Cont’d – from Neutral Observers Cast a Light on Purpose
We observe the choices we make as we dig our innate ‘purpose’ out of the muck.
July 2021
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the iconic writer and philosopher explained over 200 years ago that, ‘In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized.
If we treat people as they are, we make them worse.
If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.’
Absolutely correct, of course.
We, modern humans of all ages, have been conditioned to welcome only feelings that make us feel good. Thus, we react to feelings perceived as ‘negative’, as we would to a cluster of spiders crawling all over us.
The thing is, feelings are ‘only’ temporary energy.
They exist solely to provide information that’s exchanged between body and brain. And that’s because the ancient wiring of our brain wants to help us take the sort of action that it thinks will keep us safe.
We know that, too.
We know it’s true.
But here’s the thing: before we can respond to peoples’ emotional idiosyncrasies, we first have to do that hard work on/about our own strengths and weaknesses.
Heads up: casual observation points to the reality that far too many of us are hoarders of one thing or another.
Often of too many things.
Of too many thoughts.
‘Humankind’s survival depends on our ability to stop rushing,’ said Thich Nhat Hanh, the internationally known Buddhist monk, author and peace activist. ‘We have more than 50,000 nuclear bombs, and yet we cannot stop making more. ‘’Stopping,’’ he added, ‘is not only to stop the negative, but to allow the positive healing to take place. That is the purpose of our practice — not to avoid life, but to experience and demonstrate that happiness in life is possible now and also in the future.’
Of course.
We know that’s also true.
That wiring has been engineered pre-dawn of time to enhance our opportunities as humans, not just to survive but to thrive. Actually, all of Nature has been engineered that way. The human body, fauna and flora are equally self-regenerative when allowed to breathe and ‘just be’ in a healthy environment.
Our body’s engineering is able to compensate for the imbalance, giving us time to rethink our thinking and let the emotion flow downstream like leaves on the back of a little brook.
But our body can do that only for a time.
Past a certain point, like the little brook hindered by polluting debris in its water, our body’s energy channels get congested.
They get blocked.
Reality check: complications are only created when we fail to bob along through the succession of disturbances – our necessary challenges – in a holistically sound manner.
So, dear Reader, what might be an accurate answer to the question, ‘Who Gave Us ‘That’ Life?!?’
Off on a (hopefully) connected tangent.
Yesterday was another day at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Beyond the medal tallies, talks of records broken along with many disappointed hearts, one vital conversation was about Simone Biles, the gymnast known for her defiance of the laws of physics.
The 23-year-old athlete, owner of 32 Olympic and World Championship medals, withdrew from the women’s gymnastics all-around final.
Rather than just go on aiming higher and even tighter, as Simone has for half of her life, she walked away from the competition.
Her choice.
An act of great courage.
Fans knew to always expect perfection from this four-time gold medallist, the only woman to successfully deliver a triple-double twist, and one can only imagine the initial onslaught of angry social media comments from many disappointed fans and detractors!
Undeterred, Simone explained herself on Instagram. ‘I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times. I know I dust it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me, but damn sometimes it’s hard hahaha!’
Now, doesn’t that sound familiar to many of us?
Simone explained that the main reason for walking out of the competition was that her mind and body were simply not in sync. She had been experiencing recurring bouts of the ‘twisties’.
‘The twisties’ is a disconnect that occurs when, in mid-air, a gymnast loses all awareness of where their head and feet are.
Which makes it very difficult to land safely.
Which could prove extremely dangerous.
When asked how long that brain/body confusion lasts, she replied ‘Honestly no telling/time frame something you have to take literally day by day, turn by turn.’
And as she speaks these words, this mega-champion’s personal crisis becomes very familiar to most of us.
She’s human. We’re human.
Even those of us who never lose our selves in mid-air are familiar with on the ground ‘twisties’.
When we’re frazzled and maxed out, don’t we say that we don’t know which way is up or down?
Or that our life is all topsy turvy?
Bottom line: we, too, need to ‘do’ life turn by turn.
Moment by moment in the gap between each inhale and exhale.
That’s because, more often than not, though our feet may be on the ground, our head is … not here.
‘Physical health is mental health,’ was one of Simone’s concluding comments, and she’s right.
But, maybe we can spin that thought back-to-front and also agree that ‘Mental health is physical health.’
Good news for us humans: once the setback is overcome, the bounce back is more remarkable.
Back to the main thread of this mind-meander which is finding our purpose by exercising our free will along with the freedom to choose what we think, say and do, as we observe our emotions.
We, humans, are conscious energy.
Once again, we have been incarnated on planet Earth and given our specific body as a vehicle.
Our soul has been despatched into the incarnation that we are for a reason.
From a secular perspective, we are free to adapt the meaning of ‘He breathed within him the breath (neshamah) of life, and Adam became a living soul – ‘Genesis 2:7 to life as we know it, as modern beings.
Heads up: of course, we have a purpose for being here. And following our gut feeling towards a ‘purpose’ is like doing an Easter egg hunt on difficult terrain.
Not easy, but each time we tread carefully, we get closer to the yummiest of all eggs waiting patiently for us to find it – definitely waiting for us 😊
Difficult emotions exist because of our psyche’s repeated mis-interpretations of ‘what truly came to pass’, whenever.
They exist as passive reactions to the resulting chain of seemingly endless, related complications.
No matter how we try to drown or smother our combo of ‘negative’ feelings and their ripple effects, unlike the cluster of spiders mentioned earlier, they can’t disappear quickly enough.
Instead, as that combo seeps throughout our vital organs, their toxic energy blocks our energy channels.
Our emotions go on doing that, too, when blocked by the static and turmoil, we fail to appreciate what, objectively, is acceptable and pleasant in our day-to-day.
That’s what our emotions and our thoughts do until we give them the space to just be long enough to regain our heart/mind coherence.
That’s what they do until we stop running from these difficult emotions and from the challenge of What-Is.
That’s what they do until the Neutral Observers that we are stop trying to swipe, mask or drown them along with our sorrow.
Reality check: the more we push back, the more we suppress negative feelings, the more we try to explain our selves to our selves and to others, the worst it becomes.
The worse it becomes in terms of the 3-D reality of our lives and the unperceived reality whirring inside all of our bodies’ systems.
Throughout each of our energy channels.
And, of course, from the gut to the brain.
Straight up!
Having said that, it’s worth remembering that, even under attack, each of our systems working together as one to compensate on our behalf.
Our body is engineered to keep us safe especially when it feels we are ‘under attack’.
Its most complex wiring is optimised to help us return a.s.a.p. to a state of emotional equilibrium.
When the balanced state is not available to our system, it goes haywire.
And to make sure we are aware of the stress it’s under, our brain sounds the alarm when our difficult emotions inflame it for too long.
It is then that we become physically and mentally unwell in incremental degrees.
Bottom line: the longer we allow an imbalance of emotions to rule our emotions, the harsher the consequences to our wellbeing.
We don’t have to feel ‘good’, but when we are brave, we feel good.
When we feel good, it’s easier to let synchronicity do its thing.
Reality check: our free will and freedom to choose are too often compromised by our fear of thinking differently from our norm.
It’s compromised by our fear to just be.
It would pay to better understand that, by doing our share of emotional, heart-over-matter, courageous emotion-control, we exert agency.
In doing so, we are better able to co-create with the universe whatever good moments and good outcomes that are currently ours to enjoy from the inside out.
These, then, are our own positive doing.
We, by way of our younger selves, have already made such moments happen many times over.
No one else did it for us.
Now, it’s our turn to do it for our selves as adults who have finally come of age’.
So, what if we developed a more robust gut/heart/brain coherence?
What if we befriended these feelings?
What if we just accepted them as the ripple effects of something past?
And what if we accepted that we are not un-deserving, not un-worthy of any of the positive aspects of the life we lead?
Regardless of anyone’s age, colour, gender and aptitude, accessing more and more moments of contentment, of freedom to be our selves and to think for our selves is without doubt everyone’s dream.
We all dream to be kept as safe, loved, and free to exist as do all toddlers – as do each of those wonderful cats and dogs we love and protect so much.
Carl Jung simplified the process for us many decades ago when he said, ‘What you resist, persists.’
‘And keeps us stuck in the muck,’ we might now add, 😉
Keep pondering & keep sharing.
But, above all, dear Reader, keep reading,
And, of course, I thank YOU for doing all of ‘that’. 🙂
