WHAT’S IN THIS POST FOR YOU:
In a world full of chaos, suffering, and turmoil, it’s easy for me to feel guilty when I might feel personal joy. Is there a way for us to be an empathetic neighbor with the suffering happening worldwide AND still find our own pockets of joy? Yes, there is. Let me share:
SUMMARY/ESSENCE
The purpose of this post is to give you the tools and perspective to feel both compassion for the world’s suffering, while simultaneously allowing your heart to open and feel personal joy at any given moment.
THE BLOG POST …
1.
Given our highly charged world right now — is feeling joy a self-indulgent act?
In a world where so much suffering occurs each and every day, is the act of feeling joy without cause wrong? Is it inappropriate? Spiritually bypassing? Insensitive? Narcissist? Irresponsible? Impossible? Is it unfair of us to have irregular moments of unplanned joy, with all of the suffering going on around us.
In other words, if we’re really paying attention as we should be to the world’s plight, is feeling independent joy an act of hate? To pay attention to the sufferings of the world, the sufferings eating away at the poor, the unemployed, immigrants, children in poverty on a national and worldwide scale, you know the list (I hope), do we not have a duty to give a wise and loving response to the co-sense and co-feel of this suffering?
As I said, we live in a highly charged world right now. Does the accusation of second guessing our joy come as a shock? Something you have never considered before?
How aware are you of those of us suffering?
Did you notice how I phrased that? “Those of us suffering”?
The term “us” applies to you, to me, and to all of “those other” — the poor, unemployed, immigrants, and children of poverty worldwide. Here, we frame “us” as an all-encompassing term.
I will get to the joy in a moment, I promise. You will see why it is crucial for us to first talk about “those of us suffering”.
Sensing and feeling those of us suffering seems to shout out — feeling joy is an irresponsible act! An action that is wrong, inappropriate, spiritually bypassing, insensitive, narcissist, indulgent, impossible.
Furthermore, as warriors of true intimacy, we should include the suffering of our beloved animals, animal kingdom species, rain forests, butterflies, and oh, should we include melting icebergs, oceans filling with our plastic junk … as all part of “those of us suffering”. Don’t you think?
2.
So here’s the real question!
Can we open our hearts to all this suffering — the fraying of our world-wide Web of Life… and yet still feel “joy for no reason”, at times, throughout any given day?
I know it is possible.
I live to do both.
One of the greatest calls to our soul growth is, in fact, to cultivate the capacity to feel both suffering and joy in the same beating heart.
Let me be poetic for a moment, without having to define these juicy metaphors:
- Weaving together the experience of suffering (our own, and/or that of “others”) and joy is like the astonishing weavings in a traditional Navajo rug.
- This weaving is leaving the “paradox of wholeness.”
- This is the wizard and wizardess, living between the multiple realms of existence.
- It is the Unifying Way.
- Such unifying is the way the true soul loves to figure-eight flow.
- Holding both together can com to you with a “flash awake”.
Have I opened you to the actuality that you can feel both suffering and joy?
3.
I will go one step further: feeling joy, in the world as it is right now, is actually responsible.
There. A strange idea, yes. Feeling joy for no reason is a responsible thing to do. Moreover, it is appropriate, spiritually mature, sensitive, caring, possible and wise.
What would our protestant ancestors say? They would turn up their noses at such an exhortation. But their indigos ancestors would just nod and say “Um Hmm”.
Here are four flash reasons it is good to feel joy, right alongside feeling our planetary suffering:
- When you peel back all the layers of our human suffering, anxiety, task orientation, conditioning and programming, you can find a living waters of pulsating joy — verified by spiritual practitioners of every religion, through every century, in every culture.
- If our world has any kind of energetic field(also called the unifying field, noosphere, Indra’s network, quantum potential, whatever you may call i)t, then experiencing joy in such a field fertilizes it for all others. This is an astounding power that I will discuss more fully in another blog post).
- Feeling joy brings the life force flowing through your circulation, leaving you stronger — energizing you to enjoy your life, while simultaneously being of benefit for others.
- Feeling joy breaks you out of your trance, default, task-ego orientation — and suddenly you are in larger, true nature.
CONCLUSION:
I invite you to think back to where we started on the journey of this post: asking the questions “is feeling joy self-indulgent in these times?” And now I am asking you: Do you feel more inspired to open to both the world’s suffering and your own squirts of joy?
Can you give yourself permission to feel joy?
Maybe you are saying, “YES, BUT I am not feeling much joy these day!”
In the next blog post, I will reveal three deeply held, dysfunction, subconscious programs we all carry inside us about joy. It will be good to detox these, so we can open more spaces in our being for the breezes of joy to blow through.
CONCLUDING PRACTICE/EMBODIMENT:
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What’s the one specific detail in this blog that has most inspired you?
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How could you bring this “one thing” into greater embodiment, practice and realization?
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Jot down your answer, set a reminder on your phone, and/or text me (303-619-1890).
DEDICATION OF MERIT:
Whatever merit these thoughts may have, I dedicate this merit to all Beings everywhere
(including plants, animals, oceans, icebergs, etc), and hope that it may help soften the
suffering of BILLIONS on our planet right now.
NOW, FOR YOUR VOICE:
I greatly encourage any feedback on this way of thought. Was it helpful? What would be
even more helpful to you? Please let me know via email, bornfornow@gmail.com, or
Text 1-303-619-1890, or twitter @unifyingway
PLEASE SHARE:
If you feel inspired, please send this out on your network, just so there is more light circulating on the planet right now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzxoXgRJ7H8&ab_channel=FredericWiedemann%2CPhD
P.S. HUMOROUS VIDEO OF ME: The “Unifying Way” is all about knitting, weaving and unifying the difficult together. Well, here’s a 30 second video of me learning to knit.
P.S.S Coming this June, I am happy to offer you a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with your joy:
Check out this in-person , Covid safe, joyful retreat in the Colorado Rockies! The main goal of the retreat? To foster joy through connection – connection with Nature, with the community, and with your true self.