Balance in life

With little or no emotion, we are not human, mere biological machines.

Even at the most shallow of levels, emotions control our reactions to situations that would appear, on the outside, to be who we are.

Yet, in the depths of our minds, it is much more complex than that and the observer only has a very small fragment of the information at hand.

From a scientific perspective, our personality can be deduced from a series of tests, such as introvert and extrovert as the main types, narrowing down further with various other “traits”.

However, I think the main factors are based on our early life experiences, some traits may be more related to genetics, as we do not know quite how much of our identity is passed to us from previous generations, besides physical attributes of course.

I also think that past events, whether positive or negative, lead to the development of our emotional awareness, that can either block or promote certain behaviors and attributes.

Our level of empathy (or indeed narcissism) can be pin-pointed to a series of experiences, whereby we learn to adapt according to our surroundings. I would say that our care givers perhaps played the largest role in this formation.

We learn very quickly to block emotions that make us feel uncomfortable or fearful.

It’s all too easy to judge someone when they exhibit less than favourable behaviour. If you know just a little about their past it allows you to better understand the situation. When there is no situation, you often see a very different person emerge.

On a personal level, during stressful situations, I often react to things around me, and often later regret my course of action, although this used to be much more common in younger life. I think it’s very important to look at who you were back then and how you have changed, as a result of understanding who you are on a deeper level. Getting to understand exactly where your emotions come from is key to becoming less reactive, although it should be said that we all experience things differently, depending on our situation, our social support and of course our past experiences.

When we talk about balance, it can cover a very broad spectrum. We become accustomed to our surroundings, or rather we strive to find a safe place to be who we want to be. As human beings we need a few basic things in order to feel good about ourselves and to thrive. Sometimes we think we know what we need, only to find later that it’s something very different. Making changes, if we feel that we are able, is the only way we can move forward towards becoming more fulfilled.

It’s very easy to become focussed on the future, which robs you of the present moment and your naturally creative and intuitive thinking.

A large part of our lives is spent focussing on securing our future and less on actually living in the moment. Although often we can find enjoyment in things, the more freedom we have to actively participate. Bringing our own individual experience to a given situation is seemingly important.

Our perspectives are often formed out of our deeper emotional thinking. Sometimes an opposite point of view is alien and unwelcome and threatens to somehow undermine our being, and will seemingly annihilate us.

When In fact, through removing our conditioning, even for a moment, would open our eyes to other possible lessons, should we decide to open doors long closed.

I understand that by limiting our perceptions, we can feel perhaps safer in the world, again based on our past there could be mechanisms in place that make us unable to accept another’s point of view. But that’s the beauty of being human, having the choice of being open to realizations, about yourself and the world around you. Some will find comfort in service to others or self, or ideally a balance of the two. To focus on just one of these can be further detrimental to your life balance.

It seems important to know that, even in the most difficult of situations, we still have so much control over our own lives and the choices we make can truly make the world a much better place to be. Although currently, it’s seemingly controlled by those that put themselves first, well above the service to others, little by little we are able to change the status quo and redress the balance, should we choose to look inwards and become less reactive and fear based. Without fear we can directly affect our own lives and the people around us to make better decisions and see through the lies that are there to further empower the few.

Fear creates power, while service to others, love if you will, brings healing and thriving towards a brighter future for all.

Thank you for reading.