Humans Are Funny

Humans are funny.  We really are a peculiar people.  To quote a famous philosopher, “Humans have a knack for choosing precisely those things that are worst for them”. -Albus Dumbledore.  Sometimes we don’t even choose the worst thing consciously, it just sort of happens.  Note to self: don’t make an emotional decision that goes against what you decided to do when you were in a logical setting.  A problem steps in front of us and we try to figure out a way to sidestep it, climb over it, dig under it, or plow right through it.  These sometimes will work if the problem isn’t too large.  However, when the problem is looming over you and is too big for any of those to work, you tend to do the opposite of what is best out of fear, lack of understanding, impatience, or frustration.  You don’t even recognize that you are doing is the opposite of helpful. 

Here is an illustration:  When we fear something, our tendency is to avoid it.  What we don’t emotionally understand in that moment is that facing that fear, confronting it and thinking logically will empower you to make the right decision, or overcome your fear, or whatever the case may be.   

With anxiety, whenever you are having anxious thoughts, you desperately try to rid yourself of them and/or try to explain them away.  This cascades and before you know it, your all of a bother and you don't even remember what triggered it.  The best way to get rid of it is try to refocus on something else, and ignore it.  Counter intuitive.  Easier said than done as anyone with anxiety will inform you.  Another example is found in my own art, singing.  Well sort of my own art.  In order to get good tone, extend your upper register and range, you need to think about lower breath support.  Your natural instinct would be to reach upwards, which makes it harder and hurts your voice.   

Kind of odd how many things tend to be that way.  In order to have more spiritual peace and freedom, the more commandments of God we keep.  Seems opposite, but that’s the battle between our dual natures.  Our natural instincts appeal to our natural being.  The ways of nature are usually very simple.  They can be complex, difficult, large, or small, but really it is very simple.  The counter intuitive solution, the best way to do things, appeals to our spiritual natures, our souls.  Our brains and hearts have to work together to double check and make sure that a particular option is right, because if we let one or the other make an exclusive decision, we have a good chance of making a mistake.

It all ends up working out and we get some guidance.  We look back and think, “Man, how in the world did I make the right decision”?  It seems that we are helped along more than we think we are sometimes.  We see the path is perfect, once we are past major check points that is.  Which is funny because that tends to make us more nervous and anxious to do the right thing the next time an issue stands in our face.  "What if this path leads me here", or "what if the right path is just around the corner",  or "what if I make the wrong choice"?  Whenever the next big decision comes up we think about the past and swim in these questions without a paddle. Past success makes us twice as fearful of future failure.  And past failure tends to make us more confident and motivated for future success.  This is why we must trudge through hard times occasionally, it really is what gives us the faith, confidence, and capability to succeed, and make the right decision in the future.

That’s what we’re here to learn.  Which of our natural instincts do we respond to most often?  How do we respond to the right side of our natures more accurately?  We practice.  We ask for help.  We study.  It is quite the process.  The more we try to avoid our fears the less we will learn and the more unscheduled trials we may face.  As a wise turtle once said, "We often meet our destiny on the path we take to avoid it".