Change and resistance
Recently I was speaking with a friend who was talking about her childhood. We were on the subject of being unshakably yourself. It turns out, at a very early age, Jane knew about being healthy. She knew that what she put into her body had a direct correlation to her present health condition. So while her friends were eating the regular school lunches consisting primarily of… well, let’s just them processed foods, Jane would bring her own concoctions of healthy food. She mentioned how her classmates would grab her food from her and pass it to their friends to ’smell’ the food that she prepared for herself, and subsequently laugh and ridicule her for the selections that she made. After all, they were different choices than the ones that they, themselves were making. It seemed that in this instance, several essences were at play. You see, Jane represented change. Widely, when there is change in a thing, it is most often met with resistance. I am going to suggest that this first line of defense called resistance is fueled by ignorance. What appears to be normal these days, is to ridicule, and negatively judge something different, as distinct from doing what I call, discovery.
Get out of the bucket
Research. Become knowledgable to the extent, that an informed choice can be made. In Janes case, perhaps a few well directed questions would have sufficed. For the most part I have noticed that people would rather that you conform than change their behavior. There is a well known story about the crab fishermen in the North West. You see, when they catch the crabs, the crabs are put into a low round container without a top on it. The crabs are filled to just a few inches from the top. Yet no crabs are able to escape. Do you know why? As soon as one crab begins to lift itself out, the other crabs pull it back down. There is no escape from the majority condition. Rather than be free, the other crabs would deny each other that same freedom. Just like for Jane, most of her classmates would rather ridicule her for her healthy choices not realizing that they were thus limiting their own chance for health. The dream that I have is for each of us to be so unshakable in knowing who we are, that change does not threaten us. That we willingly share our genius knowledge with others in such a way as to provide a choice for our fellow man. And conversely, that we are able to have the patience and confidence in ourselves to listen to others with out worrying if we are with the ‘in crowd’ or cowering in fear of being different from others. I often ask people, do you wish to live your own life, what makes you happy, or do you succomb to the thoughts of others in search of acceptance or approval? Do you wish to be ’safe’ or happy? Which are you, the crab in the bucket, or the confident joyful seeker?
