Learning to develop self-control and staying calm will make you an unstoppable and happier person. Here’s why…
At some point you’ll realize that things seldom go the way they should. People often don’t behave the way you think they ought to.
You can go insane trying to control the world and it’s many possible threats. You can be angry all day long at the things that are not as they should be. An alternative is to develop outstanding self-control. Learn to be calm and handle things with a smile.
Trying to control outside forces, puts you into a constant state of reactive frenzied activity. You are also slightly paranoid, reacting to every possible imagined negative situation and trying to prevent it before it happens. Great for soldiers in combat… but it carries a heavy toll.
If you develop self-control, then you can be in the moment and react in your best possible way.
Letting go of controlling your environment means you let go of trying to control every possibility the universe can throw into your world. Threats to your physical and mental peace are everywhere. Bees, snakes, electricity, angry people, stupid people, the economy, your old car.
When you try to control the chaos of the universe, you will be constantly on your toes. You will worry about EVERYTHING until you die wrapped in a blanket of anxiety.
Here’s an old story that we are all familiar with…
An acorn falls on a baby chicken’s back and knocks him over. He then goes to each of the other animals proclaiming that “I think all the world is falling” and he sets them all running too. The fox (always nearby) joins in the flight and, when they reach the wood, counts them over from behind and eats them one by one.
You can always interpret folk tales in many ways and that’s part of their magic. To me, the animals run around feeling like their world is coming apart until death, the fox, takes them in the end. Good times.
The fox comes in the end. How do you want to spend the time until then?
You can’t save everyone. Maybe they don’t even need saving. The same goes for you.
If you put a child in a cage to keep them from getting hurt by the things outside, have you helped them?
What if you keep a dog from eating meat to protect them from choking on bones? You try to keep a cat from jumping so it doesn’t hurt it’s leg. A beaver from felling trees so it doesn’t get crushed?
Even when you think you are helping, often you are not. Some things need to be left to their nature. We just anxiously play god.
How often has lacking control led you to a bad mental state? What if “Not being in control,” of everything around us was ok?
More importantly… what if you focused on controlling your mind? Controlling how you respond. Fixing yourself before you even think about fixing whats wrong in the world.
This universal chaos swirling around us is either a hurricane of horror and anxiety or a Mardi Gras. One feels like everything is out of control, falling apart, and you need to minimize damage or run and hide. The other one feels like a big dance party with unlimited possibilities.
But the other way to look at it is that the sky has been falling or not, since the beginning of time and will continue until the universe blinks into darkness. You can laugh about it or cry. The end is the same.
Where are you in this chaos stew?
The banks of the river flood due to finished beaver dam. The fish now have a place to swim. The farmers have a place to get water. Wildlife now has a place to go to drink when the summer reduces the streams to a trickle.
But for the poor ants, the world is coming to an end. The world is always coming to an end for something, some state, some situation, some fluctuation of atoms, particles. But it is also giving or sustaining life somewhere else.
It’s a constant state of impartial flux.
You can try to control the chaotic waves of universal and situational flux, or you can spot the high points and surf.
You are not in control of outcomes, only your actions.
Should you choose to invest your time, you CAN control your own actions, reactions and attachments… and it’s worth the effort.