Playful Communication

It’s infectious, irreverent, and irresistible. The most serious of proceedings can benefit from a judicious injection of wit and humour done with a deft hand. Subtle word play and artfully deliberate vocabulary selection makes the most tedious dissemination of information nutritious and delicious.

Saying what you need to say in a satisfying way creates a Moment with your audience that transcends the mere message content. Communication is not simply transmission of information.

The most beautiful, inspiring and motivational words are meaningless if written in a dead language.

Even the secrets of the universe will disappear when written in the sand.

The most profound of concepts are dismissed when tumbling out of the mouths of babes.

Communication is not just the message. It is the the synergy between the message, the medium and the minds of the sender and receiver. It is the sum of these parts resonating until the tumblers of understanding slide into position and open a direct connection between the mind of origin and the mind of recipient.

There’s an art to it. No less so than the choreographed moves of a ballet or the finessed strokes of a sculpture, the ebb and flow of effective dissemination requires fine tuned awareness and mastery of the nature of the message, the medium, and the audience. A virtuoso is a pleasure to behold in any field, including the orator who holds an audience spellbound during the most mundane of proceedings.

There is a vulnerability inherent in allowing your personality and humour shine through in your communication. It is a risk, to open the window into your playful self and expose it to judgement and critique. There will always be those who seek to dim luminescence and cast a pall over playfulness.

Be brave. Be artful. Be memorable. Be fun. Set a tone which reverberates through your words and into the hearts of those reading them, the sensation of which lingers long after the content has faded.

Because playfulness is a gift from Synergy and the words that tumble out from it are pure joy to behold. No gift should go unopened!

The Fourth Is Strong in This One

Faith is an all or nothing state because you either totally embrace the belief framework or not, there really can be no in between. When you doubt, you doubt all of it not just the particular tenet against which you resist…no matter how much you might argue, doubt is insidious and infects everything when it has hold of you.

Like Yoda says, there is no try. Do. Or do not. Believe or believe not. The concept of try exists only because we have a concept of future and past. Notice people who are successful keep failing until they succeed? Failure is a ‘did not’ success is a ‘did’, neither of which is a try. In a Moment, you do or do not.

Only humans doubt. Only humans try. Animals don’t have faith nor do they question their purpose. Their purpose is to exist and they do it with utter belief in their existence. Only because of our short circuit of self awareness do we find uncertainty and fearfulness.

Trust is personal and individual. It does not require the corroboration of others, nor does faith demand use of an existing framework. Both exist inside your head and do not need the support of community belief to hold you. Only you can choose to believe and what you believe is entirely up to you.

May the Fourth be with you.

Unadulterated

Funny word. It looks made up, especially in our #hashtag world. It sounds rebellious and childlike.

Yet the Oxford definition makes absolutely no reference to maturity levels, state of mind, or adulthood whatsoever.

Un·a·dul·ter·at·ed/ˌənəˈdəltəˌrādəd/Learn to pronounceadjective

not mixed or diluted with any different or extra elements; complete and absolute.”pure, unadulterated jealousy”
- (of food or drink) having no inferior added substances; pure.”unadulterated whole-milk yogurt”

Concentrated and pure.

That’s what unadulterated means.

If you asked a child to compose a definition for the word, it would be something like “without adult influence” or “not grown up”, possibly “immature”.

And truthfully, a child embodies the word in its dictionary definition and any other possible interpretation of it. They are pure, concentrated energy. As they spend time exposed to adults, their magical wonder gets diluted and dispelled until, for some, little remains by age 17. We adults mix them up with our thoughts, judgements, opinions and information so they become…well…adulterated.

The wise mind is pure, unadulterated wisdom. Straight from the source, Eidolon’s database of the collective observations of the nature of the universe. Stored free of any different or extra elements like judgements or feelings. No inferior components.

Being childlike is pure. Looking at the world without filters gives concentrated experiences of it, leading to intense awareness of how it works.

Become unadulterated.

Whittling

Each day is a raw, rough, heavy block of wood. Or stone. Or clay. You’re the artist, you pick the medium.

Your job is to feel it, to sit with that substance and gauge its spirit, then release it. Craft something beautiful out of the material you have to work with.

Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, what you make of your day has absolutely no need to meet someone else’s approval. Even if you work for someone else, when you let go of your self-expectations and simply feel your potential, things tends to fall into place to meet your obligations incidental to your ultimate purpose.

Whittle away at the extraneous. Carve out the core which aches for expression that day. Look at the grain and heart of what is in front of your eyes and surrender to its shape. Smooth out rough edges, buff it to a shine, and sigh with satisfaction as you admire your handiwork of the day.

That could be as simple a task as a well-made bed or as momentous an endeavour as launching a satellite. Since the value and satisfaction is assigned by you and only you, both are of merit. Satisfaction comes from finding balance in your day, not accolades from outsiders.

Synergy gives us what we need each day to survive and flourish. No matter our starting point, the raw materials for the day are there to be honed into something satisfying. We must look with our wise mind at what we are given, opening our eyes to the limitless possibilities available to everyone who knows how to perceive them.

Manufacturing Gratitude

It’s ok not to be grateful. Especially for something you never asked for. Especially when you do not feel grateful. Especially if someone is telling you to be grateful.

Shame on them.

Gratitude is an emotion. Emotions happen when they happen, not when you tell yourself to feel them. You are sad when sad, glad when glad and mad when mad. Emotions simply are. A product of the material world, they are a sensory response to the current social environment. You can’t tell your fingers to feel warm in a snow storm. You can’t tell your face not to feel hot in the sun.

Why do you think you can tell your feelings to experience gratitude?

Gratitude bubbles up from inside you when conditions feel balanced and satisfactory…TO YOU. Your personal definition of balance or satisfaction may be wildly different than someone else’s, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with your perspective. Being told you should be grateful is being treated with contempt. It is telling you to judge yourself and your feelings, and find yourself guilty.

Beware giving yourself that same message! When you ponder your feelings and determine you shouldn’t have them, you are being unfair to yourself. Try telling your hand not to feel the burner under your palm. Same task, but because we fail to recognize our intangible emotions as an extension of our nervous system, we treat them like a part of our soul.

Emotions are information. Not actions nor facts.

Gratitude is a breathtakingly glorious emotion and it’s understandable those experiencing it want you to feel it too. Fake it til you make it, practice gratitude, choose thankfulness. Great ideas, but missing the point.

Manufacturing a facade of an emotion does generate pathways of practiced nerve patterns. Acting out routines does create habits. This much is true. But the emotion of gratitude is spontaneous and joyful, not habitualized and mechanical.

Funny thing, when it wells out of you, you realize it doesn’t want to follow those practices, routines and habits! Gratitude wants to playfully take you out of your comfort zone into your curiosity. It drives you to tears with its intensity but not to acts of creating lists.

You are grateful, or you are not. There is no try. And that’s just fine.

Dissatisfaction is a sign you are ready to grow. No matter how well-appointed the nursery might be, every child reaches the stage of needing to experience more, explore more, discover more. Gratitude and satisfaction go hand in hand, with imbalance chasing both of them away.

What imbalance exists that is pressuring for change? Curiosity demands an exploration when gratitude is nowhere to be found in a situation. And in the Moment when the source of imbalance is revealed, appreciation will flow through your veins because suddenly the game is afoot and your journey will begin!

So embrace a lack of gratitude as being the summons to the post, where you are to begin a steeplechase toward a higher level of understanding yourself. From discomfort comes growth and after growth comes gratitude!

Emotional Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a diagnosable condition with measurable symptoms, predictable triggers, and consistent patterns of behaviour. The condition arises from a systemic imbalance. Someone experiencing seizures loses control of themselves and can be dangerous to themselves and others. Treatments are available for many symptoms but the afflicted individual must choose to seek diagnostics, medical intervention, and support.

Emotional dysfunctions are diagnosable conditions with measurable symptoms, predictable triggers, and consistent patterns of behaviour. The condition arises from a systemic imbalance. Someone experiencing an emotional dysfunctional episode, an emotional seizure, loses control of themselves and can be dangerous to themselves and others. Treatments are available for many symptoms but the afflicted must choose to seek diagnostics, medical intervention, and support.

During a seizure, the person with epilepsy may involuntarily strike out at their surroundings, may become blind to dangers, may not be able to consciously safeguard themselves or others. If they were to injure a loved one during an uncontrolled seizure they would likely feel intense guilt and shame at the damage they did. Their loved one would not blame them for the behaviours whilst out of control of their body, yet would hold them accountable for seeking treatment, for creating effective coping strategies, for learning how to manage their outbursts in order to make the relationship safer for both of them. No expectations, only boundaries. If epilepsy goes unmanaged, the support person would be in constant risk.

During an emotional seizure, the person with emotional dysregulation may involuntarily strike out at their surroundings, may become blind to dangers, may not be able to consciously safeguard themselves or others. If they were to injure a loved one during an uncontrolled episode they would likely feel intense guilt and shame at the damage they did.

But that’s where the similarity tends to end, which is why mental illness so often grows, and passes on to another generation, accumulating shame, blame, and guilt with each new seizure.

Mental illness is painful for all who endure it as sufferers, victims, and witnesses. Just like epilepsy. But unlike epilepsy, it gets mistaken for a choice, judged as a lifestyle, and dismissed as unworthy of compassion or empathy. Yet like epilepsy, compassion, empathy and support constitute part of the treatment and are central to managing symptoms.

To support someone through epileptic seizures, you cannot pick and choose which symptoms are epileptic and which are not. You accept the whole and forgive what happens during a seizure, if you choose to interact with the person who is potentially unsafe for you because of their illness. To do otherwise is to judge and that puts imbalance between you. Better to keep boundaries between, not scales, and accept completely or let it be. Only you know if the relationship is worth the risk to your safety. No outsider can tell you that although they may try.

To support someone through emotional seizures, you cannot pick and choose which symptoms are choices and which are illness. You accept the whole and forgive what happens during a seizure, if you choose to interact with the person who is potentially unsafe for you because of their illness. To do otherwise is to judge and that puts imbalance between you. Better to keep boundaries between you, not scales, and accept completely or let it be. Only you will know if the relationship is worth the risk to your safety. No outsider can tell you although they might try.

Understanding epilepsy does not mean excusing the dangers of it or absolving people of the responsibility to manage it. But an informed perspective allows preparation for making a choice when a Moment of decision – stay or go – presents itself. Understanding is the foundation for compassion. Knowledge dispels fear and eases trauma. The wise mind guides decisions once the emotional and judgemental brains quiet down.

Understanding emotional dysfunctions does not mean excusing the dangers or absolving people of the responsibility to manage it. But an informed perspective allows preparation for making a choice when a Moment of decision- stay or go – presents itself. Understanding is the foundation for compassion. Knowledge dispels fear and eases trauma. The wise mind guides decisions once the emotional and judgemental brains quiet down.

Emotional abuse is not ok. But it is understandable. It has patterns, predictable triggers, and treatable behaviours. Hope for stability is what keeps people in abusive situations and hope is a precious, powerful force. To judge either party for having hope is to create greater imbalance while acceptance adds more hope and a sense of a safety net.

Arbitrary Timelines

Time is an artificial construct of the material world, a symptom of the short circuit in our brain that prevents us from living in the moment. We don’t need to measure the past or future if fully immersed in the present!

Time is a source of great anxiety and stress. Do I have time for this? Don’t give him the time. I had the time of my life. But when you have a Moment, time melts into nothing. Time flies when you’re having fun. And people who embrace living in the moment accomplish more in the exact same 24 hours everyone else lives. Time is what you make it.

As are timelines. To truly live in the Moment requires trust that all will be well. That deadlines and due dates, even though arbitrary material constructs, will be met not through thinking about them but through forgetting about them in order to focus on the task of the moment. What will be, will be, as it is meant to be. The pieces of the puzzle are there waiting for assembly and will be discovered in due time. Everything you need will be available when you need it, to do what you need to do. Have faith, close your eyes, and keep walking.

Animals don’t read calendars or clocks. The dog who waits by the door at four in anticipation of his master’s return read the concentration of scent particles in the air to predict the schedule, the pattern. Birds recognize the angle of the sun and day length not which month it is for their migration. Sap runs when temperatures are safe for leaf development.

If you must surrender to the urge to set a timeline for yourself, follow the lead of the universe and avoid those c-words, calendar and clock. Look around the escape room that is your life, to find the anchor for your decision. Use your environment to schedule your journey.

Thinking in a matter of months? Well look at that! A new shoot on the Phalaenopsis Orchid will take 4 to 6 months to flower. So when it is complete, you will make your move.

A matter of hours? Gee, I love how the sunlight plays through the stained glass window in the evening. When it hits that shelf, I’ll head on out.

Deadlines and timelines are arbitrary and artificial in the first place. Time only exists in the Mattersphere, and our wise mind knows how to bend both time and space within the rules of the physical matrix of reality. Synergy will make that flower bloom when you are ready to bloom, and that sunbeam shine when you are ready to shine. But only if you trust her by closing your eyes to clocks and calendars when you have the chance to.

Thrills and Chills

Thrill seekers and risk takers are on the right track. Those searches for adrenaline are searches, and seeking is our purpose. To boldly go where your wise mind has not gone before. To add new perspectives and new dimensions to the collective history stored with Eidolon in the Dattersphere.

Living in the Moment feels thrilling, sensuous, and utterly captivating. You are tethered in a limitless universe with boundless potential. If you don’t understand how to maintain that connection by freeing your mind from the material world, then you try to replicate the sensation by freeing your body from the constraints of the physical world through overloading your sensory brain.

An approximation of enlightenment.

When you find your wise mind and begin to live inside it most of your day, you take risks. You put yourself out there. You make yourself vulnerable. You find everything and everyone fascinating and exciting and immerse yourself intently in simple conversations with complete engagement. People ask for some of what you’re on. People want to join you on your journey.

Sharing knowledge and experience is another primal drive for us. To be the scaffold for others to construct meaning around. To light the pathway for others to explore. This urge drives us to post pictures and tweet thoughts, to write blogs and make comments. Hence the thrill in our heart with each new like, each recognition, each view. A different, less blatant type of thrill seeking but seeking nonetheless.

Our patterns have purpose. All of them. We do what we were designed to do. But like all machines, when we are out of balance we don’t function properly even as we strive to do what we were made for. Even the most dysfunctional, toxic behaviours are rooted in a primal function, a healthy drive that just needs tweaking of the weighting to make it effective once again.

Like the laundry washer that has piled too many items on one side of the drum, when we pile weight in our judgemental brain or our emotional mind, we thrash about unsteadily, and the contents of our heart are waterlogged and flaccid. Reaching inside the drum of our head, and repositioning the load, will wring out the extra weight we carry, and allow the current cycle to finish.

And what a feeling it is to be able to reach the spin cycle and release the dirty water of a lifetime of judgement and emotions!

Mixed Messages

The exhausting thing about compassion is the ongoing need to dispel confusion arising from people’s misinterpretation of compassion, acceptance and living with only boundaries, not expectations.

Receivers of unconditional compassion can easily mistake it for passion if the sexual alignment fits their orientation. In our society authentic acceptance and profound connection are often only found with romantic partners thus the sensation of acceptance feels like the sensation of romantic love. The incredible joy and gratitude of a Moment’s interaction is confused with the delight and excitement of infatuation.

This is why some people seek romantic love on a regular schedule. Because it truly does feel, in its first blush, the same as enlightenment and stability and satisfaction and joy and hope and gratitude. But with romance, those sensations are derived from an external source and driven by expectations and fantasies. Compassion is a necessary part of true romance but romance is not a necessary part of compassion.

Those individuals with poor understanding of boundaries mistake the openness of acceptance as a merging of souls when in fact souls are not meant to merge, only to bond while retaining independence. When they feel the visceral validation of being seen as enough, as wonderful and complete even in their imbalance and dissatisfaction, they construe it as something they have obtained meanwhile compassion is a generous gift given, not taken, and can only be provided from the safety of boundaries. To accept someone is the ultimate in compassion.

This is why some seek caregiving support on a regular schedule, getting a dose of validation and acceptance which feels, at first blush, like enlightenment but again the sensation is derived from an external source. Compassion is a necessary part of caregiving but caregiving is not necessarily a part of compassion.

Compassion is the ability to offer someone support in their distress in a way that elevates them without cost to them and without gain to the benefactor. Because we are so used to paying a price or receiving payment, it is very uncomfortable for some to receive compassion, as they seek the hidden price tag. Yet others accept compassion expecting strings that they like to pull.

Compassion is an expression of unconditional love but we are conditioned to have bows and ribbons attached to love. Or at least, sexy lingerie. Clearing out the mixed messages so love is not confused with romance or transactions will create a culture of compassion.

Forrest, Dory, and Anna

Want to see what living in the Moment with acceptance and surrender looks like?

Open the box of chocolates with Forrest Gump.

Find Nemo by just letting go with Dory.

And don’t be Frozen, do the next right thing with Anna.

Each of these characters exemplifies living in the Moment. Living in the moment comes naturally in some cases through birth or early exposure, while in other cases adversity brings it on, or a combination of predisposition and outside forces culminates in a mindful approach to life. But that approach faces ridicule, scorn, and judgement in the doing so. Because from the outside looking in, living in the Moment appears abnormal. Idiotic at times. Vulnerable and stupid.

Yet it works. Not because of smarts or knowledge or strength. But because of faith and trust in the balance of the universe. Because Synergy keeps us safe if we let her. Yet to trust someone we can’t see, to believe in something without proof, to walk blindly through the lion’s den is so incredibly risky, so amazingly courageous, that the majority of people can’t fathom it.

So they see delusion where there is faith. Mania where there is joy. Stupidity where there is serenity. And naivety where there is openness.

Until they hit a boundary with their judgement and find tempered glass where they expected plastic film. Or they witness miracles through their jaded lenses when they expected ignominious defeat. Or feel the power of a Moment of resonance and connection when they expected vapid insouciance.

Once you have met a person with Presence, you never forget how it felt to share a Moment with them. You might shake your head and convince yourself no one could possibly be that sincere and authentic and the longer you are out of touch the more you attribute what you felt to fantasy. Until the next time you’re in their Presence and it all comes rushing back to you like you’d never even left.

Yes, there are mental illnesses which share traits with enlightenment and mindfulness. And those who change from living a life immersed in material pursuits to pursuing meaningful Moments are most likely to encounter disbelief and resistance from their acquaintances. Commiseration is validation and if you choose to no longer engage in misery and resistance your decision incidentally feels like judgement to those left behind.

When you embrace surrender and see things like possessions and money as mere tools for exploring your curiosity and understanding, it creates tension in those who seek comfort and stability in material possessions. There is nothing wrong with finding comfort and joy in worldly things. Beautiful objects and places are treasures to be cherished and enjoyed. Fast, powerful cars are sensual feasts to be experienced and fabulous food is meant to be played with. Money is meant to be used to acquire what you need to find your purpose. You can be wealthy and enlightened, in fact enlightenment tends to accumulate valuables because you are attuned to the gifts Synergy scatters around you so immediately recognize the value in things before others do.

Like Forrest Gump, you develop an accidental, incidental wealth as you simply keep running on your path with intention, delight, and faith. Like Dory, you find your way home by looking for the patterns you trust in. And like Anna, you do what feels right, then the next thing that feels right, until all is right.

Children start in this world filled with trust, joy, hope, and curiosity. By age 17 they wear the lenses of the sensory and judgemental minds and no longer use the wise brain they were born with.

Only by regression can we find ascension.