Read This If You Feel Lost In Life
Key Takeaways:
- The Mental Compass: Understand your mind’s alignment, akin to a compass guiding life’s direction.
- Recognizing Disturbances: Modern distractions disrupt mental clarity, impacting decisions and actions. Avoiding distractions maintains true clarity, fostering focus and purpose.
- Taoist Philosophy & meditation: Surrendering to life’s flow promotes inner peace and fulfillment, aligning with ‘The Way’. Regular meditation recalibrates your mental compass, ensuring mental clarity.
“One pattern I’ve noticed in happy people: they’re obsessive about maintaining their mental clarity.” – Dan Koe
The Mental Compass
Your mind is a compass. It dictates your decisions and steers your life.
Your mental compass can point you in the right direction, or it can point you in the wrong direction.
The question is, where is yours pointing?
My guess is you’re not sure.
You clicked on this video because you feel lost. But in reality, it’s not that you don’t know what to do in life, but rather your mental compass is leading you astray.
Here’s the problem.
Recognizing distractions.
Our minds are fragile, and vulnerable to disturbances, much like how a compass will fail to work in the presence of magnetic interference.
But at the same time, the modern world is filled with disturbances, affecting our mental compasses daily.
Bad decisions. Self-doubt. Impulsiveness.
These are but a few of the many symptoms of a faulty mental compass due to the modern world.
You’re probably asking yourself: “What can I do about it?”
But before I answer that question I want you to first realize this.
Your habits are not harmless.
Thinking that temporary pleasures and distractions are necessary for happiness is causing harm to your mental clarity. You need to sacrifice these things to obtain true clarity in life.
The solution: Taoist philosophy
The metaphorical notion of a mental compass is very similar to the core principles of Taoism.
In the philosophy of Taoism, the most prominent idea is ‘The Tao’, translating to ‘The Way’.
“Tao is the source of both fullness and emptiness. But it is itself neither fullness nor emptiness.” — Zhuangzi
Taoist teachings follow a common theme of adhering to this ‘Way’ with minimal resistance. This involves flowing with the natural course of the universe rather than fighting against it, fostering harmony and balance in life.
When we compare this notion to that of a mental compass, the ideas are very similar.
In maintaining the true north of our mental compasses, we align ourselves with the universe and thus the ‘Way’.
But the majority of us unconsciously resist this natural flow of life, indulging in momentary pleasures and straying away from our natural state of clarity.
However, if we pause and allow ourselves to simply be, our mental compass will naturally return to its true north, aligning itself with the ‘Way’.
Taoism is the way of water.
The logic is simple.
If ‘The Tao’, ‘The Way’, is described as a river current that carries us through life, then by surrendering to its flow, we find ourselves effortlessly guided towards true fulfillment and inner peace.
And the way to do that is through Taoist meditation.
Taoist meditation
“To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders” — Lao Tzu
This revolves around concentration, mindfulness, contemplation, and visualization.
Begin by finding a quiet and comfortable space to sit down. Take deep breaths, focusing on the relaxation and stillness of both body and mind.
After a few moments, bring your attention to the present moment. Observe your thoughts, sensations, and emotions as they arise, and let them pass without attachment.
Visualization techniques are also common in Taoist meditation, where practitioners imagine themselves in harmony with the natural world or visualize energy flowing through the body.
There are countless meditation strategies I could teach you, but Taoist meditation is not about striving for a particular outcome, but rather about surrendering to the natural flow of life and allowing oneself to be in harmony with the Way of the universe.
What I will say is, make a habit to meditate throughout the day, most notably first thing in the morning and before you sleep. This is to regulate your mental compass frequently, in a preventative rather than reactive manner.
Remember this
Just like a compass needs frequent calibration to stay true, your mind requires regular attention and care to maintain its clarity. Through the practice of Taoist meditation and mindfulness, you can recalibrate your mental compass, ensuring it points you in the right direction amidst life’s ever-changing currents.
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Thanks for reading.
Kai :)
