Worry. Anxiety. It eats away at the best version of ourselves. It spills into our teams, our circles of influence, infecting performance with perceived lack of confidence. Awareness in those moments where we’re under pressure disappears leaving it unchecked. Unawareness to how it affects us is deadly if it continues unchecked. This week’s quote roulette, makes all the sense to me as a reminder to get it under control.
“It’s funny how much our surroundings influence our emotions. Our joys and sorrows, likes and dislikes are colored by our environment so much that often we just let our surroundings dictate our course. We go along with “public” feelings until we no longer even know our own true aspirations. We become a stranger to ourselves, molded entirely by society… Sometimes I feel caught between two opposing selves — the “false self” imposed by society and what I would call my “true self.” How often we confuse the two and assume society’s mold to be our true self. Battles between our two selves rarely result in a peaceful reconciliation. Our mind becomes a battlefield on which the Five Aggregates — the form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness of our being — are strewn about like debris in a hurricane. Trees topple, branches snap, houses crash.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
We know our surroundings influence us when we take the time to “breath” and see how it does. We can train ourselves to be aware of the triggers that cause them in real time. We don’t have to be a Zen Master like Thich. We just need practice at “listening” to our mind. Preventing it from causing massive destruction. When we don’t, the hurricane tsunami that can come through us, impacting those around us is damage that can last far longer than the moments in which they were conceived.
✌🏻 Shawn
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