Chapter 12.1: Five Sagely Practices to Restore Balance to Life, Part I

 

The “Five Colors” blind peoples’ eyes;

The “Five Sounds” deafen peoples’ ears;

The “Five Flavors” numb peoples’ mouths.

This passage describes utilizes pairings of “Five” as a metaphor for various types of sensory stimuli as a caution against the sensory overload that comes with excessiveness.  Imagine the visual explosion of color if all colors were presented to the eyes simultaneously – the result would be “blinding” in the sense that too many colors mixed together actually inhibit our ability to differentiate between them, leaving only an indistinguishable grey/brown mass, like the color of water after rinsing all the paint brushes in it or the color of playdough after mixing too many colors together (speaking from experience :P).  The same is true for sound – imagine exposing your ears to every audible sound imaginable simultaneously.  The result would be a deafening cacophony of noise.  Lastly, imagine trying to work every flavor into a single dish at once – sweet, sour, spicy, bitter, and savory.  The result would sap the palette of its ability to appreciate any and all flavors.  Balance and moderation are needed to fully appreciate complementary sights, sounds, and flavors.  A great example of this is the classic Chinese “sweet and sour” sauce.  It must be perfectly balanced – not too sweet and not too sour but just the right amount of each.

We live in a world that is constantly bombarding us with audio and visual sensations.  Look around and you will scores of people with earbuds in listening to something everywhere they go, every second of the day.  Likewise, we see people all around us glued to various screens – binge watching episode after episode, playing round after round of games, and liking, swiping, tweeting, and re-posting to social media.  We ingest extremely intense flavored food and drinks – and we can get it Trenta, Supersized, or as a double shot.  We can get extra anything – extra caffeine, extra sugar, extra cheese, double meat, etc.  From Red Bull to Monster, we consume more stimulants than any civilization before it.  I once had a colleague who drank multiple Five-Hour Energies daily.  He put the empties up on a shelf as if they were trophies.  In the years he worked there, the sheer number of empty bottles became astounding. 

So what can we do when we start to feel a little overstimulated in our lives?  Returning to the theme of clearing the clutter and creating some space in our lives, here are three suggestions:

1. Go on a visual cleanse.  Go on a weeklong (gasp) or even just a one-day social media fast.  Unplug and refrain from viewing screens at least 30 minutes before bed.  Make our bedroom a screen free zone.  Give ourselves at least one hour of screen free time each day just to think, breathe, and unwind.

2. Unplug and look around.  Take the earbuds out for at least an hour a day, especially in public, and just look around.  Get out of our own little world.  Strike up a conversation with someone in the checkout lane.  Always smile and wave at kids :D and their tired and overworked parents.  Hold the door for someone.  Perform a small act of service for someone.  Talk to a veteran – find out where they served, then thank them for their service and shake their hand.  Talk to first responder and thank them for their service.  Thank the checkers by name.  Make someone’s day a little easier and a little brighter.

3. Conduct a monthly fast.  Skip a meal or two to cleanse our palettes, flush our systems with lots of water for an entire day.  There are over a dozen scientifically proven health benefits to periodic and intermittent fasting.  Take the money we would have spent on food and donate it to a food kitchen or other charitable organization.  Buy a meal for a homeless person (It’s as simple as asking them what they’d like from X-restaurant and going and picking it up for them).

We will be amazed at the difference that even a few of these suggestions (or other similar ideas that we feel inspired to adopt based on our own individual circumstances) can make in our lives and in the lives of others. ~ DCB

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