WALKING, AN EXISTENTIAL METAPHOR. PART 2 OF 4.

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At the beginning of any day -talking about walking- we have the option of repeating the same routine of the previous day, or changing it, we can choose a new path, and when we reach it, we have the option of walking to the right or to the left, in one direction or the opposite, etc.

In the same way, living can be with joy or with sadness, with love or with hate, with self-criticism or approving us, with order or with disorder, with humility or with competition, with love or with contempt, with fatness or with thinness, with health or with sickness, in short, we can continue with the analogy and observe more closely both stages.

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We said in the first part that when we decide to repeat our walk along the same path, it is an analogy to our own existential behavior, since we are having the same performance within our circumstantial environment, and this should lead us to reflect on our walk in order to carry it out for the sole pleasure of doing it, that is, of accepting and loving ourselves. In this regard, I would like to comment on what three thinkers have said.

Butler says: “The introduction of subtly new elements in our way of acting gives us certain advantages: the new then merges with the old and this helps us to endure the monotony of our action. But if the new element is quite alien to us, there is no merging of the old with the new, because nature seems to be just as horrified by any too great a deviation from our ordinary practice as it is by the absence of any deviation at all.”

It is necessary to be aware that progress must be made with our own emotional and intellectual development.

Poupnel says: “The idea of progress is logically associated with the idea of resumption and repetition. The habit already possesses in itself the meaning of progress; by effect of the acquired habit, the act that is restarted is started again with greater ease and greater precision; the movements that execute it lose their excessive amplitude, their useless complication; they are simplified and shortened. Parasitic movements disappear. The act reduces the expense to the necessary minimum, to sufficient energy, to the minimum time. And at the same time that the dynamism is improved and made more precise, the work and the result are perfected”.

Finally, Bachelard, to have an opinion on what we have sometimes heard about routine, comments: “The habit is a routine simile of a novelty”. “Habit is a synthesis of novelty and routine”. “The organ is built by function, and for organs to be complex, it is enough for functions to be active and frequent [routine]. Everything is then equivalent to using an increasing number of the instants that time offers” (Future Post WALKING AND FREE TIME. PART II). “A particular habit is a sustained rhythm, where all the acts are repeated equalizing in a quite exact way their value of novelty, but without ever losing that dominant character of being a novelty”. And finally, he clarifies: “We recognize ourselves in our character because we imitate ourselves and because our personality is thus the habit of our own name”. In other words, we repeat ourselves when we are routine, because we accept ourselves with satisfaction.

Artwork # 369 MAYAN DANCE OF LIFE

We must meditate on the defenestration that we sometimes hear that routine is pathetic; for according to this thought of Bachelard’s we could say: That I repeat myself recurrently, because I accept myself as I am, and this means great mental health. In our metaphorical analogy, we would say As I love my body, that’s why I exercise it by walking; I appreciate myself as I am and that’s why I advance in life. I like to walk, ergo, I accept myself.

In another analogical scenario, we can say that when we walk we do so in the sense of “forward” never backward, and if we ever experience it that way, there must be a reason for it, for which we must be aware and careful, because we could fall or lose our way (Future Post WALKING BACKWARDS; Future Post BRAIN GYMNASTICS WHILE WALKING); in the same way it happens to us in life when our thoughts and attitudes are denials, resistances or protests. I propose that we walk in life with a positive sense, that is, with joy, love, approving ourselves, with order, with humility, with health, and throw forever out of our being, into the trash, and set fire to sadness, hate, self-criticism, disorder, competition, contempt, disease.

Let’s make our walks every day, advancing in the right direction, normal, let’s not do it in the wrong direction, because we will lose our balance and fall down (Unless it is a special exercise like what is proposed in future Post BRAIN GYMNASTICS WHILE WALKING).

In normal life it is more difficult to be guided by the right sense, we go astray and return, again and again, to negative thoughts and attitudes; but let us think that walking on our feet, in the natural sense, forward, has no problem in orienting us, and so must be our acting, thinking and feeling for life by having attitudes and thoughts always positive, always in the right sense. Let’s do it this way, let’s try and observe that everything is composed, accommodates and renews us. Let’s remember that even behaving in a routine, repetitive way is to advance and progress in life. I can be myself by accepting myself, because every moment of my existence can be an opportunity to be reborn with my own being, with my own self, with our approval and our acceptance of ourselves. Let us be guided by our own sense of life.

Artwork # 669 CONSPIRACY OF LIFE

Now, let’s keep on walking on the path, trail that we choose, avoiding the stones and obstacles that we encounter along the way. Many times we recognize some stretches where we can imagine some problems, so we must be more careful where we step. In the same way, we must observe very carefully in order to make as few mistakes as possible.

Every nook, cranny or sinuousness in your walk is a new source of knowledge, observation, contemplation, admiration. The new replaces what was seen in the previous bend. Every day is a rebirth, even when we choose the same path of the previous day, we must not look back and if we do it will be to feed the new options and decisions. You don’t have to look for what others have found or achieved, and you don’t need anyone’s approval to move forward.

When you walk you can do it accompanied, in solitude (Post WALKING AND THE ELECTION OF LONELINESS. PART I, and post WALKING IN SOLITUDE, AN ANALOGY OF LIFE), by singing, in silence, reading aloud (Post WALKING AND READING IN LOUD VOICE); you are master of your time (Post THE WALK AND THE LACK OF TIME), you are free to do as you please (Post WALKING AND FREEDOM, future Post WALKING AND THE PATHS OF FREEDOM, and future Post WALKING AND INNER FREEDOM. THE WALK-RWD SYSTEM AS LIBERATION). In the same way you can realize it in the path of existential life.

Now, if you continue to walk on the chosen path, the experiences about the pitfalls that you observed during the journey, you must keep them as what they are, simple experiences and never assimilate them in a traumatic way, because you could become paralyzed and not be able to continue walking, or you would do it in a zigzag or with fears; unless you have suffered a very strong fall. (Future Post THE CONCEPT OF EXPERIENCE AND WALKING). Always remember: you have chosen the path yourself and you will continue to do so! In everyday life with no one you have to look good, nor do you have to ask anyone for their approval. In work activities it’s different (Future Post WALKING AND FREE TIME. PART II). Your experiences are yours alone and no one is to blame for your steps, good or bad, right or wrong. All your past decisions serve to shape the meaning of your life, consciously or unconsciously; but no negative experience should inhibit your next decision making.

Artwork # 952 INNOCENCE IS LIFE

You want to stay on your chosen path, Good! No one is forcing you to walk in any way, nor are you required to take a certain speed, you have dressed as you have decided, and if it gets dark it is for your own pleasure. You can’t blame anyone if you get lost on the path.

Every decision that we make, from adolescence onwards, is and will be self-conscious. The accumulation of them allows us to advance in our existence and we always wish to break down our physical and intellectual limitations with the purpose, conscious or unconscious, of transcending in life. (Post THE WALK AND THE INSTINCT TO LEAVE THE PLACE OF ORIGIN).

Let’s go for a walk imagining that this 30 minutes walk will be a representation of what we will be able to experience vitally during the day that begins.

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