Tag Archives: being present

EXPLORE

You and Optimal Systems – Part 2

Leave a comment

The Hypersensitive body

Let’s consider what would happen on the flip side of the creative restorative scales and see what the overly defensive system looks like.  The system that places greater emphasis on the defensive mode can become overly protective in which it ultimately starts attacking itself because it spends all it’s resources towards the defense. It needs to utilize all these defenses that it has dedicated, because the resources that have been designated need to fulfill their purpose. This means that a system that is too defensive can ultimately start attacking elements in the system that are beneficial for it. For instance any foreign element that can be introduced to it such as a piece of food will ultimately be rejected. And a defensive stance will be taken.  This is akin to what is known as the allergic response. An allergic response is when an otherwise harmless environmental substance is introduced into the system and the system has an inflammatory response due to the hyper or oversensitivity to that element. Not all environmental substances, but some that are introduced during a time when the system is on high alert, may be coupled with and from then on, will elicit this hypersensitivity. The body mistakenly thinks it is the foreign food that is what is putting the body into disarray rather than the situation surrounding the person, such as a stressful event.

We have seen this explained by the famous Russian Psychologist Pavlov and his dog, who described the concept of classical conditioning (CC). CC describes a process where an unrelated stimulus such as a bell when paired with a related stimulus such as food will make a dog salivate even when the food isn’t present and only the bell is rung. The same thing happens with allergies. A person’s body goes into a defensive mode when a food element coupled with a stressful event enters their system. Medical professionals may have an explanation for ‘how’ it happens but their ‘why’ never seems to place any relevance to the mind, instead hereditary or environmental factors are blamed. However with the introduction to our understandings of the mind on placebo, stressor-immune response and genetics, we see that there is a viable cognitive model for the mind on allergies.

The Hypersensitive culture

We see this hypersensitivity rear its head in the sociocultural systems as well. Take for instance the great nation of the USA. This system started as a well-functioning and evolving system very similar to an advancing human. It had both the capacity to advance in its understandings but at the same time have in-built a competent defensive functionality that had the ability to protect itself from any foreign bodies with malevolent intent.

I am not condoning aggressive behavior, however as we see in the human body the necessity of having an adequate immune response to invading elements is necessary so too is it worth having an adequate defense force to protect a societal system.

This US sociopolitical system however recently moved into the aforementioned allergic response in which the system put more resources into its defenses. It has ultimately begun to paralyze itself with the defensive stance that it is taking and attacking elements that can lead to greater advancement in the system such as the introduction of new cultures and new ideas into the system. Anything new is seen as a possible attack, treating it accordingly and sending the system into disarray.

This can be described as a fear based system in which the strangle hold on the illusion of what the country had for a certain period of time stops the momentum of progress. A great saying that refers to all elements in life is one to be remembered at this point – Love let’s go and fear holds on. Say it three times and understand it. Love let’s go and fear holds on. We hold on in our bodies, in our relationships, in our sociocultural systems. It stifles the progress and advancement of the evolving system. The system needs to grow otherwise it will feel the wrath of putrefaction born from stagnancy, a space of resisting the flow of life and fighting its current at every turn. So let life flow through you and those surrounding you and you will ride along to new heights.

EXPLORE

You and optimal systems – Part 1

Leave a comment

Recently I was considering the idea of optimal systems and what is required to keep them operating functionally. What I now feel is that systems require an allocation of resources both to the advancement of the system as well as to the restoration and protection of it. We as people, and as systems, need to keep an elevated tone in creation but require a harmony with its restorative functions. This is seen in the body as a balance between the sympathetic system which elevates and the parasympathetic system which restores. Both are necessary for the optimal functioning of any system whether it be one element of the human body, the human body as a whole, or a collective of people.

There is such similarities between the dynamics of systems. If you stop and take a step back you will see how the systems are operating under the same physics. It doesn’t matter what, who or where you are, you will find the synchronicities. It all just depends on what level you are looking at the world from. Whether macroscopic or microscopic we are all but different resolutions of the same picture.   Let us consider the balance below.

Woes of the Elevated culture


The Athenians were an advancing and creative civilization of the ancient world that gave us many of the seeds of our own thinking and advancements of the modern-day. Ancient Athens was a center for the arts, learning and philosophy, home of Plato’s Academia and Aristotle’s Lyceum. Athens was the birthplace of democracy as well as Socrates, Sophocles, and its many other prominent creators of the ancient world. Athenians operated truly harmoniously as a civilization, but without placing resources into the defense response, they were more susceptible to attack. Whilst they were progressing as a creative system, advancing moral and civil ideas and functionality, they had not addressed the defensive elements in the structure of the civil system properly to anticipate any offense. They were eventually overthrown and dissolved into the many succeeding empires.

Woes of the Elevated body

This balance is seen similarly in the body of a high performance athlete. When they train their body to optimal functioning the majority of their resources are being placed into maintaining the high functioning of the system. When the high functioning system is attacked by invading pathogens the system typically has not dedicated enough resources to maintain an equilibrium in the face of the high level of functioning required while balancing the immune defensive response. The body ultimately gets sick and injured more easily as it is operating at the brink of peak performance and it’s limits.

This high level of functioning is quite unlike a body that is constantly punishing itself, for instance with booze, unhealthy foods and lifestyle habits, the system knows to place more emphasis on the defensive/ immune response and in turn removes resources that would otherwise be placed into higher mental faculties.

If we look at the system from the perspective of high performance vehicles versus the old jalopy. Old Jalopies were built from much denser material and were very crude compared to modern-day, clunking along through the oil, dirt and grime of the system. Whereas the high functioning motors, whilst made of light and well lubricated systematics, a speck of dirt can throw the whole system out. The maker eventually learns how to treat the system and how to counter for the effects of the minutiae which can throw the system out. In this same way we too learn what ways don’t serve us and our progress in this world and how to change, and remove elements that reduce the efficiency and harmony of our lives. Unfortunately, sometimes people address the situation too late and many of the parts have worn down. We have now begun to replace to parts but even then we have dramatically reduced our potential.

When we this mechanical perspective it becomes clear how when we enter into a space of chaos, clunking and spluttering our way through life, we feel a general life discordance. Some life event and our reaction to it has led us to the question “why this?” However such chaos can be offset by acknowledging that we are hyper functional beings and in this chaos we have just pinpointed a speck of dirt which has thrown out our system. Through this we remove ourselves from an attachment to any end point, for as we know there is no end point, and instead insert ourselves back into the process of life – aka the flow. Through the acknowledgment of the process in chaos you now have the ability to adjust your perspective to a more powerful place by knowing instead of whats gone wrong, where you need to fine tune the system. Chaos in our lives is a blessing as it shows us where to grow. So love the process of adjustment because it is good to be happy in the good times but it is truly living to find happiness in the bad times.

EXPLORE

Gratitude gets you Zen

Leave a comment


When I was taking some time from my past relationship, I noticed I would feel bad when I tried to not think about her. I felt that this was not an effective method to help me deal with the changing shape of our relationship, for as we know what you resist persists. So I sat there and tried something different. I sent her gratitude for the amazing person that she is, for all the good times that we had and the lessons that she taught me. I immediately felt better and I wasn’t sure why until this moment and this is the lesson that I learnt about part of what gratitude’s power is.

Gratitude keeps us in the present.

Being present is the most important thing. The power in the Now.  In the present moment, the problems and patterns of the past have no avenue to creep in, and they have no way of imposing themselves on the future. When we are in gratitude it is impossible to be in any other moment but the present. Gratitude is an active state of being. It must be consciously acknowledged for it to be gratitude. If we don’t do it consciously it is being “taken for granted”.

We can feel joy unconsciously, like when we are eating something and it makes us feel good. However we can go through the meal without truly appreciating it, without truly being conscious and aware of the meal. That is why we suddenly finish and think, I can’t even remember eating that meal. That poor meal was taken for granted.  Once we acknowledge something and give it thanks, we are living in the present moment of now, and then we are truly living.

Gratitude is the most powerful mediation.

Gratitude is the quickest and easiest way to reach a truly meditative state. The true meditative state is when you can be completely present in the moment. The best way to be present is through appreciation, because you are not limiting anything. You are being completely accepting. Through this unadulterated acceptance, it opens you up to an even greater experience and expression of life. Gratitude is the in-breath of love. When we breathe in, during meditation, and give thanks as well, we are doubling the focus and meditative power of being present. It is for this reason that we can immediately find ourselves in a place of harmony. Harmony occurs not only in our bodies but also with the world around us. The Institute of HeartMath, a research group in California, has conducted studies on the power of using gratitude with breathing meditation.  Their results have been astounding. Through the use of gratitude, it has been shown that many of our biological systems have harmonized finding a physiological resonance that creates a form of visceral symphony. Our heart, lungs, hormones and even our brain all our working to the driving beat of the gratitude playing in our hearts.

Gratitude transforms fear

Unconscious joy is an opportunity lost but not as much as when we are in fear, which is true unconsciousness. Fear results in a true lack of appreciation and a true lack of consciousness. In fear we have no way of being present, instead we are truly locked in the patterns of the past and future and not “being in the present”. Our fear is similar to a fog that we are lost in. When you think of an experience that you are saying no to, that you are resisting, that you say is wrong, you feel it in your body and get lost in a spiral of thoughts.

Thinking those fear thought spirals, perpetuate cycles and reoccurring themes in your life. This is because you fall into the patterns of the past that you experienced when you were younger and your mind takes you down that road trying to protect you. It is inbuilt to humans to have this inclination towards the negative. It evolved for our protection and is referred to as the ‘negativity bias’. The negativity bias means that it is easier to think about the bad things and process them more quickly than the good things. This is so that if the bad things happen we will know what to do quicker to protect ourselves. That is all good and proper when we were cave men but the problem is that now we live in a World where dinosaurs and monsters don’t exist. But our bodies still think they exist so it is constantly trying and create them.

I’ll use horror films to explain this. Isn’t it interesting how in horror films the monster is so much scarier when we don’t see it, but finally when we the monster is revealed, we think, “Is that all?! That’s so fake!” It’s because our minds are programmed naturally to think the worst of the scene and the more we resist it and say “No” to the monster the scarier it gets. But the second we look at it, it immediately loses most of its scariness. The reality of the monster has taken form and thus collapses the infinite possibilities of scariness into only one possibility. It is because of this reason that we also recreate the patterns of our past, because “better the devil we know”. We know how story is going to end when we continually replay the same story and we know that while the monster is scary because we know what form it takes we are more inclined to deal with that monster than the other millions of monsters that can exist out in the world. But if we take a plunge and step into the darkness and unknown we may find that we slay the dragon and find an ending that better suits us.  So a powerful way of navigating through the unfamiliar territory of this new story is send the scary scene “Thanks”. Find all that you can be grateful for in the scene. Be grateful for all the amazing outcomes that can and will happen as you work through the darkness and you will give yourself a light to guide your way to a scene of something that you can love. You can even invite your fears to come along with you and work at your goals together. By doing this you know longer are denying the existence of your fears, which is the best way to let them go because what we resist persists and what we look at goes away.

Use your attitude of gratitude and you will find your way through any dark spot.