From a Point

You can rage against the machine, or you can start from a point of deep understanding of where you, and others, are. 

The way we communicate and the choices we make stem from deep soaked agreements. The vehicles we use (companies and countries) are just stories. A way we work together. Money is also just a story. A tool we use to cooperate. 

In order to interact with others, you need to learn about how we communicate. Embedding yourself in the language to let you make choices in ways that are consistent with your values. From a place of understanding. 

Once you have a point of focus, you can select where to deepen your skills and knowledge. You can have a selected portfolio of jobs for your money, and concentrate your attention on understanding those. You don’t have to have a view on everything. 

If the area you are looking at gradually increases your ability to not have a view on things you don’t want to pay attention to. 

Stilling waves of anxiety comes from decreasing the ability of waves to impact you, and simply wash over. Less unconstructive raging, and more focused, connected, and conscious engagement.

Focus

Building a Practice

“Restraining of thought waves means analysing your thoughts constantly, it does not mean suppression of thoughts.” Swami Durgananda (commentary on “Yoga Sutras of Patanjali”). Financial Waves can’t simply be ignored. If you don’t learn to control money, it can control you. Through study and patient reflection, you can develop a system that works for you. Letting go of distortions, delusions, and obstacles. Finding a way to go deeper into problems and resolving them. Rather than letting unhelpful money anxiety become the driving force in our lives. Whether the problem is misunderstanding, accepting false perceptions of others, or deep soaked prejudice from the way the world is temporarily (but doesn’t need to be). Build a practice to concentrate on what matters.

Step by Step

Protected by Rain

I love rain. Warm, inside and nowhere to go. I even like English winters with short days. If you use the few hours of sunshine to get outside, avoiding cabin fever. Work days should start after lunch if you are going to be in the dark anyway. When I worked in an open plan office, I used the ChatterBlocker app to play the sound of rain. The occasional rumble of thunder broke the monotony, and I could concentrate fully on whatever I was doing. No phonecalls. No emails. Nowhere to go. Just a little island to engage with something completely. Protected by rain. 

Till Things Flow Together

David D'Souza had suggested that one of the things I try learn is playing golf left-handed. He said this after I had mentioned that I wanted to research and write about the emotional barriers/obstacles to learning new things. Considering how badly I play golf, I doubt adding a left-handed challenge would be required to spice up my frustration. Well, he will be pleased to know left-right coordination is one thing I am fighting with right now. Starting with the basics with the piano and learning Grade 1 pieces, it is amazing how you can comfortably get the tune going with the left hand, and then with the right - but the mission is putting them together. Apparently drumming is even 'worse' and it takes years for drummers to train the limbs to 'think independently'. Independently, but in tune. Sounds a little to me like the dilemma we face in relationships and in the work place. Also sounds similar to our issues with decision making. When we can isolate things and make them simple, they are easy to control. But the world is more complex than that, and that requires slowing things right down. Slower than the individual parts want to move. Then gradually increasing the pace, till things flow together.

Two things that are clearly false about my experiment though:
1) I am under no time pressure, so I can stop and shift attention to other things when frustration builds and concentration falters.
2) I am the boss of my left hand and my right hand, so they don't get to argue or moan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motor_coordination