Being true to our experience

In response to this tweet:

The problem with people who desire “authenticity” is that most people don’t really know what that is. Wallowing in your perceived neuroses is not being “authentic.”

— Little Joe from Kokomo (@joe_kokomo) June 15, 2019 (no longer there)

I say:

Wallowing, whatever that is, might not be a good thing. I do know that knowing and allowing traumatized parts of the psyche to be expressed is important. What people have trouble with is finding a graceful way (and a safe place) to do that. It’s a legitimate issue because there are few supportive environments to do the work needed.

Using a clinical term to dismiss layers of trauma is what psychiatry and psychology has done since its inception. We can continue to tell people who are struggling to go hide and drug them silent or we can actually provide supportive environments to do the work.

“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a sick society.” – Krishnamurti

It is those who imagine themselves well adjusted that come up with clinical terms that obfuscate — like neurosis and bipolar and schizophrenic and depressed.  They will not be leading anyone to freedom with labeling and dismissal.

I would argue that being authentic is being true to whatever is arising and if your madness is arising, that, my friend, is authentic. Be with it.

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In response to this sort of sentiment:

“allow whatever intense feelings you’re feeling to settle before responding…things have a way of naturally dissolving… when we immediately react it can make things so much worse.”

I say:

YES and also when people don’t have the nervous system conditioning to tolerate those feelings people get labeled crazy. There are virutally no safe spaces to feel feelings at this time. This is true especially for ancient feelings from traumas that were committed in childhood or to our ancestors. Some people’s nervous systems are truly overwhelmed by what there is to feel in the body. What then?

How do we create spaces for people to learn how to do that safely? I don’t have answers because there isn’t a common will around this issue yet.There is not even a common understanding. There are some grassroots spaces for such exploration but mostly it is absent in our society

see: Choice and emotion

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To those who claim they no longer suffer: If this is true then your time would be much better spent serving those who do suffer rather than bragging about your achievement. It rings hollow. What but an out of control ego would brag such a thing in the midst of so much pain?

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With a trashed nervous system that is in fear mode by default, fearlessness becomes a strange byproduct of years of hyper-vigilance accompanied by mindfulness.

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one cannot impose on another whatever it is that someone currently believes on someone with different beliefs…those beliefs are potent…it’s also why I say one of my fundamental *practices* is NON-Belief...models are best utilized while they work and then dropped like a hot potato. They are not meant to be shared unless people actually benefit from them and are open to receive them. This is true of ideology and religion too which is why practicing a cool form of non-belief that allows for all possibilities but attaches to nothing is a reasonable stance to take. There are endless contexts among humans within which almost anything can be true at particular moments and that includes many things that seem contradictory from many vantage points.

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More on TRAUMA and how psychiatry and the mental health establishment often RETRAUMATIZES

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