The Death of Struggle

Welcome to the premier posting on my new blog MIND MASTERY. As a life-long learner, I have consistently sought to find insight into and control over my motivations, talents and challenges. That quest has led me often to wonder why we think, talk and act the way we do. That's the impetus behind the name MIND MASTERY, the belief that with greater understanding of ourselves, we can Master our thoughts, speech and actions.

When it comes to the language we use daily, I strive to eliminate from my vocabulary words that embody struggle, aggression and violence. We often say things like, 'I have to fight to achieve this or that,' or 'I’m struggling to overcome one thing or another.' In the use of these words we conjure the image of forces clashing, and battles ensuing. This is something we are used to because of how in our society we view relationships as oppositional, people as contestants in a zero sum game. There is a saying that says, what you seek is also seeking you. What we sometimes fail to see is that what we struggle against struggles against us as well.

When we set up the dynamic in our mind that we have to fight something, we at the same time empower that same something to fight back. We create the very situations that we intend to overcome. We hear a lot about the “War on Poverty” or the “War on Drugs” or the “War on Terrorism.” When we speak of these things, we are telling ourselves that something is going to be struggling against what we say we want. Words have power. Thoughts become things. If we go to war against a nation, a person, our own selves, or even ideas and concepts, they each in their own way and their own right seek to defend its existence and will fight us back. That is not to say that we simply do nothing about the things that we wish to change in our lives. It is empowering and natural to seek change and to affect it.

Often times something has to die for us to get the change we want. We have to kill something in our lives or in ourselves so that the new thing can be born. But this is not a contradiction. Death is a natural and inevitable part of life. People, ideas and ways of being die all the time. We don’t have to hate the idea, or fight the idea for it to die in our minds and hearts. We can simply approach the idea with love, courage, and wisdom. We can learn from it what it has come to teach us, and then decide to release it to the Universe. There is no fighting or struggle or aggression in that process, but, to be sure, there is the death of what no longer serves us.

Struggle and adversity has its place. It will rear its head in our lives whether we speak it up or not. Words have power. We must use them carefully and with wisdom. Not that we should be afraid that we may slip up and use some negative phrasing. But rather we should be mindful and hold as our intention, to express love, peace and joy in all our words and actions. Life is challenging and adventurous enough without our summoning forces to fight us.

Peace