Blog Post #6: Life Compass

Ah, the Life Compass. Another writing activity assigned to my class by our English Professor, Cynthia S. Pittmann. And what an activity it has been!

To me, life is a great puzzle, a large mystery. The more we live, the more pieces we are given to what our future is to be. And through our experiences and the things we go through, we get closer and closer to completing the puzzle. It's an ever expanding puzzle that is meant to mystify and confuse their owners until they become wise with age. And it is meant to grow until death.

With life being a puzzle specially created to expand until death, it is rather simple to lose our way. It is only human to have moments of weakness and vulnerability. It is one of the greatest things that make us human, after all.

Why use this comparison with a puzzle? Rather simple, really. If sometimes the puzzle becomes too muddled up and confusing, we need something to get the puzzle's picture to be clear once more, right? And that's where the Life Compass comes in like a helping hand you never even knew you needed.

It's a rather simple exercise when you first think of it. Draw a circle in the middle of a page, write down Mind, Emotional, Body, and Spirit where you would normally find the cardinal directions. Once that was done, you were to rate each category with a number: 1 was the lowest score to assign, 2 was a very good balance, but not the greatest, and 3 was the highest possible score.

Seems simple, right?

Yeah, on paper, it does. Then you start working on assigning those numbers and you begin to truly think about how your day went and how external and internal factors have all affected you. Then you begin to notice the little things that irk you or make you happy and assigning one single number to how you're feeling begins to feel almost restricting.

I always managed to keep a medium score on my body's score. My back is always bothering me. If not that, then ankle or wrist. These pains usually hit me during the morning, when I usually made my compass. But they usually teeter off as time wears on during the day. But the rest of the scores fluctuated between 2 and 3.

I never assigned a 1 to any of my scores. Even on the worst of days, I still managed to feel good enough to assign a 2 rather than a 1. And I guess that's because I always try to keep a positive outlook on anything that's going on.

Still, I did notice that by the end of the project, my spirit's score began to plateau in 2 even though it had been interchanging between 2 and 3 before the last four days of the compass. And that was because I was going through a rather rough period spiritually, although I tried to remain optimistic. Although, when you start doubting your faith, it's hard to keep a steady head.

Aside from that, I noticed that I had some really good days. I can usually ignore my back because I have gotten so accustomed to it and it barely affects me anymore. Which is why, even on my best days, body always had a 2. Still, I keep a positive look on life.

This exercise really helped me reflect on my emotions and state of mind in a way that the past exercise, the First Thoughts, didn't quite reach. Although I don't think I will continue using it, like I have those past reflections. I noticed that, by assigning numbers to how I felt, I began to think of reasons why I felt kind of bad although I had experienced a rather good day. For me, it made me find everything that had gone wrong in my day. And it wasn't quite a pleasant experience to find myself nitpicking every little detail.

Although, maybe in a point of my life when I feel that stress has gotten to be too much, I may just try this exercise once more to try and find a way to help myself.

Writing this all down made me think of a song. Stand by Me. It was initially sung by Ben E. King. But it has been covered by countless artists, including John Lennon, Otis Redding, Darius Rocker of Hootie and the Blowfish, and even Prince Royce in a bachata version.

In a way, the Compass offered the helping hand the song speaks of.

Here is the version that touches me the most, one performed by various artists from around the world as part of the Art of Saving a Life campaign.