Op/Ed: Two Truths and One Lie
Shit is hard- life is inevitable suffering according to Buddha and anyone trying to tell you otherwise is selling you something according to Wesley from The Princess Bride. Each month, I take stock of what’s weighing on me and dive into that to “inspire” a tidbit of value if you, the reader, are feeling simpatico. When I sit down to write these snippets of stream of consciousness, however, I find myself stumped with the spin- the way I might “take a sad song and make it better”.
In a bigger sense, we avoid sharing too much, instead more inclined to respond with a “good and you?” when prompted to share how we’re doing. Month-over-month, particularly as of late, the spin has gotten a bit hard to twirl given the reality that we’re experiencing. At it’s root, we’ve lost the ability to hold two truths simultaneously- that life is struggle and that, nonetheless, we'll be okay. Our culture just isn’t conducive to an honest expression of feeling in a healing and communal sense, ya know? Instead, we get snagged by the lie that both can't exist at once, to a vital detriment.
Our interpretations of emotions, our assignment of feelings, require a version of assessment and community sharing in order to keep moving through us. If not, energy gets stuck- manifesting in body and spiritual blockages. This isn’t some woo-woo, conceptual explaining away- there is research that validates this truth. In a zero-sum culture, though, holding two truths is impossible. In an attempt to keep this brief, I’ll skirt the influences that have cultivated this culture of “conceal, don’t feel”. Suffice it to say, though, that those influences are outdated and ultimately feeding our lonely society.
These days, I wonder whether or not other folks struggle the same way with the processing power required to strategically reroute the energy in motion. With the way things are, it’s an easy trap to fall into. Other times, I feel confident that there is collective dis-ease feeding dis-ease through these limitations. Each of us has a unique reception and response to the emotions that we are confronted with, sure, we all experience them nonetheless.
As our ways of connecting (and general modern paradigm) shift, is there an opportunity to shift our approach to checking in and sharing to heal? Or are we doomed to a life of increasing ostracization? We grow most in the journey, so I’ll avoid arriving at one final destination. Whatever the outcome, the act of naming and investigating is an important part of fully experiencing the lives we live. The permission to simply feel- irrationally, freely, and unapologetically- is among our irrevocable rights as humans. So with that- feel! Be! and within, become!
