THE POWER OF PLACEBO
Wild Deer photographed from a kitchen window in Wisconsin.
THOUGHTS ON AVOIDING A PERMANENT TRANCE STATE IN A WAR MENTALITY
It is so easy right now to get riled, to get righteous, to start spoiling for a fight.
And I know sometimes you need to go out there and fight, it is a part of life, it is natural.
But what if we ALSO incorporated conscious time-out from the fray and intentionally induced thoughts of peace and loving contemplations?
The suggestion is to give yourself some portion of conscious time EVERY DAY where you are not fighting with yourself or anyone else; that you are resting, reducing your own suffering and tuning into the frequency of peace, receptivity and ease. That you take time EVERY DAY to at least experiment with the idea that we are all mirrors, reflecting and refracting and repeating images and emotion. For a few moments, to be really conscious of what you are reflecting.
Being overly righteous is addicting, distracting and puts a blindfold over your eyes, a locked door over your heart and noise-canceling headphones over your ears. If you stay there all the time, you’ll miss solutions, gifts and important synchronicities. It excuses you from contemplating the truth that whatever triggers you, whatever catches your attention, has some counterpoint within you and the most skillful first step to dealing with it might just be on the interior, with compassion for that part of yourself.
What if occasional breaks from battle will enable you to move forward purely when you next engage? That you will be able to remember that after all, people are doing the best they can from where they are.
Suppose it is possible to respond instead of react. Give yourself a break in the rhythm - bless yourself, bless your friends, bless even your enemy, if only for a few moments. Treat yourself to a short period of time when you connect to something greater and ask for their help so you don’t feel like you have to do everything yourself. Develop equanimity and compassion and see if new solutions arise in that space that you previously could never conceive in the flight or fight state.
P.S. As I was writing this, I had a moment of “who am I?” to write this? I am human, I am online, I get hypnotized, I get entranced too. But then I decided that it’s a message I am sending to myself that hopefully has merit for someone else and is therefore worthy of sharing.
Peace.
To further explore how addicted we are to our "problems" - take PLACEBO for a test drive - even a few moments (maybe more!) of LIBERATION are worth it.
