Fixating

What are you fixating on?

Is it something negative and stuck, a perceived problem?

Of course it is! Preoccupation and problems go together. Struggles are little illusions endeavouring always to come between you and the vast vista of freedom.

Watch yourself. We are so often either engrossed in troubled pursuits or at least distracted by the temptation to invest in them.

Tensions present themselves continuously, trying to take us away from a sense of well being. They cannot exist, though, without our attention. And we cannot be ourselves while fixating on them.

You are not a troubled state of consciousness. You are the boundless sky, the infinite.

So if you are feeling uptight, even in the slightest way, you are identified with something that is not you. You think you are the clouds, the thoughts, because you have lost touch with your freedom.

It is the mind that fixates, and you are not your mind. You are what watches, unfazed yet infinitely enthused. You are openness.

One of the ways to get unstuck is to find your fixation. What are you fixating on? What are you chewing over and over?

When you climb into the shower, are you consumed by your mind or are you relaxed and alert, in the moment? Can you celebrate the water and let life love you? Or are you gnawing on some nonsense in your head at the expense of what’s real?

Your mind will always be occupied with problems. In the absence of problems, mind falls away. In the absence of mind, problems fall away. You are either pedalling to keep your mind moving or you are watching.

Whenever you find yourself fixated, let the clouds go and restore the sky.

Frustration

Frustration is a function of modern life.

Corporations create a need with their marketing, sell you something manufactured for profit not purpose, and when you try to deal with their after sales service, you may as well run repeatedly into a brick wall.

They are everywhere, behind everything, giving us all the same experience. They say one thing and live another. It’s insane and so frustrating.

Their basic services do not work properly and are enormously over priced. Their systems are geared to keep their customers powerless. Just think of your mobile phone network, their profits and their call centres.

Their branding gives you one impression and behind the scenes things are very different. Just think of the logos and marketing messages for petroleum companies and then consider their earth-ravaging methods.

Things are made to go one way and the holistic implications are ignored and denied. So-called leaders fight off the consequences for a while and, in no time, everyone is swept again in the spiralling wave of further frustration.

Then there are the media, the traffic, and the noise levels we live with. Add to that the challenges of relationships, raising children, earning a living and finding time for yourself.

It’s miraculous that we maintain a modicum of anything other than molten madness.

Frustration is a function of modern life, but it is also a habit and a choice. It is a consequence and cause of unconsciousness. It is a form of ego, a negative emotion. It is an opportunity to wake up.

No matter who is doing what, no matter how you are bombarded or coerced, no matter how schizophrenic the scenario, you can be cool.

Catch yourself feeling frustrated and bring yourself back to well being.

Branding

I am using the word ‘branding’ in the same way as one would use the word ‘being’.

Your branding is like your being: It’s a living thing. It thrives in the present. It is organic and it lives alongside you, through you, with you.

It has a consciousness. It works with the collective consciousness. It has a business value but it is beyond that.

It is what you love and what you have built, a momentum you have helped generate. It is energy. It is relationship. It is service.

It is responsibility. It is creativity. Your branding is your vehicle in the world, the link between who you are and what you do. It is a bridge. It is your business.

Your branding lives and can die any moment. It will eventually die, nothing lives forever.

It is as fragile as a breath yet as robust as the present moment. It is, therefore, pointless if you want permanence but perfect if you choose life.

Your branding is the business form your being takes. All your equity is contained, and all your energy hovers and moves in it. It is the most wondrous experience when you come to terms with that.

Your branding is your ultimate creative expression and your ultimate contribution to humanity. It forms your legacy.

When you come to terms with your branding, you give it your best in your most sober and insightful way. And, your best keeps growing through your branding and your developing relationship with your business.

Branding is poetry in motion. It is power. If lived well, it is wealth.

It is where the ethereal meets the practical. It is how you be yourself for a living.

Brand in hand, engage the land.