mans search for meaning | Intermittent Diversion

The Ritual: Meaning amidst the Mundane

Posted on October 4, 2018 by belseralex

Speed is relative.

You don’t really know how fat you’re going until you slow down.

It’s easier than ever to lose sight of this. Peripheries blurred, pasts deserted, our distorted worldviews are given little chance to recoup.

Enter–the Ritual.

The ritual is a safeguard for sanity–A meditation on the present moment.

It offers a compelling argument for you to slow down–to pause and consider how fast you’re going.

In a world where feigned substance competes for our attention, a ritual is a necessary part of the equation that keeps us from tearing at the seams.

It’s produce: a still moment–carved out of the chaos of life. It staves off external distraction just long enough to let the elusive current of consciousness flow.

This current is where that which lurks beneath the surface begins to rise. It’s where thoughts–incoherent streams of hopes, dreams, doubts, and fears–swirl.

The point is not to resist.

The point is not to exhaust.

The point is to notice–to pay attention and observe.

Hone your ritual.

Will you become a plaything of circumstance?

Posted on April 22, 2017 by belseralex

Timing has a profound impact on our lives.

Viktor Frankl has a notion of the human ability to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances. When describing this power, Frankl explains that we control how we react to any situation, and our responses determine “whether or not you would become a plaything of circumstance.”

A plaything of circumstance: a being moved through life at the will of the circumstances they encounter. A reactive, rather than a proactive being.

An innate ability to choose our response is empowering; however, this belief has a tendency to incite negative connotations towards circumstance. The decision to submit yourself to circumstance can be just as empowering as the notion that we possess the ability to choose our attitude.

Frankl declares the power of refusing to become a plaything of circumstance, but there is also importance in our power to allow circumstance to play its role in our life.