How do we feel in tune with our common existence?
I felt the pull of travel from a young age. Those vivid memories of reading the biographies of incredible explorers and adventurers, like Amelia Earhart, Jacques Cousteau, Hillary and Tenzing, unravelled on me from a young age that exploration and discovery are essential for human experience. We are alive when we’re out exploring and discovering. We challenge preconceived values created by human history.
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We are taught to believe in stories from early childhood from our general culture and the people we interact with long before we develop the intellectual and emotional independence necessary to question and verify those stories.
By the time our brain and mind mature, we are so heavily persuaded by stories as most of us are likely not to challenge ourselves to question dogmas institutionalized by society. The “self” is built in a fictional story.
I resonate with Harari when he says our identity is built on a “story”, but the universe is not like that. The key step in our life journey is to acknowledge it and detach ourselves from those beliefs.
We were not encouraged from a young age to strengthen our intuition. We must develop skills that combine logic and sensorial dimensions in the moment. Being aware is the quality that connects us to our existence and universal wisdom.
I think we are all equipped with intuition. It is just a matter of unlearning what we learned from early childhood, and learn skills that support us to be more in tune with ourselves and our surroundings.
Many great thinkers, from Kant to Carl Jung, have emphasized the importance of intuition and its significant impact on their personal and professional lives. They defined it as previous knowledge and an essential and indispensable tool for us as humans.
Jung describes intuition as one of four primary functions of the human mind, along with sensation, thinking, and feeling. By balancing these functions within ourselves, we can maximize our potential.
The flow of the mind interlinks with body sensations. Between me and the world, there are always body sensations. I never react to events in the outside world. I respond to the sensations in my mind and body.
I started meditation a couple of years ago and have been finding an insightful way to listen to intuition, connecting to inner greater knowledge in the mid-long term. Meditation is any method of observation.
Earlier, I found Hatta and Ashtanga yoga as vehicles to keep me in flow with the present. It all started in Lisbon when a friend invited me to the Portuguese yoga centre. Since then, I have wanted to add more activities connecting my inner self in full spectrum with the outer world. Slow travels took and are taking a relevant part in my life to experience an unlearning state of values which are not in tune with our era.
“Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water.” — Bruce Lee
We must learn how to observe human cultures free from preconceptions and prejudices. For a few more years or decades, we still have a choice. If we make an effort, we can investigate who we are and observe our contemporary and techno-human-made world. We should embrace Nature. We should observe the overall intertwined systems we are and, with a curious, fresh and open mind, investigate who we are.
But if we want to use this opportunity, we have better do it now.
