Heroes Not Zombies

Love.

Well, we could reflect on this subject for a long, long time! However, the point of the A to Z of Becoming series is to consider 26 verbs ie doing words which if you do them, you will experience the joy and deep satisfaction of becoming all you can be.

So, for this week, let’s do two things with love. Let’s start by either making a list, or reflectively meditating about who and what we love. This is love as it flows from you to the other. Who is included in your love world? When does your heart fill with love? It would be good to allow yourself to be honest and gentle with this. Don’t judge. Don’t judge the quality of the love or include who you think you should love but don’t! Instead get in touch with that loving feeling.

I remember years ago I used to listen to “pirate radio” stations – one in particular (Radio Caroline) used to talk all the time about “getting the LA habit” – by which they meant “loving awareness”. Maybe it became clichéd through repetition, so lost its power, but I still admired that they chose to put it out there (see the comments below). And that’s the second part of this week’s exercise….

Once you have become more aware of who you love, of when your heart fills with love, then ask yourself…when did you last vocalise this feeling? Yes, in other words, when did you last tell that person you love them. Maybe with some of the people on your list the answer to that will be a few minutes ago, but for some, I bet the answer might be a few days, or weeks, or months, or even years ago…..? Well, how about doing it this week? How about just telling the people you love that you love them? Raise the level of loving awareness in the world!

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Yesterday was the Spring Equinox, the day when there is an equal balance of day and night….for the next few months, there will be more light in every 24 hours.

I love seeing the appearance of the tree blossoms at this time of year. It feels like a time of new beginnings. So, maybe this isn’t a bad time to reflect on what you’d like to begin. What would you like to start? What journey would you like to begin?

It’s Nature’s time to blossom, and you are part of Nature, so how do you hope to blossom this Spring?

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An area of drug development is being referred to as “stratified” or “personalised” medicine – it’s about testing for biological markers which help to predict who will get benefit, and who will get side effects. Sounds a good idea? Any maybe it is, but I wonder if that’s all there is to knowing who is going to benefit from a particular drug and who will get side effects. However that works out, what struck me was the comment from the Professor in Glasgow –

We’ve seen spectacular advances in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in the last 10 years,” he said. “But one of the greatest frustrations our patients face is that they’re given medicines which could potentially give them benefit or potentially add to the risk. They don’t know which is going to be their fate. What an easing of the mind if they had some degree of certainty about what their medicine was going to do for them.”

We have a great desire to predict the future and to be certain about what it will be like.

Every other day it seems we hear another round of “economic forecasts” suggesting what’s going to happen in the economy for the months ahead. Some economists are even prepared to predict what interest rates will be, growth rates, unemployment rates etc etc – since the financial crash of 2008, does anyone believe anything economists say any more? What exactly are these “forecasts” other than guesses? Is it possible to accurately predict the future of any complex system?

Certainty is the greatest of all illusions…….The only certainty, it seems to me, is that those who believe they are certainly right are certainly wrong. Iain McGilchrist. The Master and his Emissary

Prediction is impossible. We are complex adaptive creatures, living in a complex universe which co-evolves with us. Continuously, complex systems change so radically that the next phase is termed “emergence” – a phenomenon which by definition couldn’t be predicted from an analysis of the pre-existing parts.

So what to do?

Focus on becoming not being…….

For me, noticing patterns, being fully present during experiences and hearing and creating stories beats the illusions of prediction and certainty every time.

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Kindle.

Since Amazon brought out their increasingly popular e-reader and probably transformed reading (how many people do you see on the train or the bus sitting reading something on a kindle reader?), the word “kindle” has become associated with their device.

That’s got something to say for us as we think of the verbs of becoming…..if this little device kindles a little more learning, if it kindles an enthusiasm for reading…..then we are on the right track.

But the kind of kindling I’m thinking of is that early nurturing of something. We start a project, begin to write  or read, embark on a new interest, and at first we have to gently nurture it into viable existence. It’s easy to start something…..for a moment, or an hour, or a day or two…..but a little harder to start something and see it through, to get it established.

I’m sure you’ve encountered the 30 day idea – the idea that if you want to change a habit, or to start a new one, then do the new behaviour (whether that be a change in your diet, or the amount you exercise, or starting to meditate, or whatever). That’s a good way to kindle something. Start today, and then do it again tomorrow, and keep kindling it for 30 days, and see what’s changed.

When I learned TM, both of my teachers were excellent, and they both repeatedly gave the instruction to “gently return to the mantra”. That constant “gently” returning is what made it easy and permanent for me. I think it was a genius instruction. Kindling has the feel of gentleness for me and whatever it is you want to nurture or change, I’d say “gently kindle it”.

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