Beth's Ponderings
One of the big
concerns during this pandemic, and time of social distancing and isolation,
revolves around mental health.
If you are a
general positive person, you are probably doing quite fine as you adapt to our
ever-changing “new normal” (however that looks on any given day), but if you
are someone who already has challenges, this highly stressful and uncertain time could be creating even
more mental health issues for you, as your usual means of reaching out, and
your coping structures, have been greatly altered.
Now, I don’t know
about you, buy my inbox is flooded daily with emails from health professionals
and non-professionals on how to keep my mental health healthy. They range from the most basic tip to just
reach out to someone (anyone) if you are having trouble, and not try to deal
with this alone, to how to use this quarantine time to finally reach the
ultimate bliss of enlightenment.
Now who wouldn't
want to find enlightenment, especially in a time when it seems so elusive, if
not completely non-existent?
Yet, enlightenment
is not about becoming a hermit or a recluse and meditating for hours and days
on end, divorcing yourself from whatever is going on in the world around you.
Enlightenment - true
enlightenment - is merely (though there is nothing “merely” about it) at its
heart, nothing more than seeing the “light” in whatever situation you are
currently in, in whatever people you are encountering (in person or online as
the case may be now), and in yourself, however you may be feeling or thinking
or acting.
Hence why Buddha is attributed to saying “Before
enlightenment, chop wood and carry water...after enlightenment, chop wood and
carry water.” Nothing outwardly changes,
as the real change is how you view what is around you.
So, enlightenment
is available right now to absolutely everyone, and begins with the simple, yet
very powerful, statement, “In this moment, I am thankful for….”
Beth
Read the complete issue of The Chautauqua here: https://sites.google.com/site/thechautauqua28/home/May%2015%2C%202020%20Chautauqua.pdf?attredirects=0&d=1
Contact The Chautauqua via email: thechautauqua@gmail.com or via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheChautauqua
