You can choose to work with that, though.
Do you know reality?
Do you know how it all functions and fits together?
Are you aware of the social dynamics in play in your life?
Are you an active member or is life washing you downstream at a rapid pace?
Do you feel that you’re in a canoe navigating life’s challenges?
The nature of life has a form. Each tree, each water particle, a gust of wind, crackling fire particle, or piece of metal, has a structure.
If you ignore this fact, then you will find life hard.
Going against the forces of the universe is a flawed formula for a human being; there’ll be friction to the underlying principles of nature, until one day you won’t be able to withstand the force of that friction.
Some are better than others at holding that friction within them.
It’s curious to me that most of humanity lives in that zone. Human-centric behaviour is rife. We think we can control the planet to our gains in it’s absolute, even amongst the warning signs of fire tornadoes, huge hurricane storms, tidal waves, and rupturing earthquakes.
Or is this just part of the cycle of the Earth?
Roaming its way through cataclysm; it’s own growth.
We have lived through a relatively stable period of the Earth in recent times. It is much more natural for it to display massive shifts in its state; releasing the tension that forms under the crust.
The fact remains, we’re not helping the situation with overconsumption.
Social dynamics
Every one of us has a social identity that we use to navigate being a part of ourselves, our family, a society, a nation, the human race.
There seems to be an innate drive for us to see the traits that we celebrate in others, and hope that those aspects will change so that they are more in line with us.
This drive is detrimental because people won’t change unless they want to. It takes too much courage, and effort, for change to miraculously appear out of nowhere.
Don’t delude yourself.
When we live in delusion, we don’t see the reality and nature of our relationships; it causes us shock and tension when we judge another. For when they move in ways that are outside of our expectation, we have an emotional reaction.
Spirit
It is the readiness of the mind that is wisdom.
~ Shunryu Suzuki ~
I took this quote from ‘Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind’ and it speaks to me.
To gain readiness, you must have an awareness of all the possibilities in your environment and how nature works.
How your environment changes with the seasons, how your lover’s moods fluctuate with the tasks that they need to perform, how water fluctuates in different temperatures, the local weather, what food is available in your local town, what your budget affords you in that respect.
From this space of awareness, you can cultivate a response.
I took this quote to heart when I read it a few years ago:
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.
~ Viktor E. Frankl ~
It’s in ‘Man’s Search For Meaning’, the book about finding meaning when all the things, we need to survive as a human being, are taken away. Frankl survived the holocaust camps before writing his book on meaning.
Proactively developing the space of understanding and humble wisdom, and allowing that to unfold in your life patiently, is observing the nature of reality.
Money
I’m struck by how much my recent work around money mindsets plays into this; I had developed such real and inhibiting projections onto money. I’ve been reading ‘You Are A Badass At Making Money’ by Jen Sincero, to counteract these.
My limiting beliefs around money didn’t stop with the concept of money itself; they are all forms of lack; self-worth issues. They actualise the self-doubt that I have about myself.
So many people are frustrated with their lack of growth without wanting to dive into the root cause. These are the subconscious beliefs you have about why you’re not worthy of receiving wealth, why you won’t admit that you are wealth itself.
Abundance is in every cell in your body. Your elements; the stuff that your body is made of, are formed in a dying star.
Dreaming around money, and the limiting beliefs that it brings up can be a relatively straightforward exercise to actualise.
Think of something you want, now think of what desires and motivators you have to bring that into your life. You might even have some visualisations of yourself achieving those things; sitting around the table in your new house, eating an enriching meal with your family, wandering around a temple in a spiritual environment, or sunning yourself on a beach with a cocktail.
Interestingly, you can’t fully know your doubts until you’ve followed this visualisation to its end. After you see this life in it’s actualised form, your mind then begins to circle into the doubt of making it a reality:
- “I’ll never earn enough”.
- “Being wealthy isn’t for me; it’s for other people”.
- It’s too hard”.
- “I’ll never make it”.
- “Money is evil” (emotional projection onto money).
Belief
In-specificity is the ego’s friend in these scenarios because it lacks accountability. It’s a quick form way of giving us peace of mind; it’ll work for the short term solution; it might help you to appease a difficult situation at work, and keep your head down.
If left unchecked, these scenarios will build over time, simply because our soul desires to expand in growth, and it has given us an image of what it wants to see.
This image will come back to us time and time again until we move towards the actualisation of it.
I’ve had images that have been so strong for me, and I’ve moved towards them only to find that they were mere way-markers on life’s extended journey.
To judge these may-markers is to do ourselves a gross disservice.
This practice keeps you stuck in stagnancy.
You were always wondering what might have been if you’d followed that calling.
A common misconception is that relieving tension achieves the right conditions for growth. That is merely incongruent to the reality of growth.
Development is unearthed in dynamic tension, motivation, desire for something different, and a deep belief in what you want to achieve as a possibility.
The people that do best at growth know that what they want to see in their life is possible. Before it enters their life, they emotionally and physically position to receive it.
These principles are described well in ‘You Were Born Rich’ by Bob Proctor. Proctor describes that desire can only be actualised if it is planted firmly in your subconscious mind, which has no preference or sense of fairness. It will move towards whatever belief you exist in, at that moment, whether it serves your soul’s vision or not.
Proctor also states succinctly that:
The instant you become aware you are entertaining thoughts which create doubt, become quiet, start relaxing and image yourself already in possession of the prosperity you desire. When you do this, you are altering the mental current, which is flowing into your marvellous mind.
Pragmatics
The practical application is, if you want to achieve something, you must know precisely what it is; it’s nature, what it will require of you, how it fits into the broader environmental, and social dynamics.
Alongside those, and equally as important, what is the desire that drives you to achieve this? Will it fulfil you?
Once all these things are clear, you quickly step forward on the next logical step.
You will often be surprised that the next step didn’t require as much of you as you’d thought.
Integrating thoughts
Once you know the nature of life, you can begin to understand the parameters at which you can actualise yourself in, in the field that you feel called to work.
Specificity has received a bad wrap in recent generations, it’s the path to freedom, because of the gap between stimulus and response.
It also works wonders in a relationship, so everyone can follow, and be respectful, to agreements.
The first step is awareness, then willingness, then an understanding of the options that you have before you. Only then can you respond.
The soul is generally satisfied and fulfilled if it is moving and expanding.
The first step is to take one. Always take one.
Be mindful to which way you are taking. Know the rules of nature, and you’ll succeed in actualising your goal, alongside those facts of life.
It’s a stunning process to behold because once the universe starts working for you, you can notice that the body is a fantastic tool and that you can be an energetic vessel for life.
This is not just spiritual bypassing either; I’m talking about knowing the physical and progressive rules of how natural environments work.
You either work with them or against them.
The difference between ‘woe is me’ and ‘life works for me’.
It’s more efficient to work with life, and once you get through the initial phase, you’ll begin to find that it becomes a curious and enjoyable process.
Give it a go.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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You may also like these posts on The Good Men Project:
White Fragility: Talking to White People About Racism | Escape the “Act Like a Man” Box | The Lack of Gentle Platonic Touch in Men’s Lives is a Killer | What We Talk About When We Talk About Men |
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Photo credit:Denis Degioanni on Unsplash