Walk the path of living with understanding!

It has become overly common for conversations to drift into negative aspects.

The other morning sitting around the table accompanied with coffee and varied personalities, the conversation, as is now found constantly, kept tumbling into the negativity of our current affairs. We all seemingly have become inundated with them and it’s widening the gap between all listening citizens.

It has become overly common, for the majority of conversation to drift into the negative aspects of how so many have chosen to live. The human brain has a natural tendency to remember the negative experiences or interactions more than the positive ones. Psychologists refer to this as negativity bias.

Research has shown that our brains have evolved to react much more strongly to negative information than to positive information. It’s so hard for people to be positive because your mind drifts back to old, repetitive thoughts that have seared deep grooves in your brain.

Trying to avoid these negative aspects of life I tried to influence and slightly control the daunting conversation that was encircling the table. I boldly stated that we should all stop listening and repeating the atrocities that we have no control over. Instead of allowing this gloom to chill the coffee, we should travel back to the era of Thoreau and some of his philosophy. There was a brief pause, but shortly after the bewilderment settled my coffee continued to grow cold.

Henry David Thoreau, 1817 – 1862, was an American naturalist, essayist, poet and philosopher. He was best known for his book, Walden and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument in favor of citizen disobedience against an unjust state. He was also a leading Transcendentalist.

Transcendentalism was a 19th-century American literary, philosophical and religious movement that emphasized individualism, intuition, and a direct connection to the divine, rejecting materialism and conformity. They believed that humans were fundamentally good but corrupted by society. They believed in the essential values of individualism, idealism and the divinity of nature.

Thoreau was truly what is now one of the rarest things on earth, an individual. He retained the nobility of the true free spirit. By living his own "eccentric" life, Thoreau demonstrated the absurdity of the life of the masses. He lived a deep rich life that yielded him the maximum of contentment. With the bare necessities of living, he found adequate means for the enjoyment of life. Although Thoreau lived in the nineteenth century, his philosophy is much needed today.

His whole life stood testimony to the obvious fact which man is constantly overlooking. To sustain life, we need less rather than more. To protect life, we need courage and integrity. In everything Thoreau said and did, was the furthest removed from the people of today. Consciously and unconsciously, we are doing the very opposite of all that he advocated.

The problem with power, an obsessive one with Americans, it is now at the highest pinnacle. Instead of quickly becoming overwhelmed and involved, we need to care for ourselves. We need to take it easy and not be in such a hurried rush to go nowhere. We need to follow our dreams and idle away some time for a change. We need to retire to the woods.

Thoreau used nature as a cornerstone for many of his thoughts. He believed what most people considered as valuable didn’t have much worth beyond that which society has haphazardly deemed it to be. He also believed, and he was right, that real beauty and value can always be found in nature.

Thoreau’s philosophical ideas push for a separation between what an individual regards that has worth and what is valuable in the eyes of society. Thoreau’s philosophies criticized many of the social normalities of the time. He examined nature and solitude set against the American culture of the 19th century, like capitalist marketing. Again, his unearthing of what was of the time is still more than relevant for today.

Expressing frustration of how people work tirelessly and do not give much thought to why they are doing the work. Thoreau wrote in his 1845 Journal, “Men have become the tools of their tools.” They have adopted a machine-like routine.

Thoreau advocated for living simplistically. He notes that many of the possessions we have in our lives are not a necessity. In what is probably his most famous quotation, Thoreau notes that his intention with his Walden experiment was “to drive life into a corner and reduce it to its lowest terms.”

Thoreau looked down upon the concept of excess and luxury. By living at Walden Pond, a retreat away from the ideals of society, Thoreau sought to discover for himself what was truly essential to him. By doing so, he could better assign value and worth to the belongings in his life instead of mindlessly obeying to the norms of society.

Thoreau found Walden, but a Walden could be anywhere if you look for it. Waldon has become a symbol, but it should turn into a reality for everyone. Walden and Thoreau are much more than symbols. If we only look at him for what he did as a memorial, we defeat the very purpose of his life. Only by living our own lives with simplicity and to the fullest, can we honor his memory. What we need now, more than ever, is not to imitate him but rather surpass him. This is the message of great individuals and the meaning of individuality, to become in essence, what we truly are.

When walking this path of living, walk with proper understanding and a calm resolve to accept what happens around you. Move forward with unselfish acts of kindness and truthful speech. These words, once common, are now marked as archaic and antiquated. They seemingly have faded into legends of the old ways and are now covered with the oblivion of the unknown.

There is a divine purpose for all the experiences you go through. You must keep moving and continue to trust your journey. With all that is, I believe all that is needed is to find comfort and beauty in your day. To live in a beautiful place, to sleep in a comfortable bed and eat food that is filled with flavor. To go for walks in places of wonderment and always care for the feelings of others. Do nothing to willingly cause anyone pain and do not lose your comfort. There is also no apology needed for showing deep emotion, be it from sentiment, pain or pleasure.

Finding this way of beauty has been some time coming, but for me as well as for some others, it is now here. I now welcome each day as I step outside, feel the morning on my skin, look for the big dipper, to navigate towards the North Star and fully welcome the beginning of another day. I do this each day and live the meaning of a quote from my old friend, John Perry Barlow. “I was doing what I always do best, which was hanging out with intent.” – dbA

You can find more of the unfiltered insight and the Art of Dan Abernathy at www.contributechaos.com.