Kindness

"Remind yourself that its not okay to be perfect" - H. Midorikawa

We are never one person. We grow, we change, we become different people as time passes slowly but surely. In this passage of time, occasionally we forget that treating one part of us the wrong way can do more than it seems. What I mean is, we don't realize that we have to be kind to ourselves and our body. Often we think of ourselves as a single entity, a collection of organs, thoughts and processes that come together to form a complete being. We never think of them as being separate entities of their own, but the more you look at it, the more it seems that way. You cannot treat your mind the way you treat your body and vice versa. Each part of yourself needs to be dealt with in a different way because they are not the same. You cannot handle two completely different people the same way because the way they have been brought up and taught does not allow them to function that way, the same goes for our mind and body. In the midst of all of this, we bury the thought of rest beneath our workload, we give rest to our body when our mind is aching for a comforting presence or a bit of enjoyment. We spend hours and hours cramming information into our heads, thinking that its for the better, but while I think of these two as separate, I still believe they are connected. A tired mind will lead to a tired body, driving yourself physically to the point of exhaustion will lead to poor mental performance. What I'm getting at is, be kind to yourself, to your body and mind. Treat it as if it were another person, a person that you love dearly, one that you would never harm or cause pain to. Give love and kindness to your mind, be happy, forget the things that are dragging you down and for a moment, just be free, let yourself off of those shackles that you put on yourself, screaming at your body to stay awake when it has done all it could for you. Empathize.

Work is important, that is obvious but it will never be as important as your physical and mental health. Whatever ambition and goal you hold in your thought, you need to be alive to achieve it, working yourself to the bone and eventually running out of energy to even lift yourself off of the bed every morning will get you nowhere. Be kind to your body, and it will be kind to you. Do not throw and kick it around like a punching bag, hold yourself close and give yourself a little break. See those papers on the table? The ones filled with scribbles and numbers that might as well mean nothing at all if you aren't happy in the end? Yeah, forget those, forget everything and give a single, perfect moment to yourself. Take a deep breath and smile, knowing that you got this far and you can keep going without being too harsh on yourself. Don't be a victim to guilt, understand that you're doing this because its unhealthy to keep working.

In a structure, if you put too much strain on a member, it will fail to function and the entire structure falls apart, you are not so different. Treat one part of yourself without kindness and eventually, as time passes you will start to see changes, small changes but changes nevertheless. You won't be as efficient at completing tasks as you once were, you find yourself exhausted after just a few minutes of work, you find it harder to take care of yourself and you start becoming strangely lazy. Your body and mind have given up on you. Like a child that runs away from home after years of abuse from their parents, you have been abandoned by the very things that you thought were utterly in your control. You took advantage and thought you could keep going, over and over, endlessly through sleepless nights and restless days. Again and again you chose to take the path that gives the most pain to your body, the most stress on your mind, that is until there was no more to take.

Don't end up there, you are more valuable than any kind of academic performance or occupation. Live your life, don't grind through it like a punishment. Do things that you enjoy doing and spend time with people you enjoy being around. Give time to those you love and give love to yourself, at the end of the day, at some point you will go to sleep with yourself, and its better to sleep with someone that isn't battered and furious at you. Life is difficult, it will take everything from you, but don't let that turn you into a mindless machine. See life for the good it gives, and focus on those, too much strain on yourself will do nothing to help, so be kind, be kind to yourself, spread it all across and be happy, in the end that's all that really matters, that you're happy.

"When you get too wrapped up in everything that goes on in our lives, take a moment to look within you, and the answers will show themselves. Stop trying to take every step at the same time, take it slow, one step at a time...then another"- Unknown

Billy Pasco