Today's Karmic Workout – Shut Up And Do Something
Today's Exercise: Shut Up And Do Something
[Preparatory Note: the irony about complaining is that it is not a plea for action or remedy. Complaining is a purely designed to vent emotional negativity. When you really want a remedy, you roll up your sleeves and resolve your problem. When we want to make ourselves out to be victims and wallow in our righteous indignation, we complain. In the Yiddish language they have a wonderful word for this; they call it "kvetching". Many people call it "bitching".
What we will be doing in this exercise is identifying things that we complain about, but do nothing to change. We are going on a expedition for our inner hypocrite. Many of us rant and rave bout global warming while we drive our cars, by ourselves, to work or leave the lights on at home. We scream bloody murder about politicians but don't register to vote and don't take part in the political process. We have a list of complaints that are not addressed by corresponding action list, but are simply there to so that we can claim to be against them even though we leave the source of these problems undisturbed in our actions.
To prepare for today's Karmic Workout, you will need to prepare a list of your top 5 pet peeves in the human condition. These items should be the 5 things that you think are really wrong about the world. These are not just any things, but the top five things that you complain about the most or are the source of greatest irritation to you when you are reminded of them. ]
Find a quiet place to do this exercise. The initial phase will take about 10 minutes. Turn off you cellphone.
Establish meditative breathing by taking in long inhales and making equally long exhales.
Look at the first item on your list of things you complain about. Take a minute to consider what, if anything, you done to try to change the thing that you complain about. Write down the actions that you have taken to try to resolve your complaint.
Repeat step #3 for the remaining 4 items on your list.
Look at the list of actions, if it exists at all, and ask yourself "am I really trying to resolve my complaint or do I just like to complain about it?"
For each item on your list plan a simple action to address each complaint. If you are angry at politicians, prepare an email to send to the politician you are most angry with and ask them politely to change their course action or state what you think that he or she should do. You can also leave a comment on a discussion board or political web site expressing your point of view a social ill or demand change from a company that you believe is doing something harmful.
Write on you list, "I promise not to say a word about my pet peeves until I have take at least one action to try to change them." Sign your name to your promise. If you really want to add some juice to the exercise and earn extra Karma Builder bonus points, give your promise not to complain about your peeves to someone close to you that you know will hold you to your no-complaint-without-action vow.
Training Note:
Complaining is an insidious human behavior. In most cases, it is not designed to resolve the problem that we complain about, but rather is simply a behavior that allows us to vent our frustrations. There are some pretty nasty by-products that come from idle complaining. First, we begin to identify ourselves as victims of the object of our complaint. Second, we reinforce our cynical belief that the the object of our complaint cannot be changed. Third, we actually relieve ourselves psychologically from any responsibility for resolving the problems that we complain about. Over time, we begin to believe that complaining actually does something. Complaining is, however, mindless chatter. It is full of hot air. Action, and action alone, solves the problems of the world though sometimes we can initiate action with intentional communiction.
When you complain and take no action, you are become a quasi-enabler. Oh sure, we are all deeply impressed that you have taken a verbal stand against global warming. You might even take that stand while talking to someone at the gas station while you fill your gas guzzler. The point of this exercise is not to change the world, per se, it is to break up the paralysis that complaining creates and associate in our minds a direct link between action and remedy. What we are doing here is taking real action, however modest, to address our complaints, but more importantly using this experience to practice taking responsibility. When we complain we are not bringing change to the world. We are simply regurgitating our angst and negativity. This is like dumping your garbage on someone's shoes. It is messy and useless.
Karmic Benefits:
Whiners Do Not Change The World: talk is cheap. In fact, it is so cheap that is it is often good for nothing. It is common in our society to expect that the world is supposed to work out because we pay taxes. We look at our government as a concierge service. We expect to be waited on hand and foot by the people who provide services or sell us products. We expect that someone else will solve our problems. And yet, for all our whining, nothing changes. In fact, whining is pretty much a guaranteed method to ensure that nothing ever changes.
It Is Incredibly Hypocritical To Complain and Not Take Action To Provide A Remedy: If you do not like the way the world is working then criticizing the conditions around you without taking action to cause change is incredibly hypocritical. Opinions do not change anything. Action does. Yes, you will have to switch off your favorite current events rant and rave show on television (for we no longer have news broadcasts), put down the remote and go do something to solve your problems. But look at it this way, getting off the couch is exercise that immediately provides you with a karmic benefit.
Complaining Turns Us Into Actionless Zombies: because complaining makes us feel like we have addressed a problem, we fall into the habit of addressing most of our problems with complaining instead of actually creating solutions. Look around you, thousands of people are whining and complaining and yet they do not lift a finger to actually take action to solve problems. Because this behavior keeps problems in place, it gives them more to complain about. After a while, complaining becomes a lifestyle. Wake up and get busy. People who are busy solving problems rarely have time to complain.
It May Be Fiction, But It Is One Heck Of A Karmic Workout.
Read The Lotus Blossom, D. M. Kenyon's fictional account of a teenage girl who turns off her cellphone and enters the very real, but mystical world of Budo warriors. Humorous, irreverent and heart-wrenching, The Lotus Blossom is an unforgettable tale of a Midwestern teenage girl's transformation into a budo warrior in the midst of the turmoil of the Information Age. Available in all digital formats, paperback and soon to be released in hardcover.
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