Getting back to our true nature doesn’t have to be some kind of New Age project.

Often times thoughts and insights which could actually be of benefit to people get brushed off as fluff for a number of reason and agendas. There are plenty of people with agendas in the world wanting us to buy this or that, or believe this or that.

However, it is my personal belief and understanding that the less we think we know the better off we are— the more questions we have, the more our inquiry will lead us in the directions that we ultimately are desiring to go.

It is important to remember that while we can set goals, have wants and fuel our growth—the present moment is the destination that most of us have not even arrived at. It also just happens to be the doorway to everything. While there is plenty to be neurotic about, it doesn’t need to get much more complex than breathe in and breathe out.

To remember this is the challenge because we are conditioned from a very early age to have all sorts of social matrixes, culturally limiting programs and religious systems that inhibit our most basic experiences of “self” and possibility. These experiences and conditioning so easily become internalized.

More often than not what works to control and suppress is what is used to create certain behaviors that are convenient for hierarchical and economic social structures.

Somewhere along the way some creepy ape realized that if he instilled fear in another ape than he could mitigate his own life and experiences. This kind of behavior is rewarded and has been rewarded for eons. Instill the fear of God, the fear of disease, the fear of other human beings, the fear of sex, the fear of the body and you have created some kind of hook. It is pretty obvious if we take a close look at our consumer culture that depends on feelings of lack and depravity in order to illicit appropriate responses from customers.

Religious doctrine has done the best job at creating rifts in the psyche of man by disconnecting his higher and lower nature. In a sermon it retaliates against instinct and inborn intelligence. The animal nature of man is seen as dirty, bad and the root of all evil. This creates shame, guilt, “original sin,” anxiety and sexual repression.

If we repress something, anything it is bound to come back and bite us in the ass—that is a law of the universe. We can call it the universal law of it’s going to coming back and getchya.

When we demonize and suppress our animal nature and sexuality it creates imbalances and disease in the energy flow of the body. Our instincts are muddied and we have illusions about the present moment. It is actually far more dangerous to deny and suppress sexual instinct than to live in it.

When we can embrace, look at and channel the energy into productive work and connection with others we can find a wealth of inspiration and creative flow. Sexuality is not all about f*cking and getting what we want. It is about creativity, collaboration, growing love and communion with something bigger than ourselves.

Restrictive social and religious paradigms create opportunities for ego growth not social or spiritual growth. There is no human betterment in control and denial. These internalized constructs create muscular tension, armor patterns, and the hardening of fascia in the groin and hips. This in turn distorts the body and flow of life force or qi.

If there are such drastic divisions of our selves, then we fail to look at all of our selves. We may say, “This part of me is good and acceptable,” and, “This part of me is despicable and horrible.” The darker nature of ourselves is all that we reject. It continues to get pushed further and further away from consciousness and can have all sort of effects on us.

We gotta liberate that crap so that we are fully alive and embodied beings enjoying and sharing our sexuality with our lovers and our creative energy with the world! While I can’t say do XYZ and you will be free, and more unleashed in your body and instincts, I think inquiry is the first step.

We can challenge our belief systems. Why do we think this part of us is bad or unacceptable? What exactly is it that we have pushed away for some time? There is so much to discover in the inner chamber and mystery of ourselves.

 

 

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          Editor: Travis May

          Photo: Heather Allen/Pixoto