We Are Free to Choose
These are tough times. Tough times emotionally, psychologically, logistically, physically, economically. Each of us feels the impact in a least one of these dimensions, and where we feel it most strongly depends on our individual circumstances. But there is a uniting factor in that none of us have ever lived through anything like this before. Team humanity has been thrown in the deep end, every single one of us together.
I don’t have much more to say about the markets this week. They have come off the bottom, and things feel calmer in general. I don’t know if we are in the eye of the hurricane or if the worst of the storm has passed. This will only be clear with hindsight.
I want to share one thought with you that came from a conversation between Jack Kornfield and Tim Ferriss.
Jack is a bestselling author, Buddhist Practitioner and one of the key teachers to introduce Buddhist practices to the West. In the conversation he talks about how, during his training to become a Buddhist monk in Thailand, he was walking across the rice paddies with his Master. In front of them was a large boulder. His Master asked ‘is that boulder heavy?’. Why yes Master, replied Jack. The Master continued walking past the boulder and said ‘not if you don’t pick it up.’
Whilst our freedom in the traditional sense has been temporarily curtailed, our ultimate freedom has not been taken from us.
We are free to choose how we react. We are free to choose what difficult thoughts and worries we carry around with us.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Jack tells us that we can get lost in our fearful fantasies or we can say to our thoughts, thank you, thank you for trying to protect me, but I am ok for now. I am ok for now.
One final positive thought for today:
Back to the markets next week, I am sure. Till then, keep healthy everyone. Get outside and exercise - it’s the best therapy.
Georgie
georgie@libertywealth.ky