Passion, and that other thing. Thinking is one thing, being passionate about what my thoughts are doing, is something else entirely. When excited to the point that we cannot contain ourselves, for whatever reason, we are experiencing passion. The trick is to understand what it is that produced the feeling, harness it, engage it, and reapply. I cannot just say “I understand” once and call it “known”, this is where the philosopher comes in; to examine and reexamine, always furthering an arguably infinite understanding. Sounds funny, I know, but consciously practicing understanding my thoughts has led me to a recurring “good” feeling, that has become more frequent and accessible. I have become passionate about nearly everything I do from homework to rock climbing. Finding new ways to reapply the thinking involved with passion to every avenue of life has proved more rewarding than anything else. In regards to homework, I get good grades and help paying for tuition, in regards to climbing, I find new strength, technique, and don’t die. Passion can offer its user anti-depressants, positivity, inspiration, motivation, creativity, emotional confidence, advanced skill, lasting relationships, and all for the low cost of thinking hard. Thinking alone may run us into a wall, but with critical examination, practice, and passion, we can find a way to reach beyond any limit, and find a way over. When I get confused or upset, it is often stemming from not understanding something. After thinking about it hard enough, I can find some sort of solution or at least understand why there isn’t one. I begin to see more than one way of looking at any given situation and corresponding thoughts. Sometimes the process offers more than one application and can aid in discovering other perspectives. Basically, I am practicing problem solving and critical thinking skills, and finding the results to bare multiple ways of viewing things that in turn keep me happily moving along. I do not believe we are taught this, instead we are taught standardized rationale based on singular level outcomes and predeterminations. Our miscellaneous authoritarians throughout history have had trouble keeping individuals docile and easy to control. Seeing that power is always overthrown by diversity and individual beliefs, these kind folks took it upon themselves to invent ways of preventing those sorts of problems. I dubbed this “operation sameness”. They have most of us so preoccupied with materialistic nothings and petty problems, having time for a passionate process of self discovery is very rare. Just finding humans who understand why they think the way they think is proving to be an extremely endangered animal. Without time to investigate who we are, we never truly know, let alone how we should go about life according to what we individually think. If we continue basing who we are off of other people, then we are, in a large way, just regurgitated characteristics of other people. And no one wants to be regurgitated, that’s gross. Plus, if that’s the case, we might as well be cyborgs! I found philosophy at the bottom of every hole I managed to find myself in. It offered me a way out, using nothing more than my head, and a passionate drive to understand. When the world is full of contradiction, double edged swords and habitual illusion, how do I find a way to be comfortable, and not only that, how do I make it all worthwhile? Time will pass regardless of my say in the matter, so why not spend that time passionately engaged in every moment, empowered by self worth and a strong emotional state? Whether good or bad, having the skill to understand, and see multiple perspectives, gives me a way to consciously have and use a progressive mindset. I may not be in control of everything going on in the world, but I can have complete control over myself, my thoughts and my actions. I can fail or succeed and still look inside myself for a lesson. I live and learn, just like anyone else, but to stay mindful and passionately moving forward with it all, takes a lot of hard work and practice. The more I apply myself to this practice, the more I am continuously filled with depth and value. I truly believe there is nothing I cannot do, do well, and always find a way to do better. Philosophy without passion is just words; philosophy with passion is full of wonder, amazement, clarity, happiness, direction, harmony, self discovery, and in the end, purpose.
Posted on: Mon, 23 Sep 2013 19:52:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015