I am a Star Wars fan and nerd. I can nerd out hard on anything involving spaceships, lightsabers and Jedi. I am naturally excited that Star Wars Episode 9 came out a couple weeks ago. I have seen it twice in theatres so far. The first time I loved it, the second time I wasn’t as into it. The first time I saw it I was in a good state of mind, the second time not so much. This colored my view of the film. It also reminded me how much “State” matters.
The first time I saw this film I was excited, rested, happy, and I loved watching the movie. The second time was a much different experience. I was exhausted. I was feeling sick when I got to the movie. I sat there for the first half of the film with stabbing intestinal pains because these things happen when you have Celiac Disease. Then the people sitting closest to me would not quit talking during the film. It was a perfect storm to put me into a less than stellar state. I think this is why I didn’t enjoy the film all that much the second time around, I couldn’t focus on the movie. I was just in a weird mental place. I’m sure next time I watch the movie I’ll like it again.
Even though next time I will watch Star Wars I will like it, last time I still wasn’t into it because of some rather small and random things. A few common everyday things like being a little sick, and a little tired changed my state/personality/attitude 100% from its baseline. That is how fragile state of mind can be. It’s not really a big deal overall, I had a bad experience at the movie theatre, and that really doesn’t matter. This almost 180 degree turn in my attitude about a movie though made me think about how many times this happens in life and I don’t realize it.
Could my state be affecting my perception of things and performance more than I realize? If a simple state shift can take me from loving a Star Wars movie one day to ten days later thinking its mediocre, what else are state shifts impacting? I think this sticks out to me because of the great contrast there was in my viewing experiences. I wonder how often this kind of thing happens with daily life and I have no extreme contrast to draw my attention to it.
I feel as though I could be in a less than stellar state frequently in my life. Am I letting myself be thrown into a bad state that negatively impacts my daily work? I think it is quite possible. I think it is hard to recognize when this is happening. Work is not by its nature an extreme thing for me. The difference between a “good” day and a “bad” day might only be a 10% difference. I think that is something I can overlook. I think it has impact though. The damning thing is I don’t often think about what state I spend my days in.
Naturally being in a good state everyday is something I want. Part of being in this good state is monitoring and managing the state I’m in presently. If I don’t think about that, I don’t think I can change it when necessary. This isn’t a blog post about changing state of mind. There are a lot of ways to do that. This is about the first step of paying attention to state. I know I don’t do a good enough job of it.
I think paying attention to state is a bit of a spiritual and mental attunement. It involves paying attention to health. It involves paying attention to our responses to stimulus, I didn’t need to be annoyed by the people talking in the theatre. I could have just moved seats earlier than I did, I let that minor annoyance happen in my head, it was my response. I think state can be impacted by our self dialogue, the words we use hold a lot of power. There are countless things that impact our state, and I know I can do better managing and mitigating these things. By doing so I think I can draw many benefits.
I believe that there is more success and happiness to be found when we are in a better state. When in a good state we draw more good things to ourselves. In a negative or bad state, we push things away. The ok becomes great in a positive state, and in a negative, the good becomes horrible. Recognizing our states is the first step. The step towards experiencing life the way we want rather than letting life happen around us. The way to enjoying Star Wars far more when we watch it because after all “This is the way.”