Pause And Clear the Schmutz Off Your Glasses

A simple act with a deeper meaning.Photo by GlassesShop on Unsplash

As I sit here, trying to figure out what to write about today, it occurs to me that the lenses of my blue blocker glasses are seriously smudged. How often do I notice that and ignore it?

Today, I paused, grabbed the spray and cloths, and cleared the schmutz off my glasses. That’s better.

These glasses I wear when I work at my computer don’t correct my vision. I only wear them to lessen eye strain and protect my eyes. So, any schmutz on these glasses is only an annoyance.

But how long until that smudge you’re noticing becomes more than just an annoyance? What happens when the schmutz gets worse, and your vision becomes clouded?

Before you know it, all you see is the negative, the problems, the bad.

When you don’t pause and clear from time to time – anything, really – the build-up of schmutz can be problematic.

The pluses and minuses of autopilot

Our world loves automation. Convenience. Instant gratification. We are constantly creating and using tools to provide shortcuts, exploring life hacks, and taking lots of other steps to make things easier.

This, however, comes with a price. We think less critically, allow rote and routine to dominate our day-to-day experiences, and find ourselves wondering how this world has gone so completely mad.

A lot of that comes from insufficient pausing and clearing. Everything moves so fast, you don’t realize how much schmutz has accumulated on your glasses, in your eyes, on your hard drive, in your home, and so on. You pile on more and more, subconsciously, unchecked. When you don’t pause and clear it from time to time, it can be overwhelming.

How else can you explain people following so-called leaders who are harming them? Knowing how seldom people pause and clear their heads, hearts, and souls, those people hide in the schmutz and whisper sour nothings. They both blatantly and subtly suggest the schmutz isn’t the result of anything you did or didn’t do. Nope, it’s the fault of “them”. Because of the “other,” your life is the smudgy mess it looks to be.

There’s nothing you can do to pause and clear anyone else’s vision. You do, however, have total and complete control of yours.

Pause and clear your vision

This is easy to do. However, you need to take some time to do it. Also, you can’t do this for anyone other than yourself, and nobody else can do it for you.

These are the five steps you can take to pause and clear your vision:

Recognize that your vision is schmutzed. Smudged. Less than clear.Acknowledge that your vision is unclear. Recognition is not the same as acknowledgement. Just because you recognize that something is there doesn’t mean you acknowledge it. This is important so that you don’t choose to ignore it.Be consciously aware of it. Recognize it. Acknowledge it. Don’t shunt it to your subconscious or ignore it; mindfully address it, here and now.Pause. Take a moment to be present.Clear. Get out the cloths and wipe the lenses clear. Stop doomscrolling social media. Turn off the news channel. Step away from the sources of constant doom and gloom.

This can only be done in the present. Hence, via applied mindfulness. By being actively, consciously aware – right here and now – you can see what you’re thinking, what and how you’re feeling, what your intentions are, the positivity or negativity of your approach, and what you are or aren’t doing. If any of these are schmutzed, you can choose to pause and clear them.

Photo by whereslugo on UnsplashYou have choices and decisions – but only for yourself

You cannot pause and clear the vision of anyone else. That’s not to say that you can’t offer to clean off their glasses for them. However, just because you wiped the schmutz away, you can’t be in their head, heart, and soul. You can’t make them see clearly.

One of the most dangerous issues facing the world today is the lack of discourse. Polite, civil discussion has been thrown out the window in favor of jingoism, ego, opinion, and self-righteousness disguised as expertise. Some people dig in their heels, cover their ears, and scream “LALALA I CAN’T HEAR YOU!” no matter how reasonable you strive to be.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t help them clear their glasses of the schmutz. What I am saying is, don’t expect them to see what you see. Maybe they will get there. Perhaps they will also pause and clear themselves. But you can’t be anyone other than you.

When you take this into consideration, pause and clear the schmutz from your vision, you empower yourself. Empowered, you can make active, mindful choices and decisions to be your best, do your best, and show up as a beacon others can see when and if they pause and clear, and also choose to do so.

It isn’t hard to pause and clear the schmutz from your vision

It’s all about practicing active conscious awareness of your thoughts, feelings, intentions, and the positivity or negativity of your approach to direct your actions.

When you recognize and acknowledge that your vision has been clouded by things you haven’t been actively, consciously aware of, you can choose to pause and clear it. Knowing that you ultimately choose and decide what you see and do in this life, you can work to pause and clear what derails you from being and doing your best.

This empowers you, and your empowerment can empower others around you.

Consciously choosing your approach to life towards positivity or negativity — from the vast cylinder that exists between them — shifts life in a way that opens greater dialogue. From that dialogue, you can recognize, explore, and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.

Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself opens the way for a positive approach and attitude via your actions. This can lead to realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.

The better aware you are of yourself, here and now, the better you can choose and decide what, how, and why your life experiences will be. When you empower yourself, it can spread to those around you and empower them as well. That is an amazing conduit to help reason to overcome fear in the collective consciousness.

Thank you for coming along on this journey.

This is the six-hundred-seventh (607) entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, reblog, and spread the positivity.

Please visit here to explore all my published fiction and non-fiction.

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