DOWN TO EARTH - UPLIFT TV

UPLIFT TV

What if We Can Transform Before We Die? - Dr. Zach Bush

SUSTAINABLE HUMAN

Loneliness: A Health Problem That Could Be Deadlier Than Obesity, Study Says

By

 Richard Enos

For COLLECTIVE EVOLUTION

Loneliness can reliably be linked to a significant increase in the risk of early mortality, according to a study at Brigham Young University. Head author, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, notes that “substantial evidence now indicates that individuals lacking social connections (both objective and subjective social isolation) are at risk for premature mortality.”

Holt-Lunstad believes the risks associated with loneliness are already greater than such established dangers as obesity:

Several decades ago scientists who observed widespread dietary and behavior changes raised warnings about obesity and related health problems. The present obesity epidemic had been predicted. Obesity now receives constant coverage in the media and in public health policy. The current status of research on the risks of loneliness and social isolation is similar to that of research on obesity 3 decades ago… Current evidence indicates that heightened risk for mortality from a lack of social relationships is greater than that from obesity.

Furthermore, she warns that “researchers have predicted that loneliness will reach epidemic proportions by 2030 unless action is taken.”

Why Are We So Isolated From Each Other?

From the long view, it can be said that Western civilization as a whole has fostered a gradual disintegration of our physical and social ties. With an emphasis on individual goals and an almost fanatical regard for personal achievement, the traditional institutions of family and community and their capacity to provide their members with a sense of belonging and shared purpose have become significantly fragmented.

The family unit has gone from large generations-linked mutual support systems to small and immediate units, sometimes involving single parents whose necessities make it very difficult to create a stable home environment for their children. Add to that the fact that more and more people are not even building families, and our society has more people living alone than at any other time in history. This includes the elderly, who are less likely to find a ‘fit’ living within their children’s families than ever before.

The decline of the ‘community’ is perhaps as significant as the disintegration of the family unit. In Western-style communities, people work as a collection of individual units interacting by specific functions rather than as an interrelated whole with a significant shared identity. Naturally, attempts are made today to join or build ‘communities’ all the time, but like the Meetup model, they are founded on the gathering of select people with similar interests and purposes, rather than a shared embrace of all people within a certain geographical area.

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What Do You Want?

TRUE ABUNDANCE

You don't really want what you think you want
You only want your wanting to end
To no longer want for anything
To be existentially full and complete

But isn't that just another want?
Perhaps the biggest want of all?

Do you really want your way out of wants?
What do you really want?

"Want" actually means "lack"
So now the question changes:
What do you really LACK?
Do you really lack anything in this moment?

Thought says YES
Thought lists all the things that are missing
Thought advises that certain objects, people, experiences would complete this moment
Thought is always a seeker
It is always comparing

Thought says:
If you get what you want
The lack will disappear permanently
And this moment will be completed

Get what you want!
No more lack!
Do you see the trick here?
A mechanism perfectly designed to keep you away from what you really want

What is true abundance?

It's not about getting what you want
It's not about filling a lack
It's about realising that the present moment never lacks anything
It's already full to the brim with sights and sounds and smells
With thoughts and feelings
With colours and shapes beyond imagination

A thought or feeling of lack
A sense of 'something missing'
Is actually part of this moment's completeness
Not a threat to it
Part of the richness of Now
Not an enemy
A welcome visitor in the vast open space that you are
An old friend, come for tea

Space lacks nothing
For it is full with everything
Pregnant with possibility
Rich with potential

The mind confuses peace with 'absence'
Space with 'emptiness'
And unlimited capacity with 'lack'
And the game is on
The search for opposites
The longing for goals

You don't really want what you think you want
And that's why getting what you want
Doesn't satisfy 'you' for long

Who you really are does not 'want'
It has never heard of 'lack'
It is already satisfied with this moment
For it is this moment
Exactly as it is

This is true abundance:
Remembering who you really are
Prior to time and change

These are the unparalleled riches of the universe:
A breath
The simple feeling of being alive

Getting what you thought you wanted
Acquiring all the material and spiritual riches of the universe
Doesn't even come close

This moment is a strange and unexpected jackpot

And when nothing belongs to you
Everything is yours 

A SORRY AWAKENING

Many years ago
When I believed I was "enlightened" and "beyond ego"
(How ironic!)
I had a mantra:
"Never Say Sorry. Never Apologise".

I secretly believed that I was perfect
Beyond humanity
Beyond reproach
And there was "nobody here"
who ever needed to apologise for anything
(since everything was "perfect", of course).

If anybody ever had a problem with me
If anybody was upset with something I'd said or done
It must have been their projection
Their ego
Their un-enlightenment
Their ignorance
Their suffering
That's what I believed, anyway
(I also believed that I had no more beliefs).

I was attracted to "radical" spiritual teachers
Who acted unkindly
And never apologised.
How awakened they seemed!
How cool and detached!
How unaffected by life!
How radical!

But when did saying sorry
And making amends
And listening deeply to the one in front of you
And truly meeting in humility
Ever become the Original Sin of enlightenment?
When did awakening lose its humanity?
When did enlightenment become an excuse for a raging ego?

Back then, I held 'others' at a distance
With my lack of humility and refusal to engage
And then I claimed that there were "no others"
Like a well-trained Advaitically-correct robot.
Perfectly denying the perfectly imperfect human heart.
A disconnected Oneness.
A recognition with no love.
A fire without warmth.

I'm sorry.

Jeff Foster - Life Without A Centre