Monday, August 3, 2009

EXPLODE INTO LIFE!

HEAVENS ABOVE – WE’RE ALL AT SEA!

 

The One Show (BBC1) recently aired a feature on stargazing – of the astronomical type – in which it discussed the lost ability of navigating by the night sky.  According to the programme, knowledge of the star system was once common knowledge and while adventurers used the stars to navigagte their way to new frontiers, everyone in the general population could easily find their way home using the stars as a guide.  An interviewer from the show went on the street asking people to point out the North Star and no one could!  Help!  We’re lost.

 

As I lolled about in bed this am, pondering on life the universe and everything as I’m wont to do before getting up, I mulled over this info.  It strikes me that, apart from the sad fact that we’ve lost the ability to connect with our essential natural birthright, the ancestral knowledge of navigating independently through unfamiliar terrain, we’ve also, as individuals in modern society, lost the ability to connect with, and be guided by, our internal North Star – our authentic Self.

 

The unique voice and vision of the individual has been clouded over by the promulgation and promotion of culturally constructed Stars, those success stories the media parades for our consumption, the celebrity business moguls, singers, actors, models, dancers, formula 1 drivers, gurus of financial, entertainment  and political arenas which fit and promote a very narrow spectrum of being.  We are bombarded by adverts arriving in all shapes, from all fronts and in all environments telling us how to look and be, and providing us with an extended hierarchical list of values to strive for.

 

In our immediate social environment, we are, from an early age, exposed to the voices of our family, school, neighbours and peers who all present values to which we are expected to adhere in order to gain love and acceptance – to Fit In.  This conditioning, which helps us to navigate the social world, and which often provides a sound  moral compass, may also leave us feeling lost and isolated, despite the underlying promises of love and acceptance contained in the subtle and not so subtle messages we receive in a relentless stream.  This invasion of our psyche, from the earliest age, causes us to “sacrifice Self for self image”*  We dress, behave and pursue careers and lifestyles which will look good, which gain the approval of others  and which appear to be right for us. 

 

For the most part, those who love us advise us with our best interests at heart, unfortunately, this advice, though well intentioned, may indvertently steer us off course and away from the direction our soul wants us to head – it may be whats right for the person or persons giving us the advice, but not for us.  We are warned to go for the safe option, for the secure, tried and trusted employment rather than to take risks –to go for it!  It’s understandable that people who care about us will want to give us safe advice, this is what they have inculcated from the social environment to which they have been exposed, and their lives may suit them to a tee, or, they may not be aware of their sacrifice, what they’ve given up to pay the bills, or to maintain the status quo, or their perceived status within the community.  Sometimes, we confuse the sound moral advice we’ve been given during our upbringing with striking out for our own best interests, we may think along the lines  “It wouldn’t be right to leave the job I hate, I’d be acting foolishly, I’d let people down.”  This attitude serves no one, making less of oneself will not make more of someone else.  We need to develop and pursue our own expectations, and not live to serve the expectations of others.

 

If we are less than happy, it is incumbent upon each one of us to become aware of, and begin to unravel the web of conditioning which prevents us from being fully alive and present to ourselves and our gifted purpose - to do the world a favour by finding the North Star which will guide us to that which we were born to express and offer as our gift to ourselves and others.



* Deepak Chopra

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