RESCUE YOURSELF: A simple plan for a less stress life

by Isaac George
May 25th, 2018

You are not a machine.

Looking around these days, whether its in my Inbox, on my social media feeds, or listening to the chatter I pick up on in cafes, I am hearing and seeing loads of messages about becoming more proficient, productive and efficient in your career, workplace, home space and lifetstyle. A near constant litany of ways to improve this, hack that, and strategies for achieving more are even pervasive (as I see it) than in recent memory. In fact, they are becoming just as annoying as pop-up ads. Juxtaposed against this stream of consciousness (am I being too kind here?) are another set of messages warning us about the dysfunctional nature of our lifestyle choices, and how they are increasing our depression, affecting our health, and ultimately calling into question the whole basis of our way of life. Day to day living is becoming a search for the next dopamine fix when you check your smartphone.

Which messages are you listening to?

It seems as if the mindfulness movement has been hijacked to serve our need for ever more security, stuff and to secure some arbitrary ideal of what the “perfect live” looks like. Are we using the tools of metaphysics and spirituality as they were originally designed, or have we co-opted them for our personal ego agendas and possible gain? The wellness industry is a kind of oxymoron really, another adjunct or app to help us to continually cope and produce. However, what happens when you really slow down, and take a closer look, and reflect? The chasing is never-ending. The finding ever more elusive.

Is it all making you happier, or just more miserable than ever?

Worry, anxiety and depression, along with obesity, drug and alcohol addiction, and gender and racial abuses is on the rise. So are authoritarian right-wing politicians and governments. We’re behaving like chronically unfulfilled, hungry ghosts searching for a material or spiritual Nirvana. Perhaps further away from that goal than we'd care to admit. Ultimately, we must ask ourselves, what is it all for, and what is the point?

Whether we like it or not, we are also connected to every other living thing on this world, and we all are having a shared experience. (That's an even a deeper rabbit hole I could take this down, but that’s for another time.) If you are wondering what the most graceful and sensible next steps for reducing or eliminating fear, stress and anxiety in your life, then here is what I’ve found works for me, and for many of those whom I call my clients and friends.

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​What are the solutions?

It’s more of a Soul-ution actually. When we’re confronted in our own personal sphere by stress, anxiety, and uncertainty, the only way out is in. The word “soul” has become commonplace in our vernacular, but what do we know about our souls, or what they are?

It is synonymous with the divine in us, part of the thing that makes us human…and so much more. To connect, to reconnect, to remember what and whom you are, will take a radical shift in what you believe, and what you do about what you believe.
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• Meditate – not when you have time, not only when you’re facing an existential crisis, but every day…maybe twice a day. Make it a priority, this act of sitting still, and…what? Listening. Meditation is the art of listening. What are you listening for? God, goddess, Spirit, the Infinite or All That Is. It is the source point, the beginning and the end. This is not about religion, it’s about LIFE. In fact, religion has nothing whatsoever to do with meditation. Sit and breathe, follow your breath…pay attention to your heartbeat. Listen…with ease and intent. 
  
  

• Go outside more. Not just for a walk, or exercise, or sport. Go out there…look at Nature. Learn from Nature. Listen to Nature. Stop being a prodigal human, and allow for the truth to sink in. You are a child of the natural world…a human ANIMAL. With some differences to be sure, but that body is yours, and not yours. It is a gift from Beyond and this Planet, not a prison. Stop being a stranger to your real and ever-present Mother Earth. She has wisdom that will assist you to rescue yourself.


• Ahh, your body. Some spiritual disciplines look upon it as merely a vehicle, a temporary inconvenience. Religions hold it in contempt, and see it as a symptom of sin, a badge of shame on the soul. Nature sees it as a miracle. How do you see it? Try to get to know your body as a manifestation of your soul, made visible and to be enjoyed and taken care of. Pleasure is your right, and it is part of staying healthy. Don’t make a vibrant and healthy sex life a distant hope or longing. Start with you, where you are. What have you done for yourself (or to yourself!) lately? Your body has sacred codes, a network of invisible networks that are hardwired into Nature and the Cosmos. The only reason you don’t feel or experience that is your conditioning, your belief in hard work and suffering as your salvation. That’s the lie to overcome, so you can know the truth of your Being. Again, it’s not going to require anything of you to realize this, except to let go of what you are holding on to. 
  
  

There are few other methods or choices I can recommend, but the title did imply simplicity, so I must keep this brief. The truth is that we find we have created a world that is in conflict with Nature…it’s reflected in the ecology and the climate. The air is unfit to breathe, the water and food becoming more unfit to consume, and the busyness and complicated demands we have or choose, is slowly robbing us of our joy. We have are developing a deeper intimacy with our technology than with each other, or Nature. Our addictions, or propensity to addiction to these things, are the symptoms of spiritual sickness, an illness of the soul. We can choose differently. We can live differently. It’s a choice, and it starts with you.

The positive in all this is like the pea under the mattress. We all sense something is missing, that something is essentially wrong. When the pain and suffering reaches a critical mass, then it is time to change and evolve. Or not. That thing called choice once again looms large.

Today, choose to begin where you are. Feel gratitude for what you have, without chasing for "more". Recognize how blessed it is to be alive, to breathe, to take in that beyond all the change and demands, there is a beautiful world with amazing beings in it waiting to be discovered. That the most important choice you can make is to discover the amazing being you are, and how you fit into the Big Story. 

There's more to all this than you've yet imagined. Are you ready to explore and grow? Of course you are.

Blessings on your journey,
Isaac

Do you want to find out more about meditation, earthing, and connecting to the essence of who you are. Would you like to learn more about your true nature and how to really thrive from a place of Soul? Then let me hold some space and time for you in for a free Breakthrough Call with me. Just click on the link below. I look forward to meeting you!

https://www.isaacgeorge.com/scheduler.html

For more about Isaac: https://www.isaacgeorge.com/aboutisaac.html

References:
Indoor Generation - 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygHU0mQGuJU&feature=youtu.be

Jaron Lanier: You Are Not A Gadget - 
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6683549-you-are-not-a-gadget