A Good Read - Gaslighting

One part: “From one citizen to another, I beg of you: take a deep breath, ignore the deafening noise, and think deeply about what you want to put back into your life. This is our chance to define a new version of normal, a rare and truly sacred (yes, sacred) opportunity to get rid of the bullshit and to only bring back what works for us, what makes our lives richer, what makes our kids happier, what makes us truly proud.”

https://forge.medium.com/prepare-for-the-ultimate-gaslighting-6a8ce3f0a0e0

The Spin

While in isolation, I continue to experience the spin of varying emotions. Last week was especially tough with many moments of anger towards the lowly-evolved politicians and orchestrated state of affairs, fear, uncertainty, frustration, and impatience. Of course, desiring well-being and understanding the need for integration, it’s incumbent on me to balance with moments of movement, beauty, humor, compassion, and gratitude for my many blessings. It just takes mindfulness and discipline.; not that difficult actually.

Siesta

Immediately after finishing this piece, I saw a figure with a sombrero huddled as if in a siesta. I’ve had many of these lately including one today for a couple of hours.

Breathing

In the midst of this reset, at times I find myself holding my breath as if in panic and fear. When I bring attention to it, these words by Thich Nhat Hanh from “Breathing Like A Mountain” appear in my mind as I start to breathe:

Breathing In I see myself as a Flower, Breathing Out I feel fresh; Breathing In I see myself as a Mountain, Breathing Out I feel solid; Breathing In I see myself as a Still Lake, Breathing Out I reflect things as they are; Breathing In I see myself as Blue Sky, Breathing Out I feel free; I have arrived, I am home, in the island of My Self.

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Reset Corroboration

I just read this compelling, albeit very long, essay: https://charleseisenstein.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/files/The-Coronation-by-Charles-Eisenstein.pdf

Towards the end he states, “As Rebecca Solnit describes in her marvelous book, A Paradise Built in Hell, disaster often liberates solidarity. A more beautiful world shimmers just beneath the surface, bobbing up whenever the systems that hold it underwater loosen their grip.

For a long time we, as a collective, have stood helpless in the face of an ever-sickening society. Whether it is declining health, decaying infrastructure, depression, suicide, addiction, ecological degradation, or concentration of wealth, the symptoms of civilizational malaise in the developed world are plain to see, but we have been stuck in the systems and patterns that cause them. Now, Covid has gifted us a reset.”

Shackles And Gold