Conquering fatigue and fear
You often think you are tired when you are simply bored or depressed. You will look with boredom and tiredness at the books that contain the knowledge that will improve your life or the work that will express your love; then wake up to the hypnotic poison of mindless TV or to lulling music. That’s when you know you weren’t tired, just bored.
But sometimes you know true fatigue and fear (not boredom that feels like fatigue). If you wish to awaken, then you must conserve the energy that drives the engine of your mind and spirit, for each awakens the other.
Here are the Ten Commandments to replenish your nervous energy that have worked for me.
Ignore even one of the ten and you could find yourself face down as if covered in a dense fog that pins you to the bed and sucks the air out of your chest; I know this for having broken all the laws on the list. But, I also know the power of following them.
Law 1
Break.
If you fight a long battle or enjoy extra pleasure (and I’ll be disappointed if you don’t do both), then spend extra hours in bed. Have one day a week off. GOD stayed one day a week.
The bees do not rest, they work every day. But bees collect nectar mechanically and store it methodically. The GOD in you wants to create the nectar of Love that human bees collect in their hive. For that, you need to rest.
Law 2
Tap.
All the animals play. Observe the dolphin that jumps from the sea. Does it arrive earlier by going vertical, towards the sky, instead of horizontal?
Look at the dog that goes around chasing its tail. See the smile on his face? Only people seem to think that their role becomes so important that they cannot play.
Work without play becomes heavy and uninspired. Play without work turns into a denervating vacation out of the blue and brings no pleasure. If work gets heavy, play around. If the game becomes boredom, work.
Daily work. Every day, play.
Today you can work 20 hours and play 10 minutes. Tomorrow you can play for 8 hours and work for 30 minutes; but, daily work and play. Every day, work before play or your game laugh will be muffled at the thought of work undone.
Law 3
Enjoy.
Enjoy everything.
Enjoy your job (which is Love made Concrete) or find a new job. Enjoy and find appreciation for the water that bathes your hands and face when you wake up, for the taste of the first liquid that passes through your lips and through your dry throat when you start your day, for your lover’s kiss, for your morning prayer, so that the air that passes through the pipe to your lungs gives you the ability to think about the morning sky.
Enjoying sadness for sadness’s sake is the vision that allows you to see joy and the possible sadness of tomorrow is the timekeeper that encourages you to grasp joy today.
Law 4
Look.
If you direct all your thoughts to your career, to your family, to yourself, then you develop tunnel vision that leads to numbness and boredom. Everything is related to everything. Stop directing all your thoughts towards yourself and look away from your private concerns to the universe outside of the people and concerns of your mental world.
By looking outside of yourself, you wake up to new worlds and new possibilities and new energy that you then import into your world to make it bigger. You also take what is in your world and find new ways to contribute to the universe around you.
Develop and study new interests. Study literature, dance, martial arts, music, gardening or flowers, it’s up to you. But, pick up something new and study and you will find yourself looking outside of yourself and your circle.
When you look outside your circle, you wake up to what is outside your circle.
Law 5
sweep.
Cleanse your mind of the poisons that will numb you to the anesthesia of despair and fatigue. Take the time to list every worry, every anger, every resentment, prejudice, and jealousy.
Then find an action for each. Do something to find a solution to every concern, even if it doesn’t completely solve the problem. Do an act of kindness towards those for whom you feel the poison.
Law 6
Eat.
Eat at least 5 servings of fresh fruits or vegetables every day. When you bite into the apple with seeds still capable of growing a new tree, you bite into life and swallow vitality. There is no need to fear food that is not yet alive, but be sure to swallow life daily and adequate amounts of life.
Except on fasting days, eat a minimum of 5 servings a day (one serving is one cup).
Law 7
Walk.
Whenever possible, dress for the weather and walk 3-5 miles outside each day (for a total of 21 miles per week). If security or other issues dictate that you have to walk inside, then use an elliptical trainer and still go the distance. But at least take a short block or two outside every day.
You will find more magic and health than is widely known in meditation and the movement of walking. Add other activities if you wish. But, if you ignore walking, you will see more valleys and miss more mountains.
Law 8
Launching.
Release responsibility for results; take responsibility for doing the best you can on the most important thing you can find to do.
Work with your head and hands and not with your emotions. Don’t worry that the most important thing doesn’t seem important enough to you. More important things will come to you if you do what is before you with excellence.
Don’t worry that you can’t see the result you intended. If you learn from that result to adapt to something more important or more constructive, then you did not waste your efforts.
Do not loose effort and concentration. Use your best effort and narrowest focus to get your job done. Inspect the promises made to yourself and to others, decide on the best course of action, then focus and work. Don’t jump from one activity to the next. Decide what is the most important thing to do and stick with it until you reach your predetermined stopping point.
Then go to the next.
Law 9
Ignore.
The only opinion that matters is your opinion while you are connected with GOD. Worrying about the opinions of others is a huge waste of energy. You will make enemies and attract lovers with the same action, regardless of your action, good or bad, constructive or destructive.
Connect with GOD, then enjoy the rest, peace and energy that comes from doing what you perceive to be right and best and ignore the inner voice that whispers the intrusion: “What will people think?”
Law 10
Stop.
Whatever you are frantically doing (thinking the world will end if you stop), stop doing it. At least for as long as it takes to do the first 9 laws – stop and know that the world will continue to run without you. Even though you may think that you are the superhero who has to save your family, your business and the world, if you don’t care about yourself, you can’t help.
And when you’re gone, the world will go on without you.
Note: This is one of the lessons in the Law of Health: 10 Essential Steps to Glorious Health and Miraculous Healing.
peace and health,
Carlos Runels, M.D.