#49 Not Like but Love

We’re all connected. We’re all one. Yet there’s still the harsh reality that there are still things, people and circumstances that we don’t like.

They make us feel uncomfortable, sick, or just don’t fit our taste. Yet when we deny them or judge them, we are inherently denying some deep, albeit seemingly distant part of ourselves.

Learning to love the things we don’t like is a practice in tuning into the deeper frequencies of life, of remembering how interwoven we are, and choosing to love the beauty of that, despite how the surface level things play out.

Both can exist at once, to not like yet to love, and holding those two possibilities at once, I believe is an act of respect for the multidimensionality of ourselves, and this life.

#41 The Journey with No End

We’re all so unique – different upbringings, accents, experiences and styles. We all have our own story, and that point of difference is also our point of connection.

All coming from somewhere, and going some place else. All with a hope or dream, or at least some desire we’re after, and the inevitable obstacles that seemingly lay in the way of our destination.

The morals and themes of our narratives are different, but they all share the same arc. A fundamental pattern to the nature of existence. The origin, rise, fall and rise again. A wiggling line, wavering up and down, missing the mark time and time again, until it doesn’t, and the old ways upend.

Only to live on in the hearts and minds of those who watched and listened to our tragedies and triumphs, while our souls begin again, on the journey with no end.

#40 Get Your Guru Here

Don’t go searching for a guru, when you are ready, the guru will find you. Or something like this, is the quote I’ve heard stated by yogis and mystics. Sadghuru says something like this.

I’ve always wondered what this means, how this could be the case. And then something dawned on me. Perhaps the guru is not a teacher in the typical, wise old man ready to dispel knowledge my way. Instead, perhaps the guru is the one who comes searching for something from you.

After all, isn’t it in the teaching of something, when you really begin to learn and know something very well? Or in the helping of someone, that we get beyond our personal issues, and expand into something greather than ourselves? Or even in the learning to deal with circumstances and people that seemingly causing us pain, that we learn to go within and find the means to come out the other side more resilient and with a deeper sense of self?

The young child, who brings all of their questions to you, and in their asking, they remind you of the wonders of being young. Or in the case of the shaman, it is the patient that the shaman needs. In this strange, almost twisted sort of way, the shaman needs the illness and darkness in order to perform their duty and perfect their craft. Or even when it comes to our own physical pains and traumas… lurking from the shadows to reveal something to us about the nature of the deepest parts of our being.

The guru, or teacher comes in many forms. If not from a wide old man, or even a young child, then even from a place within, when the time is right. 

#37 Light of the Soul, Enters Through the Hole

What does it take, to create the space, in mind and body, for the soul to come through? For our light to fully shine?

I love the quote by Robert Bly, where he says “People too healthy, too determined to jog, too muscular, may use their health to prevent the soul from entering. They leave no door. Through the perfection of victory they achieve health, but the soul enters through the hole of defeat”.

I’ve experienced this myself. The obsession with working out 6 times a week and eating super strict, consumed with the goal of dropping fat or looking shredded. It put myself into a state of perpetual stress… of constant tension which made it difficult to ever loosen up. To literally let my fascia unwind, and my nervous system calm, my diaphragm to drop and my brow to soften. Tightness can be great, and so can working out, but the flip side is also important.

Sometimes it’s when we’re most insane about our routines or diets, to the point where it starts to take us out of the present moment and disconnect us from the reason we started them in the first place, when we need to back off a bit and reexamine ourselves. Widen our perspectives, shake out our bodies, and notice the subtle movements that start to find their way through the openings.. and wind their way through our being.

#32 AI & The Tapping of Human Energy

I’ve noticed that when I use ChatGPT too much, rather than tapping into my own creative wellspring to write or put something together, I feel a little grimy. And not just grimy in the sense that I cheated my way into something, but grimy in my body.

My shoulders slump a bit, by spine compresses, and my hands get a little cold. It’s like I lose a little bit of energy – I outsource a bit of my power to the machine, I give some of my fire away to the bot.

Is it too much to say, that I lose a bit of my life force, sell some of my soul to the artificial one inside of the screen? There are many great advantages that come with working with AI as a tool to support, to check or reference in some cases.

But to rely on it as a source of expression, as a means for creative output, devalues the human being. It subverts the soul for the sake of efficiency, expediency, and convenience. Sure, we’ll get things quicker, but we do so at the expense of the process.. at the expense of the ups and downs, suffering and realizations that come through the act of creation itself.

There’s a lot of talk about the threats of AI to humanity and civilization, but I don’t hear this issue talked about. The dangers not of jobs being replaced, but of minds and bodies being hallowed by the ravenous, energy expensive algorithm.

Just like any tool ever invented in the history of mankind, AI can be used for the betterment or detriment of life on earth. The path it takes, will be solely dependent on our ability to stay rooted in our sense of self, grounded in our bodies, and guided by a creative vision and ideal which transcends the goal of attaining the object of our desires, and remains perpetually fueled by our love of, and reverence for, the journey that gets us there.

#9 September 13, 2023 - Songs of the Soul

Something interesting happens when singing a song. When the lyrics are felt and believed, when they resonate with the core of one’s being, the voice deepens. The body opens up, and the sound of the voice reverberates through the entire body.

A healing takes place. A release of stuck energy. The story being sung guides this process. It helps clear the mind and body and bring the singer directly into the present, to become a channel for the song to come through.

A powerful story that resonates this way, whether it’s in the form of a song, a book, a speech, or a brand, will have this healing capacity on the hearts and minds of others in a similar way. A transformative ability to help people get in touch with the deepest part of themselves, and bring that to life.