What’s this? A post without a featured image? No internal or outbound links? No green dots assuring SEO expertise?
I’ve really struggled to come up with this month’s alignment. I’ve had some false starts that were like pulling teeth, to use a tired old cliche, which fits my mood quite well. What do we do when we lack motivation or inspiration? When we feel dried up and dried out or simply blank?
We are taught to be productive in life, to be useful. So when we have a creative block (or are just fed up with all the hoops and steps), it can bring up all kinds of feelings of inadequacy and fear. We might make numerous attempts to “fix” our state. Perhaps we take ourselves on a play date to see something new, call a friend for some distraction, or watch a movie in the hopes it will spark something fresh within us.
And if all our tricks fail? What if we’re still left with the blank page, the white canvas, or the unshaped ball of clay, or the red SEO dot? Then what?
Can we allow the uncomfortable feelings? Can we be satisfied with a mad scribble, a half-told story, or an incomplete thought?
Radical Acceptance
What if we don’t need to put out “this month’s video” or meet that self-imposed deadline of productivity? What if we don’t need to cross every T and dot every i (yet another cliche), be unique, stand out, or be inspirational? What if, instead of resisting the narrow passage we find ourselves in, we tried embracing it?
Can we just allow ourselves to feel dull, be boring, and not push or fake our way through a block? What if, just like in winter, when the trees seem dead of life, something mysterious and profound is happening deep inside?
Humans aren’t so good at accepting what is. We’re always trying to change, fix or improve things. There isn’t anything necessarily wrong with that unless we are training ourselves to be eternally dissatisfied with how things actually are…if we are repeatedly unable to just be still and silent long enough to allow a deeper form of simple being.
Seems our society doesn’t think much of the idea of acceptance…be it acceptance of ourselves, others or the situations in which we find ourselves. We are conditioned to compare and judge, to learn and control more, to go faster, be bigger, strive, strive and strive some more. We then compete with others for the prize, wanting to outshine or end up feeling inadequate.
But here’s a thought: what if there’s nothing wrong with what is, even in moments of unproductivity or creative struggle?
The Final Judgment
What if we made a choice right here and now to walk that razor’s edge by simply accepting life “as is”? What if before we stopped trying to overcome, perfect, control, and clean-up the personality flaws, the scars, and the nervous-system adaptations, we first simply embraced ourselves instead? What if we declared this day the Final Judgement?
Maybe the most profound thing we can do is to love and accept ourselves and the situations we find ourselves in over and over and over again.
Loving the Flaws
We live in a world that seems to value hiding the things that make us human…our impatience, our greed, our insecurity, our addictions, our loneliness, and yes, our lack of motivation or inspiration. We value outward demonstrations of alignment and judge what appears to be misalignment.
But how can there be one without the other? How can we be conscious of alignment without awareness of misalignment? And is misalignment really something bad? Or is it just a state in which, like the trees of winter, some mysterious force is at play deep inside?
This month, let go of the ideas of aligning or feeling misaligned. Give yourself some space. You don’t need a practice. You just need to surrender.
Free yourself! Embrace your Holy Mess.