Worry Not

I worry that I may be a broken record at times.  I sometimes forget if I've told a story before or if I've previously touched on a topic and then I delve back into it forgetting I already covered that area.  Let me let you in on a not-so-secret secret:

Why worry?  Anytime the idea of worrying about something, such as being a broken record, I say, "Whoa whoa whoa wait a minute hold on just one hot minute there!"  I stand back and I think, why do I worry about such a stupid thing?  I remember a realization that was brought to me not so long ago, that we hate in others what we hate in ourselves; likewise we love in others, what we love in ourselves.    Allow me to explain, I wish I didn't have to, but people are so keen to misinterpret words so quickly it is one of the most common silliest misunderstandings known to man.  I say "hate" and people are like "Hands up baby hands up!  You HATE me?  Because I said the same thing twice?  AWW MAN!"  No no no no.  Don't take every little word so effing seriously dude.  C'mon now.  I use the words hate and love because they are on two opposite spectrum's and the easiest way to explain is by saying this is black and this is white (bringing in all the shades of grey you find in between all the black and the white would be lovely and a wonderful discussion one day.)  Obviously there are scales to this statement I just made that we hate in others what we hate in ourselves.  If you repeat yourself, I do not hate you.  It could be a slight annoyance, it could be funny, it's not that big of a deal, really.  So I worry not about being the broken record, if I repeat myself then give me a little pinch and skip the record to the next song.  Easy breezy, for me at least.

At this point I almost stated that I do not become offended easily, so it is fine to call me out on things.  To a degree, this is true, I am human, I can admit my faults and I can laugh off many situations.  However, most people in my life do not offend me, I try to surround myself around good, caring, nurturing people as best as possible, therefore I think I cannot be offended easily.  But alas, I have had to live through entirely offensive situations to learn who to let it and who to let out of my life.  At times, my mind chatter reminds me that I am still offended by many people.  What I do to move on, I stop it. I remember the truth, I remember the way.  I remember that worry is an illusion.  Worry is an invention.  Worry does not really exist; it is make-believe. 

Once again it comes back to something very important in human development: that we are not the misfortunes that happen to us, we are not our faults and sorrows; we are what we decide to become of it all, we are how we deal with all of life, good and bad.  Our reactions to situations is the key to our core.  Put someone in an uncomfortable situation and you will learn the very essence of their being.

    “You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.”

— Sri Ram 

A long time ago I came to the self-realization that heaven and hell are not places we travel to after we die.  Education attempted to teach me that heaven and hell are places we go after we die based upon how well we acted through-out our lives.  As if there was some sort of point system being monitored by God or Santa Clause or something.  I decided with my own free thinking that:  Heaven and Hell are places here on Earth that we experience daily, they have absolutely nothing to do with death or the after-life.  Heaven is:  swimming in a lake or ocean, reading a book under a tree, falling in love, dinner with the family, travelling to places unknown, finding peace, climbing a mountain, the most beautiful view, laughter with friends, dancing and singing, music, a good book, healthy food, etc.  Hell is:  a shitty job, a mean boyfriend, misunderstandings, worry, pain, losing loved ones, being left behind or forgotten, being bullied and threatened by peers, corporations, pollution, traffic, etc.  Heaven is something that we can always find by ourselves, heaven is always available if we just learn to know how to find it.  Hell is brought on mostly by an outside source and people many people don't know how to escape it once it has crept it's way in.  It is one of the most confusing realities that I cannot understand.  To know that we have the power to be in heaven always and that most people chose hell is insane!  Why is this?  Simply because people get used to it.  

 Once you have identified with some form of negativity, you do not want to let go, and on a deeply unconscious level, you do not want positive change. It would threaten your identity as a depressed, angry, or hard-done by person. You will then ignore, deny, or sabotage the positive in your life. This is a common phenomenon. It is also insane.

— Eckhart Tolle

This is the best explanation I have found and it makes complete sense.  The deeper you let your sorrows and misfortune take you the more it becomes your only known reality.  Also, people see you as this and they say it is your character thus furthering your belief that you aren't meant to thrive so you take the dive.    People lose hope in themselves and in the idea that the way this world is never going to change.  The worst line a parent can say to their child, "Well it's always been this way, it was like that since I was a child too."  As if 60 years is the entire life span of human consciousness, who are you kidding?  We tell ourselves and we tell each other that life is hard and miserable and that's life then you die and you go to heaven.  So we live for death?  That is crazy.  I recently re-watched my favourite movie growing up as a child, The NeverEnding Story.  I am finding such subtle truths in film lately it is uplifting and empowering.  This is the part that I never understood and in fact scared me the most as a child, but as an adult has struck a cord in me.  It is near the end when the scary wolf-beast comes face to face with Atreyu, they discuss:

G’mork: If you come any closer, I will rip you to shreds. 

Atreyu: Who are you? 

G’mork: I am G’mork. And you, whoever you are, can have the honor of being my last victim. 

Atreyu: I will not die easily. I am a warrior! 

G’mork: Ha! Brave warrior, then fight the Nothing. 

Atreyu: But I can’t! I can’t get beyond the boundaries of Fantasia! 

[G’mork laughs and Atreyu gets a little angry] 

Atreyu: What’s so funny about that? 

G’mork: Fantasia has no boundaries. 

[laughs] 

Atreyu: That’s not true! You’re lying. 

G’mork: Foolish boy. Don’t you know anything about Fantasia? It’s the world of human fantasy. Every part, every creature of it, is a piece of the dreams and hopes of mankind. Therefore, it has no boundaries. 

Atreyu: But why is Fantasia dying, then? 

G’mork: Because people have begun to lose their hopes and forget their dreams. So the Nothing grows stronger. 

Atreyu: What is the Nothing? 

G’mork: It’s the emptiness that’s left. It’s like a despair, destroying this world. And I have been trying to help it. 

Atreyu: But why? 

G’mork: Because people who have no hopes are easy to control; and whoever has the control… has the power! 

Atreyu: Who are you, really? 

G’mork: I am the servant of the power behind the Nothing. I was sent to kill the only one who could have stopped the Nothing. I lost him in the Swamps of Sadness. His name… was Atreyu. 

[the ground shakes again and Atreyu is knocked down. He grabs a knife shaped piece of broken stone and stands up, ready to fight] 

Atreyu: If we’re about to die anyway, I’d rather die fighting! Come for me, G’mork! *I* am Atreyu!

This is exactly what has happened to so many people in this world.  They have lost all hope for a better world.  We have seen our parents and our parents parents work very hard to give the next generation a better life and never for a second questioning what was going on around us that would inhibit all of our ancestors efforts.  People are not free because people have lost hope.  Many feed off of their own misfortunes and have lost all desire to take the power back.  People like myself, who have not been happy with the way the world is run, are laughed at and told to suck it up and get a 9-5 job, join the masses.  Going against the grain is silly to most people.  

As a teenager, you knew that I was not a part of the system.  I shouted it with words, with clothes, with music, any way I could.  Nowadays I blend in, but do not be fooled by this.  I stand apart.  I have huge dreams and plans for the future.  I have a vision and with this vision I have complete assurance in my soul that I am on the right path.  That every single sad thing that has every happened to me was for a reason, it was to remind me of my worth and my purpose.

  “I submit to you that if a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

As per usual, I digress from the beginning topic.  I will save my mission for another time.  Today I get back on track: that worry is an illusion, as is all things that bring you to a state of Hell.  Oh I need a clarity break, howabout a song?

One thing that has changed drastically this past year for me is that I have been able to find many others out there that seem to be on my same frequency.  Keeping all my thoughts and expressions bottled up was never going to get me anywhere.  I needed to relate to others.  Through travel and free expression I have been given faith in others because we are all the same.  Sitting around with a group of friends and discussing the weather, sports, and celebrities is a complete waste of time.  Give me a real conversation, let us talk about the universe, teach me something I never knew before so that I can go home and read more about it.  As soon as I started speaking up more freely I found that I got back exactly what I was putting out.  I put "worry" aside, worry about how some might call me an "elitist" for wanting to learn more and do better and change the world.  I reached out to people like I have never done before, randomly and wholeheartedly.  The more I reached the more I found common ground and re-iterated to myself that my beliefs were true and real, there is no turning back anymore.

The Illusion is Society.  Government, structure, police, education, careers, the economy, it is all an illusion to keep you from realizing the truth.

Listen, I know that these things exist, clearly.  It is in my face every chance it gets, I chose to shrug and ignore it.  My point is that none of it, NONE of it matters.  As a North American, our only purpose is to consume.  Our government, does not want us to thrive in this world, they want us to worry so that you can become stressed out, sick, put on pharmaceuticals, over-eat, over-spend, repeat and die.

I've seen these funny little graphs on the web about worry, the point being, if you cannot change the thing you are worrying about then why bother worrying?  Accept it as your faith.  And if you can change the things you are worrying about, then change them, then stop worrying.  No need for me to explain further, if you don't get it already search further within.  Read more, here's another helping hand to the concept of "worry":  http://ht.ly/eLtx9

To wrap this up and throw a bow on it I will say this:  Stop worrying and start living.

Peace, Love, & Happiness