9d • General discussion
Get out of bed!
"At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: 'I have to go to work — as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I’m going to do what I was born for — the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?'
So you were born to feel “nice”? Instead of doing things and experiencing them? Don’t you see the plants, the birds, the ants and spiders and bees going about their individual tasks, putting the world in order, as best they can? And you’re not willing to do your job as a human being? Why aren’t you running to do what your nature demands?
You don’t love yourself enough. Or you’d love your nature too, and what it demands of you."
This is a passage from book 5 of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, and its a message that neatly encapsulates the argument I have been constructing.
Recently, my posts have focused on the mental and emotional discomfort that arises from contradictions. Whether that is contradiction in the ideas that structure your worldview (Hegels dialectic), or contradictions in your behavior and belief (Cognitive Dissonance Theory)
My last post concluded with the sentiment that growth and improvement requires that you face this discomfort: you will experience consequences whether you face it or turn away, and only facing it will facilitate growth.
When we turn away from the discomfort, we are emotionally and mentally staying in bed and disturbing away from the work that makes us human, our nature, our purpose.
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Get out of bed!
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