Discovering
the Balance Within
The show
begins with Jane and Carole expressing their gratitude and thanks to their
listeners. Carole expresses that she feels “overwhelming love” rushing through
her and emphasizes that while this forum of communication may seem like a
one-way experience, that the specific bodies of information that are shared are
geared to individual listeners and that what comes through her and is expressed
in the show is a product and a process of how Love wants to touch hearts and lives.
Jane
explains how today’s show comes out of her own experience of extreme stress
related to the high level of activity she has felt compelled to maintain in her
life and the “big question” that is then raised of how to attain to wellbeing
and to find balance in the midst of this high-speed, high-intensity lifestyle
that can feel like such a struggle. She alludes to the significance of our
PERCEPTIONS of our state of being and asks the question, “What if I don’t have
to struggle?”
Carole
affirms that Jane is describing a near-universal condition in our
life-in-the-fast-lane, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps culture. She
emphasizes that our high-stress state of being comes out of our living with the
best of intentions as we make extraordinary efforts to bring more love into the
world, to make life better for those around us, and to generally make the world
a better place. We are angels-in-training, but we act out of our limited world
understandings.
And so our
super-human efforts coming out of our limited world-view leads us to feel overwhelmed,
exhausted and always with a sense of “It is never enough” or “I am never
enough”. Our “To Do” lists simply get longer and longer and there never seems
to be a moment or the perspective to take a breath and celebrate our “Have
Done” list. There seems never a moment to stop and evaluate what is REALLY
IMPORTANT and to celebrate the beauty of Being rather than the incessant drive
for Doing.
Carole then
tells a beautiful story about the Buddha in which he denies various honorific
titles but defines himself simply by saying “I am Awake”. She talks of how,
from our world-perception and experience of overwhelm, we might question what
we are to awaken to…more sorrow, more anguish, more pain, an even greater
sensitivity to our involvement in a world that is so toxic as to be nearly
unbearable? NO! She emphasizes the profound truth that Spirit has designed us
to be a receptor and a reflector of love and of JOY! She then shares a quote
from the Baha’i writings:
“Joy gives us wings! In times of joy our strength
is more vital, our intellect keener, and our understanding less clouded. We
seem better able to cope with the world and to find our sphere of usefulness.
But when sadness visits us we become weak, our strength leaves us, our
comprehension is dim and our intelligence veiled. The actualities of life seem
to elude our grasp, the eyes of our spirits fail to discover the sacred
mysteries, and we become even as dead beings.”
–‘Abdu’l- Baha, Paris Talks, p110
She emphasizes the importance of attaining to
this reality of joy and gives us various exercises as “Ahhhh-building skills”
to help us make this critical shift.
Carole then goes on to point out that another
toxic aspect of our tendency to this “I can’t do enough” and “I am not enough”
mentality is the inevitable development of a sense of historic guilt. We
perceive ourselves as falling short and failing again and again, and over time
we accumulate a long “I didn’t do it” list and the guilt that accompanies it. She points out and elucidates that this is a
generational phenomenon and that each generation can learn from what we do or
what we don’t do and that this creates “
the big forgiveness, the big well-wishing, the big release” that we can give
ourselves and also give our parents and on up and down the line. This allows us
to transmute our guilt into an aspect of blessing. Here again Carole introduces exercises to
help us overcome this sense of guilt that we experience.
At this point Carole introduces another quote
from the Baha’i Writings:
“Where there
is love, nothing is too much trouble and there is always time.”
She points
out that while we perceive time in this worldly realm to be linear, the true
reality is that of a profound liquidity to time. Changing our perception about
time allows us to shift into the reality and the feeling that accompanies it
(no stress!) of a knowing that there is ALWAYS time, particularly as we flow
through time in the grace-filled service of Love. There are a variety of ways
to “stretch” time and Carole offers us some stories and exercises that help us
with this shift of perception.
Next we are
introduced to the Navaho word Yo-Zho, which translates as
“Beauty-Balance.” Carole speaks of the
wonderment and power of looking out at the world through this Beauty-Balance
lens, and how in just a moment, and in the midst of an array of seemingly
hum-drum all-in-a-day life experiences it can dramatically alter our perception
and bring much joy in the process.
The “Little
Tyrant” and the “Wild Child” are then introduced to us from the work of Martha
Beck as a wonderful conceptual construct to help us understand the dissonance
within us and to help us create harmony out of that dissonance. Carole explains
that our Little Tyrant cajoles us from within to pursue actions and behaviors
that bring us more and more into the standards of social acceptability and
acting the reasonable, rational, logical, well-disciplined and generally “good”
(or even “goody-goody”) person. The Little Tyrant pushes us in these directions
often against our own deep desires and as such may speak to us in words that
are lambasting, dictatorial, critical, belittling, etc.
Our Wild
Child, on the other hand, is the voice within us that encourages us to “blow
off” the dictates of the Little Tyrant and to follow our own whims, fancies,
and heart’s desires no matter how seemingly illogical, impractical, and
socially unacceptable. The existence of
both of these beings within us duking it out for the upper hand in eliciting
our attention and support clearly creates grounds for much internal conflict
and confusion.
Resolution
comes only with the understanding that BOTH of these Beings are authentic and
have an important positive role to play. The Little Tyrant is actually there to
help and protect us. (S)he potentially points us in directions that save us
from physical danger or financial disaster. And certainly, and perhaps most
significantly, (s)he protects us from social ridicule, and criticism which,
after all, are an assault on our being.
When we
realize the gift of both our Little Tyrant and our Wild Child beings, we can
use them to help us to find balance and harmony, and to make “right choices” in
our lives. These little beings that seem so out-of -sync and dis-harmonious are
actually a perfect manifestation of the ultimate harmony expressed in the
concept of yin-yang! Carole uses a variety of exercises during the show to help
us to see our Little Tyrant and our Wild Child clearly, and then to use them to
help create balance in our lives.
Jane closes
today’s show by reading two quotes in honor of the passing of Maya Angelou:
“What is the
fear of living? It’s being pre-eminently afraid of dying. It is not doing what
you came here to do out of timidity and spinelessness. The antidote is to take
full responsibility for yourself; for the time you take up, the space you
occupy. If you don’t know what you are here to do, then just do some good.”
“One is not
necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential. Without courage
we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true,
merciful, generous, or honest. “
-Maya Angelou
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