As 'The Infinite Compass' enters the design stage, even though there is plenty for me still to organise around it, my thoughts turn to the next stage of 'The Enculturalised Mind'. Its then that the portal opens up and I find the information flow begins to show me what needs to be looked at next.
In my morning conversations with my partner, the issue of how programmed we are to the making of money and what it will buy, to the detriment of everything else in our lives. It used to be that procuring food and shelter was part of our interactions with the rest of our community. Our work and play were one and the same. In this economic pseudo-cultural, we are split off, separated, from Life in order to 'earn a living'. At least in our grandparents time there was an end to one and the beginning of the other as we had our 8 hour day and our weekends to place appropriate boundaries around the work part. Since the 1980's and the beginning of 'economic rationalism' work has been creeping and spreading until many of us have no evenings and weekends in which work is not the ever-present possibility as soon as the phone rings or the computer bleeps. Economics control our lives. We have been expected to go the extra mile, which has then turned into a lifestyle.
In 'The Infinite Compass' I explore how this all came about from 9500BC til' now. In its second part, I look at the wisdom that we have been bequeathed to find and maintain our mental, emotional, bodily and spiritual health, bringing balance to our being.
In The Enculturalised Mind I have dug into how we have become programmed, from even in the womb, to think a certain way that enhances the economic culture, but detract from our own path to be the unique person that we always were meant to be. The diversity that comes with uniqueness is built into the biological system. Like a jigsaw puzzle requires a different part of the picture on each piece, so does the health of our communities. However the system require that we all fit in to its boxes, no matter the damage that is done to the person as the edges that don't fit, but provide that diversity, are cut off. Like the new peaches called, I think, Flatos, are designed to pack flat into crates, allowing more peaches per square meter, but less flesh per piece of fruit.
Whilst it take a lot of commitment and work to weed out the programmes in the brain that have been trained into us to be a 'standard' human being, there is a part of the systems voice in our heads that will always alert us to the 'operating system' of the culture. We call it the 'Critic'. That's the one that is always telling you what you should and shouldn't do. Or even what you 'can't' do, without you even trying. Really its more about what the ruling system doesn't want you to do, rather than what you are able to do. So wherever you hear those words in your head, you are being put on notice that the system is controlling you.
The thing is, we have another mechanism always pointing to our unique selves despite the cacophony in our heads. That is our senses and feelings. If you switch to them when you hear the critical voice of the system, you will often find that they are telling you something else; what you really want, and need to do, instead. It is that voice, as you listen to it, that gradually teaches you to trust it above the other. It takes time to overcome the culturally induced fear of outcomes, but as long as we are making those choices for ourselves, not imposing anything on anyone else, we are in safe territory.
Our feelings always prioritise our wellbeing because their job is our healthy survival. Sometimes that will mean we will need to find alternatives to the way we have been living; a different way of feeding ourselves, different relationships, or places to live. But no matter what the change requires it will always be in line with your individual wellness, and eventually the wellness of the Whole.
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