Creating the journey ahead

Hello dear reader,

I keep hearing more and more people lately saying ‘I want to cut down or stop eating meat’, I ‘I want to stop partying and start drinking less’, ‘I want to use less animal based products and food’, 'I want to start recycling more' and many similar statements.

There seems to be a gradual, collective shift of (or at least intention to change) food and lifestyle habits. For decades we have been programmed and used to eat certain foods, drink alcohol, have a specific lifestyle, do specific things like partying until late etc. Please don’t misunderstand me, you will never hear me saying that there is anything wrong with all these. We have all walked home barely knowing how, we all have had too much to drink so that we can let go even for a while of our inhibitions and did something ‘silly’; we all have (over) indulged ourselves with pizza, meat feasts, chocolate, cakes and so on.

I believe we are very used to comfort ourselves with food, drinks and whatever makes us feel good. We will go for 'shopping therapy' and buy anything when we feel low, we will drink to the oblivion when we feel sad or something hurts us, we will drink again to celebrate when we are happy, we will drink we are bored or while we are waiting for something to happen in our lives. Similarly, we will watch series when we are bored, we will watch a film when we feel lonely, we will play with our phones in every opportunity we have to fill a moment, we will post our photos and 'moments' so we can get noticed by our 'friends' on social media and we will give them their fair share of attention when there is a pause in our lives. We will even meet our lovers and flirts through the phone. It is all very human..

I cann't help it but to notice how we are used to, almost automatically programmed to 'consume' in order to fill our moments. Time, our moments became this 'empty' space that we need to fill in in a similar way that we fill our shopping basket. If we don't, we are probably considered boring, unmotivated, that something is  wrong with us, that we might be depressed and need some sort of help to 'recover' etc. 

My intention here is not to be 'negative' or catastrophise for the future of the world. I am sharing observations and thoughts, hopefully not to be 'consumed' but as my part of the dialogue that I am interested as an alive being in having with other people, in my imagination or in real situations.

I am surprised how much our experience is mediated through material things these days. We don't stay much with ourselves, our silences, our feelings, with one another, with the unknown (of ours and others), with the mystery, with the surprise, with the adventure, with the questions. We are moving from one thing to the other constantly, we eat the one thing after the other without necessarily listen to our bodies and then we shape our bodies in the standard format (six packs, broad shoulders, etc) that is going to be liked by others. It almost feels that life comes in shapes and size and each one of  us have to choose theirs just like we do when we shop for clothes. 
I am even more surprised to see people 'consuming' 'healing', 'relaxation', 'meditation', 'relief' like it is a coffee from their local shop.

For me life has always been a process to be mapped, a path to be created and walked, a series of questions, mysteries, hypothesis, trials and errors, a route to discover and invent myself, others and the world. On top of that,  I realised that in the same way all these things, experiences, interactions etc are also discovering me, making me who I am which was different to w ho I was yesterday and more likely different to who I am going to be tomorrow. Pretty scary and probably trans-human stuff..
The way I have experienced healing through therapy, meditation and other methods taught me that healing is a self designed, active process. It requires participation, commitment, ownership, continuous learning and loving of oneself, others and the world. Is not just the nut bar you buy from the corner shop. It is that painful and simultaneously blissful process of getting to know oneself, visit all the rooms and little hidden corners of one's own house; clean them when they get dirty, enjoy them when they feel good, stroke them when they hurt, feel the qualities of its material, the smells, the sensations.

The powerful times we live in call us to look ourselves in the mirror of our bathrooms and in the mirror of other's and the world's and admit what we see, admit honestly who we have been and if that feels real, authentic, true and whole. We have spent so much of our lives trying to please other people, conform in people's and societies expectations, we have said and done things continuously that feel good but actually at some level stop ourselves- for whatever reason- to get to know deeply and show what we want, what our heart is on fire for, what do we find peace with, what we love doing which does not just pay the bills, who we truly are..

I feel that the journey ahead is one that needs to be consciously created out of the depths of our existence which ever way that feels right for each one of us.

With love,
Panos