Be Your Own Anchor

When you are away from your accustomed places, when you are apart from the people you normally interact with, when the regular tasks are not before you, you can feel unmoored. You can drift from the good habits you have accumulated. The problem is that we like to anchor ourselves in externals: in the people, places, and tasks of our daily routine. But those are externals. However beloved, they are all ephemeral. We can lose them – for a day, for a week, forever. And they do not make us good. If they did, we would not be as confused and distressed when they leave us. If you were a sage, you would say that you are indifferent to these externals, and let them go as easily as you let go of the peel once you have eaten the banana. You are not a sage yet, though. So perhaps you use externals to help develop your good habits. Some day you will do without those externals, but you are not there yet. Fine. Remember that some externals are more ephemeral than others. Have some habits of character that you can bring with you anywhere, and that you can undertake with or without your normal companions: an early alarm, a cold shower, meditations in a book or podcast. Then you need only pack your phone, to be your alarm, to hold the meditations. You need only be near a shower (or whatever else you use to practice your physical discipline). Do always remember the goal: to be free from dependence on externals. With each habit, work to make it internal. Every day, strive to become your own anchor – especially in the habits that are most important to your character. This podcast is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. Music is from the track "Which That is This" by Doctor Turtle, also distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. It can be found at http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Doctor_Turtle/Jonahs_Message_for_New_York/Which_That_Is_This