Comfortably Numb - The Desire to Escape a Linear Life

We face challenges, nobody has immunity from this. I love how Greg Plitt said we must crawl or walk through the mud, in order to reach the higher ground in life. Some of us stay stuck in the mud, we maintain a futile insistence largely driven by fear, that the endeavour to escape is either too hard, or others have failed. The failure of others to overcome strengthens our belief that the mud is best to remain covered in, at least for the time being. Perhaps oneday we might consider climbing out. But for now, we embrace the comfort it gives us, the zone of which familiarity keeps us idle.

When I was 14 things happened to change my life, To me it was a downward spiral into the mud. I learned to cover myself in it. Things happened much more powerful and intense in effect than the event I speak of below at age 16. Nonetheless I learned to saviour the taste for many years like some forbidden fruit. I wanted to discard the fruit and my desire to taste it, but I kept hold of the memory for my innermost protection - the comfort zone again. Like a crutches analogy, I used the broken bones or injury but kept using the crutches for years after the pain and injury had healed. I was wounded. The original injury never fully healed, I still suffered new events, caused in large part by the infinite ache of the initial wound.

Reflection now is most peaceful. I can look back on this part of my life as the best Teacher I ever had. Perhaps this teacher was in essence like the book I am currently reading by Dr. Gillian Ross titled Psyche's Yearning; Gillian describes PSYCHE AND EROS.

The story is phenomenal I urge you to look it up, if you are unaware of it.

A part of me was EROS, I do not deny my feminine love and spirit within me. Yes I am a male but the path some men choose to follow is to remain steadfast in their male traits. If I want to think about hostility and the cave-man desire to beat my chest, to pronounce I am physical strength over mind. I choose to remain unable or unwilling to separate the denial of compassion or feelings/emotions. Not all men do, I know, but many perceive the manner in which all men need to behave and act; much to the detriment of the male consciousness and actions.

I think of the wars and violence created from ego, the need to be better than others. The seemingly innate precision design of men's minds that dictates how we must always prove we are strong. We need to be the hunter-gatherer in mindset, we are the supreme source of talent, but we misplace it or abuse it by losing character. We are strong, but we are weaker in other aspects that matter more.

I feel a slight sadness for the many females who are trapped by men of such limitations. And the men who believe it is primarily the fault of the female, not the above self ignorance, that is the sole blame.

I endured this misguidance from the day I started to grow into a man, from the time of knowing I was a boy I dealt with other boys who early on - dictated forcefully the actions of this imbalance.

I recall one of my best friends in Primary school was indigenous, or of Aboriginal heritage. Or Black - whatever you would choose to label him perhaps. We loved the same music and got on like true mates. One-day the above male single-minded caveman instinct came to the forefront at school, when the boys for unknown reasons, chose to gather like a pack and hunt down my friend with hatred. They threw insults at him, started feeding off the negative energy of each other, until it was growing into unimaginable torment for my friend. What could I do? I found myself disliking it, the leader of the almost Tsavo Lion pride was, what you might term in America as "the Jock." The fit supreme athlete type that was showered with accolades, and earned a higher respect than the rest of us.

Everyone was fearful of him, due in part to the respect in a sense. I walked up and forcefully pushed him against the wall, grabbed his shirt so hard it ripped it. I put my fist up to his chin and demanded the Rot needed to STOP. The rest of the boys stepped back, in shock, I had never behaved this way before. I was the lamb, I was the perfect animal they always used to chase down. How could the lamb stand up and face a lion? Well love conquers hate. 

I will tell you more about that story, that Jock may have had supreme talent and skill, but he died at age 16 on a motorbike - going like a bat out of hell lost control and was killed instantly. I feel immense sadness he would have made the Australian Football League and been a successful highly skilled footballer. He lost his chance. R.I.P. Mate I shared many good times and memories with you - like the time you threw my footy boots into the basement darkness to scare me into going there. The times you acted so eccentric and wanted to release your inhibition you let off fireworks in your hallway when your mother was out ... before football training. Funny, loving reflections.
The other kid, the person I respected and loved, do you know what became of him? The origin of my story was around 27 years ago.

I will elaborate - years later about five to be precise, I was at High School. I was that lamb again. The other boys used to love to try and slaughter me at every chance. I was walking through the yard with a few weeks left until graduation. This bully came up, I had witnessed his antics numerous times on others. He stated simply "This is my territory." 

I smiled and replied (censored) "Suck my D...".

He tried to get me involved in an altercation, as I turned around to look at what I sensed was trouble, the entire school had already gathered in communal presence to observe. The gladiator arena had been suddenly built in the middle of the school for all to enjoy and embrace the mindless violence.

As I did this, another "warrior" grabbed me and pinned my arms held me down, hoping for the other "warriors" to gain the advantage of the battle. They did. I was kicked in the eye, so forcefully it caused bleeding in the eye that required later medical examination... it took months to heal and like crutches i used sunglasses to help comfort my injury. A large motivation was to hide the embarrassment because my ego gave a concern for what other people thought of me.

I came home from that experience just like a Bond Martini I was Shaken, not stirred. Well to be brutally honest I was stirred beyond belief. I was emotional. I was hurt emotionally, more than physically. I was in my bedroom alone dealing with the pain. My best friend at the time Adam, that morning had loaned me the album Automatic For The People by R.E.M. - it was a new release.

I put it on, with the intent it may just distract me.

Cue the song below, about track 4, this song came on, I had never in my life heard it before. It gets the best of people emotional - I cried. I cried and I cried. 

A knock at the door, I tried to get the macho man strength back, I could hear my Mother talking to a visitor. I tried to dry my eyes and face AND BE A REAL MAN. The Cure - what a band I loved at that time - BOYS DON'T CRY.

Guess who it was????

Just try and GUESS.

You remember the friend I related in the story above?

He had come to check I WAS OKAY. (Not the dead friend - Yes I may adopt some spiritual themes, but that pushes me too far into my former insanity themes.)

Reverse Gratitude, years later.

Getting back to the intent of my story and this blog, we walk through the mud. We do not need to allow it to forever be on our skin, in our hearts, and to hold back our minds.

To let go, is to let go of the things that prevent us from marching forward.

We can reach higher ground. We need not keep those crutches for longer than necessary. We need not be afraid of jumping from the mud pit and thinking life can be different. We need not fear change. We can build the life we want from dismissing the need to rely on excuses.

Birth - rebirth. The ability to die while we are alive in order to break free, and start to live without a cage, without restraint.

We have purpose, we have passion, we need to find what we love, embrace it. We need to understand that from pain can come the champion spirit to try and succeed.

You will fail, you will fall down, the question is, will you land on your back, facing upwards, so you can stand back up and punch your fist of determination at the shadows of the person you used to be? Or do you choose to lie face down and submit to defeat? Do you feel comfort in the sense of being able to take a breather and rest for a while? You might get back up when you choose, if you choose.
Or you can stand up like a fighter and prepare to take on the next round, with a view to victory.

You can build on the fact you are no better than anyone else. People may hate on you and think you have ego, or you are saying you are better than them. Inside it matters not. Inside is the heart you embrace and the passion that drives you forward. You can use the hatred or misguided opinions of others to; rather than stall your engine - to add to the intensity of the fuel.

Burn that shit up, take it out at the gym or whatever you use as your creative release. Stand tall, stand like you mean it. Do not cower to yourself to anyone else. The lamb can face the lion. The lamb can be remembered as superior - when the lamb helped and the lion simply devoured with the only intent for self-gain. To feed himself, ahead of the pride. To nourish himself. To reward himself at the expense of the others, including family and the entire tribe.

I have become what I tried to seek in my teenage years through experimentation - Comfortably Numb.

I always wanted the ability to have thick skin, to numb myself from what others thought and said about me. How I was perceived by anyone and everyone. I was a puppet pulled by my strings of conformity; to act like the rest... Not be unique. To be someone that just went through life without ever proving anything of value. Someone that never did anything. Someone in essence, who did not matter. A waste. Just a passenger on a train you glance at from your stranger's perspective - you may ponder me, my life, and never remember or think of me again.

I have gained the ultimate sense of comfortable numbness now in mind and body. I am stronger than I used to be. I am happy. I am me. I am a true divine source of love to myself, and I love to project that love from my heart to others. I might also add a reflection on that early school - a female teacher for reasons unknown to common sense, pondered and raised the question to the class, who is the best looking male here? The general consensus was in favour of the Jock. He had everything. Except to me, a brain. The teacher cast her eyes at me and said Oh but Colin is pretty attractive, he is quite cute, quite beautiful for a boy - BUT HE HAS NO BRAINS TO MATCH IT.
I add this out of no resentment or bitterness but to add another aspect - you are told things in the years of growth that help turn you into an adult, the things that shape and mould you. They truly define who you become your strength your desires your beliefs. If you are told things like - you will never be anything, you will never be successful, you are stupid, you are dumb, you will never be smart enough to finish university - you will never become a champion athlete - you are not as great as the person they believe is the best - you have weaknesses - you have attributes of failure, you will end up with a career shovelling fish guts at the wharf, I will add something and please forgive me for using this language - F**KING DISMISS THAT $HIT. 

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this mental journey, I took a seat on a train I once had a short trip - just to show others what that journey was like, and where the destination may lie. You can choose where your train heads, you cannot change where it came from, the people it picked up, the passengers good and bad along the way. The people who got off at certain stops. The people who smoked in your face when you tried to quit. The people who cast glances and made judgements who did not even know you. The people who told you to act in accordance with their beliefs. The passengers perhaps the female who smiled ever so lovingly and you both got talking. You formed a relationship you fell in love -it died- she got off. You felt sad. You kept on the train. You remembered her for the next hundred stops ahead or thousand. You hoped to see her step back on, She never did. The times you needed your earphones in to numb the emotions, the worrying. The anxiety that crippled you. Anything to dilute the fear you felt. The pain you tried to silence, but it always spoke in whispers. At times it shouted so loudly it made you deaf for long periods of time. But it was a constant companion you did not want always sitting beside you. You wanted it to leave but it kept talking and talking. It never stopped. The passenger known as a lack of self-confidence that prompted the teachers at every school to always keep making me attend classes on how to build self-esteem. Then the decision came. Something triggered an idea. A vision or a Dream of a new destination. A vision to reach and aim for place you thought was never possible to be granted a visa or passport.

HAPPINESS AND SATISFACTION are at this place. Love spends every minute here. Gratitude is a constant visitor that pops their head in the door and whispers, smiles and beams at me, each and every day. Awareness and flow, Synchronicity. Creative abundance, wisdom, balance. The manifestation of all I desire and work toward. I will list the text on an album of paramount importance to my early 14 years of age pain and turmoil - the inside cover of MCMXC a.D by ENIGMA quotes:

THE PATH OF EXCESS LEADS TO THE TOWER OF WISDOM - W. BLAKE.

THE PLEASURE OF SATISFYING A SAVAGE INSTINCT, UNDOMESTICATED BY THE EGO, IS UNCOMPARABLY MUCH MORE INTENSE THAN THE ONE OF SATISFYING A TAMED INSTINCT. THE REASON IS BECOMING THE ENEMY THAT PREVENTS US FROM A LOT OF POSSIBILITIES OF PLEASURE - S. Freud - IF YOU BELIEVE IN THE LIGHT, IT'S BECAUSE OF OBSCURITY, IF YOU BELIEVE IN HAPPINESS IT'S BECAUSE OF UNHAPPINESS, IF YOU BELIEVE IN GOD THEN YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE IN THE DEVIL. -father x - exorcist church of notre dame, paris.

Please take No religious perspective on that last one - I am simply relating in my blog to how if you believe in something one way you are forced into simple mainstream linear thinking.

Enjoy the two songs below, the first is Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb

The second is the magic of the song that made my river flow. R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts. I will add that years later I learned that the drummer Bill Berry wrote a majority of the lyrics with large input from the rest of the band. Michael Stipe I think once said this song he desired the intention of it: to help kids through school who had endured hell. To help prevent that kid from perhaps slashing his or her wrists. To encourage them the act of throwing their hand and giving up was not the solution.

That river that flowed from listening to the song was something fraught with pain, I never wanted to swim in it, but now I can reflect on the act of cleansing it encouraged. 

Bless you all and Namaste.

Thankyou Louise Hay Positive Growth is Attainable by Anyone

Okay, I was planning to quote some Louise L. Hay material but after some online research it appears to be a copyright grey area... so I am just going to wing it myself with some thoughts based on her general wisdom that I have learned from her great work recently. I will put it entirely into my own words and express how I wish to share it - I will include an interview with the great lady at the bottom of this blog I found on YouTube if you choose you can listen to her, and watch her speak her insight.

A few months ago I purchased her CD 101 Power Thoughts from Amazon Link:

http://www.amazon.com/101-Power-Thoughts-Louise-Hay/dp/1401903967/ref=sr_1_1_twi_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1422210908&sr=8-1&keywords=101+power+thoughts

I can now look back on this as the catalyst of rapid mindset change and growth.
It opened up a door that was already partially ajar, thanks in great part to my spiritual leader and friend the Australian well-being expert, Author and Meditation CD publisher, Dr. Gillian Ross. It led me to a new path that I am so grateful to walk upon each and every day.

One observation I have made from reading many countless stories from others who have experienced profound growth, is the initial event or the common theme that seems to trigger or inspire it. This to me seems to be created from change, or an event that prompts change. This can be a devastating life battle, or a shattering struggle or challenge. Or perhaps simply from one's own desire to improve a life they are unhappy with.

In my personal case, and many others, it was the decision to improve the body. A Nutrition upheaval or physical choice to lose weight and get healthy. Louise is a strong promoter of the simple facts of which we need to nourish our body, give it good quality nutrition, exercise and love ourselves. She actually encourages people to consult a nutritionist if they are unsure, or research how to eat better and live well.

Why would she promote this? I can sense some of you asking this, and you might respond with things such as... you are perfectly comfortable in your skin and happy in your current life without the need to adopt any dietary changes. If this is the case, why do you complain about your job, why do you worry the minute you wake up from a bad night's sleep, affected by alcohol from the night before? Perhaps you are nicotine reliant, or you smoked some dope last night, or popped prescription meds to get you through your crippling anxiety. Or you use anything you can to comfort the pain you just denied? Why do you say you want to lose that belly fat or get to the gym, but you do not have time for exercise? You have children and a busy life, you cannot fit it in ... and so on. Why do some of you say you do not worry and are mostly happy, but if you truly looked within you know you worry the minute you prepare to go to work; or you worry about the amount of time you overslept from lack of motivation or drug use.

The justifications or excuses you will hold onto...You might try and say you are happy doing drugs it gets you through the pain, you smoke cigarettes because you feel it relaxes you - you need to calm a busy life and reduce your stress. But at the same time you wish you could also quit. You want to quit drugs but you are stuck in the circle of friends and a place that makes it hard to consider moving away from... perhaps like me, you had this crazy romantic connection with drugs from the feelings they gave you when you experimented with them years earlier. Perhaps some of this was almost positive or at least you thought it was, so you hold onto the memory that drugs calmed you and gave you a happy time. Even if in reality they did the opposite and almost caused you death.
You may try and tell me in regard to nutrition - but you love your soda too much, you cannot give up your refined sugar and chocolate or fast food treats. The effort is too much, or that you tried in the past and failed. Or you are too heavy, it's too late. You have a medical condition that prevents you from exercise... or you are allergic to vegetables, you can only stomach french fries, and nothing else makes you feel full. Healthy people only eat rabbit food and those fit people look anorexic anyway. And gym guys & girls are all muscles and no brains - full of ego. You are too fat to walk into a gym the others would intimidate you - you would feel uncomfortable because the other members look better than you.

I am not judging, hell I have done ALL OF THE ABOVE at certain times earlier in my life, so believe me I cast no ill feeling toward whatever anyone else does.

Louise makes the point, to fully understand the reasons why others behave the way they do, we would need to walk a mile in their shoes. The world is a cauldron of interesting vibrant different combinations of unique souls. A person cannot be a blueprint of someone else. This is a theme I need to touch on, discover your uniqueness, embrace it. As soon as you find comfort in conforming; which is dictated to us by our parents and the education system from day one, we are paralysed and crippled by emotional restraint.

Like Louise says we are all born happy vibrant babies, it is the influence of others particularly during childhood that forces us into creating set patterns for our attitudes, our beliefs, our anger, our emotional responses, how we deal with relationships love and life as a whole.
I am not saying our Mothers and Fathers are particularly at fault, but some of them without even knowing it, are forcing their behaviours and lessons learned from their childhood onto their children.
This can have a great positive effect, or in stark contrast, have the potential to end a life. Or create a person so abused and crippled by negative experiences they serve no purpose to themselves, or to life.

Again, the concept of change..,the above is not a forced pyramid of power that confines us for the rest of our living days. I love a motivational video that has the quite profound statement that shocked me and might shock you as well:

Most people you know what they do? Most people go through life, quietly and safely, 
tip toeing their way to an early grave.

That might sound harsh and abrasive but I can tell you, when you used to do it, and then you learn to overcome it, you realise the truth in it.

I run into people in my life everyday that talk, and now I listen. I used to try and focus only on what I wanted to say. I got quite impatient at waiting for them to pause, so I could blurt my point of view or what I wanted to say. In fact I was so drawn into myself I sometimes did not even absorb what the other person said. Or just interrupted them whilst they spoke and blurted it anyway; which is the essence of rudeness and gains little respect or love. I hear them now talk about things, I pick up the general energy they feed out. I can sense the positive and the negative. Sadly in far too many people the latter is more prevalent.

I can see so many that want change, but they do not understand it's possible, or are just unwilling to even consider it at this point in their lives. Some are so negative they might just plain hate on the reasons other people have made positive changes and succeeded. They resent it and turn it against the person. Largely based on the fact they could not make the change themselves and want to try and knock the person down a peg or two.

I warn you, when you embrace change, people will love you for it, some will hate you for it. Even weight loss - you might get a friend or two that are so positive and encouraging, whilst you will get one or two that will tell you or remind you of the fact you might fail. Or you are doing it for a reason they disagree with. Please check this great link a article written by Ben Michaelis Ph.D. for the Huffington Post.
He is a clinical psychologist and author. If you want to succeed in life you need to address the "people pleasing" concept many of us are controlled by, and let it go.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-michaelis-phd/people-pleasing_b_3110073.html

I cannot understate how good it feels to not care for what anyone else thinks or says to me, particularly when it is negative. I will leave you all with one last train of thought - a train that is on the tracks of self-actualization and not headed down the NYC subway in the 1980s covered in graffiti (I say this in humour Respect to Cope 2 and all those street art legends you guys and girls started a revolution that many others love to Hate.)

You can find joy or gratitude in a compliment, but learn to Not seek it. You do not need any approval or acceptance from anyone but yourself. You do not need to constantly ask others if you are loved, or are beautiful. Or that you need to source unconditional love; that you need to earn it. Dismiss the mindset you are not worthy of love from others unless you have a career, a car or a Miranda Kerr body, or a Hugh Jackman physique. When you learn to love yourself first and foremost, this will be reflected in the people you meet and the people that are drawn into your life. Attract the right - and let go of the wrong and the feelings and mind that has controlled you to this point.

Skip to 9:12 in the YouTube video if you want a Louise Hay direct insight on this.

Shine the light, and walk around the darkness. If darkness comes in do not allow it to linger, open the curtain as soon as possible in your mind to shine the light back in. Replace the dark with light, instead of embracing the dark and allowing it to linger - choose the light instead. Overcome the barriers, and embrace challenge. Do not allow yourself to be held back ...life is in the Now - the present moment - the future can be changed, and the past cannot. Why continue to be held in the past when it is something that you can never change? Look to an idea, an ideal, a word, I like to use one in particular, Hope.

Hold onto that word, Hope.
Even if you do not embrace a single word or concept I have addressed above, if you hold onto Hope when things are beating you down - you will more than likely stand back up again. If you lose it, you may just remain on that canvas and never get back up, even after the final count.
What would this life have been for?
A fight you struggled with, a match that had great potential, but in the end the person who was more capable of greatness than anyone just got knocked out. Anyone and everyone is capable - it is not an esoteric illusion that is only attainable by a select few. The fighter above does not usually get remembered. The person that might have more potential to be is the champion with their victorious fist in the air. The person who helped inspire and create a better world for others. Not for himself or herself. But for others. And a true champion has character and the essence of lesser ego.

Be humble remain true and love, and love yourself as you will learn to draw the love from others.
Let go of all that negative garbage that has piled up, clean it out and learn to only look back when required and not for the shadows but the light. The negative it serves no useful purpose. It just makes the spirit of your place (mind and body) unclean, and makes you unhealthy and unhappy.

If you read this to the very end I applaud you, my blog writing is still in the early stages. I do this not for profit motivation I just want to help inspire others. Please comment and reshare to your hearts content. I always try and respond to each and everyone that takes the time to comment. My gratitude even for sharing your thoughts, you may disagree, agree or not believe a word but I accept and gain insight from everyone.

Namaste.