Stability’s Perception
The concept of Stability’s Perception has been simmering in the space between my ears for about a week now. The connection and feelings that I have about the words I’m about to write are very strong, and I am hopeful that each of you will be able to glean something helpful from the following message. After all, this is what my writing is all about; helping others in their own journey as I draw upon references from my life, through thoughts, ideas, and perspective. This one feels really good, and the thought that immediately comes to mind has an interesting connection to the meatball recipe that my sister gave me a few weeks back. What?? Ok Tony, now you’ve really gone off the deep end man!! Stay with me. The recipe, which I can’t disclose (sorry), came not only with the ingredients, but also with cooking instructions. These instructions included the art of actually cooking the meatballs right in the gravy (which is what Italians call Spaghetti Sauce). The result is that the texture and flavor of the meatballs are so unbelievably delicious due to the fact that they marinate in the gravy (Mom’s recipe with a few added touches) for three or four hours. Ask my kids, it’s the best spaghetti and meatballs on the planet!! Well, these words you are about to read have been cooking in my brain all week, so I hope they are pleasing to your pallet.
As usual, it was a recent life experience that has fueled this latest piece, and it has affected me profoundly. Last Saturday evening, I awoke at 1:30AM with the room spinning uncontrollably. I immediately became dizzy, nauseous, and lost all bodily function in about three minutes flat. I was vomiting violently, couldn’t move my body, lost all sense of equilibrium, and my eyes were spinning around in my head. What I later found out is that I came down with a sudden case of Vestibular Neuritis, which is another medical term for a severe case of Vertigo. You see, there are crystals in your inner ear that somehow get dislodged, and get caught up in tiny hair follicles deep inside the ear drum. The result is that your brain is telling your body that it is moving, when in fact it is completely still. You lose body function, balance, and have no earthly idea what is happening to you. Personally, I have never experience anything physically worse in my entire life. I was as frightened as I have ever been, and will never forget that feeling as long as I live. I spent five days in the Hospital, three of them on my back, unable to get out of bed. As I sit here and write this piece a week later, I am still experiencing the effects of this traumatic event. I posted my plight on my Facebook page, and was surprised to see how many people have gone through this before. Some of the people I corresponded with have reoccurring Vertigo, and quite honestly, I do not know how they get through it. One of the positive components of having the Vestibular Neuritis version that I had was that it has a much lower propensity of reoccurring, unlike regular Vertigo. That was the first Silver Lining of this incident. The second is this piece I am writing. I was laid up for several days, couldn’t really read or even watch TV, and had a bunch of time to think about my life. Heck, I couldn’t even watch the Superbowl, something I haven’t missed...ever!!
I soon came to to the realization that this physical imbalance that I was experiencing has strong synergy with real life. The imbalance and instability of life and how people deal with this began to occupy my thoughts. It dawned upon me that stability must mean so many different things to each person, and that the differences lie in our individual perspectives and perceptions. I started to think about what stability meant to me, and tried to break it into pieces. It occurred to me that the Perception of Stability that accompanies Vertigo has direct correlation to how we sometimes feel in real life. We look for stability in many different places; our living situation, our faith, our partners, our relationships, our workplace, and our bank accounts. All very important mechanisms of our life and quite natural to look here. But how many of us consider looking inward for stability? How many of us look in the mirror for stability?
Therein lays the main point of my message today. It’s my opinion that without a strong focus on relying on our constant personal journey for authenticity and enlightenment, our perception of stability gets skewed. Even if we have many of the other pieces covered (finance, faith, relationships, etc...), not to peer inward to uncover the real meaning of stability throws our perception off kilter. In other words, it’s the personal attachment to these items in our life that provides the adhesive needed to find our center. It’s in that center where true stability exists. The good news is that we each have the power to find these hidden gems for ourselves. This is hard work though, as many people just choose to live on the fringes. Well, that’s not for me and my sense is that it’s not for the folks reading this post. Let’s unpack a few of the different versions of stability, in an attempt to tie this message to our own lives:
Emotional Stability – The perception here is that we are in control of our emotions. We all know how difficult that is in real life. Where do you stand with emotional stability? One of the things that has helped me in this regard is to try and stay separated from my circumstances. In my last blog, I talked about staying focused, yet being detached. Keeping our emotions in check has everything to do with how we deal with things that confront us. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle is a good read for folks searching for emotional stability.
Spiritual Stability – If your life lacks spirituality in some form, stability here will be a challenge. For me, God is there in my life and I am constantly working on a relationship with him. This is new for me over the last several years, but the more I focus on my faith the closer I get to Spiritual Stability. Be careful here, because you can be fooled by the perception of spiritual stability. Listening to preachers with hidden agendas, following patterns of religion that don’t have a connection to your core, and many other spiritual forms can cloud your vision regarding this all important component of stability.
Relational Stability – This one I feel close to, as relationships are very important to me. I spend a great deal of time forging, cultivating, and renewing relationships in my life, and this has helped me feel very stable in this regard. In my book, My Back Nine, I dedicate and entire chapter to relationship building. Relational Stability takes a ton of effort and dedication, but in my opinion, it’s one of the most important components of your life. After all, the legacy you leave behind by the relationships you build will have an impact on people for generations.
Personal Stability – Here’s where the rubber meets the road my friends. The responsibility for this component lies solely within each of us, yet many people don’t even know it exists. We all know people like this. They sort of just “jellyfish” through life, without ever searching for their reason for existence. Personal Stability is rooted in our ability to really know ourselves, as well as our constant search for our life’s purpose and overall meaning. For me, the struggles that I experienced over the last several years provided the platform that I needed to start this search. However, although everyone experiences struggles, many folks never get to the point where they believe they need this in their life. My hope is that some of you folks that fall into this category will read this post.
In the end, it’s in the search, it’s in the journey, and it’s in the dedicated pursuit of oneself that true stability lies. Stability’s Perception will try and trick you into believing that there is not work to be done. The search for your one, true, and totally authentic self is one of the main reasons we are ALL here on this earth.
Peace and love to ALL…….Tony
As usual, it was a recent life experience that has fueled this latest piece, and it has affected me profoundly. Last Saturday evening, I awoke at 1:30AM with the room spinning uncontrollably. I immediately became dizzy, nauseous, and lost all bodily function in about three minutes flat. I was vomiting violently, couldn’t move my body, lost all sense of equilibrium, and my eyes were spinning around in my head. What I later found out is that I came down with a sudden case of Vestibular Neuritis, which is another medical term for a severe case of Vertigo. You see, there are crystals in your inner ear that somehow get dislodged, and get caught up in tiny hair follicles deep inside the ear drum. The result is that your brain is telling your body that it is moving, when in fact it is completely still. You lose body function, balance, and have no earthly idea what is happening to you. Personally, I have never experience anything physically worse in my entire life. I was as frightened as I have ever been, and will never forget that feeling as long as I live. I spent five days in the Hospital, three of them on my back, unable to get out of bed. As I sit here and write this piece a week later, I am still experiencing the effects of this traumatic event. I posted my plight on my Facebook page, and was surprised to see how many people have gone through this before. Some of the people I corresponded with have reoccurring Vertigo, and quite honestly, I do not know how they get through it. One of the positive components of having the Vestibular Neuritis version that I had was that it has a much lower propensity of reoccurring, unlike regular Vertigo. That was the first Silver Lining of this incident. The second is this piece I am writing. I was laid up for several days, couldn’t really read or even watch TV, and had a bunch of time to think about my life. Heck, I couldn’t even watch the Superbowl, something I haven’t missed...ever!!
I soon came to to the realization that this physical imbalance that I was experiencing has strong synergy with real life. The imbalance and instability of life and how people deal with this began to occupy my thoughts. It dawned upon me that stability must mean so many different things to each person, and that the differences lie in our individual perspectives and perceptions. I started to think about what stability meant to me, and tried to break it into pieces. It occurred to me that the Perception of Stability that accompanies Vertigo has direct correlation to how we sometimes feel in real life. We look for stability in many different places; our living situation, our faith, our partners, our relationships, our workplace, and our bank accounts. All very important mechanisms of our life and quite natural to look here. But how many of us consider looking inward for stability? How many of us look in the mirror for stability?
Therein lays the main point of my message today. It’s my opinion that without a strong focus on relying on our constant personal journey for authenticity and enlightenment, our perception of stability gets skewed. Even if we have many of the other pieces covered (finance, faith, relationships, etc...), not to peer inward to uncover the real meaning of stability throws our perception off kilter. In other words, it’s the personal attachment to these items in our life that provides the adhesive needed to find our center. It’s in that center where true stability exists. The good news is that we each have the power to find these hidden gems for ourselves. This is hard work though, as many people just choose to live on the fringes. Well, that’s not for me and my sense is that it’s not for the folks reading this post. Let’s unpack a few of the different versions of stability, in an attempt to tie this message to our own lives:
Emotional Stability – The perception here is that we are in control of our emotions. We all know how difficult that is in real life. Where do you stand with emotional stability? One of the things that has helped me in this regard is to try and stay separated from my circumstances. In my last blog, I talked about staying focused, yet being detached. Keeping our emotions in check has everything to do with how we deal with things that confront us. The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle is a good read for folks searching for emotional stability.
Spiritual Stability – If your life lacks spirituality in some form, stability here will be a challenge. For me, God is there in my life and I am constantly working on a relationship with him. This is new for me over the last several years, but the more I focus on my faith the closer I get to Spiritual Stability. Be careful here, because you can be fooled by the perception of spiritual stability. Listening to preachers with hidden agendas, following patterns of religion that don’t have a connection to your core, and many other spiritual forms can cloud your vision regarding this all important component of stability.
Relational Stability – This one I feel close to, as relationships are very important to me. I spend a great deal of time forging, cultivating, and renewing relationships in my life, and this has helped me feel very stable in this regard. In my book, My Back Nine, I dedicate and entire chapter to relationship building. Relational Stability takes a ton of effort and dedication, but in my opinion, it’s one of the most important components of your life. After all, the legacy you leave behind by the relationships you build will have an impact on people for generations.
Personal Stability – Here’s where the rubber meets the road my friends. The responsibility for this component lies solely within each of us, yet many people don’t even know it exists. We all know people like this. They sort of just “jellyfish” through life, without ever searching for their reason for existence. Personal Stability is rooted in our ability to really know ourselves, as well as our constant search for our life’s purpose and overall meaning. For me, the struggles that I experienced over the last several years provided the platform that I needed to start this search. However, although everyone experiences struggles, many folks never get to the point where they believe they need this in their life. My hope is that some of you folks that fall into this category will read this post.
In the end, it’s in the search, it’s in the journey, and it’s in the dedicated pursuit of oneself that true stability lies. Stability’s Perception will try and trick you into believing that there is not work to be done. The search for your one, true, and totally authentic self is one of the main reasons we are ALL here on this earth.
Peace and love to ALL…….Tony
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