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Human Being vs. Human Doing

Note: This has been my most popular blog post as far as people finding it on Google.  If you wish to see more of my thoughts on the subject, check out https://resonare.com/tag/mindfulness/ and you can keep updated by joining the The Resonating Life on Facebook.

East Coast Trail, Renews, Newfoundland, Canada

Like many others, I tend to be pretty task driven. I know what I want to accomplish, and I make my priorities and plan what I’m going to get done. The has served me to an extent as I have achieved quite a bit in my life, but I’ve also found that it’s been accompanied by an anxiety that my list is longer than my capacity to complete things.

In this time of too many inputs, I think that many of us are running around s little crazed as we see the possibilities of what can be done, and unlike our forbears, it’s a lot more than any one human can realistically do.

I’ve been struggling with this for a while. My meditation practice has helped, and my implementing if the Getting Things Done practice has also helped to take things off my mind. I have learned through his that it’s not the amount of undone things that really bothers me as much as the worrying about it.

Last weekend, I had a little bit of a revelation. I had the afternoon free and had just come back from a massage appointment where he did the equivalent of re-braking a broken bone that hadn’t healed correctly (damn that scar tissue!). I was really sore but had the afternoon to get something accomplished. The big difference was that instead of asking myself what I wanted to get done, I instead asked:

“Who do I want to be at the end of this afternoon?”

As you can imagine, that’s a very different question. I said I wanted to be calm and relaxed, and feel good about myself. Well, I had a very different afternoon that day, because I didn’t do anything that would make me crazy or frantic (which given how high energy I can be, is common with me). I did have things to cross off my To Do list at the end of the afternoon too.

I’ve been trying to incorporate this practice into my daily life, but it’s not easy for me. I’m trying to break my “rushing to get a massage” mentality, but it’s yet another practice.

What changes for you when you Be more than Do?

Note: I’ve expanded my thoughts on this, so check out my follow up post on this topic.

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2 Comments

  1. Mark Andrew

    Interesting post, Ken. Hi, I’m Mark Andrew. I’ve been thinking a lot the last couple of years of how I want to concentrate on Who I Am rather than What Can I Do? I want to be able to “just be” rather than always doing things. This is hard in a task-driven society, but yes, if we take a few minutes to sit in meditation or prayer each day, and just be, I think it can greatly impact our spiritual, emotional, mental well being.

  2. Ken Mattsson

    Hey Mark Andrew! Thanks for the comment. I’ve just come from a weekend workshop (blog post coming!) and I got out of it that I need to be more present, and it’s always a struggle for me. I’m so in my head. I know I’m like most people in that, but it’s my current spiritual practice to get that to be more of a practice and gain some skills on that.

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