Own Your Own Life

 The only person we actually have the power to change is ourselves. So how is it that we don’t change ourselves? – Especially now when there’s so much at stake. 

My own opinion is that it’s easier to try to change others – which doesn’t mean at all that they will change – than it is to change ourselves. 

To change ourselves, to consciously alter our thoughts and our daily habits to be less constructed by capitalism – more consciously alert to how we live – would require a great amount of attention – which would require energy and focus. 

And to have the imagination to discover other ways of thinking and other ways of living, would require us to rise above lethargy – and we can’t be bothered. 

Rather than change ourselves, we prefer to distract ourselves with the toys provided by capitalism. Or to talk to others endlessly about what the government needs to do to fix things. We seem to refuse to actually take action within ourselves.

We’ve become sloppy, lazy people with little moral strength and no mastery of living life. We’re so attached to our things and our comforts. This is what the capitalist system has made of us and we’ve become slaves to that system. We are dependent – not independent. We are not free people.

Nemonte Nenquimo of the Waorani people in Equador’s Amazon rainforest has gathered an alliance of other tribal people’s to try to stop the oil companies from further wreaking havoc on their lands. She says ‘We are surrounded by oil companies, miners and evangelicals and an entire global economy that promotes consumerism, promotes accumulation of things and products.’ 

Her people are not sloppy and lazy. They  have moral strength because of their deep connection to their lands and because they’re lives are in such peril. Unlike us, they see what future lies ahead unless we all change. 

Nenquimo says ‘I want people to wake up.’ 

To become a revelationary for nature is to wake up. So knowing that we can wake ourselves out of the slumber of comforts and conveniences, the blurring of our thinking instruments through screen watching instead of world watching, is to take back what it is to truly be human. To live in the real world of connection to nature, to  the land, to all the other life forms on this earth –  and to each other. Our role is to protect – not to sit back and play with toys like spoilt children while the world burns.

So the Revelation is an inner journey to effect fundamental change in and around your own life. Therefor it is radical action. 

Radical : (especially of change or action) relating to or affecting the fundamental nature of something; far-reaching or thorough.

Action:

an action is a thing that is done, and not merely thought or spoken about.

Remember – your mind/ your memory/ your thoughts have been shaped by human-centric capitalism.

So question the habitual thought patterns that send you scurrying down that well-worn path of circular thinking and wrong action: 

Fear and anxiety: What if I don’t get a job…. What will the others think if I give up clubbing at the weekends….

Self judgement and defeatism: I’m useless – I don’t have the will-power to change my socks, let alone the whole world…… 

Comparison: If only I was as cool as that girl. Then I’d be happy…..

Constant activity: Gotta check my social media, gotta get to the gym/football/meet my pals/yoga class… 

Fomo: I can’t miss out on that ski trip/pub crawl/formal dinner – even though that’s my wages gone for the week. 

Why not choose Jomo instead? Go on – try it. Get to know yourself when you’re not rushing off somewhere else. It might feel totally weird – but at least it’s not the same old habitual map you’re following. You already know where that one leads.

See what it’s like to choose the opposite reaction to the thoughts that appear first. Or try out your thought of choice. 

For example, if someone decides they want to put you down: ‘Would you not get yourself some decent clothes, you look like a weirdo.’ Our culture has trained us to compete with each other and retaliate rather than keep harmony. So your first thought might be to respond with aggression and add your own insult.

Why not try out something different? Glance at that tree outside the window or the vast sky, to connect with some entity that hasn’t been shaped by conflict and retaliation. Connect and draw that deep calm into your core. (Provided you’ve practiced the Revelationary work on a daily basis, the whole process might take two seconds, believe me.) 

Then you might offer something like: “That’s OK. No, I’m fine. But thanks anyway.” Try it out. Feel the texture of the silence that follows and take delight in your success. The satisfaction of not getting drawn in to some nonsense conflict or debate will give you an inner glow. You’ve found a way to be at the controls of your inner world. That’s major.

So these small techniques will give you the option of choosing peace above some senseless hate-speech retaliation. There’s no point thinking or talking about the terror of all the useless man-wars that are destroying humanity and tearing apart the world if you can’t even make peace in your own life. The two are not separate issues. 

When you’re told by your housemate it’s your turn to do the bins, see if you can change the habitual thought of ‘In your dreams loser. Boring.’ into ‘Yay! I’m gonna lash into those bins and get them totally sorted right now.’ Why not set a high standard for yourself and perform that menial but vital work down to the last detail. Leave the bins and the area around them spotless.

Again – it invites a break from the old habitual pattern and gives you the power to change your inner response to external circumstances and follow that change through. You’re not just sorting the bins – you’re using conscious intention to bring yourself awake. See if you can stay in that now-moment throughout the entire bin cleaning process. Be sure to take a moment to look back at what you’ve achieved.

Try to notice if there’s a change in your mood when you make these small changes. You’re tripping up your conditioned mind and trying to catch yourself out. Try it. Watch out for opportunities in your daily life to shake things up a bit in yourself.

Make a game of it and let yourself laugh out loud. How does it feel to have that kind of power over yourself?

Capitalism does not thrive in a joyful society. So we’re smashing through stale old habits in order to release ourselves from safe, stuck, deadening patterns into more challenging and dynamic responses with unknown outcomes.

When you catch yourself in the trap of circular thinking, – return to your senses: Watch that leaf trembling in the breeze, or the clouds passing by, or the immensity of the vast grey sky, or feel the breeze on your face, try to hear the silence behind all the city noise. Yawn and stretch your arms and back. 

These things don’t even take a minute to do. Practice not giving in to your automatic thought patterns. ‘I’m going out for another coffee. Oh!! No I’m not actually. I’ll have a drink of water instead.’ And be sure to extend the awareness out to actually savour that plain water. Hold the awareness that in another situation a glass of water would be a luxury. So have gratitude to the Earth that provided you with that water and savour the refreshing feeling water offers to your body. 

Don’t fall into the trap of becoming an extremist. Have that coffee – but not every time. Change coffee from being a habitual activity throughout the day into being something to be really enjoyed on the occasions when you decide to have it.

Draw your awareness to the sipping of that coffee – don’t waste your €3 by thinking about something else and missing entirely the gorgeous flavour. If you’re going to think of anything, try giving gratitude to the Earth that produced those coffee beans and for the people who sowed and harvested it.

Gratitude is a great de-conditioner if you’ve been brain-dirtied by the snatch and grab culture that is capitalism.

So those kind of examples, coupled with the continual practice of returning to your senses with the aid of nature, will help you to build the habit of quietening your busy mind and will generate more wakefulness, more energy, and the ability to have your mind and your body in the same place at the same time.

These are just some ideas that work for me, that I practice and have fun with in small ways every day. There’s a feeling of triumph when I’ve caught out another pre-ordained habit-trap.

So you’re turning away from the familiarity of the same old same old towards the unknown.

By relying on what you already know – knowledge – you’re dragging the weight of the past into the dynamic present and thus preventing insight, which only occurs in the present.  This is how the same old perpetuates itself through you. See it. Watch out for the traps you can fall into if you’re functioning on autopilot.

It’s only by facing into capitalism that you can then turn away from it. Then you can find out what is possible. And it’s only by partnering with nature that you’ll succeed in making real change.

Without a relationship with nature, you’ll be forever lost in a tsunami of illusions that our system of governance promotes a million times a day in a trillion different ways.

Your true nature can only be found in the here and now. That’s where you’ll come upon it. As hard as you may try, you will never find it on a screen.

Trying to think your way out of the mess will not work because thought is made up from the past. There’s no point thinking about the future because you’ll never get there through thought. Your thoughts might entertain you or make you depressed, – that’s just you doing that to yourself. Nothing new will ever come from circular thinking.

If you manage to work the Revelation through the daily living of your own life, you’ll find change occurs. You will develop mastery of your life. And by shifting your perception of the world around you away from the reach of capitalism and all it has taught you, with nature as your constant ally, perhaps the larger consciousness itself will also shift. 

You were born into a capitalist regime but that doesnt mean you have to live by capitalist values. So wake up to your own values and get to know who you are by living out of those values. 

Photo: by Gearoid Coakley, Coakley Photography. Irish red squirrel listening to the voice of nature, undisturbed by thoughts of self-importance.