Is the end coming soon?

The pandemic came… THIS IS THE END!

The war in Europe erupted… THIS IS THE END!

And another thing... THIS IS THE END!

Some people I know have an obsession with the end of the world or the civilization as we know it. Recent events and the general situation of the world has instigated that obsession even more.

Now, my question is if the end is coming soon or not.

There is a general law that all civilizations start small, grow until reaching a maturity stage and they end; it is like a bell curve and it has worked for most civilizations.

From that point of view, perhaps for the first time in recorded History, we are living an unusual situation: the world is ONE civilization.

With globalization, we have reached our maturity and, of course, we are in our descent. It means, at some point we will reach the end.

What the curve bell does not show is that every time a civilization reaches its end, another replaces it, many times in a chaotic way as this new civilization is just starting.

However, as there is technically ONE civilization… well, there is nothing to replace it.

So, it is quite possible that our descent will mean this civilization will end.

What are you doing to prepare yourself? And what are your thoughts about THE END?

How is your transition going?

We have been running wildly as a civilization, society and individuals, and, all of a sudden, BOOM! We had to stop…

Like a 200 Km/h car, our world almost crashed, but, hey, we are still here!!

After the pandemic, we have been through a sort of transition, with not much leadership and counting with our own values, beliefs and self-leadership.

And I think it is important to do a checking on how things are really going. In this way, we can reinforce what is working and correct what needs to be corrected. Here are a few questions that may help:

How am I feeling? Let’s start from the abstract, the feelings and sensations. Try to be very specific in relation to those.

How am I doing? Let’s check now about our activities; it is useful to compare the NOW with the BEFORE (pandemic) and to use some indicator (how much I am earning, my trips, meditation experience, etc.).

How am I relating to others? Again, a bit subjective, but it is important to verify the way my relationship to other people has evolved during these years.

How much progress am I making? At this point, it is good to stop and reflect. Progress is not difficult to understand, but many people tend to interpret sensations while others only see results. To know your progress, you have to check the general sensation that you are MUCH BETTER than before, but at the same time, some HARD RESULTS to back that up. If one of them or neither of them is good, it is quite possible you haven’t moved ahead as much as you might think.

I hope what comes from this exercise helps in your own transition.

When your health makes you anxious

Some time ago, I posted about anxiety and someone sent me an interesting article*; even though it is some type of publicity, and I don’t do publicity, it was a different dimension of anxiety that I didn’t know: when you have a health problem and you are waiting for a diagnostic.

Many years ago, I had a friend how was diagnosed with cancer, which he beat. He was so happy, he called me from the other side of the world to tell me the good news. And then, he started to have some problems again and I remember his anxiety, waiting for the response from doctors. It was not good news, but maybe the anxiety itself was the worst.

In his very influential book, Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman talks about his own experience when he was sent for a lab to do a test. Because of his background, he knew it could mean cancer… He analysed about the emotions he felt.

A study of patients in physicians' waiting rooms found that each had an average of three or more questions in mind to ask the physician they were about to see. But when the patients left the physician's office, an average of only one and a half of those questions had been answered. This finding speaks to one of the many ways patients' emotional needs are unmet by today's medicine. Unanswered questions feed uncertainty, fear, catastrophizing.

The focus of Daniel Goleman was about a change in the medical people’s attitude, but I think there are a few things we could do to minimize the anxiety that comes when there is something wrong with our body or mind, but there is no clarity about a diagnosis.

1. The first thing is to keep calm. Easy said than done, but meditation and other practices can help.
2. Stick to the facts, don’t overthink or try to be your own clairvoyant. Just wait and see what happens.
3. Talk to very good POSITIVE friends. They will surround you with their positive aura and that will be healing. I had that experience with a lady, a friend’s sister, while she waited for her diagnosis; about 10 people were there in the room with her sharing nice stories and just giving her good company.
4. Read and feed yourself with positive information. Avoid a reading about your current problem as much as possible.
5. At the day of your diagnosis, act normally. Routine has power in these cases and it will help you to focus your mind on the present.

If you or other people have anxiety before a diagnosis, I hope this may help.

 

* About scanxiety - https://www.asbestos.com/blog/2021/07/29/mesothelioma-scans-scanxiety/

Religion and spirituality: preaching vs. leading the way

Religion and spirituality are in constant struggle, even though you don’t know it.

On one hand is the very powerful institution of religion: there are a few problems here and there, but religions all over are increasing their numbers in terms of people and temples.

On the other hand, is spirituality: the Cinderella of human spirit, with not much structure, but lots of good intentions and, yes, the number of spiritual groups and tendencies, and the number of people enrolled to them have increased a lot too.

Now, let’s look at it in a different way in which there is no struggle; spirituality is the subtle background that is the essence of religion. In fact, a very religious person is very spiritual too, and spiritual people are often associated with a religion.

But it is true that religion – the religion common people practice – is more focused on the form, that is, scriptures and rituals. On the contrary, spirituality emphasizes the practice, the BEING.

In other words, religion may be only preaching while spirituality is leading… Still, I do believe they are not opposite and here are three examples that may help

• Your religion talks about being charitable and you do, from time to time. Spiritually, you can also be charitable by giving others vibrations and good wishes. Always. Both are necessary and useful.
• By being religious, you have to go to your temple every week or so. By being spiritual, your practice is daily and you don’t have to go to a temple necessarily. When you go to a temple, just be spiritual; when you are spiritual, just feel like your house is a temple.
• The scriptures tell stories or describe a code of life. Spirituality makes your live those stories and change your own life.

What do you think about religion and spirituality?