500 WORDS, DAY 106: Stream of Consciousness (Pt. 3)

Stream of consciousness. I guess I’ll start with this though I just thought of: It reminds me of an audiobook I really love by Ram Dass, titled The Journey of Awakening. It starts out describing a typical person’s morning, waking up and finding oneself bombarded by “a raging, roaring river of thoughts” about everything from the past to the present and future and everything in between. Each thought repeatedly requesting you think of it first, demanding your full attention unto itself. Thinking is good, but it can get messy at times. Stream consciousness really is a good phrase for what it is supposed to describe, since thoughts most definitely are like currents, all flowing into and out of one another, then separating into further currents that end up all flowing into each other as well. It never ends, and the same patterns can repeat and repeat, over and over and over again ad nauseum. It’s enough to become so overwhelming, so agonizing, that it drives some people to some really dark places that not everyone can effectively handle. So, how can we make sure to stay in control of our thoughts? Well, some would say it’s not truly possible, since we don’t even know where our thoughts come from. I would agree to some degree, but that idea just isn’t very useful in our everyday lives, since we all have to actively be in control of our thoughts to some degree, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to function as a society at all. Forgot what I was going on about for a second… Then I realized I was going on about thoughts themselves, and had a good chuckle about it. Anyway, the idea from Ram Dass’ book that I mentioned is that we have to be in control of our own consciousness. When we walk through a busy city street, are we capable of remaining concentrated in our own consciousness, or can we not help but be distracted by all the advertising and everything else that’s all around us? I know I can get easily distracted, not necessarily when walking down the street, since I’m usually deep in thought when I’m walking, but rather when I’m on the internet, or on YouTube learning stuff. I might be learning about something, then that makes me think of something else, then I look that up, and so on. The good thing is I usually end up watching everything anyway, and I love the way that works, that the more you know the more you know you don’t know, and hopefully that inspires you to want to know more. About what? About whatever you want, of course. About anything and everything. Life can be rough, so we might as well all spend our free time doing things we think are worth while. I love learning random shit because I think it’s so cool how so much knowledge is available to us like never before, thanks to the internet. From learning how to play synths in the last few years all on YouTube, as well as piano in the last few months, to learning French on Duolingo with my wife for some years as well, it all seems to be paying off to a degree. I’ve definitely learned a lot, and I’m excited to see what else I get into in the future. I remember when I used to always party and hang out with friends back in high school days, and although I won’t lie and say I don’t miss it all to some degree, I really feel like I’m definitely getting a lot more done these days, being a lot more productive about my own interests, and ultimately learning a lot, all while really enjoying it. So, on to better things, and I don’t know if I wrote this yet, but I’m excited to keep learning a lot more. A lot of it will probably be music-related, but who knows what else I might get into. Don’t underestimate hobbies or creative activities, because even though I do have a lot of feelings of horrible existential dread and anxiety, which can be very scary when stoned, which I still am way too often, learning new things, making music are really some of the things that, apart from my wife, family and close friends, always keep me moving forward.