I think I fear having a normal life. It just seems so mundane to me.
I have spent most my life trying to figure out what\who I am. Why I react the way I do to situations, how different things affect my mood/drive and trying to find what needs these intense addictions I sometimes have are striving to fill. Learning the hard way, bouncing through extremes to find the middle ground on which my feet stay firmly planted.
The end result being… That I am not normal, far from it indeed. I end up following the need for self improvement, attempting to fix some imbalance or weakness I sense in myself. Some inadequacy I feel driven to hunt down and snuff out.
This tends to lead me to spend a lot of time alone. Not feeling understand, or I guess even not really wanting to be understood. Feeling often that I must do it myself without the aid of anyone else. Thinking that reliance on someone else is some form of weakness.
I’m not sure what that means. There is a deep fear of vulnerability hidden deep in all my actions I suppose. Yet, I often find myself grasping for it in the wrong places due to a lack of fulfilling a need for it nonetheless.
I’m just not sure. There are moments I feel I belong though. Especially more recently. I have been making choices lately that have been allowing my true self and feelings to come out more and more. The more I do, the more my environment changes to fit those new forms of expression. Shifting almost daily to allow me to be more fully me. I feel less and less like I am holding back, a feeling I have always have, sensing more and more like there are people out there who understand me without explanation.
Yet it terrifies me. It has been so automatic to go along the normal life path like I have been, so comforting to know “how” I should be progressing. Not sticking out, just painting inside the lines. There are set rules, set paths for what the standard is. The end goal is clear and there are no surprises. Work hard, become a manager, invest, save money, retire, have kids, grow old. Its what we are told by society we are supposed to do.
But I can’t in good conscious do that anymore. It makes me sad to even think about doing that. It just isn’t me, I have tried that life… I am still currently living it. It has become a means to an end, yet it still takes up so much of my time and energy.
What do I do now?
I feel I am on the cusp of some decision.
A fork in the road and there is still a fear remaining trying to smother the choice I hear calling to me.
How valid is that fear?
Last Couple Days Practice:
Work got pretty nuts this week and sucked out a lot of my energy. Probably why I am feeling a bit self reflective today :). I missed class Wednesday and Thursday, but I still got up and meditated and practiced in the mornings.
Wednesday
- 30 minutes standing mediation
- 24 form x1
Thursday
- 30 minutes standing mediation
- 15 min silk reeling
Friday
Met at the park this morning
- 30 minutes silk reeling
- 15 min standing mediation
- 83 form x1
- 24 form x1
- 10 minutes pushhands
Saturday
- 1.5 hours silk reeling
- 1.5 hours 24 form
- Taught the opening moves to the new students today
The Restless Raven 