ThreeKeyWords

A new day and the day of pot and the bunny and the cross collide — what will happen today? Like any other day, no one knows

Despite many garden-party, egg-hunting, mj-smoking plans, risk assessments, wisdom of sunday routines, stable systems, and even with chaos accounted for — it can all go wrong, or right (depending on your perspecrive), in a heart beat. Blam — a bolt from the blue and you’re whole life has changed. But doesn’t it change moment by moment anyway?

It’s sunday and for many of us tomorrow we’re back at school, back at work, back strapped to the grind stone.

What do you to do enjoy the time while in these prisons, say, the prison of a school district, a job to pay the bills, or some other hell you’ve been thrust into, one that you agreed to, and didn’t agree to.

(Assuming, of course, that you’re not an adult taking 100% responsibility for your reality, because then the question of how to enjoy time in prison is moot since you can enjoy time anywhere.)

Do you focus on the goal, the purpose, if you’ve discovered or created your purpose in being there? Maybe foo benefit is. May be you already know, and deeply too.
You’d be the few and the proud; otherwise, it’s quite humbling to not know the benefit you can gain for yourself in prison. It’s quite frustrating to believe you have no agency or freedom in the midst of a cell.

So for the rest of us, we need to use our imagination or sit still and recognize that all things pass, this prison cell will be a memory, and even more (or less) the “this” we’re referring to doesn’t even exist, it’s just an idea, an impression, painted by our own psyche, of other stimuli interpreted, painted, logged, ingested by other systems previously, so lot it go, lot it all go.

In short, do your best, and free up your energy for other pursuits.

Ace the tests, take some extracurriculars, explore what it means to you to be alive, you’ve got a nice cushy prison cell to play in, so play.

And for those teens out there who go back to school on Monday, know that science shows that at your age you’re inordinately focused on what other people think of you. Guess what. It doesn’t matter what they think, and you’ll drive yourself and them crzy trying to guess, to control, to influence and manipulate their thought. Do you really want to be the thought police?

So the good news is no one cares enoigh to think about you as much as you think.

The bad news is you’ve had a strong compulsion thus far to thinking about what they think. You can stop. And then you might start again. So just get curious and loving about why you restarted. Notice what hooked you. Ask it why. And you’ll learn so much about yourself and the beliefs underpinning your psyche. Then you can choose if they really matter to you. And you strengthen your inner freedom each time.

That’s my favorite way to use prisons – strength training for inner freedom.