Many years ago, I was a part owner of a business that sold equipment to fire departments, so I got to know lots of firefighters, mostly fire captains and fire chiefs. One of those chiefs, who'd been a volunteer for over 20 years in a fire department that protected part of Hwy. 80, told me he'd never seen a fatal car wreck where the driver was wearing a seat belt. He didn't know why, but suspected it was because it kept the driver better oriented to what was happening.
Times are about to get very weird. (See this and listen to this and this to learn about what I mean. They are long, and well worth the time and effort. The written one is well-researched, and the audio is convincing.) Imagine that you're alone, flying down the highway at top speed, when the road suddenly disappears. Maybe you're just on grass, or worse, mud. Or you're suddenly in a forest, having to drive around trees that you never noticed before. And all kinds of people are suddenly clamoring for your attention, some from the back seat and some from the forest.
It's definitely time to fasten your metaphorical seat belt. How do you do that?
Ask yourself how you know what is true. The natural world is a great place to start. Plants can't really lie, and animals find that pretty hard, too (the Oscar-worthy performances of our cat to scam us out of more food notwithstanding). What do you feel in your physical body (or your electromagnetic body) when you're in nature? Maybe you'd describe it as peaceful, or grounded, or one of a thousand other words, but go deeper. Use kinesthetic words to describe the feeling -- are you feeling light or heavy? warm or cool? tense or relaxed? tingly? These are just suggestions -- it doesn't matter how you feel, but rather that you identify it.
Once you have that down, how do you know when someone is telling the truth? Again, use what you feel.
Or here, maybe you have an inner voice, the still small voice within, that says, "nope", or some variant of that. It's important to pay attention to the quality of that voice. Is it male? female? neither? How fast does it speak? Does it's inflection go up and down, or stay fairly flat? Where does the voice seem to come from? Is it inside your head, or somewhere outside that you can point to?
Or maybe it's not a voice, exactly. Maybe it's a sound. Maybe it beeps when you're getting a lie, or the truth for that matter. Again, it doesn't matter how you know the truth, but that you identify how you know it.
It's important to keep that truth meter on all the time. The best lies include some elements of truth, and you have to be discerning to tell which is which.
Remember, as things get strange, you can't drive looking in the rear view mirror. If things change significantly, then habitual ways of acting must shift. You wouldn't drive the same way in snow as you would on a sunny warm day, would you? Look at the conditions ahead.
As you watch significant changes happening all around you, it might be easy to be seduced by the spectacle into just watching. This is equivalent to trying to drive while watching out your side window. You're likely to crash, because you're not watching where you're going.
Similarly, it will be important to stay focused on your responsibilities as things change. This will be different for each person, and only you will know your particular path through the new landscape. How will you know? By knowing your own truth.
Times are about to get very weird. (See this and listen to this and this to learn about what I mean. They are long, and well worth the time and effort. The written one is well-researched, and the audio is convincing.) Imagine that you're alone, flying down the highway at top speed, when the road suddenly disappears. Maybe you're just on grass, or worse, mud. Or you're suddenly in a forest, having to drive around trees that you never noticed before. And all kinds of people are suddenly clamoring for your attention, some from the back seat and some from the forest.
It's definitely time to fasten your metaphorical seat belt. How do you do that?
Ask yourself how you know what is true. The natural world is a great place to start. Plants can't really lie, and animals find that pretty hard, too (the Oscar-worthy performances of our cat to scam us out of more food notwithstanding). What do you feel in your physical body (or your electromagnetic body) when you're in nature? Maybe you'd describe it as peaceful, or grounded, or one of a thousand other words, but go deeper. Use kinesthetic words to describe the feeling -- are you feeling light or heavy? warm or cool? tense or relaxed? tingly? These are just suggestions -- it doesn't matter how you feel, but rather that you identify it.
Once you have that down, how do you know when someone is telling the truth? Again, use what you feel.
Or here, maybe you have an inner voice, the still small voice within, that says, "nope", or some variant of that. It's important to pay attention to the quality of that voice. Is it male? female? neither? How fast does it speak? Does it's inflection go up and down, or stay fairly flat? Where does the voice seem to come from? Is it inside your head, or somewhere outside that you can point to?
Or maybe it's not a voice, exactly. Maybe it's a sound. Maybe it beeps when you're getting a lie, or the truth for that matter. Again, it doesn't matter how you know the truth, but that you identify how you know it.
It's important to keep that truth meter on all the time. The best lies include some elements of truth, and you have to be discerning to tell which is which.
Remember, as things get strange, you can't drive looking in the rear view mirror. If things change significantly, then habitual ways of acting must shift. You wouldn't drive the same way in snow as you would on a sunny warm day, would you? Look at the conditions ahead.
As you watch significant changes happening all around you, it might be easy to be seduced by the spectacle into just watching. This is equivalent to trying to drive while watching out your side window. You're likely to crash, because you're not watching where you're going.
Similarly, it will be important to stay focused on your responsibilities as things change. This will be different for each person, and only you will know your particular path through the new landscape. How will you know? By knowing your own truth.
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