Being in the external world

[sillypumpkins]

Hi everyone,

Lately I have become aware of the fact that I reside the majority of the time, in my internal realms.

It's not even necessarily that I "reside" there all the time, obviously, because I have to feed myself and stuff like that. It's just that I put more weight on the internal work than the external work. It's "more important." Which is hogwash, from where I am standing.

Imbalance! Imbalance!

Through the catalyst of a close relationship I have, I learned that, man, I am only responsible for my own actions, and this internal/external imbalance is really making everything difficult for myself and others. So what to do about it?

"Just do it" I know, I know. It seems so easy yet feels so hard. Though, I have a hunch that it's the emotions I react to, thus making it "hard," and the actual "doing" isn't as bad as it may seem.

I'm curious, has anyone here been met with this imbalance before? Is there anything that helped you "ease" into the real world?

It feels really difficult. I suspect I am overwhelming myself with what I could be doing, and that's make me sort of neurotic. "Okay, I can start practicing asanas, I can really buckle down on this music project, oh I also wanted to start this movie script too...... man that sounds like way too much to handle, never mind."

I know it feels difficult, but is it? I don't think so. I'd still like to hear what some of you might have to say on the subject

[Patrick]

I am not sure I get what you're asking, but I will comment none the less.

I like being on the front lines, so to speak, and this requires me to get back down to Earth and ground myself in the everyday catalysts and interactions.  What helps me going back down is putting aside spiritual stuff for a little while and just live.  I watched the movie Midway for example.  A good war movie helps quite a bit to ground.  Or I go to read articles on https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/.  That too tends to get me back into this world's "realities".

But this is not required and working on the Self is more than enough to help humanity.

---

...In this regard we would suggest that the skillful choice is always to work on the self without regard for working with other entities. Service to others, working upon what you perceive needs to be done in the world, begins and ends within yourself. Until the point at which you are asked specific questions that you may answer in what you hope is a spiritually helpful manner, the work you do on yourself is sufficient and more than adequate in terms of how you may affect the consciousness of planet Earth. Change yourself and you change the world. That is how powerful you really are...

...The focus upon the self in the means of balancing distortions and looking for ways to understand more of what is occurring within the self is an activity that may seem to some to be full of pride and ego, yet we would suggest that such a concentration of an entity’s attention upon its own self in that manner is a means by which a seeker grows, for it needs to be aware of the activity of intellect, of emotion, and of the spirit that moves within one’s own being. Yet that information is used only to temper the steel, shall we say, the character of the entity, and not to impose this character upon another...

...Many times, it seems to each, that there is no way that one person can be of service, that one person’s light can make a difference. However, this instrument is fond of saying that in a dark place the light of one candle can be seen for quite a distance. Metaphysically, this is far more true even than the physical truth of candles and sight. Each of you makes a significant difference to the lightening of the planet as well as to the lightening of your soul. For when each of you does one, each of you is doing the other. To work on the self is to work on the world. Indeed, to work on the self is the most direct and effective way to work on the outer world in a metaphysical sense...

[Diana]

Hi everyone,

Lately I have become aware of the fact that I reside the majority of the time, in my internal realms.

It's not even necessarily that I "reside" there all the time, obviously, because I have to feed myself and stuff like that. It's just that I put more weight on the internal work than the external work. It's "more important." Which is hogwash, from where I am standing.

Imbalance! Imbalance!

Through the catalyst of a close relationship I have, I learned that, man, I am only responsible for my own actions, and this internal/external imbalance is really making everything difficult for myself and others. So what to do about it?

"Just do it" I know, I know. It seems so easy yet feels so hard. Though, I have a hunch that it's the emotions I react to, thus making it "hard," and the actual "doing" isn't as bad as it may seem.

I'm curious, has anyone here been met with this imbalance before? Is there anything that helped you "ease" into the real world?

It feels really difficult. I suspect I am overwhelming myself with what I could be doing, and that's make me sort of neurotic. "Okay, I can start practicing asanas, I can really buckle down on this music project, oh I also wanted to start this movie script too...... man that sounds like way too much to handle, never mind."

I know it feels difficult, but is it? I don't think so. I'd still like to hear what some of you might have to say on the subject

I get your situation. You are a creative type. I also am. And it can be paralyzing when your mind is full of things you want or need to do.

I do have some techniques to sort the confusion and pressure.

1. Keep a file on your computer, or in notebook delegated for the purpose, of all the ideas that come to you. For example, you would start a Word doc for the movie script; if you don't have a working title in mind, make one up; then write a short sentence or paragraph reminding yourself what the idea is. Then file it away. This takes the pressure off because you have recorded it and you don't have to keep it in your head anymore, and can access it when the time is right.

An example in my own life: I had a book idea back in the 2000s regarding exercise and self-defense, which cropped up out of what I learned about gaining strength while training in martial arts. I made notes, actually written notes, so my ideas were down and I felt okay to leave them there, knowing I had gotten down the salient points or prompts for later use. A couple of years ago, I wrote the book, but it morphed into a book for other writers, with the same concepts minus the self-defense.

I have many, many, endless files like this. The ideas always come, and if the idea is something that really feels worth recording, I record it. You will find that a lot of your ideas or prompts to create aren't as strong as others. Many just drop out because they don't carry enough motivation or passion to manifest them. The ones that do are there when the time is right.

The bottom line here is to get the ideas out of your head and into a file. It is much like Dumbledore's memory bowl, where he takes the thoughts out and strores them for when he needs access to them. This not only unclutters your head, which is swimming with creative ideas or pressures to do this or that, but it also keeps the energy moving and not stuck or stagnant, which in turn will prompt the physical body to be able to "do." The body follows the mind. But it does work the other way. You can force the body to "do" or to act. And that is another tool when needed.

2. It is always difficult to begin a creative project. I was a freelance illustrator for many years, and every single time I started a job it was difficult to begin (I recorded and numbered all my jobs and I did close to 2,000). It is like a train: the train takes a lot of energy to even start, then it moves slowly at first, gains momentum, and finally whizzes along with ease. I have found this to almost always be the way it goes.

My advice is to pick one project, after filing all the nagging tasks or prompts or ideas you have away. Then you start the project. In my case, I would first do some research on the subject I was illustrating, say, fairies. I would collect images and info if appropriate. Now the train engines have been turned on. Then I would start sketching. This was the hardest part—conceptualizing, creating. It isn't just that the creating that is hard, it's that creative types have a vision of extreme beauty or perfection and there is always an underlying pressure for what you create to match your vision. (I have collected quotes from famous authors who say the same thing about writing a book). So I would start sketching, and it feels like pulling teeth at first, but the train is starting to move (taking a lot of effort). But at some point, the sketches start to come together, and I find things are going more easily. And so on, until I am tweaking the details of the final product, the train at full speed and reaching its destination.

I know this train analogy sounds kind of corny, but it is a good one.

3. It is helpful to have an organized, uncluttered space to live, and work, in. Many creative types aren't inclined toward organization, but I can assure them that organization is key to creativity. When your environment is cluttered, so are your thoughts. In addition, as an illustrator for example, if my studio was not organized, I would have to waste time locating what I need. If I was sketching, and an 8B pencil and a kneaded eraser were not at hand in the same place they always were, I would have to break the flow of creativity to find them. This is something to be avoided. By keeping things organized and always in the same place, creativity is free to flow without interruption.

This includes setting boundaries. If you live with other people, letting them know your space, and the tools you use (I don't know how you write music, but your computer, your instruments, even your pencils and pens) are off limits. If someone wants to borrow something, and you agree after being asked, it would be oart of the agreement that they put that item back in the same place. Personally, I rarely allow this. What I do instead is set up a cup or drawer with items such as rulers, pens, pencils, paper in a common area. I almost never let someone use my computer (on which I do most of my creative work now). It's an energetic reason (my space is seeped in my creative energy, and someone else may come in with energy that is scattering or ruffled), as well as the possibility that someone would 1) mess up something on it, and 2) see things I'm working on before I am ready to share.

4. Consider the idea of commitment. Here is an excerpt from that book I mentioned above for writers (writers as a group can be very lazy in realizing their dreams), but it can apply to any endeavor:

Do This Now (If You Haven’t Already)

Plunge into the deep end.


For some people, the word, commitment, stirs up the urge to rebel, or run away, or misconstrue meaning because unpleasant associations surface. Purge those associations from your mind right now (pressure to get married, guilt about hating a corporate job, despair from not sticking to a diet) and focus on one thing only—the commitment to writing.

Anyone who writes is a writer; a person who makes art is an artist—according to simple definitions. But there is a galaxy of difference between a desultory effort and a serious 100% investment (with varying degrees in between).

The tipping point is a commitment.

Until there is a serious commitment to writing, finishing what you write, and doing your very best, you’re going to fall short of your potential as an author.

If you haven’t done it yet, do it now.

Make the total 100% commitment to writing novels, short stories, poetry, nonfiction, or whatever floats your boat, to the best of your ability, and finishing your books if you have to squeeze in 30 minutes per day to do it.


“Listen, Stephen King used to write in the washroom of his trailer after his kids went to sleep. Harlan Ellison wrote in the stall of a bathroom of his barracks during boot camp. Elmore Leonard got up at 5 AM every morning to write before work. Every time my alarm goes off at 5 AM and I don’t want to get up, or I would rather sit down after work and play a video game, I think about those guys. Take care of your family. They need you and love you. Make time for them. Then stop screwing around and finish your damn book.”—Bernard Schaffer

Commitment is the kick in the butt needed for escape velocity out of the mediocre mainstream, where “trying” and “there isn’t enough time” and “it’s too hard” are the buzzwords.

5. Physical movement. It helps to walk outside, look at the clouds, the trees, little insects going about their business. When the mental space is filled up with stuff, some of the cobwebs get blown away out of doors, in nature. I find any sort of exercise/movement helps, but there is something more efficacious about being in nature. It doesn't have to be a vacation in the woods for a week. Just once per day walk outside and look at the sky. This is good for your eyes as well, because we tend, in this modern world, to be focused on things close up, and our eyes need the exercise of looking at things far away.

[Scah]

It feels really difficult. I suspect I am overwhelming myself with what I could be doing, and that's make me sort of neurotic. "Okay, I can start practicing asanas, I can really buckle down on this music project, oh I also wanted to start this movie script too...... man that sounds like way too much to handle, never mind."

I wondering if it would help if you first reflect upon how these external world activities can be done in conjunction with your internal realm balancing.

For example, practicing asanas is a moving meditation for me. Though practicing asanas is an external realm activity, I am usually within my own internal realm observing both the external world and the internal world. During practices, I would observe how others' movement affect mine and how my emotions are resonating with others' emotions. Others as in both other people and the external environment (the space itself, nature, wind, air, my room, etc) itself.

I dwelled within my internal realm a lot and it was practicing asanas in a public setting that had me slowly becoming more engaged in the external realm.

[Patrick]

A pensieve would be so helpful sometimes.

[unity100]

Hi everyone,

Lately I have become aware of the fact that I reside the majority of the time, in my internal realms.

It's not even necessarily that I "reside" there all the time, obviously, because I have to feed myself and stuff like that. It's just that I put more weight on the internal work than the external work. It's "more important." Which is hogwash, from where I am standing.

Its not hogwash. If it was, you wouldnt be here in this incarnation.

You can try avoiding complicating things too much. Exiting your internal world and entering external world to do stuff is like exiting your bedroom in the morning and going to living room to do stuff. Or exiting your house and going to the market to buy something. All of them are individual levels of exiting a layer of internal realm and entering an external realm. And then you go back. You use the same logic in exiting/entering your internal thought world.

Also dont complicate spiritual things way too much - you dont overload yourself with thoughts and feelings when you need to visit the bathroom. You just go there and do it. That's the meaning of 'just do it'. If there are things in your life which need doing in similar fashion, you use the same approach and just do them.

[Patrick]

I was brushing the shower yesterday and telling myself, if you're going to do it, do it with love.  Did not really work.    But maybe if I keep repeating this for years...

[Patrick]

Good advice, learning to laugh at it all !

...You need only to work upon yourself, so that you are a clear channel, unmoved by the ridiculousness of many situations, and in great humor when others find a situation quite grim. For you see, you dwell in the midst of a great cosmic joke and a great cosmic tragedy. And the ability to see both polarities of this truth equally is a very helpful one in dealing with yourself. And when you have dealt with this polarity within yourself, laughing at your grief and solemn in your joy, you may be of balanced help to others, for you may not then be touched by their difficulties to the point where you will be unable to respond in the way the Creator within you would respond...

[Sacred Fool]

I was brushing the shower yesterday and telling myself, if you're going to do it, do it with love.  Did not really work.    But maybe if keep repeating this for years...

Well, that's an interesting post for your number 3000. 


I'm surprised that didn't work for you.  Love is your strong suit, is it not?  Why do you think that experiment failed?
 
  

[Patrick]

Wow, over 3000 posts now.  Mostly just bla bla bla, but still.

I would say compassionate wisdom is what I am working on.  I did feel a bit silly trying to find love in that moment.  That's a lighter emotion than what I was feeling before feeling silly.  So in retrospect, maybe the experiment wasn't a complete failure after all.

[flofrog]

Lol, Patrick I kind of like your bla bla bla

[Patrick]

...It is a matter of doing that which you wish to do. For that is why you came into incarnation: to experience those things you wish to experience. You may see that it is good to balance the times of recreation, amusement, distraction and social situations of no great spiritual moment, shall we say, with those activities and interests that indeed have a good deal of spiritual work, so that you have a varied menu of things in your day, some focused and highly intense and others relaxed and full of the enjoyment of life...

[AnthroHeart]

Lol, Patrick I kind of like your bla bla bla

I agree

[Sacred Fool]

I would say compassionate wisdom is what I am working on. 

I hope you won't feel I'm pestering you if I don't let you wriggle out of this so easily.  Finding love in the moment is a sacrament, of sorts, and I would rather give it its full due.  Why do you think love eluded you when doing your chores?  After all (gotcha moment approaching) in another thread you averred that love never goes away from one.  So, why did it fail you then?

I wonder what compassionate wisdom is?  Please tell me.  Is it the experience of love omnipresent turned into conscious participation?
  

[AnthroHeart]

I think wisdom can temper love. Love itself is stronger than steel.
Pure love can be like a black hole. Wisdom keeps it in balance.

It's interesting, because wisdom is light.
But love shapes light.

So how can wisdom shape love?

[Patrick]

I would say compassionate wisdom is what I am working on. 

I hope you won't feel I'm pestering you if I don't let you wriggle out of this so easily.  Finding love in the moment is a sacrament, of sorts, and I would rather give it its full due.  Why do you think love eluded you when doing your chores?  After all (gotcha moment approaching) in another thread you averred that love never goes away from one.  So, why did it fail you then?

I wonder what compassionate wisdom is?  Please tell me.  Is it the experience of love omnipresent turned into conscious participation?
  

Pere my friend, first of all, I would like to thank you for our interactions.  I find them quite invigorating.  (And with direct questions like that, there is no wriggling possible.  )

Doing chores for me has always been close to the worst thing one can ask of me.  So the difficulty level for finding love in those moment is high.  I have much less difficulty finding love while sick or hurting for example or even when angry.  These are typically where many people have the most difficulty finding love.  Thankfully, life has never asked me to find love while being tortured to death or other extreme situations like that.  I am aware intellectually that all experiences are sacramental, now that remains to be actualized in all corners of the life experience.

Love did not fail me, it is because of love that these moments keeps coming back and presenting themselves yet again for my observation.  I failed to move my awareness to the level required to be aware of love while brushing the shower.  If it is anything like finding love while hurting, then there is really nothing special to do, there is nothing to change so that love becomes visible.  It's in the way or in the attitude we meet the experience that the magic happens.

I do not remember doing chores without being asked first.  The times I lived alone, the asking was not from people, it came from my apartment itself.  And even then I did the absolute minimum not to be labelled a slob.  Nowadays, I live in a quite clean environment, because my wife is a squeaky clean type.  Of course, cleanliness being a theme in my life, I would be given a partner that would never let me escape those catalysts.  We share those chores equally.  Not sure she would completely agree, but that's my opinion and I'm sticking by it!

Anyway, I reflected that I was doing this scrubbing out of love for my wife, but that is only part of the love in that moment.  There is still much more to uncover.  Maybe my expectation is getting in the way.  I expect that once I begin succeeding, it will become less of a chore doing chores.  Humm, yes that is probably setting me up for failure...  Will need to meditate on that.  After all, finding love while hurting does not really alleviate the pain.

Now regarding wisdom.  I am actually a "wisdom type" if we use the dual category system that was used recently around here.  I am a very intellectual person, very scientific minded, very logical as well, which incidentally is good for computer programming.  Up until I was in my thirties, I was seen as a pompous hubris, but a kind one if that makes any sense.  After becoming aware of the spiritual nature of our reality, it became clear that my self work was related to balancing wisdom with compassion.  I refused to simply change the façade I present to the public by taking the shortcut of just being more pleasant in my interactions with others.  I wanted to do the real work.  This will be ongoing until this incarnation ends, since that work is not the stuff of a single life time.

Where I am now on that road, I am feeling true compassion while making use of wisdom.  I am no longer kind just to be kind, because it is expected of a good person.  I AM KIND !  While discovering that fact, I wondered why my others would see me as a hubris then.  Like many people, I have this feeling of rightness that comes with resonance with a concept.  The main issue was believing that this rightness also applies as is to others.  So I was always right and others were wrong if they did not agree.  I have been balancing my wisdom by letting my compassion take more place.

I thought I had overbalanced on that process a couple years ago.  That might be why people mostly put me in the "love type" category.  But I have been working on bringing this back into balance.  Lately, I have begun thinking that I am not very far from being minimally balanced in this.  All of us, our balanced state is not in the middle, our hypothetical perfectly balanced state is different for each.  So I am discovering that I am indeed a bit more compassionate than I am wise in my "normal" state.  I guess I took all those wise traits in this life so as to have more to work with in the balancing work.  Humbling the self, not by lowering the self, but by the awareness that our thoughts are not our own and so our awesomeness is not our own.  It is only effectual when we take on the shape of the piece of the puzzle that we are.  Then fitting that collective puzzle and finally being and doing who you truly are, you find that bit of plenitude we are allowed down here.

So compassionate wisdom is a balanced love that is love/compassion informed by wisdom and wisdom tempered by compassion/love.  The balance of which is different for each of us.

[Ray711]

I don't think that putting somewhat more importance on the inner world is necessarily an imbalance that demands correction. I get the impression that most wanderers are introverts. This is something that might be explained by these words of Ra's:

We seek now without polarity. Thus we do not invoke any power from without, for our search has become internalized as we become light/love and love/light.

We are working together, serving each other, teaching each other. But the end game of it all seems to be to find, in a progressive manner, aspects of the Creator inside of ourselves, so that we learn to be more and more self-sufficient.

Very often the catalyst for emotional pain, whether it be the death of the physical complex of one other-self which is loved or some other seeming loss, will simply result in the opposite, in a bitterness, an impatience, a souring. This is catalyst which has gone awry. In these cases, then, there will be additional catalyst provided to offer the unmanifested self further opportunities for discovering the self as all-sufficient Creator containing all that there is and full of joy.

This inevitably leads to higher levels of introversion, it seems to me.

Oh, and then there's the genetic or biological foundation of certain aspects of introversion, which is also very important. Simply put, introverts are more stimulated than extroverts with less stimuli. This is likely a pre-incarnative choice that is outside of our (current) control. Be compassionate with those aspects of yourself that you came here with, and use your wisdom to see what it is that can and can't be changed. Even if something can be changed and you truly wish to change it, I'd say it's still a good thing to treat with compassion your self as it is right now.

This other quote might be of some comfort. I know it is to me:

We have, many times now, spoken about the relative importance of balancing as opposed to the relative unimportance of maximal activation of each energy center. The reason is as you have correctly surmised. Thusly the entity is concerned, if it be upon the path of positive harvestability, with the regularizing of the various energies of experience. Thus the most fragile entity may be more balanced than one with extreme energy and activity in service to others due to the fastidiousness with which the will is focused upon the use of experience in knowing the self.

[Sacred Fool]

This inevitably leads to higher levels of introversion, it seems to me.

I'm just stating the obvious here, I suppose, but it's been my experience that these things move in cycles within cycles within cycles.  To move through one area of "study" in one's life, X amount of introversion is called for.  Then, for no apparent reason, one enters a time period where one is called upon to offer more outward service.  In some ways, this just adds to the overall confusion.  About all one can do, in one sense, is accustom oneself to being in the flow of change. 

I find this perturbing, being stodgy by nature, but I try to accept it.
    

[Sacred Fool]

Nice post there, Patrick. I like the weaving in and out of your experiences in pursuit of seeking your sense of balance between light and love. Maybe there should be a discrete forum area here devoted to that topic (balancing L & L), it being positively central to so many of us?

[Diana]

I don't think that putting somewhat more importance on the inner world is necessarily an imbalance that demands correction. I get the impression that most wanderers are introverts. :

It's true, and makes perfect sense, I think, about Wanderers being more introverted. And I agree that this does not indicate an imbalance necessarily.

I will caution however, that too much introversion can be distorting. This, at least, has been my case. I was always in my head as a child; and as an adult, because I work alone for myself, there is a LOT of alone-time which I like. But, for me, although I seek my own company so to to speak, and quiet, and inner-scape, there are times when it skews my balance. I lose the ability to talk to others as well; some of my thoughts get too "large" because they haven't had the chance of being expressed thus moving and transmuting the energy; in other words, I lose some of my ability to interact efficiently in the world, and this includes being able to express what is in my heart (blue ray). I personally need to stay a bit in practice, so too much introversion is not good for me. It happens that this is one reason why I post here.

So my point is that one needs to feel this out for themselves. In my case, I don't even know I have gone off balance until I have to go to a store for groceries; I have found myself blabbing happily and inanely away at a grocery clerk about anything at all, because I hadn't talked to anyone in days. Then I have the opportunity of laughing at myself, but also recognizing that I am short on human interaction.

---

@ Patrick: Great post above about chores, and wisdom/compassion.

A few thoughts on housecleaning from my perspective...

When I clean and organize (unless I am in an overwhelmed state which does sometimes happen), it is not about cleaning and organizing. It is about creating beauty (for lack of a better description). It is also about a vision of beauty and loveliness that I, as an artist, seek to create in the physical world. Some people may clean the house and get everything clean. I like to go further: I love to make it all as beautiful as I can. When I transform my environment into this beautiful state, it is like creating a beautiful piece of art. I will add that this would be too exhausting if I let my environment degrade into chaos, and then had to work from that state (which is something that I think happens to people who let things go and then can't face where to even start to rectify it). In addition, maintaining my environment is part of the effect, because I exist in it not for just the day I have accomplished it, but every day. This is my ideal, and it doesn't always play out this way.

My point is, when I am not stressed and don't have pressing work deadlines or other piled-up stressors looming, I can clean the house this way, with love, making it beautiful as I know it can be. I consider that even inanimate objects are due respect. Everything here is made out of the same stuff.

[Patrick]

...Maybe there should be a discrete forum area here devoted to that topic (balancing L & L), it being positively central to so many of us?

Ah but if we do that then we can't close the forums, there would be no point. 

[Patrick]

...I consider that even inanimate objects are due respect. Everything here is made out of the same stuff.

Yes thank you for that!  This concept looks very promising.  Taking care of the shower out of respect for the shower.  I already think this way about my house in general, in terms of repairs, so why would the shower be any different?

[sillypumpkins]

You are all wonderful and I appreciate all these replies...... very much welcome on my end!!

[J.W.]

You are all wonderful and I appreciate all these replies...... very much welcome on my end!!

Silly, I love you, the infinite creator loves you.

Be calm, look... within... during meditation, observe your thoughts comes and go.

Do not fall for distortion and the "ways" of distraction. The answer is within.

Imagine you are in a hole with water rising, the more you claw at the walls to get out, the more you exhaust yourself and drown.... all you have to do is be still, and let the water float you to the top and out.

I hope this helps,

With love and light my friend

[sillypumpkins]

That does help JW, thank you friend

I really like that analogy of being in a hole with water rising.... I'm gonna use that

thanks again