Feeling Crazy These Days?

We’ve all been there, feeling crazy at times, like you’re losing your mind. We’re living in a world where we have more information coming in than ever before. Our human ego mind is desperately trying to figure out what’s real, what’s true, what’s best. In 2020, our experience has been compounded by the appearance of COVID-19. It’s a challenge to findImage courtesy of Pixabay - the digital artist balance in a world of competing ideologies. Everyone seems to be have really good reasons (and scientific facts) to support the way they think and act.

Psychology suggests that humans have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and behaviour in harmony and to avoid disharmony, When disharmony, or cognitive dissonance, is present, we experience stress. Our ego mind has options when a contradictory or different piece of information comes up against what we hold as true. We can ignore the new information that is creating the dissonance. We can denigrate those who choose to believe it. This kind of response will strengthen our previous belief. Or we can open to the new, feel our way through the emotions that come up, and make a choice from a higher, divine perspective.

What if the old beliefs keep us trapped in patterns of thought and action that no longer work for us or for humanity? What if it is necessary to break down and break through these old ways of being human in order to create a new world of equality, compassion, love, respect and peace?

The beliefs that we have now are just thoughts with an emotional charge. The older and more revered the belief is, the stronger the emotional attachment. You feel even crazier, out of control, when they are challenged. The more we cling to or push away from a belief the stronger the belief becomes. This is how our mind builds our ego self.

It is not just simpler to follow what our mind already thinks is real, it has been our way of survival. We have been taught to accept guidance and instruction from those we hold as leaders in our lives. Too often, we give authority figures from our religious, political, scientific, educational, familial and other traditional belief systems the power to tell us what is true, what is real and what is not. If have learned that if we follow our leaders, we experience a sense of belonging and we feel safe.

It is not easy to let go of the past, to try something new. And yet, most of us have done exactly that in many areas of our lives. We have accepted and welcomed new science, new theologies, new ways of being in relationship as a family or member of a community. Many have found freedom and peace, redefining ourselves in a different way.

What if, just as the world around us seems to be falling apart, we must allow the same process within us? What if the experience of being crazy is integral to letting go of the ego mind as our primary operating system? As we do, our heart, our divine knowing can take its rightful place. In order to make a choice from our heart, to find divine wisdom in the chaos, we must allow the emotions to rise up. Once these are released we can find our balance again as we follow our heart’s knowing, our wisdom. Wisdom, a thought without emotional charge, is available to all of us in every moment.

Wisdom is not information. It is knowing what to do with the information that comes to us. When our human mind gets involved, trying to figure things out or to find the truth, the process is mired in past experiences which are simply emotionally charged memories. This is the source of the dissonance, the confusion, feeling crazy: old emotions are involved, usually fear-based. Wisdom allows for discernment, choosing freely what you know to be loving, kind, compassionate, peaceful.

An evolution of human consciousness is beckoning to us, inviting each of us to let go of the old and allow new, higher perspectives to come through. This is the choice we have as we experience the chaos and confusion in the external world and within ourselves. Do we want to keep living in the black and white world of right/wrong, good/bad, us/them? Is it even possible to create a world of differences without blame or separation?

Letting go of the polarity by releasing the emotional entanglements leads to balance. We can then feel our way through the information and choices presented to us and realize a higher perspective. This is the the way of Unity Consciousness.

As humans, we appreciate and even need duality or contrast, just not the extremes we are experiencing today. Contrast allows for discernment, finding our preferences or what works for us. When judgments (fear-based thoughts) are in the mix, as is prevalent these days, we are operating from old emotions. Knee-jerk reactions are the norm: blaming, pushing against the Other, and fighting for the old way of being.

As creators of our own reality, we can choose to loosen the hold of these old beliefs, attitudes and behaviours. New possibilities from higher perspectives are available when we begin to let go of the old and allow new. Divine awareness flows into and through us. We can stop the blame-games, the confusion and violence we see today by becoming aware of our own thoughts, our self talk. From this awareness of what no longer serves us, we can gain insight as we release the fear-based attachments to that thought. As we put these insights into practice, we integrate a new, higher way of being within our human ego mind and into our attitudes and behaviours.

Let me say this again: We have all made these shifts in some areas already! We have changed positions on a topic or accepted some person that, in the past, we would have judged. Perhaps it was something about you that you finally allowed as your truth. Isn’t it time that we remember we are divine beings here in human form? That we can expand this willingness to allow everyone to have their stories, their truth? It doesn’t need to change who we are or how we live our life – but it can change how we are with the Other, those who are different.

We truly can create a world of peace and harmony, of love, compassion, respect and joy. It begins within each of us. Are you willing to pay attention to those moments you blame or make others wrong for having different beliefs? What about those who hold beliefs that seem to put you in unsafe situations? Or those whose reality challenges yours? We have a choice: We can create our reality from old fear-based thinking and behaviours. Or we can let go and allow our divine self to show us ways to find balance within. Then we can model this balance in the world around us.

Please, please, pay attention to this – remember Einstein:  “We can’t solve problems if we use the same kind of thinking that created them.” Are you willing to do what is necessary to create a world you would like to live in, a world in balance? Become aware, Let go of the old, Allow the new, Become the new. I know, it sounds simple, but it takes intention and attention. It can be life- and world-changing…if you take one step and then another and then another. You will find, moment by moment, more peace, more balance, more joy in yourself and your world.

[avatar size=”thumbnail” align=”left”]Quan Yin – goddess of compassion and mercy[/avatar] by Eloecea

 

 

 

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Header image courtesy of NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope

Our Stories and Truths

We all have our stories and our truths. We’ve gathered them from our life experiences – what we were taught in our early years and what we have learned during this lifetime. We hold onto these experiences and learning as our truths. But what exactly is truth?

I remember my first foray into personal psychotherapy decades ago. Early on, I told Carol, a Christian psychologist, that I just wanted to know what was true. Then I could act on that, follow the rules associated with that truth, and be happy. I’d been depressed most of my life for a myriad of reasons. Nothing I’d tried, nothing I’d learned, nothing I’d done had lifted me out of the despair. Yes, there were moments of happiness, of feeling good, but underneath it all was this hopelessness and fear. So, maybe there was a truth out there that I didn’t know about, a path to happiness, that would change all that. Didn’t Jesus say “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (Jn8:32)?

I really don’t remember her answer, which is strange because this was my QUESTION! This would CHANGE MY LIFE. What I do remember is a gradual shift from thinking the answer was out there somewhere to finding my truth within me. I began to let go of the layers of emotional entanglements I had formed in my life, the stuck places that kept me mired in fear. I began to trust my inner knowing, my own truth, my own divinity.

My stories are a combination of what I have experienced (situations) and the emotions I felt at the time (reactions). Until I recognized this, I continued to be stuck in emotional reactions from the past that then began to affect all of my present and future experiences.

I’ve let go of trying to find a truth out there that will bring me happiness, that will bring peace and joy to everyone. One size does not fit all…that is spurious thinking. Anyone or any belief system that suggests otherwise is false. I say this because it keeps us stuck in trying to make a limited understanding of our world the truth for everyone. What is true for me does not necessarily resonate as true for another.

Are there universal truths? Yes. I’ve written about Christ Consciousness or Unity Consciousness before…that place of wisdom that comes from letting go of what we think we know. This wisdom encompasses a higher, divine perspective of compassion, harmony, love, respect for self and others, service to others, peace and joy. Wisdom comes from clearing old emotional baggage from our thoughts and beliefs. This is a path to remembering who we are as divine beings, here in this body, having human experiences.

 Awareness –> Emotional Release –> Insight –> Integration

We become aware of some thought or behaviour that doesn’t fit with our divine Self. When asked, the divinity we know is ready to assist in making us aware of these. There is usually an emotional reaction attached. We don’t have to dig for anything…that emotion is right there waiting to be released. Just allow it to come up – often other situations with similar reactions will come up as well. Once released, we are open to new insights from a higher, divine perspective. Integration happens naturally as we allow this wisdom to permeate our new way of being.

I learned the simplicity and efficacy of sharing wisdom through stories from the Indigenous tradition of teaching. Most of us have been taught facts, theories and rules. Trying to change the thoughts and beliefs of others by challenging them in the old ways or spoon feeding them information just gives them more facts from their external world which may or may not be true for them.

Stories, once cleared of old emotional attachments, provide guidance with room for exploration of how the lesson might fit for the listener. I encourage you to give attention to your own stories, clearing them and sharing them when asked.  The possibilities of all being lifted up into Unity or Christ Consciousness increase exponentially. Generalizability is real, and it can begin within you.

[avatar size=”thumbnail” align=”left”]Quan Yin – goddess of compassion [/avatar]

 

by Eloecea

                                                 

 

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                Header image courtesy of NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope