The paradox of our time… We have more conveniences but less time… We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly… read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values… We have learned how to make a living but not a life.
Have you ever lost your mind? Not your sanity, just your mind. I lost mine during the week my family and I spent at a beach resort this year. I realized I had lost my mond after we returned, when during a conversation about our trip, I said: “I don’t think I thought a thought during the entire week!” And this, my friends, is the beauty and wonder of the vacation mind… a mental state I for one would like to cultivate on a regular basis. When was the last time you truly took a vacation? When was the last time you lost your mind and gave yourself the precious gift of a few days without worry, fear, futurizing or some other form of mental gymnastics? I highly recommend, if you have not taken a real vacation, you make a vow to vacation sooner rather than later. Do you have to go to some exotic location to experience the vacation mind? Hardly. You can do this in your own backyard. The temptation however, if you stay too close to home, is to drag home with you: the laptop, cell phone, fax and all the electronics we are chained to. No, a true vacation means leaving the world you seemingly control behind, to experience the world going on without a whit or interference from you! The beach resort was a wonderful place for me to lose my mind and see this truth in action. I watched humpback whales doing what they do: leaping out of the water, slapping it with their fins and flukes and hanging out until the uncalendared moment arrives when they begin their migration north. It occurred to me, if these gargantuan mammals can travel 12,000 miles round-trip with no input from me, I could pretty well relax and know the rest of the world will take care of itself without my interference and worry. The ironic beauty of the vacation mind is when you give yourself permission to completely surrender to it, you return refreshed in the truest sense of the word. You are ready to handle whatever awaits you back in the real world. This is why so many people meditate, because for those few minutes a day, you let go of trying to control everything. My vacation in its truest sense was a week-long meditation. You deserve as much. Give yourself permission to experience the vacation mind. If the humpback whales can migrate yearly without any input from us, surely your office, your business and the rest of the world will survive in your absence. If you are already saying, “yes, but…” this in itself is powerful evidence you could stand a sizeable dose of vacation mind. A wise person said, “You have to be willing to lose something in order to gain something.” I hope you will take these words to heart, take out your calendar and plan your next vacation mind. You have nothing to lose except your mind!
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AuthorMusings from Gammon Irons. To desire and strive to be of some service to the world, to aim at doing something which shall really increase the happiness and welfare and virtue of mankind - this is a choice which is possible for us all; and surely a good haven to sail. Archives
February 2020
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