There’s a lot of talk about climate change: sea level rises, migration, water shortages, resource wars, the rise of populism.
There’s not a lot of talk about solutions.
I was reading the excellent publication Positive News and opening page reads:
There is a negative bias in the press, and it is holding society back.
While the media must report problems and hold power to account, we believe there is also a need for rigorous journalism about what’s going right.
Our reporting uncovers solutions to the world’s challenges, engages people in society and boosts wellbeing, too.
Positive news is a community benefit society, which means our journalism is independent and we are duty-bound to work in your interest.
I believe this is true, in almost all facets of life, there’s a negative bias that holds us back; there’s a cynicism that is inbuilt in the population that they can’t affect governance, or they can’t drive the change that they want to see in their lives. In fact we govern our own lives, and we can be the change that we want to see in our countries, it just takes a startling amount of courage and effort to be adamant that you will become the new person amongst a community of people — that in many ways you need, who might feel unsettled by that.
It’s so inbuilt into our conditioning that it slips by us, and we end up using it against ourselves in our thoughts.
The idea of manifesting our abundance has come to my attention recently and it’s a tricky subject to grasp, it demands a lot of patience and research, but it’s interesting. It’s worthwhile to understand the ways in which thoughts can become things, or how energy works.
The idea behind manifestation is that there are different levels of vibration that the brain and body can work with, this can be seen throughout different cultural traditions such as: Neuroscience, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Shamanism.
Let’s take neuroscience as an example — considering the bias in western society, you’re less likely to write me off and click off this article if I explain it in terms of science, sorry, but that’s the rules.
There are different states that the brain functions in, if you’d like to find out more about the basics of that then click here, but I assure you there’s plenty more where that came from.
To sum up though, there are 5 different brain states:
Beta waves — (14–40Hz) — The Waking Consciousness & Reasoning Wave
Alpha waves — (7.5–14Hz) — The Deep Relaxation Wave
Theta waves — (4–7.5Hz) — The Light Meditation & Sleeping Wave
Delta waves — (0.5–4Hz) — The Deep Sleep Wave
Gamma waves — (above 40Hz) — The Insight Wave
Each brain state resonates at a different frequency, which means the brain waves are oscillating at different levels. Essentially this means that the brain can suit the level of activity it needs throughout the day and night. If you’re sleeping deeply then your brain waves might be less frequent.
However, this also translates to the thoughts and emotions that you feel.
This graph describes the vibrational energy that you exhibit when you feel a certain emotion, and you can observe the difference in feeling in your body between something like shame which will feel very heavy and constricting, to a feeling like peace which feels lighter and expansive.
The main rule of manifestation is to know what you want and imagine that you are worthy, but there’s also many other things in your environment and wider environments that can affect your ability to achieve what you want from life.
Does your partner fully support your choices?
Does your boss keep you under control by subtle, divisive, comments?
Who is it in your life that encourages you to express yourself? Asks you questions and doesn’t impose assumptions on you as answers?
All of these questions are important to note. Manifesting is criticized by people because they thinks it’s as simple as thinking something and then it’ll appear. It’s not, it’s simple, if you follow the rules.
How does this all fit into sensitivity?
The way that we live our lives is with a certain level of sensitivity to the stimulus in our environments, we react to things as much as we intentionally build the environment that we feel comfortable in.
If the amount of energy it takes to survive in our environments is great, then we will be consumed with that, and not have any space to consider anything else. We will then be stuck in that environment as we won’t have any of the energy that it takes to be strong and courageous, and assert the changes that we want to see in those environments.
There’s some new incredible research into an area of the human condition to suggest that some people’s nervous systems are supercharged. Scientists are calling it ‘Hyper-sensitivity’.
Take this short test to see if you are one:
Is Your Child Highly Sensitive?
Instructions: Please answer each question as best as you can. Check answer if it is true or at least moderately true of…
They have discovered that highly sensitive people have a more sensitive nervous system and they are more affected by sounds, smells; anything that excites the senses. I personally can feel other people’s feelings viscerally and understand people’s energy in an intuitive way, I always have been able to do that, it’s just the culture that I grew up in (the UK) threw away any recognition or celebration of those traits a long time ago. This gave me a cultural complex.
Men aren’t encouraged to have any other feelings but anger and frustration, we’re taught to be aggressive and assertive over vulnerable and expressive. This is the anthesis of what hypersensitive needs, and so I have struggled my whole life with repression; depression; anxiety; anger at not being understood or encouraged. Quite frankly, I get traumatized by common social norms, like going to the pub and having a few drinks. There’s always someone in that pub who affects me negatively.
According to The Strong Sensitive Boy — Help Your Son Become A Happy, Confident Man by Ted Zeff, PH . D. There are many signs and symbols that could point to your child being a hypersensitive person.
Startles easily Complains about scratchy clothing or labels against their skin Notices the slightest unusual odor Seems very intuitive Is hard to get to sleep after an exciting day Doesn’t do well with big changes Asks lots of questions Notices the distress of others Prefers quiet play Is a perfectionist Is very sensitive to pain Is bothered by noisy places Considers safety before climbing high Performs best when strangers aren’t present
Of course, these are all traits that might come out in a society that doesn’t recognize sensitivity, that celebrates the anthesis of sensitivity and insists upon it until it traumatizes the sensitive into a cultural complex. There are amazing traits to sensitivity too.
Why would sensitivity be our biggest hope of survival?
We are living in a time of great derision on the Earth: The migration crisis; the Syrian war; the rise in populism; the decay of the Neoliberal economic system that underpins a lot of the world’s major economies; changes in weather systems.
We’ve already seen many, many examples of ‘strange’ weather for the time of the year all over the world.
How do we navigate this seemingly endless barrage of heaviness? With sensitivity. By feeling the energy of the situation and going with that flow, using the force if you will. That doesn’t mean what Western society has taken it to mean, with the positivism movement: Do whatever it takes to stay positive. No, sometimes a situation demands you to get angry and tell someone firmly how you feel so that they don’t take advantage of you.
What I’m trying to communicate is that we are in the midst of a crisis that we have never seen before as a race. The climate is changing and partly because of our copious consumer habits, our consumption of fossil fuels, and our inability to see what needs to be done.
The inability comes from the fact that we are too entrenched in our own lives to see what is needed to save this planet. In fact, that is wrong, to save humanity from being kicked off this planet. Earth will survive.
We need our sensitivity to survive this, there are certain traits that are really suited to finding a solution to this moment in history:
Intuition,
Inquisitiveness,
Empathy,
Unconditional love.
There’s also no need to discipline a sensitive harshly as they understand and revere emotional process so if you explain to them that they’ve upset you, then they’ll naturally want to change their behavior to become less conflictive. This is well suited to conflict management.
We need to try to find a way to exhibit these behaviors more often in our daily lives, then we’ll start to see a change in society, and then hopefully, those societies will start to develop ways forward for climate change.
—
Previously published on Medium.com.
—
Have you read the original anthology that was the catalyst for The Good Men Project? Buy here: The Good Men Project: Real Stories from the Front Lines of Modern Manhood
◊♦◊ If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project and want to join our calls, please join us as a Premium Member, today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: By Nikola Jovanovic on Unsplash
The post Is Sensitivity Our Biggest Hope of Survival? appeared first on The Good Men Project.
#Self-improvement #ClimateChange #Health&Wellness #FeaturedContent #Meditation
