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A key question to answer when you are committed to living an extraordinary life of freedom, joy and creativity is:
What is the difference between what is considered our "normal" state of being, and our authentic, natural state of being?
What is called "normal" by most people is not our natural state, but a survival-oriented, automatic, conditioned state of being.
It is a state that Thoreau called, "quiet desperation."
In this state, we experience an existential tension in the background of our daily lives that manifests as a feeling of concern, lack, or need; a fear of losing what we've got or not getting what we want --- whether that want or need is for approval, success, control, love or security.
In this "normal" state, no matter how much we have, no matter what we have already accomplished, we may find that we continue to compare ourselves to others or to an ideal of how we should be that leaves us with a sense that "something's missing." We find ourselves in a continual state of striving to attain whatever we believe will finally allow us to be non-disturbed and at peace.
In this "normal" state, we feel disconnected and separate from the world. In this state, Love is conditional and something to get, rather than what we ARE.
We may experience continual inner turmoil in the form of mental chatter, emotional stress or physical tension that can get dramatized in
chemical imbalances in the body, unusual self-sabotaging behaviors, obsessive rituals, or in the perceived refuge of some chemical, behavior or spiritual addiction. There is often a sense of having to be on constant guard, waiting for the proverbial "other shoe" to drop.
In this "normal" state, concern with control, approval, and avoiding emotional, mental and physical pain takes precedence over tuning into our true nature and surrendering to the creative, joyful flow of life.
What is our natural state?
How is it distinct from what is called our "normal" state of Being?
From my own direct experience and those of my clients, it is clear that the natural state of Being for each of us is love, joy, flow and inner peace. This is who we are. This is "home."
When we are residing in this state, the mind is quiet. In this state, the stories and dramas fall away, revealing the palpable Presence of the Sacred.
Mind and Body are in harmony with Spirit.
We allow what guides us in the flow of life to arise from the infinite silence, and become our unerring compass and our guide.
We embrace what is.
When thoughts arise, they are observed as leaves floating on a stream or as clouds in a clear sky; they do not take us away from our natural state.
During the completion of this past January's Core Wisdom 3-Day Course, I found myself moved and inspired as participants spoke of what they had accomplished from their 3 days together. From their natural state of being, they shared joyfully about their deep appreciation and gratitude for what our lives can be when we embrace our true nature, and the timeless Wisdom principles that are our natural birthright.
I asked them to send me an email in a week, after they had engaged again with their daily lives, and let me know their observations of what was unfolding. The answers I received were occasions to be moved and inspired newly.
They wrote of having dissolved limiting beliefs, emotions, and unconscious negative operating principles that had shaped their lives since childhood. They wrote of freeing themselves from living life chained to limiting fears, myths and illusions, and discovering the path to living in resonance with their true nature.
In one case, anger and rage that had been carried for almost
half a century, blocking the full expression of love and compassion, had dissolved in minutes through the laser-like light of full focused awareness.
Each of us has this choice in every moment: to live what is called "normal" in the world ( the inherited conditioned state of being), or to live from our Divine, natural state, in which living itself is a work of art.
-- Hal Isen
From Core Wisdom On-Line Number 40 - 2004
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