Relaxation

So recently I have been to a church retreat and I really enjoyed it. But one of the people there mentioned something I found was really interesting and very practical. He talked about reflecting on the day. This got me thinking about people and how we don't spend a lot of time just relaxing and reflecting on our lives. Especially in this day and age we always try to do one thing after the next, and never really spend time focusing on one thing for a long time period. We like things to be quick in succession, always doing something. In this competitive time we always try to outdo others and push ourselves to accomplish a lot. We like living a fast paced life, we like doing a lot. Think about it; the reason we have microwaves is so that it takes a shorter time to cook. Why do we want shorter cooking time? So we can do more things in that time. Same with fast food, cars, computers, smart phones, and many other things. The more we do, the better we feel. We try to do as much as we can. We do way too much. We think by doing a lot we will gain some sort of significance or meaning in our lives. Not necessarily. Sometimes people need to take a breath and relax. There's no reason to push yourself all the time. You'll just wear yourself out. When we try to do all these different things, right after another, we lose the significance of what we just did. We have no time to realize what we just did, because we are always focused on the next thing. Without taking some time to reflect on what we did, we forget why we did that. We never find the value of what we just did. Our busy lives prevent us from finding meaning in the things that we do. Without taking a moment to just relax, we forget the reason we do the things we do, and how they fit into the bigger picture of our life. I encourage you; relax. Take some time everyday to think about the things you did throughout the day. Think about what the purpose was for doing those things. Think about the bigger picture. Just relax. Lie down, close your eyes and reflect on your day. Take five minutes. If you think that's a long time, you definitely need to take five minutes and relax because you are probably doing too much. Take five minutes to relax and reflect on your day. Try to find the reasons you do all the different things you do. Even if you can't really think at the time, it's okay. Just take that time to relax. Sometimes we are too stressed out with all the things we do. So just use that time to recuperate. Do this everyday, or as often as you can, because it will help you. So just take a couple minutes, and relax.
-Smart

Repetition

So recently I tried picking up skateboarding again after not doing it for two years and I realized that I suck right now. I wasn't too bad two years ago but now I lost all the skill I had before. Why? Why did I lose the ability to do some of the tricks I could do before? These were random questions I thought about in my mind. Of course the answer is obvious; I hadn't practiced in a long time. When I stopped skating, I lost some of the ability I had before. The muscle memory I used to have just wasn't there anymore and my muscles lost the necessary strength to do the tricks I could do before. That much is obvious. I didn't practice at all in a while and I lost that ability I used to have. But then I wondered why we need to practice so much to get better at things or just maintain skills. Why do our muscles work like that? Why does our brain work like that (this applies to memory as well)? Why can't we just be good at everything? Or at least why can't we retain abilities without constant practice? Wouldn't that be so much better? Well, yes it would be better for an individual, but not necessarily for everyone. Think about it; if everyone was able to get good at everything, there would be no need for other people. There would be no need for teams, groups, or the like. Take for example a basketball team. There are five positions that must be in a team; the point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and the center. If all the players could get good at everything, there would be no team. Everyone would be able to do everything. It wouldn't be the same. If all the players were good at all positions there would be no need for the positions. Each position requires constant practice and repetition for the skills needed to play that position. Each player has to develop skills for their position, and that position only. That's how a good team is made. My point is that if everyone was able to get good at everything, there would be no need for each other. I think that this is how we were purposefully made; made to need each other. I believe the reason we are only able to get good at certain things is so that we have to depend on one another. This is one of the reasons I think unity is very important for people. Without each other we will not be able to do things that are only achievable together. A basketball team is only good when all the players work together and each person works at their position. I also believe that the reason we are only able to do certain things is so that we learn to trust others and learn to accept that we cannot live life alone. We need something more than just ourselves.
-Smart

Labels

I realized that people like to label things and people. People feel some need to give things a label and give them some value. Think about it; everything in a store has a label. The label gives the product a price and its value. People think everything has to have some sort of worth, so they sort things by their value. People judge cars by how the look and by what they're worth. More expensive cars are more highly looking upon than cheap cars. This would not be such an issue if people didn't do the same thing to people. People have to label others for whatever reason. Everyone does it; some more than others. People always label others by what they do or what they think or what they believe. Some people place labels on people verbally. I don't think that is right. If you have an opinion of someone that is negative, you should just keep it to yourself. Why do you think that person wants to know what you think of them? Are you trying to hurt them? There is no reason to label people. We think we have to rate people by what they are worth. We always are judging people by what we think of them. Realize that I did not say we label them by what they are, but what we think they are. Sometimes you should keep your opinions to yourself. I'm guilty of labeling people, and I regret what I've done. I realized that I should keep some things to myself and not stick labels on to other people. When people put labels on each other, it negatively affects the other person. People will try to put labels on you, try to tell you who you are, and depending on how you take it you can be hurt. Don't let people label you and tell you who you are. Why do you care what they think? If people say you aren't smart, don't listen. If you know you are smart, don't listen to them. Block it out. You don't need that in your life. If you let people stick labels on you all the time, you won't know who you really are. You will be confused and disoriented by what others tell you, and then you forget who you are. And that obviously is not good. You can't let people tell you who you are and what your worth. They have no right or any reason to do that, and their opinion of you does not matter. You need to decide for yourself who you are and what you want to do with your life. Don't let others do that for you. Which leaves the question- who are you?
-Smart

Entertainment

Recently I started thinking about people's seemingly unquenchable appetite for entertainment. Contrary to most of my posts this one is not very practical as it is philosophical. I realized that in a book I read in my English class named "Brave New World" that people love escape. People seem to find that escaping reality is very enjoyable and addicting. People get addicted to drugs and alcohol because it lets them escape from reality. Why are people so pressed to find escape? This is not only in the form of drugs or alcohol though. People can find escape in the form of what is known as entertainment. We love entertainment so much, even though many people seem to agree that is usually bad for us. Take for example video games. Children love playing them, for whatever reason, but parents keep telling them that it is bad. If it is bad why do we desire it so much? Why do we as people want things that we know are not good for us? We seem to love doing things we think are not good for us. The things we find we should be doing, we don't really seem to like doing most of the time. Exercise, studying, dieting, helping the homeless, you name it. We just contradict ourselves a lot. Why are we like that? Why are humans so prone to entertainment and yet we think it's bad? Honestly I don't know the correct answer, because no one can really answer that, but I think I might have an answer. Again this is by no means the correct answer, just an interesting idea I had. I believe we humans enjoy entertainment so much because of what it allows. It allows us to escape from reality, and allows us to think about something else than our present situations. So why do we want escape? Not all humans are necessarily in bad situations so the question is fair. Even "successful" people want to be entertained. Perhaps people were made to want something that is not able to satisfied in this world, so by escaping the present world we get a taste of something that our reality could not offer. The more we are entertained, the happier we are, but no matter how much we are entertained we are never truly satisfied. I believe this is because we never truly reach that "something" that we desire. So we keep trying by continuous entertainment, but it still does not satisfy. So what is it in us that desires this mysterious thing? Why do we want something that we can't get in our world? Why do we have to escape? I think that each one of us has something greater inside us than just flesh and bone. I think each of us has what people call a soul or spirit. I believe that this spirit in us desires things that our world cannot offer to us, not even by entertainment. I believe we were made to want something more.
-Smart

Trust

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding."
-Proverbs 3:5
Recently I started thinking about what trust is and why we need it. Trust means to rely on someone or on something. Trust is a very interesting idea because it is so rare to see someone fully trusting someone else. Trust is very difficult because we feel that no one is worthy of our trust, which is actually true most of the time. People are naturally flawed, and always fall short of expectations we have. So naturally, we feel as if we cannot trust other people, which is fair. However, living a life without trust is so limited. Lemme give an example; imagine a child with his father at the pool. The father is in the pool and is waiting for his son to jump in, ready to catch his son. He tells his son to jump in, and if the son trusts his dad, he will. If he doesn't trust his dad, he will miss out on the opportunity to jump in water, and may even fear jumping in water. But when he trusts that his dad will catch him, the son is able to experience the fun of jumping in water. This of course is a silly example but it makes my point; trusting others can bring you experiences you never could have otherwise. You still must bear in mind that nobody is fully worthy of your trust, because everyone falls. Even you and me. However, if you can find people who are relatively trustworthy and you learn to trust them, your life can go in new directions and can be a little more relaxed. People who do not trust many people tend to believe that the world is corrupt and not worthy. People who trust a lot of people tend to believe that people are good. Life is a balance though. People can be both bad and good. There is no one on the earth who is fully good, but also I believe no one who is fully evil. So the question is who to trust? The people who are worthy of trust are the people who have proven them self to be trustworthy. Don't make friends and automatically assume that they are worthy of your confidence. Give them little tests of trust, like lending them a dollar and seeing if they pay you back. Then move on to bigger tests. Use your judgement to see if they are trustworthy. Despite all this, I believe that there is a person we all can trust. I believe that we can trust in God, because he is always good. God is good, all the time, so He is worthy of our trust. When we trust in Him, he will lead our lives in ways we could never do alone. He is the only one who is fully capable of doing good in our lives. If you don't believe in God, I don't really know what to say. Trust is still important, you just need to find the right people to trust. It is difficult, but finding people you can believe in will change your life.
-Smart