Throughout the last two plus years, I’ve heard and seen some things that to me have been completely unbelievable. I don’t think it matters who you are or where you live on this planet, we’ve been experiencing life as a species in a way that we have never faced before. Even if you consider that there have been other pandemics and plagues, we’ve never experienced them like we have in the last two years. One of the main differences has been the existence of the internet and the marketing of ideas.
Never before have we had such reach into peoples’ homes, into their psyche or into their intimate lives. The Tech/Media/Pharma companies have the power to touch us when and where no one else can.
As we’ve tried to go about our lives the best we can, we are always taking in information in the form of thoughts and feelings. What we think and feel is also determined by the world around us. Messaging is always there offering to us what to think and what to feel.
We take all these thoughts and feelings and we use them to determine our sense of self, who we are: what we like, what we don’t like, what we think is right and what we think is wrong, how we define a good person and how we define a bad person.
We take all of this information, cultural, religious, popular, and we form it into ourselves with a foundation of needing to belong. I think this is the basis of what it means to be human: belonging. We say that we’re social creatures and that our health depends on it. I think it goes much deeper than being able to get out with friends for a coffee.
The feeling of belonging is central to being human. And this is where some of the messaging through governments and media have been focusing on. Our sense of belonging has been under attack from the start. It’s gotten to the point where families have turned on each other, denied one another.
I have also seen examples of people valuing others over valuing being right. I’ve seen a lot of talk and imploring on social media about people having more compassion for one another in these times.
And yet compassion is difficult to have when our sense of self is bound to righteousness. The way to get to compassion is through humility.
Consider the possibility that even with all the science and political opinions and who you think and feel that you are, you and I can be wrong sometimes. Or at least consider that it’s possible to not be seeing the whole picture. Consider the story of the blind men and the elephant: https://www.peacecorps.gov/educators/resources/story-blind-men-and-elephant.
In previous posts I’ve talked a lot about the AOS, the Automatic Operating System of the body. It’s the part of the nervous system that runs in the background making sure that you stay healthy. It’s tied into every function of the body: the immune system, digestion, sleep, and our defense systems.
When we perceive a threat, the AOS puts the body into survival mode. Our bodies lockdown: we have less energy, less focus, more tension, less flow, less love. The threat that we perceive can be someone or something that’s trying to do us harm. We can also switch into survival mode and defense when our sense of self is threatened. And if we have bound our sense of self with righteousness, we go into defense whenever we are challenged with a seemingly opposing view.
In order to be healthy in body, mind and spirit, we need to have humility. Humility helps us remember to value each other before we value being right. I believe it’s our way through this time, not only for ourselves but for our species as well.