Clarity.
Organized Thoughts.
Falling On the Wayside.
The sequencing doesn't seem right at all. I occasionally and intentionally fall on the wayside, as in breaking established routines, just to try and get clarity back.
It doesn't always work and the times that it does, I realize I need to make the best of it as much as I possibly can to stay present with that clarity while it lasts.
For what its value is, established routines have an aspect of getting us locked within a framework that feels both safe and also numbing. Safety doesn't always match the expectations we have of it in our heads.
We go through the motions without really seeing what we're doing or why.
Clarity can sometimes feel like motivation, don't know how they're related exactly. Perhaps clarity reveals what truly matters, and that revelation itself becomes the fuel to act.
That said, I don't appreciate clarity taking on a flimsy quality. I'm not sure whether it's a byproduct of living in a world that's tilted towards the superficial noise and distraction constantly stirring the pot of our mind/emotions.
A moment's notice
"Strong individuals", as in those who seem unshaken by life's turbulence, can be made via having a near permanent sense of clarity after having a profound life experience that gets one in touch with their divine nature where they can really see what life is actually about beyond the social scripts and inherited beliefs.
Retaining that perspective against the backdrop of mundane life and non-mundane challenges is usually a tough battle sometimes as the profound experience turns into a memory with each passing month/year.
I think there must be some permanent changes within the psyche of the individual that had the experience.
Maybe new neural pathways are opened and lit up on a regular basis. So a subtle but lasting shift in how they perceive and respond to the world.
Strictly speaking, I've not experienced such in my adult life yet so I'm only speculating here based on observations of others who seem to carry that quiet knowing.
Smoooth roads
It is said that neural pathways light up every time we repeat a thought or action. I think it's one of the ways how routines become automatic. The brain builds highways for the things we do most often.
When we fall on the wayside and break those patterns, our brain is more or less forced to build new roads, think differently.
Sometimes this disruption does bring clarity because it shakes us out of the trance of repetition. Suddenly, we start seeing options we couldn't see before because we were too busy following the well-worn path.
Organized thoughts come from this process too, as our mental landscape becomes less cluttered when clarity arrives and thoughts that were tangled begin to line up in a way that makes sense.
Here too, the moment of organized thoughts doesn't last long. Better to write/draw much of it down before the gateway is closed, so to speak.
Achieve a permanent sense of clarity is presumably reserved for those who've done the deep inner work over many many years or had that one transformative experience that changed everything.
I'm not counting on either happening anytime soon, however, stay flexible enough to keep stepping off the path when needed could be a practice worth cultivating in the meantime.
Thanks for reading!! Share your thoughts below on the comments.