This is Water reflection

 

This is Water

reflective blog entry 

Annie Todor

There were several quotes and images that stood out to me as I viewed David Wallace's work "This is Water."  

 "The most obvious, important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about."

This quote went along with the fish swimming in the bowl.   It was a great reminder to me that I can miss meaning in the every day occurrences and rely on a default mentality if I haven't trained my mind to choose to think in a healthy way that includes empathy and gratefulness.

I not only enjoyed viewing the video but also reading his commencement speech.  Certain phrases jumped out at me and caught my attention..."It isn't really about the capacity to think, but rather the choice of what to think about" was one of the statements that rang true in my spirit.

David Wallace mentioned that it is a matter of choosing to do the work of getting free of my hard-wired default setting which is to be self-centered and see everything through the lens of self.  He also shared  that individuals who can adjust their natural default setting are often described as being "well-adjusted," which he suggested is not accidental.  I applied that to my own life...reminding myself that I have a choice each day of how I think.  This can be such a challenge when I am living in a difficult season of life.

He mentioned how some individuals may get lost to over-intellectualize ideas or lost in abstract argument inside their heads, instead of paying attention to what is going on right in front of them or inside them.

Learning how to exercise CONTROL over how and what you think is freedom.  How we construct meaning and experience gives us freedom.  That word FREEDOM really stood out to me because it is something that can't be purchased with money...another word for me would be PEACE.

What does "DAY in and Day out" really mean???  What do we do with these petty daily frustrations?  Boredom? and Routine?  I'm one of the "older" students in this class and I can speak from experience of the "day in and day out."  I do a lot of my self-care through journaling and it is during my journaling experience that I reset my mind.

The above picture is a pergola my husband built me. He painted the three words I use as my mental health formula of thinking:  Release.rejoice.renew

You can see this painted above the pergola.  It is really my prayer to God each day:  I tell God (release) whats on my heart.  I rejoice (I remember what I am grateful for.  I renew (I meditate on the bible or a positive inspirational quote).  I've been doing this for the 20 years regularly and it helps me not go to default but have a plan in my thinking...so I really enjoyed the "This is water" viewing as I am a huge advocate for mental health and keeping our minds healthy.

* I liked the office building labeled "Day in and Day out" - it highlighted just how much of life is doing the same thing over and over again each day.  The man in the grocery store was perfect...I was relating to his attitude.   The visual words were powerful that appeared above the young mans head and the young woman.  I would have like to see more of the positive thoughts they could have been thinking but did think it was clever that in the traffic jam, he had used the image of words on the pavement to convey the message of thinking of what other people are going through.