"The biggest, most unquestioned answer of our culture is our relationship with money. It is there that we keep alive--at a high cost--the flame and mythology of scarcity." - Lynne Twist
this myth of scarcity that pervades our thought process as a human family manifests itself in money but also food, addictions, unconscious behaviors. when we believe that fundamentally there is something wrong with us - that there isn't enough within us - we will again and again rely on physical things outside of the self to placate the nervous tension that comes from the "trance of deficiency" as Tara Brach calls it.
as humans, we innately feel flawed. we feel that there is something wrong with us that sets us apart from others and if other people actually found out about who we really were underneath it all then they would reject us, not love us, be disgusted. but instead of sitting with this fear, this feeling and trying to break it apart, look at it, probe at it... we bolt. we buy cars, we get a new outfit, we eat a bag of chips while standing at the kitchen counter, we spend billions and billions of dollars on amassing weapons and defense and building up armies. we stockpile food, hide food, hoard. we are afraid that some day someone will come and take it all. this is an evolutionary tick, obviously, because back when we were nomads and a part of a traveling tribe, we had to be constantly poised to react to another tribe coming in and pillaging our resources. and then we would starve to death, we'd die of cold or be eaten by wolves. the problem is despite the fact that we as civilization (in most of the Western world that is) have evolved beyond this point, we still believe unquestionably, buried deep within us, that we are not enough. that there will never be enough. that we are not safe. that, since everyone else is hungry, afraid and empty, they will ruthlessly take from us and so we have to be prepared. but in doing so we perpetuate the myth. we actively perpetuate the fear. as Lynne Twist points out, we invest in fear. we literally put our money into it every single day. our government puts MASSIVE amounts of money into it every day.
it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize after watching just 20 minutes of television these days that the myth of deficiency runs through every single commercial. buy this because you need it. wear this because then you will be loved. do this and you'll get friends, a partner. once you have this, then you will be good enough. then you will feel like you belong on this earth and have worth. it also doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize how insane that is. or to realize that enough is never enough. because you can't fill an aching and a longing in the center of your chest that is a feeling based on a thought process you had from childhood with some new pair of high heels. it's incongruent. how you heal that ache is by sitting with it. being with it. realizing that it will not, does not kill you and that in fact, it's based on a myth.
when we lift the veil and see that 1. we are not fundamentally flawed, 2. we are not all in opposition with one another, that there is plenty to go around, we see that money is movement and is constantly being relocated and that we do not need to keep getting, buying, doing, hoarding, eating in order to prepare for a catastrophe that is soon to come. we also do not need to live in a constant state of fear that we will be rejected. we do not need to live inauthentically. in fact, we need to be living authentically. never in the course of human history has it ever been so important that each individual carry out his or her own purpose on this earth. and your purpose, despite media, tv and cultural upbringing, is not to make more money, have more stuff, be the Biggest Cheese, to be beautiful or be popular. your purpose is unique and distinct to you and therefore is not going to follow the same script as anyone else. certainly not the script that the Western world has written en masse for everyone. your job is to BE YOU, DO YOU, LOVE YOU. and in doing so, you will alleviate the burden, the myth that we are passing down to the children of the generations to come. you are actively saying to those infants with wide, searching eyes... "there is no formula. no set rules to follow. no one way to be, to act, to dress. there is no path to follow. there is only you." and by living your own life not based on fear or scarcity or deficiency, you help to ease these negative feelings from running the way we operate as a society on the whole.
ok... time to step off my soapbox and eat some lunch. or, depending on how you feel about what i just wrote... time to step of my lunchbox and eat some soap.
this myth of scarcity that pervades our thought process as a human family manifests itself in money but also food, addictions, unconscious behaviors. when we believe that fundamentally there is something wrong with us - that there isn't enough within us - we will again and again rely on physical things outside of the self to placate the nervous tension that comes from the "trance of deficiency" as Tara Brach calls it.
as humans, we innately feel flawed. we feel that there is something wrong with us that sets us apart from others and if other people actually found out about who we really were underneath it all then they would reject us, not love us, be disgusted. but instead of sitting with this fear, this feeling and trying to break it apart, look at it, probe at it... we bolt. we buy cars, we get a new outfit, we eat a bag of chips while standing at the kitchen counter, we spend billions and billions of dollars on amassing weapons and defense and building up armies. we stockpile food, hide food, hoard. we are afraid that some day someone will come and take it all. this is an evolutionary tick, obviously, because back when we were nomads and a part of a traveling tribe, we had to be constantly poised to react to another tribe coming in and pillaging our resources. and then we would starve to death, we'd die of cold or be eaten by wolves. the problem is despite the fact that we as civilization (in most of the Western world that is) have evolved beyond this point, we still believe unquestionably, buried deep within us, that we are not enough. that there will never be enough. that we are not safe. that, since everyone else is hungry, afraid and empty, they will ruthlessly take from us and so we have to be prepared. but in doing so we perpetuate the myth. we actively perpetuate the fear. as Lynne Twist points out, we invest in fear. we literally put our money into it every single day. our government puts MASSIVE amounts of money into it every day.
it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize after watching just 20 minutes of television these days that the myth of deficiency runs through every single commercial. buy this because you need it. wear this because then you will be loved. do this and you'll get friends, a partner. once you have this, then you will be good enough. then you will feel like you belong on this earth and have worth. it also doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize how insane that is. or to realize that enough is never enough. because you can't fill an aching and a longing in the center of your chest that is a feeling based on a thought process you had from childhood with some new pair of high heels. it's incongruent. how you heal that ache is by sitting with it. being with it. realizing that it will not, does not kill you and that in fact, it's based on a myth.
when we lift the veil and see that 1. we are not fundamentally flawed, 2. we are not all in opposition with one another, that there is plenty to go around, we see that money is movement and is constantly being relocated and that we do not need to keep getting, buying, doing, hoarding, eating in order to prepare for a catastrophe that is soon to come. we also do not need to live in a constant state of fear that we will be rejected. we do not need to live inauthentically. in fact, we need to be living authentically. never in the course of human history has it ever been so important that each individual carry out his or her own purpose on this earth. and your purpose, despite media, tv and cultural upbringing, is not to make more money, have more stuff, be the Biggest Cheese, to be beautiful or be popular. your purpose is unique and distinct to you and therefore is not going to follow the same script as anyone else. certainly not the script that the Western world has written en masse for everyone. your job is to BE YOU, DO YOU, LOVE YOU. and in doing so, you will alleviate the burden, the myth that we are passing down to the children of the generations to come. you are actively saying to those infants with wide, searching eyes... "there is no formula. no set rules to follow. no one way to be, to act, to dress. there is no path to follow. there is only you." and by living your own life not based on fear or scarcity or deficiency, you help to ease these negative feelings from running the way we operate as a society on the whole.
ok... time to step off my soapbox and eat some lunch. or, depending on how you feel about what i just wrote... time to step of my lunchbox and eat some soap.
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