Lingchi- Overwhelmed Little By Little

The straight forward frustrations of everyday life usually will not bring us down, we are resilient! We overcome so many day to day challenges, it’s not even funny. But the slowly creeping attacks on our happiness that happens on all fronts, this is where we start to get that sinking, I’m losing everything, feeling. Missing a bill you forgot to pay will hurt a little. But getting the late fee, then your stocks tank, and now having to put the car in the shop, AC breaking down at the house, subscription renewal fees, and having to pay a traffic ticket may have you feeling like it’s impossible to get ahead.

 

This is a metaphorical Lingchi, “Death by a thousand cuts”. When we look at being overwhelmed with frustrations, when we are in the middle of it, it will seem as though the world is totally against you. It may well be. But here is something I would like for you to consider, have we set ourselves up for this? Have we left open doors for adversity to come in and wreck what we are trying to accomplish? 

 

The doors we leave open are usually in these areas:

• Lust, which uncontrollable desire
• Gluttony, over indulgence or over consumption of something
• Greed, the never-satisfied pursuit of material things
• Sloth, laziness and apathy towards things
• Wrath, uncontrolled anger, where you only think of revenge and rage
• Envy, jealousy and resentment over things others have or are doing
• Pride, arrogance and misplaced self-confidence coming from the admiration of self

 

We all have a little bit of each of these going on in our minds most of the time, but when it becomes uncontrollable and we act on these desires, this is when we start our fall down into situations we don’t want to be in. These are doors opening us up to experience “death by a thousand cuts”.