Most of it is in Your Head

Reality is a tad elusive.

Most of it is in your head.

When you were an infant, reality was sparkling, fresh and new. Remember? Your eyes were on fire with everything you could see around you. Infants' eyes are like flashlights, baby. You laughed easily, heartily and honestly. At the simplest things.

Life was simple. Because you were not aware of the dangers that await.

As adults we don't know what reality is. We experience our reality, but that is shaped and warped by our experiences. Our prejudices, our fears, our pain, our disappointments. Also by our successes, our happiness, our love.

But I believe the dark stuff takes precedence. Or at least the dark stuff is what throws you off course.

I think it is virtually impossible for adults to recognize reality. It is out there, the world is real, being alive is real, but we interpret that reality through our own filters. Which distorts it into faux reality.

Kind of like Don Quixote tilting at windmills. We are reacting to situations that really aren't there which, of course, is why we get it wrong. Getting it wrong being hurting someone unnecessarily, making boneheaded decisions, acting against our own best interests, misinterpreting someone's words, spitting out our own poisonous words in regretful ways. But we think we are getting it right.

Seeing reality for what it is - reality - is a pretty important component for achieving success and getting happy. Which is why there is so much failure and unhappiness out there.

The pursuit of happiness, baby. You gotta be proactive - happiness doesn't just happen to you.

At the very end of the Desiderata these three phrases slap my head around: "keep peace in your soul; be cheerful; strive to be happy." The implication is that these are things that you do - consciously - they are not a means to an end - they are the end.

I am just confused about how you do this when your mind is warped and you look at life through a distorted lens.

Meditation takes a whack at this. I see meditation as a way to lower the volume of bullshit in your brain,  allowing you to respond to situations rather than react to situations.

You can train yourself to do this. But you gotta work at it.

The encouraging thing is that if reality is in your head you can change it - you have control over it.

You just have to take a stick of dynamite to your misconceptions and fears - if you can even identify them - and move forward gracefully.

Good luck.

(Editor's note: This was a pretty rambling discourse and I'm not even sure it made any sense or carries any weight in the intellectual sphere. Whaddya gonna do?)