We Become What We Hold
It's in your hands
Hilltop Letters: Insight • Reflection • Practice
A spiritual nonfiction letter offering an insight, a reflection, and a practical step to help bring you home to yourself.
i. Insight
There are things we interact with every day. Objects of all kinds. But a select few have gained entry into our top-choice chamber.
One thing I use all the time is my keyboard. The keys feel like an extension of me. Each letter pieces together thoughts that would otherwise roll in my mind like a wild mist.
Touch-typing is a skill I’ve honed, and it’s a part of my nervous system at this point. Sit me down in front of one and my body knows what to do, what to say, how to say it, transcribing at a pace my mind prefers to run. I consider it a very positive object for me.
What we interact with daily becomes a part of us to some degree. The question is, is it helping or hurting us? Is the object in your hand a key that opens life up to something greater? Is it a lock keeping that door closed, shutting you into the same old thing?
I look down at my keyboard; the matte finish worn smooth by countless miles of thinking, and I realize I’m not just in a room typing on a board of plastic letters. I’m enriching my experience of life by opening my awareness to my mind. And that’s the best-case scenario, that the things we interact with enrich our lives somehow.
ii. Reflection
Now, I get lost just as much as anyone else. I fall into my phone, games, distractions of all kinds. I’m not saying let’s all be perfect and only pick objects that make us the best versions of ourselves.
This is only a reminder to take stock of what you interact with every day and to stop for a moment to question it. Is this thing in your hands helping you be the person you want to be? Is it neutral, or is it holding you back?
iii. Practice
Get next to the item that steals your time. The one that makes you feel somewhat ashamed after having used it. Are you there? Great. Now walk away from it.
March straight towards the thing you’ve been avoiding, that you know is healthier for you, and start interacting with it. Even if it’s only for a few minutes.
Training ourselves to move away from what’s hurting us and into what’s helping is the first step. It doesn’t need to be drastic. It just needs to happen a bit at a time until you feel the shift has been made.
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Thank you for reading.