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In this information age, we are constantly being bombarded with messages telling us what to buy, what to do, and what to believe, along with all the other litany of facts and figures that come to us on a regular basis.
If you’re a projector type like myself in human design, your social media algorithm may be tailored more than most to give you lots of advice to apply to your life, and we can’t possibly soak it all up at once.
I’ve been finding lately that my brain feels manic (and I would know what this is like with Bipolar Type II) after scrolling TikTok for a few minutes. Multiple tabs are open in my brain, and I’m trying to remember every helpful suggestion I heard or saw, but it’s literally impossible to apply it all when it’s coming so fast! Not too mention, I have eight books checked out from the library that I rotate and read whenever I get a chance because I never have enough knowledge.
That’s when I realize I need to ground myself. And lately, I’ve been feeling the strong urge to unplug from everyone else’s messages and start listening to my own intuition and creating my own message. After all, if we’re always consuming, we can’t possibly be creating, and the content we create may not truly be original with so many other voices coming in.
Before heading to bed a few nights ago, I had to get out of bed and write down the words “Listen to You.” I just kept feeling this message was too important not to remember for myself, and with the constant use of social media these days and uptick in screen time, I know that others need to remember this too.
If you are never in silence, you will never have boredom. Too often, we use our smart phones as boredom pacifiers; instead of sitting with our own thoughts, we run scared to our screens to distract from anything uncomfortable that may come up. We push down intense feelings in our body and continually block the flow of energy.
I’ve been reading Neal Allen’s The Shapes of Truth: Discover God Inside of You, where he describes Hameed Ali’s teaching of the 35 body forms that manifest in our body if we take the time to feel what discomfort is coming up in our bodies: where we’re feeling it, what color does it feel like, and what viscosity. As we sit with the feeling, it starts to dissipate and change into one of the true body forms.
But what if we never allow ourselves to be embodied? All the distractions in the world allow us to escape discomfort and encourage dis-ease to manifest in our bodies. *Translate knowledge to wisdom.
In the article linked above (just click dis-ease), Makala Kozo Hattori quotes his meditation teacher as saying, “meditation is simply the practice of cleaning the vessel.” It’s a beautiful message that I feel so deeply when I take the time in my day to close my eyes, count my breaths, and focus between my eyes. Soon, I start to feel an uplifted feeling like my body is floating, and when I open my eyes to resume my day, I feel like a slate wiped clean. I can start fresh.
I believe that meditating and sitting with and truly feeling our pain (embodiment) is not only how we keep ourselves healthy and centered but also how we convert our knowledge to wisdom.
So I urge you today to find the time and space to put down your phone, ground yourself, and listen to you.
We have all the answers inside of us; we just have to learn to be still.
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