
joy. Whenever there is change we are potentially losing something. We could
even be losing the absence of something. This loss can be a source of
distraction. There could be elation or even euphoria if we’re losing something
that we want to lose. We could also experience depression or even sadness.
Sometimes, we experience all of these nearly simultaneously.
The distraction of gain is similar to that of loss. It can
be the gain of material belongings, but more than that it involves the gain of
an idea or even an ideal. This can be a relationship, a living situation, a job,
a religion or even a new church. Or, it could be the gain of something far more
subtle. It’s similar to the distraction of a new toy for a child. It’s new,
it’s shiny; it’s something to play with, not so much to understand. In a new
job or a new relationship, it can be that shiny toy aspect we experience, not
so much the actual job or relationship we’ve gained. Any relief that is felt
may not be actually from the job or the relationship, but from the distraction
of gain. At some point, as with the shiny new toy in the hands of a child, the
newness wears off.
The difference between genuine exploration and distraction
of gain can be subtle. When something is gained in life, there are countless
aspects of the object to explore and acquire. These aspects go far beyond the
simple physical characteristics but also the mental, emotional and even
spiritual elements or meanings of what has been gained. Regardless of our
intention, we can get lost in the sheer volume of new data and experiential
information.
It can be extremely difficult to maintain presence when new
variables are being repeatedly introduced and altered. This is the distraction
of distraction. This is the person that goes from object to object, situation
to situation nearly seamlessly. There has to be a constant stream of forced or
directed change. Watching a channel dedicated to commercials selling goods is
the embodiment of the distraction of distraction. The goal here is to
constantly have something outside of the self to focus the mind upon, anything
to avoid focusing on the mind and the life itself. The internal states of being are almost
ignored with this extremely distracted mind. Daily living becomes a constantly
revolving door.
In all of these distractive moments, our presence can increase
and awareness can open as opposed to become more limited and closed. It can be
too easy to become lost in a sea of new information, new experiences and new
dynamics. When we orient our mind toward acquiring this information and being
open to new experiences and learning about our role in the new dynamics, we take
ownership of our life, our living and actualize our personal power in this new
environment. We learn to see the role we play in cause and effect in our lives.
We are the cause and our daily life is the effect.
We can hold back from making decisions that fundamentally
change our lives, hoping to avoid culpability. Or, we can constantly change
what we’re doing, never being present or aware enough to see the consequences
of those changes. The key is to strike the right balance and to constantly
reacquire that balance. We can dramatically change our lives at any time by
simply changing the way our minds and bodies interact with our current
existence. In fact, by focusing on being more present and more aware, we can
discover simple ways to change our lives. Often, we’re missing countless
opportunities to better not only our lives but the lives of others. Only by
expanding our presence and awareness in the present moment can we more clearly
see what we can do, what we should do and what we need to do.
Have a question, comment or concern? Email me at radicaldifference@gmail.com
Other Ridding of Ignorance Articles About Distraction and Change
Our Mind, the Distracted Runaway
Transforming Home into Healing
Expanding Awareness, From the Source of Hope and Dream
