Today, I have arrived home from a long week of work at a school, and today, is the first night of break.
I came home, cracked a beer, put on a Kid Cudi album, and laid on the couch staring at a metal sun with a face that my girlfriend put up on the wall I was facing. It was in this wonderful moment of rest, that a stomach ache that started an hour or two earlier faded away, and I remembered I had to write,
I’m now sitting up, free of much anxiety…I’ve got to pay my student loans today. One moment…
Now I’m free. No responsibilities except those that I’m happy to have, like cooking Callie dinner, sleeping in tomorrow morning for the first time all week, playing Darkest Dungeon for the first time finally. All choices I’m happy to make. It’s the choices that I’m unhappy making that disturb my flow, and interfere with rest and relaxation.
There is always a choice. It’s an attitude I learned to not use absolute terms, but when presented with an option, even if only one is presented to you, there is always the ability to choose. Sometimes we’re happy to make one choice over another, or could be happy with either option, and other times, both are unpleasant, but a choice must be made nonetheless.
In times when we are reaping the future induced by our choice, is when you must reflect, and act or rest. Positive choice? Action. Joy. Well-being. Negative choice? Unhappiness, anxiety, unrest.
We experience unrest as a result of everyday stress, some days more than others, some people more than others. A plethora of internal and external factors also affect our unrest. There are techniques like meditation one can use to attempt to bring their body and mind into a more restful state, and there are strategies like drinking coffee that induce a more active state of unrest.
Notice how both rest and unrest can be influenced by both positive and negative choice? When you’re able to make positive choices for yourself, you can control which state you are in. Often times, we need to be alert and able to navigate our situations like: driving, working, or playing a game. We use coffee, sleep, food, naps, social interaction to all be alert and attentive. Many times, many people enjoy these things and the feelings that come with them, and are able to rest following all of this because they made all the positive choices and are content.
Other times, we need to chose to be restful. Some people don’t or can’t use caffeine or sleep, and/or they are drained by social interaction, and must use different strategies or make different choices to be able to be restful.
I chose the job I have, although it wasn’t a happy choice. I chose to start a business, and while I need to increase my motivation to actually accomplish tasks, this was a positive choice for my life. This is all much bigger picture than I had intended when I started this entry.
I’m on break. I get to spend the next 10 days without one of my least favored choices, and with many many choices that I am happy to make. I get to sleep in, I’m going to take a walk through my grandparent’s sugarwoods and hopefully get the family involved in sugaring this year. I get to write and work on adventures for RHG and for my personal D&D group. I get to write this post, and all the other posts that will follow (at least during my 7 day personal challenge; day 2, whoo!).
So on this lovely Friday afternoon, I hope you are enjoying positive choices and the rest that you need to handle all of the unrest of your life.
Cheers eh!
