Right Attitude Makes Things Right

Right Attitude Makes Things Right

Have you ever noticed, like me, when opening a search engine on your computer, intending to search for some topic, only to find yourself drawn to a “random” newsfeed? Well, it happened again to me. After reading my second or third news article, I suddenly realized I had originally intended to look for something online and now cannot even remember the topic for which I was going to search. At that point, I resumed my previous effort and tried to recollect where I left off. In that interim, I had a flood of various feelings of frustration and reproached myself (and others) and then went about my business.

While I could focus on the association or imagination that led me down this rabbit hole, I would rather focus on another aspect of this scenario. The recurring scenario I describe above likely produced a sense of blame or irritation, or a feeling of “Argh, I won't ever do that again.” Such autopilot reflections—undigested residues of an experience—reveal underlying attitudes that keep me asleep. This is where I would like to focus this post. Such mechanical attitudes get me into trouble, and conscious attitudes can ironically get me out of trouble, with new intention and effort. A conscious attitude is the solution to a mechanical one.

Blame keeps the sad game going. It keeps stealing all your wealth—Giving it to an imbecile with no financial skills. Dear one, Wise Up. ─ Hafiz

My habitual, baked-in attitudes keep me asleep, such as blame. They serve a purpose contrary to my personal aim. I think most of my mechanical attitudes are buffers to my lower state of consciousness. These mechanical attitudes or buffers provide the filler between my unconscious directional changes in a day that I would rather ignore. My example of searching for something on a search engine and losing the thread, and then judging myself or other people (like the search engine), illustrates this principle. Blame keeps the sad game going.

To be fair, I also happen to know that the search engine architects have conjured up ways to distract me, using my interests as a ploy, a fishing lure. These so-called algorithms feed on my mechanical patterns and appetites to enhance my identifications and interests, to keep me at their site regardless of whether it serves my aims or not. Grocery stores figured out a long time ago to place candy and chocolate in the vicinity of the check-out counter. So, the search engine does the same.

A positive work attitude is an attitude that views my sleep, my faux pas, my deviations, my distractions as opportunities for discovery and waking up. The Work, my Teacher reminds me, is about waking up and remembering myself at every opportunity. Every opportunity instructs me. Work attitudes that I construct make that possible. You might call it my conscious algorithms.

Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things are transient. ─ St. Teresa of Avila

The beauty of working with building and practicing new attitudes is that I have agency over the attitude I choose to use in each situation. This simple notion that all opportunities instruct is an example of a positive work attitude. Not blaming others for my sleep is another positive work attitude. Seeing the God particle, the spark in every human being is also a positive work attitude.

This is not about being Pollyannaish. It would be a false and unproductive attitude to assume that everything is rosy. My sleep and my unconscious effects on people around me when I am asleep, for example, are not rosy. They are unintentional, however, so it would be a proper attitude to forgive myself and others for such mechanical foibles.

Forgiveness in all its dimensions is another example of a positive work attitude. In contrast, righteous indignation would be an example of an attitude of sleep. We may know something to be incorrect or unjust but being self-righteous about that injustice only perpetuates a deeper injustice.

You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this and you will find strength. ─ Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius provides beautiful guidance on attitude. He reminds me that most things are not in my control and that I should focus on what is truly in my control. One of the things I control is my attitude towards the events in my life and towards myself. If I can find that nugget in every hour of the day that tells me to wake up, look up, open my eyes to the beauty around me, even when it is grim, I will wake up and open my eyes and see the beauty around me. This is my conscious algorithm.

The next time you open a search engine to do a word search, and you find yourself reading a news feed at the browser site and going down the rabbit hole, use your conscious algorithm, forgive yourself, and wake up. Set an aim to make your daily life your food and your wake-up calls. The world is not against you; it is merely your backdrop for practicing conscious work attitudes that yield true growth of higher possibilities. Do not buffer your life, reader, be the Master of your internal life.

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The White Rabbit, Tenniel illustrator, Alice in Wonderland (1890)