01-01-2023
7 minutes

2023 – time for new stories

My New Year’s post will largely refer to what I wrote about last year. I predicted that 2022 would be a time of “breakdown and creation,” and these processes will certainly continue to accompany us. I hope that in 2023, a new element will emerge: the formation of new stories that will direct our creation and actions in a new way.

The world – individual communities/nations, and humanity as a whole – needs new stories. However, to create them, the first necessary step is to make changes within ourselves, in the stories we tell ourselves in our heads!

Stream of consciousness

We are all (probably) aware that there is a constant monologue going on in our heads. However, the fact that we automatically and fully identify with this voice results from our unconsciousness. This voice is not entirely us, but rather something like an advanced artificial intelligence that creates a “stream of consciousness” based on what we have encountered in our lives: our experiences, knowledge, etc.

For most of us, this voice constantly returns with the same motifs; they differ in different minds, such as that nature did not give us external beauty, we are failures, we do not deserve to be loved, we are too stupid for this or that, etc. Additionally, in the case of many of us, this voice intensifies in certain situations, such as when we go to sleep. It doesn’t let us fall asleep. It forces us to re-analyze the events of the day, evaluate our behavior, usually focusing on what can be treated as support for the negative self-image “embedded” in us.

These stories that are in our heads, besides causing us frustration, are also the main reason why our lives are quite predictable – it boils down to reproducing the patterns stored in our “artificial intelligence.” This is very important because as long as we ourselves replicate certain patterns and “thinking patterns,” the world cannot change either. It cannot go on new tracks that would protect it from threats arising from environmental degradation, various “-isms,” etc.

Our individual awareness determines what we consider possible. And usually, we consider possible what directly results from our experiences. Therefore, changing social stories will not be possible without changes in ourselves, in our own stories. This is well expressed by the commonly known saying: “If you want to change the world, start with yourself.” Mahatma Gandhi put it in a similar way: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Herd

Well, but how to change oneself? To really change something in our lives – and thus in the world – several conditions must be met. Firstly, we need to be aware that “what is talking to us in our head” is not us, and it is worth looking at it more closely and getting interested in it for our own good.

Secondly, it is worth accepting – initially on faith – that this is not “real wisdom.” Perhaps that is why St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that “earthly wisdom is what deceives and makes a man foolish in the eyes of God.”

Thirdly, once we are aware that the content in our heads can be controlled, we should direct it. To what? To who we really want to BE in life. At this point, we touch on a very important issue because, from experience, I know that many of us do not know who they want to be and what mission/purpose they want to fulfill. It is much easier for us to define what we want to HAVE in life (a new purse, a car, an apartment, etc.) and/or what ROLE we want to play (president, director, guru, etc.).

Why does this happen? Because the desire to possess comes directly from the patterns stored in our brain (on which our “artificial intelligence” functions), transmitted through educational patterns, and media. We live in a world that focuses on perpetuating the “WHAT (TO WANT) TO HAVE AND WHAT ROLE TO PLAY” in replicated social patterns in order to (supposedly) be fulfilled, rather than on how to achieve fulfillment by becoming… YOURSELF (by discovering your true calling).

As a result, if we look at it all from a broader perspective, we behave quite often like a trained herd that follows the direction set by so-called social patterns (and those who shape them). Only subconsciously do we sense that much of what happens to us in life is not really ours, that we are fulfilling someone else’s mission and goals.

To get to ourselves, we need to calm down the “stream of thoughts.” Give ourselves a chance to hear our True Self, whose voice comes from a different level – not from the head, but from the heart level. Recognize it by the fact that it tells us things that are new, surprising, sometimes even shocking, and that escape the patterns repeated by the “stream of thoughts.” Patterns that we are so strongly attached to and identify with in our daily lives.

This surprise comes from the fact that the True Self gives you messages with which you rarely identify. Firstly, what surrounds us is not as we perceive it, that we ONLY USE AN INTERPRETATION OF REALITY, each one based largely on his individual “database” in his own brain. Secondly, that WE ARE NOT WHO WE THINK WE ARE – our brains also deceive us in this regard, trying to get us to identify with our ego (and its numerous limitations). In reality, we have much greater power to shape reality. Heck, in this context, each of us has a unique role to play in this world – we did not end up here by chance, right now, in a certain place and time. We ended up in this world to change it, starting with changing ourselves, then around us (which happens automatically when I change), and and then… there are basically no limitations!

New Year’s Resolution

The main barrier to self-awareness is that this process requires distancing ourselves from the world around us. The ability to “step out of it,” to turn our attention away from what surrounds us and direct it inward is essential. This is usually achieved in silence, preferably in solitude. Today’s world – especially those who direct the movement of the sheep herd – does not like this at all. They try to deprive us of the time and opportunity to get to know ourselves. They try to convince us that a much better solution is, for example, to sit in front of a TV or computer screen and uncritically absorb the available content, preferably mass content.

2023 will undoubtedly provide numerous reasons to sit in front of those screens again. We will be flooded with various “important” information. Things will happen again, as we are in a time of turbulence. However, just because it is that way does not mean that our attention has to be there. We should focus on our own stories related to discovering ourselves. At the beginning, it could be just 15 minutes a day in silence, preferably in circumstances that allow for “disconnection” from external stimuli. Then you will clearly hear… no, not yet your True Self, but what is happening in your head, all the noise there. It will be the first, but an important step towards rediscovering yourself, towards changing yourself, and, as a result, towards changing the world. Good luck!

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