Have you heard of the phrase mental masturbation? There are a few different definitions and contexts in which this is used, but this is the one I am referring to: engaging in intellectually stimulating activities but with little or no practical purpose. I realized I do that with self help books and podcasts. I will at times, listen to, or read a self-help book, but not implement the learnings.

In climbing, part of the Warrior’s Way is to ask oneself, is this part of the climb making me uncomfortable or scared? If the answer is yes, this is where you start practicing falling. You choose to keep falling in that area until it becomes not scary, familiar, and you know what to expect. It’s brilliant.

It is rare for us to just sit, and be satisfied in the moment. In the chaos of it all. To just revel in life. To go, wow this is perfect as it is. I am always looking at my laundry basket and thinking, when it’s empty, all the clothes are washed, dried and nicely put away, I’ll feel better. Even if it’s for just one day. Then I realized, this is a micro analogy for what we do in life generally speaking.

So now, whenever I see my laundry basket and the one, or many items of clothing that need to be washed, despite me just having done a load, I smile and remember to be grateful for the messiness and ongoing-ness of life. There is no pause, there is no one moment where everything is perfect. Because as corny as it sounds, every moment is perfect. We are all perfectly imperfect.

In our lives, we are constantly reinventing ourselves.

We grow, we die many times, and we evolve.

It takes resilience to be able to transform, again and again. To rediscover our old selves in new environments and to evolve so that we are the same, yet different. Better, wiser, humbler, and able to be more stoic about life’s ups and downs.

“Think of all the beauty you would not have seen if you allowed yourself to stop fighting; if you allowed yourself to give up.” Bianca Sparacino