Who Are We Really?
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress and, giving birth to evolution.
Albert Einstein
The next few blogs are going to be dedicated to deepening our understanding of the nature and power we all possess and how to bring that to life NOW. This begins with a conversation I had with a friend and colleague last week. She was both lamenting and asking me a question…is there anything we can do to mitigate what choices people, organizations, projects, etc. employ when they experience fear and anxiety about life? The question came from some consulting work she has been doing with state agencies that support children and families. As the agency has become more anxious, they have cut back the very projects so needed; both now and in the future – with the “we have no money” or “we don’t know what will happen” or “we can’t do this now” stories.
These choices are exactly the ones that begat the phrase “returning to the dark ages” of service and innovation. To answer the question as simply as possible- I said – people hunker down when they have a belief in scarcity and lack AND they don’t know who they truly are.
There is a great book on the subject of scarcity by the same name – SCARCITY by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir Is a study of the effects of deprivation whether from a long period of time (generational poverty) or a short period of time…as in an event during a day or 7 months dealing with a universal health challenge. My blogs are not intended to be a walk-through psychological constructs so let’s just say that we are constantly at the “effect” level of things and rarely at the cause level. But let me be bold and say that the thought structure of scarcity is running a lot of the world right now…not enough money, time, opportunity, love, you name it …people are in fear of “not enough”. So, for the first foray into the topic of who are we really…let me put it into three key points.
First – you recognize your true nature- way beyond personality
Next you realize that when you see your true nature – you have an insight – an “aha” moment, an intuitive flash or as another colleague terms it a “wiggle”
Your inner wise voice helps you apply point one and two to a particular situation- like shutting down projects out of fear and anxiety or which job to take – or how to interact during a world scare
Before you conclude that it’s all too mysterious, let me assure you –knowing and operating from these key areas is so practical and useful and meaningful and joyful and simple- you will be amazed you didn’t realize it sooner. Once it has infiltrated a group- and they begin to work from this understanding – well, we call it Miracleville.
Beginning next week I will go into each point more deeply – but for this one let me end with a story. See if you can connect this story to what I have shared so far. My hope is the realizations of these key areas will bring each of you a new level of wisdom and peace. Tip: pay less attention to the words I write…more to the feeling behind the words.
When Henry Winkler (the fonz) was 72, he finally won an Emmy. That was 65 years after he began imagining himself as an actor.
When the imagining began, he was only 7 years old – and not exactly succeeding in school. He had been pegged “the class dunce”, “not that bright”. His parents practically disowned him because they thought he was lazy. Ironically he went into acting, a field where reading is key…and his reading skills were nil. Monday’s script read-throughs on Happy Days filled him with dread.
But along the way, he learned something important, – we live and move in a ginormous field of love and information. He was unable to learn with his eyes. Or his brain. He had to learn by getting still, by listening, by accessing the ginormous field of love and info coursing through his body.
“I just wait” he says…and without fail, whatever he needs to know literally drops into his awareness. The trick, he says, is getting beyond the neurosis in his brain. Once he washes away his attention on his personal thinking, or the cares of his body, everything he needs to know is right there.
As he said, “your inner voice, your true self, knows everything.”
Until next time…peace.
