Outer chaos and inner calm

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” R. Buckminster Fuller

Election year 2020, Covid-19 fears, and wild swings in the stock market only serve to further agitate people who are already dealing with multiple personal issues. Many find themselves feeling off-kilter from the world’s input and no longer feel safe to be themselves. Anger, blame, and fear appear to be the active emotions when we are disproportionately focused on what appears to not be working both ‘out there’, and at home.

Self-destructive self-soothing

Much personal suffering festers in silence. With inner turmoil generated by easy-to-find outer chaos, self-soothing is called for. Yet conventional modes to do so can easily turn self-destructive; many will overuse alcohol, pharmaceutical drugs and street drugs like meth and cocaine. Unaddressed stress, anxiety and depression, only masked by over-indulgence, are commonly understood as potential precursors to physical issues of chronic pain or a disease process.

Triggered by the world in chaos

It is an erroneous, generally-held belief, particularly of first-world cultures, that undermines whole person health and happiness. We are thrown off-kilter by believing satisfaction in life can be achieved entirely from all that the world has to offer.

A mental and emotional cost of disconnection is paid by over-consumption of the world’s persistent negative input into our lives. Whenever we plug into emotionally-laced messages on a repeated basis, both positive or negative, it affects our own thinking and behavior more than we may realize.

This quote from 65 years ago is still relevant today:
“Agitation over happenings which we are powerless to modify, either because they have not yet occurred, or else are occurring at an inaccessible distance from us, achieves nothing beyond the inoculation of here and now with the remote or anticipated evil that is the object of our distress. Listening four or five times a day to newscasters and commentators, reading the morning papers and all the weeklies and monthlies–nowadays, this is described as ‘taking an intelligent interest in politics.’ St. John of the Cross would have called it indulgence in idle curiosity and the cultivation of disquietude for disquietude’s sake.” – Aldous Huxley, Perennial Philosophy, 103-104, 1945.

We are part of nature

Disconnection leads us to defining ourselves from the outside-in by building an image of ourselves externally. It is an image consistent with the belief, previously mentioned, that satisfaction in life can be achieved entirely from all that the world has to offer. Who we are has morphed to mean we are what we do: I’m a doctor, teacher, mother, scientist, businessman, model, etc.

Generally speaking, our outside-in identity is shaped exclusively by race, family and culture. Yet there is another side to the story of who we each are.
Two sides typically exist to everything in nature. For example: light/dark, day/night, physical/nonphysical, life/death, finite/infinite, outside/inside, order/chaos, positive/negative, hot/cold, left/right, big/small, etc. The contrast between the two is what informs us of the difference between them, like hot and cold. We, human beings, exist as part of nature, also with two primary sides. When we sort out ‘human’ from ‘being’ the contrast is clear.
– Human (outer, physical, finite: conditioned by family, race and culture)
– BEING (inner, nonphysical, infinite: unconditioned)

Civilized society: left brain over right

Absent the recognition and development of our inner resources as beings, we easily lose connection with the whole of who we are which includes the nonphysical side of life. Without both, by relying exclusively on the ‘human’ side, we all are susceptible to emotions of anxiety, anger and depression that also impacts important relationships. Additionally we tend to believe in the need for increased control of others and/or circumstances in order to be happy.

Starting with our two-sided brain of both a right and a left hemisphere, it appears that somewhere in human history, someone, or a culture, decided to make the left brain dominant over the right brain. Perhaps it began as a primal fear of the dark?
The tacit acceptance of allowing the left brain to dominate the right brain began the limiting definition of life as an either/or proposition. Generally speaking, that which is associated with the left brain: light, active, right, anything physical, order, etc., are generally considered good and right. That which is associated with the right brain: dark, passive, left, the nonphysical, chaos, etc., are often considered less favorably. In the outer-only either/or mindset the “human” is active while “being” becomes non-essential.

We are not human doings

Whereas a reconnected human being is not only active and productive, but, also as a being, takes precious time to find ways to tap into and develop the nonphysical dimension of life: infinite source energy.

Surprise, surprise, we are not human doings. Yet cultural neglect of our inner being due to a primary emphasis on ‘more’ often comes at the expense of humanity. One’s personal identity transforms when greater credence and attention is paid to infinite source energy; it can increasingly inform and integrate with the outer, physical human.

The mission, should you accept it, is to reclaim your birthright identity from the inside-out as not only an outer, conditioned human, but also as the unconditioned inner being connected to something larger than physical existence alone. The reconnected human being enjoys the option of living in a ‘both/and’ inclusive experience of life.

The medicinal use of cannabis can help jumpstart this welcomed, lifelong process.
This is one way a human being can reconnect to whole person wellness: body, mind and soul. Infinite source energy takes many forms and is available to us all without exception. As the great equalizer, it is where to find a new, welcomed perspective based on inspiration, wisdom, calm. Circumstances do not need to determine our emotions.

yogaesoteric
April 3, 2020