Eight months ago I began a journey of practicing mindfulness every day and we've reached day 263. Yesterday, I talked about how important it is to believe in yourself. Today is a new day.
One thing I've noticed in my time in Japan (whether it's as a teacher or as a foreigner living in the country) it's that a lot of people living here end up becoming bitter over time. One thing we talked about was how a lot of people come here with high expectations and when they don't get met the frustration of them being in a foreign country added to the disappointment of things not going the way we planned gets has a big impact on them. Someone once told me that they had no time to do anything because their shift started at 3 pm and ended at 9 pm, which meant that by the time they finished work most places they'd want to go to would be closed or about to close and that they couldn't do anything before their shift. They felt like they were missing out on a lot.
I understand this feeling and definitely feel a little disappointed in some aspects of my life sometimes, but it is what it is, so rather than focusing on the negatives I try to focus on what's going well instead. In my case, I wake up early enough to have time to go to the gym, write my daily thoughts, and if I wanted do a little exploring before my shifts and it's not like I'm sacrificing much sleep to manage that. Sure, a lot of places might be closed after work, but if I wanted to socialize I can do that on my days off, and there are always bars open late at night, so it's not like there aren't any options. There's always a way.
Thinking about it, it doesn't really matter when your shift is, you can always make time to do the things you want. In the same way that our perspective and actions influence whether we can achieve our goals or not, they also determine how we live our day-to-day lives. In my case, if I base my life around a typical 9-5 schedule, then of course I'll feel like I'm missing out on a lot of opportunity; but, if I let myself be flexible then it doesn't matter when I work so much as what I'm doing with the free time I have. It's not about the quantity, but instead the quality of the time that you spend that's more important. There will always be 24 hours in a day and you only need about 6-8 hours of sleep. What you do with the remaining 16-18 hours is up to you. Free time is important to me so I want to make it count when I can.
No matter what the situation there's always an upside. Learning to make the best of any situation we're in is in many ways the practice of letting go of expectations. It's focusing on what we can do now to improve our life and adapting to the situation if things go awry. This is a core facet of what I'm learning from my daily mindfulness practice and it's something that I've been making efforts to apply to my life every day.
Peace
Note: Funny enough I made a mistake and misclicked the publish button while trying to save today's thoughts (as some of you had seen) and then google logged me out and forced me to change some browser settings before I could even load my page again (despite things working perfectly fine before this forced settings change). I apologize for the mistake. I'm back in action and still able to write so hopefully that doesn't happen again.
"When the world is running down, you make the best of what's still around." - StingYesterday, a substitute teacher came to my school and we had some free time and ended up talking about philosophy, spirituality, etc. She had been living in Japan for almost 20 years now and shared with me a lot of experiences throughout her life. It was a really nice conversation that got me thinking about making the best of any situation I might find myself in.
One thing I've noticed in my time in Japan (whether it's as a teacher or as a foreigner living in the country) it's that a lot of people living here end up becoming bitter over time. One thing we talked about was how a lot of people come here with high expectations and when they don't get met the frustration of them being in a foreign country added to the disappointment of things not going the way we planned gets has a big impact on them. Someone once told me that they had no time to do anything because their shift started at 3 pm and ended at 9 pm, which meant that by the time they finished work most places they'd want to go to would be closed or about to close and that they couldn't do anything before their shift. They felt like they were missing out on a lot.
I understand this feeling and definitely feel a little disappointed in some aspects of my life sometimes, but it is what it is, so rather than focusing on the negatives I try to focus on what's going well instead. In my case, I wake up early enough to have time to go to the gym, write my daily thoughts, and if I wanted do a little exploring before my shifts and it's not like I'm sacrificing much sleep to manage that. Sure, a lot of places might be closed after work, but if I wanted to socialize I can do that on my days off, and there are always bars open late at night, so it's not like there aren't any options. There's always a way.
Thinking about it, it doesn't really matter when your shift is, you can always make time to do the things you want. In the same way that our perspective and actions influence whether we can achieve our goals or not, they also determine how we live our day-to-day lives. In my case, if I base my life around a typical 9-5 schedule, then of course I'll feel like I'm missing out on a lot of opportunity; but, if I let myself be flexible then it doesn't matter when I work so much as what I'm doing with the free time I have. It's not about the quantity, but instead the quality of the time that you spend that's more important. There will always be 24 hours in a day and you only need about 6-8 hours of sleep. What you do with the remaining 16-18 hours is up to you. Free time is important to me so I want to make it count when I can.
No matter what the situation there's always an upside. Learning to make the best of any situation we're in is in many ways the practice of letting go of expectations. It's focusing on what we can do now to improve our life and adapting to the situation if things go awry. This is a core facet of what I'm learning from my daily mindfulness practice and it's something that I've been making efforts to apply to my life every day.
How can you make the best out of your day?
Peace
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| Despite being born in the mud, it pushes through and rises to the top to sprout as a beautiful flower. This symbol represents the struggle of life and the purpose in making the best of what you're given. |
Note: Funny enough I made a mistake and misclicked the publish button while trying to save today's thoughts (as some of you had seen) and then google logged me out and forced me to change some browser settings before I could even load my page again (despite things working perfectly fine before this forced settings change). I apologize for the mistake. I'm back in action and still able to write so hopefully that doesn't happen again.
If you have any thoughts, stories, or experiences share them in a comment below!
ReplyDeleteHave a great day~