As I’m walking today in the neighbourhoods of Calgary, I realize something, there’s a path in the snow for me to walk on. As I continue to walk I try meditating on my senses. The first sense I meditated on was “sight”, which really hit home for me the moment I re-focused my attention/mind to the “present.”
My mind, as of many others, is notorious for wandering around uncontrollably day and night, creating havoc and chaos along the way.
As my focus deepens, I realize something. I realize that this path has been created for me and not because of me. I didn’t create it nor did I expect it, it was just there. Then I thought, what would happen if I was to create my own path separate from the one already made. The result would be that I would require a lot of effort and it would preoccupy all my time. Nevertheless, I would not be able to enjoy my walk because I would be too busy creating another pathway.
Life is the same, my experience has shown me that when I try controlling people/places/things to meet my expectations and attempt to shape life the way I want it to be, I face a lot of challenges, challenges that are not positive in nature but rather negative.
For example, loss of relationships, financial debt, addictions, uncontrollable anger, unhappiness, fear, anxiety, depression, decline in physical and nutritional fitness, decline in morale, decline in faith, decline in hope and most importantly a lack of self confidence.
On the flip side, when I let go and walk the path of life that has been presented to me, everything goes amazingly well and I face my challenges with complete confidence. As a result, I learn from my mistakes, capitalize on my personal developments and experience happiness every step of the way.
As I continue to walk this snowy Calgarian neighbourhood pathway, I suddenly have an unexpected slip. I didn’t fall but it was definitely a shock for this 36year old body lol. Since my mind was focused on the present already, I became aware of what my mind did afterwards. It was more alert and cautious of the other ice patches ahead of me on that path. My “fall” experience actually built a preventative mechanism/system in my mind which my entire body recognized. That same challenge failed to slip me again as I already learnt from my past experience.
That uncontrollable mind, that once created so much havoc and chaos for me, was suddenly under my control and now served as a purpose for me. It was only a matter of capturing the mind, becoming aware of reality/present moment, accepting the pathway given to me and walking in the direction that life presented itself.
The path for my walk today was my guru(guru=teacher) and I was its Sikh(Sikh=student). Following my guru led me to a path of truth, contentment, focus, clarity and finally to my destination of Starbucks 😉.
Find your guru for today!
-Bobby Bains
