SOUL. The Real Reason We Keep Busy.
Below is an excerpt taken from the book Letting Go by David Hawkins, MD, PhD. I slowly read and digested this self-improvement and motivation book after a series of three separate instances of it being recommended highly from different friends within a short timespan. Worth the read, and I do recommend it. In light of the theme of December being the value of nothing, as well as the inquiry to hyper-productivity, Dr. Hawkins highlights below whey we may be avoiding it: numb out and avoid through [insert addictive habit here] to not face our own internal chatter. Can’t sit with yourself in silence? It may be time to sit with your soul and better understand why.
*Note: the set-up of current culture makes it difficult, if not impossible, to actually allow for slowing down. Just throwing out a theory … that may actually be intentional to keep us numb, dumb and buying fixes. Parents, business owners, minimum-wage workers - I see you, and know that “just slow down” is so much easier said than done.
“Because of this inner chaos, the average person must out of necessity stay unconscious at all times. It is interesting to watch the means that the mind has invented to accomplish this end. We watch as a person gets up in the morning and flips on the radio or the television to immediately get the mind off the self and its mental chatter. Despite the extra amusement, thoughts and feelings tend to arise until the mind becomes preoccupied with projects of the day, work, and various schemes of accomplishment or pleasure. It starts with the preoccupation with the body - all of the brushing, washing, perfuming, powdering, deodorizing and carefully selecting clothes for the day. The choosing of clothes bring up all the schedules of the day, its busyness with activities that have all been crowded into the day, the endless appointments, phone calls, errands, social engagements, home responsibilities, and emails. On the way to work or the day’s activities, there is the chatting with companions, listening to the car radio, making cell phone calls, sending text messages, reading the morning newspaper. Once at the destination, there follows the preoccupation with the external events of the day: the business, the deals, the bargains, the arrangements, the worries, the manipulations, the endless search for power, the quest for “strokes,” and the ever-present fear of survival.
“All of this is motivated by the desire to somehow derive meaning and security, and to increase our self-esteem and ensure our self worth by whatever means.
“The franticness of the struggle is not really realized until we are suddenly forced to discontinue it by some external event. Then, we are confronted with the internal emptiness. This calls for the incessant ingestion of novels, magazines, television, websites. Or, the emptiness is avoided by the constant going to parties, escaping through drugs, numbing out with a few drinks, watching movies, and pursuing other amusements. We tend to do just about anything to avoid facing that feeling of inner emptiness.” - Letting Go by David Hawkins, pages 250-251.
Slowing down this Winter season, doing less, valuing nothing as invaluable - this may be just what keeps you from suddenly being forced to discontinue the “busyness” from some external event. While I do not wish injury or illness on anyone, so often, it can be a great teacher sent from beyond if we allow it to be. In this book, Dr. Hawkins describes his path to robust health was through a dark time of a multitude of illnesses and suffering … which lead to the creation of this timeless text.
