Cultural, National, and Local Forces
Uncertainty! We’ve used the word quite a bit in the US recently but uncertainty exists in every nation on earth today. You, no matter what nation you call home share the experience of uncertainty emerging from the Cultural, National, and Local Forces that surround you as you read this Post. The closer the concentric circles in the series are to the center, to you, the more obvious their presence and possibly the greater their impact. All of the social institutions of your particular culture and society (government, military, economy, family, health care, religion, education, and the media) insert themselves into and exert themselves on your life experience. Navigating Cultural Forces is becoming more difficult as technology and innovation accelerate the pace of change. Businesses downsizing to compete in a global economy, entire sectors of the economy disappearing, political parties and decision-makers locked in partisan fights to the determent of the general population, chronic unemployment, predator practices by government and business partners driving people from their homes, the medicalization of every human experience (drugs or surgeries to cure the consequences of the human response to dysfunctional environments), and on, and on, and on.
These concerns can seep into your life like shadows passing under a door. Or perhaps for you, these Cultural, National, and Local Forces are felt more directly, like a strong wind blowing open a door, or a violent storm destroying the door and all that surrounds it. It may or may be what resides in the forefront of your mind. But it is there, surrounding you just as completely as the air that you are breathing. Concerns about neighborhood security, border security, national security, political stability, and financial security weave themselves into an amorphous threat looming over all of your choices about the present and the future. All of the pain experienced by everyone who is suffering because of the potential negative consequences of national and cultural choices is aggregated in the atmosphere and energy signature of the planet. The notion fabric-of-life is no mere expression. There is a very real fabric of life, of energy connecting everything to everything else. Everyone else’s reality creates the context in which and the material out of which you must create your own reality. If your stress management strategies and tactics fail to mount an adequate defense against the negative energies emanating from these outer circles the consequences will certainly be compounded.
Personal Forces
Some people refer to the your body as the temple of your mind. The implication being, that you are more than your body, more than the sum of the parts. I have talked about the body-mind-spirit as representative of the whole and of your Ori as the connection you have with the primordial forces of life, those existing at or from the beginning of creation and time. One of the first things you become conscious of when you awaken in the morning is how you feel in your own body. Feeling good? Potential positive consequences are awaiting your call! Feeling bad? Potential negative consequences are looking for a way to exert their affect on you! Obviously you cannot hope to withstand the forces exerted by the manifestations of those outer circles if this core inner circle is weak and lacking in vitality. Your ancient Ancestors didn’t have to worry about stress management as you do. Their process of daily living occurred in a more balanced context. Some of the circles in the series that we’ve discussed are artifacts of what we call the Modern Age. On a twelve-hour clock we might say that the Modern Age started at around 11:59. You are living under conditions unlike anything humans have experienced before in all of our history. This dynamic rate of change just started a few hundred years ago, it is accelerating, and it is already virtually out of control.
We’ve discussed five sources of stress impinging on you from the Universal Forces to Personal Forces. Because the source of stress comes from one of the outer concentric circles, does not mean that it will have less affect on your level of stress. If a meteor was suddenly heading for your hometown that reality would make your everyday personal reality seem small as a matter of concern. Of the five concentric circles, representing five levels of pressure being exerted on you, the most manageable is the fifth, Personal Forces. There are all of these forces exerting themselves inward on you but you also have the power to exert some pressure outward creating a permeable field of energy around yourself that both protects you from stressing over the negative stuff and allows you to direct your positive energy outward into those outer concentric circles. There really are very simple things you can do to shift your mental state from anxiety, worry, and fear to calm, confidence, and fortitude.
Remember, you are always standing at the center of the concentric circles that surround you. You are always at the center of your own life experiences. You are the only one living your life. Others may have a part to play in it but only you create the meanings that your experiences have to you. Here is a simple mantra that you can say to help you create a shift in your energy signature whenever you find yourself starting to stress or to fall into some habitual pattern of behavior that generally leads to your being stressed out.
Stop! Take a deep breath! Close your eyes if the situation permits! Repeat this mantra with a deep relaxing breath in between each verse.
I am here! (Breathe!)
In this moment! (Breathe!)
In this place! (Breathe!)
In this body! (Breathe!)
With this intention! (Breathe!)
Everyday, in every way, (Breathe!)
I’m getting healthier, stronger, better, wiser!
In this moment! (Breathe!)
In this place! (Breathe!)
In this body! (Breathe!)
With this intention! (Breathe!)
Everyday, in every way, (Breathe!)
I’m getting healthier, stronger, better, wiser!
(Breathe!) (Breathe!) (Breathe!)
This mantra helps you to locate yourself in your reality, to gather yourself, to collect yourself, to center yourself, and to ready yourself to function at your higher levels of mindfulness. Whatever the circumstances, the moment that you are in, is the only moment in which you can choose to act! The place that you are in is the only place in which that action can take place! And the body that you are in is the only one that you can direct to act according to your will! It all centers on and starts with you. After repeating the mantra turn your attention back towards the source of stress and notice that you will feel ready to approach the situation differently.
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Article of the Month: September 2011
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