You’ve heard it a million times: “We are living in unprecedented times amongst an international pandemic that has taken the world by storm.” It has literally stopped the world in it’s tracks and forced everyone to turn off auto-pilot and take a good hard look at their lives. If you have any connection to social media, it’s not hard to see that most of the world is suffering right now. There’s fear, anger, distrust, resentment, finger pointing, blaming, shaming, bullying, yelling, screaming, crying, and just about any other below the line emotion (I refer to any emotion that makes you feel good as above the line emotions and anything that makes you feel bad as below the line emotions) that you can think of. The resounding theme is to just give up on 2020 and get to 2021 as quickly as possible. 2020 was a complete bust and therefore has served no purpose in our lives.
The beliefs that we each hold about what is going on in the world at any given time is exactly that: a belief. They are not necessarily facts. They are our own unique pair of glasses that give us a perspective on the events in the world. In fact, these glasses hold all the things we believe to be true about the world, ourselves and others. The challenges (quarantine, for ex) that we face in our lives presents a unique opportunity to go to the “optometrist” to get a new pair of glasses or a new perspective.
We all know the phrase: Hindsight is 20/20. What does that mean? It means that after you get through a hardship and are able to look back, you are able to see more clearly why it happened, the good that came from it and maybe even celebrate it, no matter how difficult it may have been in the moment. You are able to understand why something happened after you are able to see the bigger picture and space yourself from the emotions of the moment.
What if we learned how to see through the hardships and suffering first in order to have that same hindsight 20/20 vision but to have it in the present moment? I’m pretty sure the fact that this virus is spreading in the year 2020 is the universe’s flashing neon signs to the world to wake up and get a new pair of glasses!
What if 2020 could give you the clearest “20/20” vision of your life? What if there was another way of looking at it than complaining, whining and wasting it away?
What if instead of waiting till 2020 was in the rearview mirror you could learn to cultivate that 20/20 vision in the present? Hindsight doesn’t have to be the only way to develop 20/20 vision. The reason that most are missing it is because we were never shown how to live in the present moment, how to recognize and accept the ‘is-ness’ of life, how to let go of control, how to be still and listen, how to listen to the whispers of our soul, how to find meaning in any situation and how to go within to find our answers. Many may know these concepts intellectually, but very few integrate them into their daily lives. I sure didn’t. It has taken me years to learn how to build this muscle and I still stumble on the daily.
Quarantine has definitely had its moments with me. It’s challenged me, it’s changed me, it’s forced me to go deeper within than I ever have. Having 20/20 vision in the present moment doesn’t mean that your life is void of problems. It does, however, mean that I have the tools to sit down to breakfast with my fears and worries, take off my glasses and get to work. It means I’m able to pull myself out of the equation and take a look at it from 50,000 feet above, which in a way, is kind of what hindsight is, right? The ability to look at the whole picture, devoid of emotions and judgement.
I’ve learned to embrace those challenges, not run from them. That doesn’t mean that I’m skipping around my house singing Kumbaya all day and pretending like nothing has changed. But it does mean that I’m not hiding for the rest of the year until we get to 2021 or whenever this quarantine ends. I’m setting my sights on my North star today (see previous post here) and taking life day by day, continuing to do the next right thing, over and over again.
Covid19 can be our wake up call, just like any other challenge we are facing in our lives. We just have to be aware enough to hear it. We have to quiet our mind’s and our ego’s incessant chatter to really listen.
In order to hear it, we have to take off our glasses. We have to face the real truth, not our perception of the truth. We have to do the work and face the demons that we’ve been avoiding our whole lives. And let me tell you, it’s hard. Those demons can be ugly and scary. But when we face the demons, we take our power back. We can finally stop hiding from the things we were so afraid of for all these years.
We need to heal our past wounds so we can come to the present moment with a fresh, non-judgmental position and see the situation for what it is.
In the movie The Matrix, there’s a scene where Morpheus says to Neo “The matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now in this room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work. When you go to church. When you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.” When Neo asks “What truth?” Morpheus replies “That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Into a prison that you cannot taste or touch. A prison for your mind. Unfortunately, no one can be told what the matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.” He then goes on to offer Neo the blue pill to go back and believe whatever he wants to believe or to take the red pill to understand the Matrix. Just before Neo takes the red pill, Morpheus says, “Remember, all I’m offering is the truth, nothing more.”
The way I see it, under our current circumstances, Covid19 is the red pill. The blue pill leaves us hiding behind the glasses we’ve been wearing. The red pill allows us to wake up from the illusion.
As with everything in life, the choice is ours. Do you choose to take it and set yourself on a journey towards authenticity and freedom or do you chose the blue pill and stay in the matrix?
When you take the red pill, you take off your glasses. You see the situation for what it is. You finally see the truth that Morpheus offers to Neo. You can gain real 20/20 vision in the now without the glares of your previous glasses. The red pill allows us to look inward and allows us to cultivate 20/20 vision of the truth in the present.
The blue pill keeps us withdrawn from life, the world and each other. It keeps us separate. The blue pill has us pointing fingers at the virus, at the world, at politics, at the President or President-elect,
at those who are wearing masks or not wearing masks, at those that we think are doing it wrong and at anyone living a life that isn’t up to the standards that we believe the world should live up to.
Everyone has access to the red pill whenever they are ready for it. The difference with the situation at hand with Covid19 is that even if we chose the blue pill, we still can’t hide from what is standing right in front of us. When we can’t hide behind our incessant need to be busy, to do, to accomplish or acquire more, all we have left is us, our thoughts and our demons. We don’t like our thoughts. We don’t like ourselves. We don’t want to face our fears. We just want to keep so busy, busy, busy that we don’t have to face any of it. And Covid19 is right there preventing us from the busy, doing everything in its power to wake us up and force us to take the red pill.
The only way out is in. Like it or not, Covid19 is forcing us to take a closer look at the lives we’ve created and I believe many don’t like what they see, I sure didn’t. It was hard, it was lonely, it was isolating. I lost “friends.” I questioned everything I was doing. I doubted myself. I doubted the process. But something inside told me to keep going. When I took my glasses off, things were so blurry. I still don’t know if my eyes have fully adjusted.
The pain of staying the same was worse than the pain of moving forward. So I trudged. Many days felt like 1 step forward, 5 steps back. When I first started looking my demons straight in the eye, I was scared. I had no idea how to handle them and was equipped with zero tools. The only way through was forward. I went to work daily. When I was defeated, which was often, I still went to bed determined to try again the next day. I determined to figure out what I could do differently the next day, and then the next, and so on. The ego was strong in me and it still rears its head on the daily, especially during quarantine.
I listened, I questioned, I failed, I moved forward, slowly but surely. I learned which feelings I had control over and which I don’t. Was it easy? Heck no, but was it worth it? Absolutely! A thousand times over, I wouldn’t change the growth I’ve experienced for anything. Am I done? Never. I believe that our quest to reach our higher selves is a quest we will be on till the day our bodies pass (and beyond).
When Covid19 hit, I was faced with new demons just like everyone else. However, because of the work I had been doing for the past 6 years, I knew how to handle them. That doesn’t mean it was easy. I have so many more tools in my tool belt than I did 6 years ago. Doing the work doesn’t mean you live with less problems, it just means that you can overcome them quicker and find a 20/20 vision to help you navigate through them. I’ve taken my power back from the problems so they no longer can take me down.
Covid19 is one of the greatest spiritual teachers of our time. It’s available for anyone who is willing to take the red pill, for anyone willing to take their glasses off and for anyone willing to wake up and see the truths of their lives.
The lessons that Covid19 are here to teach each of us are all different yet they are all the same too. What I do know is this: The only way I learn these lessons is to be silent and go within. I listen to the pain. I ask lots of questions. I pull myself, my ego and my emotions out of the equation and I look at the situation as if I was an outsider looking in. I imagine myself watching my thoughts and I question them. I question where they came from, why do I believe them to be true, is it possible that there’s another way of looking at the situation, etc.
No one teaches us how to sit in silence and acknowledge the demons that came up and continue to come up. I didn’t know how to be still. I had to figure it out for myself and have been doing so for the past 6+ years. I’ve had to find my own teachers along the way. These teachers included coaches, books, seminars, workshops, but unless I was willing to take those lessons and apply them to my life, I would never had seen change. The most important understanding was an open mind that the ‘truths’ that I believed about my life and the world were maybe in fact just a perception, a pair of glasses that I could remove whenever I was ready. The real truths can only be found by those who are willing to look for them.
“Remember – and this is very important – you’re only one thought away from happiness, you’re only one thought away from sadness. The secret lies in Thought. It’s the missing link that everybody in this world is looking for… It’s a gift that we were given to have the freedom to walk through life and see what we want to see.” ~Michael Neill from The Inside Out Revolution
Over the next series of posts, I hope to tackle these demons and show you what has worked for me and show you how I’ve changed my thoughts. These demons include the illusion of control, the ability to just be, learning to lean into the growth, learning to go with the flow and adjust course as necessary and that 20/20 vision is available in the here and now, not only in the rearview mirror.
I’m not here to convince anyone or force any beliefs on you. I’m just here to show you the path I took and the tools I used to get there. I’m here to show you how I discern the beliefs in my life so you can do the same in yours. This is my journey. All I can control is the words I put on this page. I can’t control what happens to them after I put them out in the world, and honestly, why would I want to? What you do with these posts is up to you.
Just know that we are all in this together.
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