When I wrote my first post on Anti-Zen I didn’t realize I had more bit of wisdom to share.

Today’s lesson is about feeling free to be yourself.

In Zen philosophy you should detach yourself from others’ opinions. As you allow yourself to be free you inspire others to be free.

Isn’t that lovely? It never helped me, not once.

I have writer brain. This means that I can get to a place where I am imagining all the different inner dialogs strangers could be having about me. Of course they care about me and what I’m doing. See how the universe spins? That’s me in the middle. Yep, right there.
So how did I overcome my fears? Well honestly I haven’t but I do have an anti-Zen saying that helps me.

No matter what I do, someone will hate it, think its stupid, or laugh. I can’t control this, but I also don’t have to live for that person because if I’m standing and watching others dance or on the floor getting my freak on (I have several friends who are now banning me from using this phrase BTW) someone will be judging me or wondering why it is I’m doing something. I can’t control this so I might as well have fun.

I must admit I really only have to worry about other writers. In conversations with my normal friends, i.e. non-writers, apparently they don’t stand in line at the grocery store and wonder why someone is wearing that outfit. They also don’t watch body language and create intricate relationships for strangers at restaurants.

So maybe my new anti-Zen philosophy should be, as long as there aren’t any writers nearby no one cares what you’re doing, so go and have fun. And if there are writers, have fun anyway you might inspire a character in their next novel!

Today’s music is another Eurovison Song Contest Song