Sunday, April 20, 2008

Day whatever

I think using this blog to chronicle a 100-day experience of inner peace has run its course for me. When I started, I was pretty sure I wouldn't finish it; however, I thought it would last longer than 20 days. :)

I go through phases, and when one begins, I have no way of knowing how long it will last.
I typically write for one of three reasons:

1.) To sort things out
2.) To record things I want to remember or be able to refer to
3.) To express things that may be helpful to one person who happens across my blog.

In the beginning, it was helpful to have something guiding the topics of my posts, but the phase began to dwindle after it began feeling more like an obligation. Therefore, I hereby withdraw my participation in the disciplined sense but will continue in the spirit by sharing thoughts and experiences regarding inner peace, whenever the words to describe them find their way into my head.

3 comments:

Paul Mohr said...

Twenty days seems good to me, I usually last about ten minutes on my great plans. It is the fact that things change, and I can't predict the future :)

TurnOnToLife.com said...

Yes, I totally get it. The feeling of obligation is anything but peaceful, right? :)

There's nothing inherently good or bad about 20 days or 50 days or 100 days. It's all about the experience that you want to have.

One of the coolest things I remember from Conversations with God is the idea that each moment is an opportunity to experience a way of being (my words may reflect what I took away from it more than what Walsch actually wrote). So in each moment, we get to sit all of the possible experiences side by side, and then choose the one we want to be.

With my 100 Days of Peace blog, the way I ultimately chose to experience it (after some bumps) was like this:

1. I was clear that I wanted the experience of at least 100 consecutive days of focused practice on inner peace. I had never done that before, and I wanted to know what it felt like. Not 99 days, not 7 days, but 100 days.

2. I gave myself permission to not be eloquent, to not be profound, to not be prolific. The practice could include frustration with and rebellion against the discipline. Some of my posts began with "I don't know what to write about today."

3. I gave myself permission to hold things back. I could keep experiences and thoughts and feelings private and write on my blog, "I'm not going into detail about this."

So that is how I chose to play. There is no success or failure in my game, only what I choose to experience. Unless of course I choose to experience it as success or failure!

:)

It sounds like your choice is to be more spontaneous with your posts. That's awesome, and a game worth playing! (IMHO)

Paul Mohr said...

Yes, I don't see much point in getting too tied to one approach when things change too quickly, That is mainly from being in the technology industry however. Not really very philosophical of me at all. :) The most permanent things I see are merely those scientific principles I have learned and applied that work consistently, which is no real help at all in the emotional world. As far as blogs go, I sometimes think that I should be entertaining the people who read my blog , but I really don't know who that is. It seems a bit like being on a very low budget TV show.