“Wake Up! Do Not Lie There ‘Thinking’!”
I’ve always wondered how the great avatars and truly evolved personages respond to the boring, quotidian, zero-glam aspects of their lives.
How does the Dalai Lama wake up? How did Gandhi brush his teeth?
Here’s what Paramahansa Yogananda (1893-1952) said to his followers about that moment, in bed, when he first opens his eyes.
“Wake up! Get out of bed! Do not lie there ‘thinking!’ Nothing good ever came from that!”
What Yogananda meant by “thinking,” I’m convinced, is Resistance. It’s not really thinking. It’s not rational cogitation. It’s the voice of self-sabotage. It’s the dragon.
We will not “think our way” out of that chatter in our heads. We will not overcome it by reasoning with it or listening to it as if it were talking sense.
“Get up! Get out of bed! Do not lie there thinking! Nothing good ever came from that!’
Steve shows you the predictable Resistance points that every writer hits in a work-in-progress and then shows you how to deal with each one of these sticking points. This book shows you how to keep going with your work.
A short book about the writing of a first novel: for Steve, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Having failed with three earlier attempts at novels, here's how Steve finally succeeded.
NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*T
Steve shares his "lessons learned" from the trenches of the five different writing careers—advertising, screenwriting, fiction, nonfiction, and self-help. This is tradecraft. An MFA in Writing in 197 pages.
Amateurs have amateur habits. Pros have pro habits. When we turn pro, we give up the comfortable life but we find our power. Steve answers the question, "How do we overcome Resistance?"
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Oh this is SO true. When lying there thinking, why is it that those thoughts are never positive or useful. It is always better I find to get up and on with the day. Thanks for the reminder Steve.
Good day to you Mr Pressfield
I’m going to print this post so I can hang it on the wall in front of my desk… Sometimes I wonder if you’re inside my head, knowing exactly what I need to hear, but who am I kidding. What would you do inside my head!
Thank you ItsAGoodDayOnEarth
I get it, Steve. Of course, if one was thinking about a story, developing it in his head, he is in two places at the same time: Bed and Creation. Keep posting your insightful thoughts.
In the first moments after waking, you are still in your unconscious. Therefore, you are in a place where you are “programming” whatever you are “thinking” about. It could be used for good by preplanning your first thoughts.
Well I read this at 6:30AM after an hour of laying in bed “thinking” 😂. Spot on. Thanks.
Yep
We can think ourselves out of a lot of things before our feet touch the floor. Better to hit the ground running before the dragon can nab us. Thanks, Steve. Wishing everyone a week of dragon slaying.
Thank you Jackie, beware of all the dragon’s disguises.
A powerful reminder — overthinking is just resistance in disguise. The moment we act instead of lying there “thinking,” real progress begins.
This reminds me of “The 5 Second Rule” by Mel Robbins. Just count down in your head, 5-4-3-2-1–when getting up, when sitting down to write, when doing whatever–and when you hit zero, no thinking. Just going.
So true! Or not thinking and instead being in that disassociated state of resistance vs mindful meditation.
When my mind starts wandering on what I am going to do in the future, I start saying to myself ITMAN – I Take massive action NOW. Thank you Steven for the reminder of how insidious Resistance is.
Jerry hit the Zen point with me, 2 places at once. Thanks, Steve and Jerry!
Thank you very much dear Steve.
The no-shit, no second-thoughts mentality.
It equals the ideal of determination together with focus.
Those moments when a decision is made to be non-existent, the decision to be final from the beginning -the goals.
I would name Resistance with another word. Noise.
Noise fades away when we are excited about something for minutes, hours, or days, but always comes back again. It’s like a whirlwind of distracting thoughts – a laundry, a woman, a kitchen, a kid, a car, a problem, an internal situation/emotion like hunger, boredom, neutrality, stress, impulse etc.
For me there’s also neutrality. Being neutral, not moved, not energized from inside, even when you are rested. Even the body doesn’t recognize the novelty and the importance of a universal personal goal. If it did, I would be running like hell towards it, killing everything in my path.
The body is already wired but not by goals, but by all past of humanity and the way the subject grew.
The body must also be tamed.
Damned Logic, Ethics also, and Dream, you should rule the man and the body.
On the theme of spiritual leaders and lying/sitting around… there’s an episode of “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” where Jerry Seinfeld and Garry Shandling are driving around LA in a Porsche. Garry tells a story about a time he was visiting with the Dalai Lama. Garry tells him a joke:
“The Buddha never got married because his wife would have said, ‘Are you going to sit around the house like that all day?'”
Thank you Joe. Sitting around can itself be a great power. It depends on its content. Here, the wife would be a part of Resistance.
Tolis…
Garry followed up with a comment from Buddha’s wife: “You’re meditating? Well, why don’t you meditate while you’re taking out the trash.” 🙂
Can’t think your way out of anything. Has to translate into action.
“The heroic minute. It is the time fixed for getting up. Without hesitation: a supernatural reflection and… up! The heroic minute: here you have a mortification that strengthens your will and does no harm to your body.”
— St. Josemaría Escrivá
What a powerful reminder. It’s amazing how even great spiritual teachers like Yogananda recognized that our first battle of the day begins the moment we open our eyes. That voice of “thinking” really is just Resistance disguised as reason. Sometimes the most spiritual act is simply getting up and moving forward without overanalyzing.
I totally disagree. I woke up this morning at 6 AM with brilliant idea
on what to not for the next three years. Some of my best thinking
happens around 4 AM.
I’m taking “bed” literally.
When I awake I take ten deep breaths, holding them and slowly exhaling. As I do, I imagine my lungs, heart, and brain.
I review my day’s schedule, though I’m never certain of it until I look at my calendar (and ask my wife.)
I pray. With thanks and gratitude. In hope and anticipation. For the seconds, minutes, and hours throughout the day I will have.
“Out beyond ideas of right doing and wrongdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about. Ideas, language, even the phrase ‘each other’ doesn’t make any sense. The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don’t go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don’t go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the doorsill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don’t go back to sleep.” ~Rumi
That’s really beautiful!
“A Great Wagon,” which you quote from, Kathy, is my daughter’s favorite poem. Mine is also from Rumi, “The Guest House.” I recite it as if to an audience, every morning, to reward myself for not lingering after awakening…
This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture.
Still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice. Meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.
That about covers it, doesn’t it? 🙂
awesomely beautiful:-)
Forgot to add my flowers…
🍃🌸🍃
And I typed my website incorrectly on the Rumi quote. Gads.
Anyway, I think of that quote so often and say to myself, “What the F are you doing?! Don’t go back to sleep or walk through your life that way.” It’s so easy to just not listen to what causes us to create. Us! That deep inner voice. That little girl who felt enthralled by mud and getting sloppy with colors and building forts and… and… WAKE UP!
“What the F are you doing?! Don’t go back to sleep or walk through your life that way.” Thank you dear Kathy, that hit my heart.
Indeed! When you get out of bed after waking up, make your bed. You will feel even better to already have accomplish something physical as well as mental.
Let God arise and His enemies be scattered! Flee, flee all you who hate Him! This has been my wake up call for a long time. I learned to never let my reasoning mind even dare look in my direction or speak, cause it will be all over if I let it.
So true. There’s a world of difference between “thinking” and contemplating, strategizing, meditating, etc. “Thinking” leads to chatter which only becomes clutter. Our egos love clutter.