JUMPING INTO LIFE WITH COMPLETE ENTHUSIASM
"WOOHOO!"
FALLING!
I was moved by the point of view of Martha Beck, writing about falling into intimacy (and vulnerability) and being willing to experience the downside of it as part of the possibility existing in the package that comes with intimacy. (Consider reading it, looking into it deeply as you go: How To Fall Into Intimacy Without Resistance. I also love the part where she jumps into life with her Downes Syndrome son with a big "woohoo!", and enthusiasm for the different mind he has. This was also a lovely part of what Barry Neil Kaufman and Samarhia did with their son who was born with autism and accepted by them as a blessing, where they "entered" his life to be with him. See The Option Institute And Barry Neil Kaufman.)
AN ANALOGY TO LIFE ITSELF
I also saw it as being analogous to all of life.
I even wrote a comment (which I seldom do): (Waiting to be screened by the site, includes how it emotionally struck me and the beautiful analogy that can be made with life.)
TO HAVE THIS WORK...
For this to work, for us to realize that we simply "bounce" (perhaps sometimes with a "so what!" bruise), we need to see life as a "self generated" experience. Sure, things "happen to us", as people don't treat us as we'd like or another car runs into ours, but all those things are passing, simply experiences we've had as part of the package of life.
If we, as Werner Erhard used to put it, simply lie on the freeway (of life) and damn the cars as they run over us (bump, damn you! Bump, damn you! Bump, damn you!...), we'll have a miserable life. Unfortunately, it is one that we inflicted on ourselves, perhaps out of lack of understanding of how life works.
Indeed, the shift in life occurs when we realize that most of life is under our control and/or influence, that we are the directors (which you've heard over and over, of course) of our lives, and that (I love this phrase) we are the "generators" of life. As Brendon Burchard so emphatically and clearly makes the point, "we cannot outsource our lives, our energy, our love, our...", as we will then be waiting around to be acted upon, constantly being at the mercy of sources we have no control over and which give us no particular significant regard (with a few exceptions). The point, of course, is that we will not do well if we wait around for life to happen "to us". (The Burchard "quote" is actually a paraphrasing - he puts it 'more weller' than the "quote".)
The "shift" I refer to is about, perhaps for the first time, truly "taking over" our lives and being 100% responsible for them instead of outsourcing our lives to "out there".
When we make this shift, we are then becoming the Generators Of Our Very Lives, rather than the "generated upon" (aka "victims", "people who wait to be acted upon", etc., who are "at the mercy" of what sources "out there" may give to us). We move to being the Creators of our lives and to being totally no longer dependent on life to "happen to us."
If we choose to live life this way, we will simply, per the metaphor above, get up and walk off of the freeway of life, no longer being the victim of whatever runs over us.
We "get to" experience the falls to the ground, the bruises of life, simply as part of the package, part of the package of jumping out of the plane into a skydive, and experiencing the exhilaration of it all. Yes, we do have a "minus" (the bump, temporary hurt), but it is so minor a part of life, as we get a "return" on our investment that is so much greater than the costs/risks that come with it.
Now, I can see from a new perspective how to live my life. It is to jump and say "Woohoo!", as I raise my arms exuberantly, and then just enjoy the experience.
[Often, it seems, we "fear" the bumps, as if they truly mattered, as if our lives were threatened. We make the "molehills" (bumps) into mountains of significance - and in so doing we self generate negative chemicals and feelings that are not necessary, for we are not truly threatened and are only "making it up" in our minds as a delusion of a film created and directed by us. But, after something happens that we think will be awful, we can simply notice that "nothing actually happened", we are still breathing and intact, and, survival-wise, all is well! Read the linked piece, as this is a profound insight if really understood and practiced in life. With this perspective, we can truly see that what "Chicken Little" says about "the sky is falling, the sky is falling..." is just not true and is a gross exaggeration - and that there is nothing to fear, as we'll just feel a little bruise once in a while as a minor cost of what is great. We will no longer leave ourselves in a child state of mind, where everything that goes wrong (particularly with regard to getting approval) is not "life threatening" - and that we no longer need to react to 99% of what is occurring "out there".
"Woohoo! Woohoo!]
