Asleep and Numb by Happy Thoughts

At one time in my life, everyone thought I had it all together.  I learned from my Mom, who always put the happy smile on in life.  Even if she was sick as could be, she would not let anyone know it.  I did the same.

I constantly immersed myself with happy thoughts and portrayed a "false reality" to the world.  My friends just thought I had it all together and were shocked when I ended up in the hospital with Conversion Disorder.  I still remember them pointing this out to me.

There is nothing wrong with happy thoughts or inspirational messages.  We all need them and they can lift us up sometimes.  Affirmations can help us focus.  However, they should not take over for the reality we project to the world.  Unfortunately that happens all the time in our lives, and especially on social media.

In this example from the blog post on June 13, 2017, Mirabel does what I used to do.  So she only shows the happy smile and shares the happy thought online, avoiding anything and everything that is hard for her to deal with in her life.  Unfortunately Mirabel doesn't realize just how asleep she is.

No, not everyone wants to see our doom and gloom.  Yet if we show the real side of our lives, others can more readily connect with us.  They can learn from us and often help provide support for us.  Together, we can do much more when we are real, not when we are fake.

I constantly see people putting down and belittling others for not being 100% positive all the time, and I weep for them.  That is not being human.  That is being unreal and disconnected and asleep.  It is numbing yourself to what your life is.  There is no way to move forward if you are numb.

Show the happy smile, but also show how you're climbing up out of the depths of despair.  Show the happy smile, but be real and authentic with people.  No one enjoys being around someone that lies to them or paints an inaccurate picture.

Yes, it takes courage to not just be numb and asleep when it comes to how we feel and what is going on in life.  It takes vulnerability, like what Brene Brown talks about.  Through moments of being real, we often lift ourselves and others up to a stronger and more powerful vantage point.

The world needs real people.  The world does not need fake pasted on smiles.  There is far too much of that on our planet today that is taking us over the cliff.  May we awaken from our sleep and realize this before we've gone past the point of no return.

Make sure you check out the first part in this 11 part series

 Part 1 is "Are You Asleep"

 

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Asleep To Feeling Pain In Our Body

Let's all go down to the river and party the night away.  Okay, I'm not sure why I wrote that this, but maybe it is more telling then I am aware of in this moment.  If you read the blog post on June 13, 2017, Are You Asleep?, you will see that Donnie struggles with this one.

Here's a part from Donnie's statement on the blog post Are You Asleep:     After all, he doesn't have time to deal with pains in his body.  There is just too much too accomplish.   His body is 100% pain free.  Unfortunately, that's a good sign of how asleep Donnie is.

We are so oblivious to pain in our bodies that even saying we are asleep is not a strong enough statement.  Of course, I'm sure you're probably eye-rolling me right now, wondering if I just fell off my rocker and hit my head on the floor.

Safe to say, I'm okay.  I didn't hit my head on the floor.

For a long time I was traveling every week and going almost nonstop.  I hardly felt pain in my body.  There was no time to feel it and if I felt it, it had to disappear because I could not function and do what was required of me.  Pain relievers were the go-to if that happened.

However, most of the time I didn't feel pain.  In fact, that's how most of us are.  We are oblivious to pain in our bodies, even though it is there.  Yes, even if you don't notice it, it is there.

How do I know this?  Well, when I finally get myself to stop or I go in for a deep healing session with Dr. Paul Canali, the first thing I'm asked to do is feel what is going on in my body.  Of course, one thinks that we know what is going on, but until you do this - much of it is hidden.  Let me repeat that - much of it is hidden.

The more you stop and notice, the more you'll exclaim like I do in a session, "Oh, I didn't know that was there."  We are so unconscious and disconnected that most of the time the pain (and the warning signs of the mind and body) go undetected.  We just fail to hear them because we are asleep.

They keep ratcheting up the alarm, and we keep dousing them with unconsciousness and other substances in our day.   Then when the alarm has gone as far as it can, the body gets our attention.  Usually by that point, things aren't good and require much more medical intervention than we would have had to do if we'd listened to the pain in the first place.

I had someone once tell me that they were sorry to hear I had pain.  I'm like, but everyone does - they just don't listen to it.  It is messages our bodies are trying to get through our asleep thick skulls.

Pain can be good if we do something conscious with it.  If we hide it, then we've inflicted a world of hurt on ourselves.  Rather than hiding it, the better thing to do is to go in and feel the pain.  Yep, I know - you've probably thought I've fallen again from my rocking chair.  Rest assured, I have not.

If pain is overwhelming, we want it gone.  That's human nature.  However, if you can find body work like what Dr. Paul Canali does, then you learn that by going into the pain,  you take control of it and transform it.  When you do, a whole new world opens up.

Is that easy?  NO IT IS NOT!  Is it good in the long run? YES IT IS.  Being asleep so much that you don't feel the pain is not a recipe for health and wellness.  Too much in our society is built around numbing the pain, rather than going in and interacting with the pain.  Too many health conditions are a result of not feeling the pain.

It is past time our world wakes up and begins to deal with pain in the right way.  First, we have to recognize it is there and feel it.  Once we've made it that far, then we need to go in and have a conversation with it through not only the mind, but through the felt sense of the body.  When we learn to interact with it in the body, that's when pain becomes our friend, rather than our foe. 

Make sure you check out the next part in this 11 part series

 Part 11 is "Asleep By Happy Thoughts"

 

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Asleep By SmartPhones

This one is getting to be an epidemic.  Our smartphones can be so helpful, but they can also keep us so disconnected and asleep. It is getting sad these days, as I look around and no one is paying attention to anything but their smartphones.

In the example posted on the blog post, Are You Asleep, there are some issues with Sally and her smartphone.  She can go to her happy and safe place with her phone.  Yes, it is disconnecting from everyone, but hey she is still there present with them, although asleep. 

Yes, we can probably chime in and say, "Oh I hate it - everyone is on their smartphones these days but not paying attention".  Yet,... and this is a big YET, we fail to see we are doing the same thing.  We're too asleep to notice.  We're too disconnected to notice what we do.

It is easy to point the finger at others, but with the majority of people doing it, we might need to realize that three fingers are pointing back at ourselves.  It isn't just others that do this!  That's the point I'm trying to make.

Smartphones can be good.  I love them.  I love what I can do on them, but sometimes (myself included), we let them control our lives.  If you don't think you do, try shutting it off for 24 hours and putting it away.  Let me know how that is going after an hour or two.

We connect to so many people online, but in many ways we don't connect with anyone.  We just stay behind a screen of likes, favorites, shares and forwards.  We just don't engage with others in a humanistic way.  We are asleep and disconnected and numb for the most part.

If we could limit ourselves and find balance, it would be helpful to the mind and body.  It would make us all more human, rather than these high strung opinionated people we are becoming.

Humans require physical communication with one another, I believe.  I'm not sure I believe that smartphones rise to that level. In the long run, they are hurting us.  They are hurting us because we have lost our balance, and grown asleep in our lives.

Make sure you check out the next part in this 11 part series

 Part 10 is "Feeling Pain In The Body"

 

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Constantly Connected To The Job

I did this one for a long time and it almost cost me my life and the world that I knew.  I didn't realize how having to be constantly connected to the job was killing me.  It was keeping me asleep.

The example of Frank from the blog post Are You Asleep could have been me in many ways.  Read an excerpt here from that blog post:

Yes, his employer forces him to take at least one week a year away from the office, but he's constantly checking email and working on projects.  He doesn't realize he is asleep.  (read the full example)

In my job I worked from home, but the employers and people above me did not care if I had time to myself.  They would claim up and down, all day long, that I should only work 40 hours a week.  They had to say that because otherwise they were breaking the law in how they had us report time.

Of course, in the next breath you would get chastised if you could not keep up with 150 to 200 calls a day among 400-600 emails and conference calls, traveling, and training techs.  These were just some of the pieces of the job.  They balked at giving you help, but thought that you could accomplish everything in 40 hours.  The support calls came all hours of the day and night because they didn't know how to schedule any of the project, and they didn't know how to hire the right people to do the job.

I got to a point where I could not function and life was nothing but an annoyance.  There was no time off.  The project had to continue, unorganized as it was, while the main company made millions.  They sacrificed my life for millions of dollars.

Yet I was so busy at the time that I didn't even realize what was being done to me.   I got to the point, medically, where I had to take time off -- and they still called me.  There was no escaping it.  A few months later, I said enough was enough.

The funny part is, there was much of the job that I loved, but they had worked me to death. I say shame on employers that do this to people.  If you can't respect your workers and their lives, you don't deserve to be in business.

This is so commonplace, but it is a practice of being asleep and unconscious and numb.  Sure, it is your job and livelihood, but it comes with serious costs.  There is nothing that is worth giving up your life - no amount of money or time.

NO, it isn't easy trying to get out of this or even realizing you have options.  We get sucked into it because we think if we work hard, we'll get ahead.  Yet, the end point of the working hard to get ahead game never ends.  It just requires more and more out of us.

At some point, you have to wake up or hope you do before it is too late.  Working in this way and constantly being connected to your job is not living.  It is not human.  It is being controlled and manipulated by those whose only existence is for the power of greed.

Make sure you check out the next part in this 11 part series

 Part 9 is "Asleep By SmartPhones"

 

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Asleep To What We Put In Our Body

This is yet another example from the blog post of June 13, 2017.  In this example Amy Lou is asleep when it comes to her mind and body,and what she pours into her body.

It is one of the most common examples of being asleep that I think there is.  Most people do not even realize they do this and even if they did, they have no clue how to get out of it.  Diet programs and practices rarely help because people are not as conscious as they want you to believe.

Here is an excerpt from the blog post, Are You Asleep about Amy Lou.  Yes, she is health conscious because she drinks her diet sodas and consumes the low fat snacks and food as stated on the packaging of the food item.  Her body reacts with headaches and fatigue, but she blames this on stress and age, not on being asleep.

For a long time, I thought drinking soda was just as good as drinking anything else.  It was liquid and I knew my body needed liquid, so why did I need anything else?  I'd drink an occasional glass of water or some iced tea that had water in it, and thought everything was fine.  I didn't realize that I was just fooling myself.

Our bodies are made up of around 70% water, and yet we deprive it of one of the most basic things it needs.  All these other forms of liquids just don't do what our body needs.  It has to process and try to pull out useful water from what we consume.  This requires much more work and is often not very effective.

Drinking water is one of the best things you can do for your body.  It is mainly what I drink now, but it took me some time to make the shift.  If I don't drink enough water in a day, not only do headaches show up, but I feel the fatigue and fog in the brain.

Another part of being asleep in what we do to our body is the food we put in it.  Far too much processed food is consumed as being "nutritious" when really it is not.  We fail to put whole foods into our bodies, instead hijacking with sugar and processed stuff that has little value.  I'm sorry if the food industry does not like that statement, but if you want to be healthy - increase whole foods you consume, not frozen and packaged and processed stuff.

Another asleep behavior is not reading the contents of what you buy.  If you do read labels, you are ahead of the curve, but you have to read every label.  I swear, they sneak stuff in all the time that makes me scratch my head.  Why we are obliterating our food, I'll never understand.  It is being asleep at the highest levels.  I'm not even talking about GMO's here.  This is more than just GMO.

You've most likely heard that what we put in us is what we get out.  Yet, we shove the unhealthiest junk into our bodies and then wonder why they can't keep up.  We've heard it a million times, but we discount and neglect it as something we should tell others, but not practice ourselves.

Even though I try hard not to be asleep, I still fail on this one too.  Yes, I do the smoothies every morning packed full of phytochemicals from whole foods.  That helps, but I still need to be aware and conscious of what I eat, and make sure whole live food is a major part of my day.

Make sure you check out the next part in this 11 part series

 Part 8 is "Constantly Connected To The Job"

 

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Asleep With Pain And Difficulty

While this one may sound strange, Mortimer's issues in life are more than what meets the eye.  If you read the blog post with Mortimer's example, you will see just how asleep he is.

Here is a snippet of how Mortimer isn't present, even though he thinks he is.  It is an insidious struggle that works from the inside out in our mind and body.  It is the ego in control, not consciousness.

Mortimer thinks that life is just about pain and difficulty.  He knows that the doctor knows best and so he doesn't question if there is anything different he needs to do in his life. (see the full example of Mortimer)

For some reason when it comes to our health, we tend to disengage the brain that is inside our head.  I don't know how else to say that, but we all do it.  I've done it.  I've seen many do it.  I see many do it every day.  It is human behavior.

Like Mortimer, it is where we stop.  We don't go beyond it.  We don't go into it.  We often think that this is how things work and so we just accept that as fact.  Many times we are not taught anything different than what everyone practices.

Yes, our society and family units have taught us that anything that hurts or doesn't feel good is something that has to be fixed by someone else.  We're taught that in many ways.  We are often taught it at an early age when Mommy kisses our boo boo to make it better.

There's nothing wrong with going to get help.  In fact, we often need to do that whether it is medical attention or counseling services.  Too many times, we wait until things get really bad before we seek help.

The thing is, we just stop at that step.  We fail to go in and see what is causing our issues and find a way through them.  We fail to see how we need to change things in life.  We often fail to realize the role we play in making ourselves sick.

Yes, I know that not everything is something we did it to ourselves, but there is a vast majority of issues that could be greatly enhanced if we took our own blinders off.   We often put ourselves in moments of illness and distress that we don't need to, while we stay asleep in the process.

Some of us have endured many difficult moments in our past and as a result, we're forced to deal with issues that are so overwhelming.  I get that.  I've been there.  Some days I am still there.  However, there is so much we can do to impact our health and well being that many times we just don't do.

We can choose to stay asleep or we can destroy every paradigm we have about health and healing, to find something that works better for us.  We don't have to wait for a doctor or other health person to tell us to take something to numb us.  We can engage directly and learn more about our own mind and body.

The more you learn and the more you know, the more you can interact with your own health and healing.  Things that I would have claimed were impossible a few years ago are now things that I have seen change, and have healed in my own life and that of others.  I would not have guessed it then.  I would not have believed it then.

I try to keep an open mind to ways I can interact with my own awareness and consciousness.  Learning to recognize that there are other ways to improve my health and make life more than pain and difficulty has been eye opening to me.  It has awakened me from my sleep in life.

Is it easy to do this?  Not really!  Not in my view.  Yes, I can give lip service to it.  Yes, I can talk the talk of healing, but going in and doing it requires much more connection not only to my mind, but to my body.

After the Conversion Disorder paralysis I went through, I was bound and determined to find my way through it.  I didn't accept that this was the way things were or that this is the way they would be.  I pushed aside everything I thought I knew and began to open up to what I did not know.  In the end, it saved me.  In the beginning it was a life full of difficulty and pain.

Make sure you check out the next part in this 11 part series

 Part 7 is "What We Put In Our Body"

 

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Asleep Burning The Candle At Both Ends

Back in the days I started out doing massage, I was so mind blown at how people just race here and there.  Burning the candle at both ends was just common practice in the people I met.  I never quite understood that one.  It is a way in which we are asleep.

In the example posted on 6/13/17, Josephine thinks that she can burn the candle at both ends of the stick.  She can't let anyone down, but she complains that she is the only one that can do anything.  

We just don't understand that the human body is not designed to run day and night with no stopping and no rest. Our minds needs downtime.  Our bodies needs to breathe.  We need silence and stillness to reconnect with peace and joy.

In addition, the rest and downtime allows our nervous systems to catch up and process what we have experienced in our days.  It helps our cells and tissues repair themselves and pull back to a state of balance and normality.

If we push ourselves day in and day out, we may get away with it for a long time, but sooner or later it will catch up with us.  Most of the time we are oblivious to the disastrous effects it is having on the mind and body.  We are usually numb and asleep to what is happening behind the scenes.

We don't see it and often we don't want to see it.  We'd rather go on oblivious to what we are doing to ourselves.  Then, when we get sick, we gasp at what has happened, but we fail to see the connection.  We just look for someone to keep us in a numbed and asleep state.

Being human is learning to interact with our mind and our body.  It is about taking care of ourselves and through doing that, we become better acquainted with who we are.  Beating our mind and body up is not living.  It is self-inflicted abuse that we do to ourselves.

I remember a therapist one time looking at me and telling me, "Don - you need to give yourself a break.  You are beating yourself up too hard.  You are your own worst enemy.".

Yes, we are our own worst enemies and when we are asleep and numb to it, we project that on to everyone else.  We think that everyone is the problem, when the problem could be resolved within each one of us if we chose to do so.

Hopefully, you'll learn from what Josephine is doing to her body in the example from the blog post on June 13, 2017 - Are You Asleep?

Make sure you check out the next part in this 11 part series

 Part 6 is "Sleep With Pain And Difficulty"

 

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Asleep Statement Of You're Wrong, I'm Right

As with anything I write up here, don't just take my word for it.  Try it out and test it in your own life.  I don't claim to have all the answers.  I just speak\my own truth of the experiences I have been through in my own life.

In the example given on the blog post, Are You Asleep, from June 13, 2017 Thomas thinks that he is right and everyone else is wrong.  He uses his "labels" and "insults" to prove it.  He uses his view of the facts to prove it, but the bottom line is no one knows as much as he does.

This is sad and it is playing out every day in our world.  There is no listening to one another.  This is not being awake.  Everyone seems to be asleep at the wheel with the behavior they display online and to one another.  We will never make it as a civilization at this point.

Yet when you look at how Thomas behaves, there is no working together, even though he thinks he has all the answers.  He is so asleep that he alienates everyone who tries to understand what it is that he seems to know.  No one wants to listen for very long to someone that can only call names and hurl insults.

While it would be easy to assume that this behavior applies to issues that Thomas has in his own life, this is not an isolated moment these days.  Far too many people are partaking in this behavior.  Some come right out and say things, while others just forward and like the things people like Thomas say.

It is not behavior that is consistent with someone that is awake and conscious.  It is not behavior that helps each other strive to be more.  Rather, it is more of a bullying tactic with little regard and respect for other people.

To awaken from our sleep, we must realize that others have just as much value as we do.  We must understand that to listen and show respect, love, and compassion for others is what truly makes us human.  It makes us alive and full of hope and possibility.


Thomas thinks that he has to convince everyone just how wrong they are.  It is his duty to show them the error of their ways and not stop until they realize that.  For he knows that his world and everything else in the world depends upon his insight and knowledge.  No one else sees things truly like he does, and he believes that all are asleep.  Thomas will not consider for a moment that he is asleep.

Make sure you check out the next part in this 11 part series

 Part 5 is "Asleep:  Burning The Candle"

 

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Asleep With The Latest News Of The Day

This was one of the examples I used in the blog post on June 13, 2017, Are You Asleep?  This one is an epidemic in our country and most likely throughout the world, so it is important to bring up for discussion.

In this example, Louise has allowed the fear of needing to be up-to-date with the latest tidbit of news to keep herself asleep.  She doesn't realize she is doing this, but when you can stand back and see the bigger picture, it becomes quickly evident that she is asleep.

The news takes us into a dark hole of fear. It holds us there.  It is enticing because it uses all kinds of bright shiny lights and music that mesmerizes us.  Different people telling us how they think becomes how we think and all of this together drags us into fear that keeps us asleep.

At one time I had people in my life that said they never watched the news and I thought they were crazy.  I didn't tell them that to their face, but I thought it.  Yes, I'm being honest here.  However, several years ago we let cable go and we stopped watching the news as a result.

I could not believe how freeing it felt when we did this.  There was much more stress in watching the news, as each one of the pundits and guests they had on were screaming at each other as to what their opinions were. Being away from that felt lighter.  It felt more normal.

We don't realize just how much this is happening until we step away from it.  When we step back and let it go, it feels like freedom.  You begin to feel like you're getting your life back.

Now when I travel, I'll turn a cable news channel on and I end up with the conclusion, "I'm not missing much" by not having this in our house.  I get bored with it quickly because most of these news shows are not saying anything useful.  Most are repeating the same things over and over.  Few, if any, are even coming close to reporting the news.  It is all opinion.


Now, somehow without watching the news, I still seem to generally know what is going on. However, it is without all the noise.  Through Twitter I can see most things show up in a news feed, and in online news readers, I can see the headlines.  Beyond that, there isn't much that is useful.  I apologize to the media-at-large if this offends you, but it is the truth (and you know it).

When we see things in video format with facial expressions and music and words, it changes how our brain thinks.  Our brain is no longer awake and thinking for ourselves.  It is mirroring what we see presented to us.  It is being asleep with the latest news of the day.

If you're thinking I'm nuts, that's fine.  I don't take offense to it.  However, I'd challenge you to shut the news off for 30 days and see how it looks after that.  I bet you will see it differently.

 
Our body and our mind don't need this constant barrage of fear hurled at us.  We're only going to make ourselves more and more sick by stretching the nervous system beyond comprehension.  The mind and body need balance, not a constant bombardment of fear.

Knowing what is going on around us is a good thing, but bathing in it every second of the day is keeping us asleep.  It is not enlightening us as much as we may think it is.  May we wake up and treat our mind and our body with the respect that they deserve.

Make sure you check out the next part in this 11 part series

 Part 4 is "Asleep:  You're Wrong, I'm Right"

 

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Are You Asleep Online

So, if you read yesterday's blog post from June 13, 2017, this is the point where we jump into things a little deeper.  Are you asleep online?  That's the question, so let's expand upon what I briefly described as an example.

Here's an excerpt from yesterday:

Joe goes browsing through his many social media accounts and only reads a few words.  Rather than reading the whole thing or reading the link behind it, Joe furiously types on his keypad making his point known in response. (click to read the whole example)

We've all been there and done this.  One time doesn't mean much of anything, because we can get so busy that the social media feeds through quicker than what we can keep up with.  If you look at the number of followers I have, you'll understand why my news feed on Twitter zips by quickly.

However, this is more deep than just missing something.  This is not really reading or seeing what is before us, but only taking less than minimal effort to exist in the space of online social media.  Yes, online social media is designed to get us to react, not necessarily think about all the edges of where we are.

Sometimes we need to stop and slow down and think through what it is that we read.  Sometimes we don't have to click on everything we see, and engage.  We end up shortchanging ourselves and the person that shares stuff, which is not respectful at all.

However, in this case, we are far too quick to respond as if we have all the answers, rather than saying, "what can I learn from this" or "how can I apply it to my life?"  Yes, I know, there are far too many memes and thoughts circulated on Twitter and Facebook, but we do need to apply filters.

Just going through the motions of reading without fully seeing all that we are reading is behavior that has us asleep online rather than awake.  It is up to us to engage in a way that is honoring to ourselves and others.  No one can do that for us.  It is solely up to our own choices in how we proceed.

Online social media like Twitter and Facebook should be tools to help enhance our lives, not distract from what it means to be human.  If we want to be awake, it must start within each one of us, for what we do makes up the collective online social media experience.  Let us be awake, rather than asleep.

Make sure you check out the next part in this 11 part series

 Part 3 is "Asleep With The Latest News"

 

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

Are You Asleep?

Every day I'm reminded of the point of this blog series, and I see it show up online.  However, it happens more than just online in social media.  The question we all need to ask ourselves every day is "are we asleep?"

Sure, I bet everyone will go, "No, I'm not asleep, but boy have you looked at everyone else?" 

We would go on to say, "Have you seen what this person has done or that person.  Have you seen what is going on?"  

Yet, we would claim, "we are enlightened" and "intelligent" and "awake".

Unfortunately that is what our ego leads us to believe.  It disguises what we think reality is while hiding the true view of what being awake really is.  It gets us to believe that what we chase in a day is the best thing for us rather than what actually is.

Here Are Some Examples

1. Joe - Asleep Online

   This is one of the big ones online.  Joe goes browsing through his many social media accounts and only reads a few words.  Rather than reading the whole thing or reading the link behind it, Joe furiously types on his keypad making his point known in response.  Often, the point made has absolutely nothing to do with what the link is about, but "Hey Dude, you're asking a little too much out of me because I can't be bothered with seeing the whole picture.  I'd rather stay asleep."   (Read more: Are You Asleep Online)  posts on 6/14/17
    

2. Louise - Latest News Of The Day

   Louise spends her free time keeping up with the latest news story of the day.  Louise tells herself that she has to keep up on all the latest news.  If she doesn't, she might miss something important.  Yet, she doesn't realize that the news is just sucking her into this dark hole of fear that takes the life from her, leaving her asleep. (Read more: Latest News Of The Day) - posts on 6/15/17.  
    

3. Thomas - You're Wrong, I'm Right

   Thomas thinks that he has to convince everyone just how wrong they are.  It is his duty to show them the error of their ways and not stop until they realize that.  For he knows that his world and everything else in the world depends upon his insight and knowledge.  No one else sees things truly like he does and he believes that all are asleep.  Thomas will not consider for a moment that he is asleep.  (Read more:  You're Wrong, I'm Right) - posts on 6/16/17
    

4. Josephine - Burning The Candle

   Josephine thinks that she can burn the candle at both ends of the stick.  She knows the boss needs something, and the kids have their activities and places to be.  Of course, her husband has expectations for her as well.  She can't let anyone down.  She is the only one that can do the things she does and she often complains how she never has enough help and she's the only one doing everything.  It doesn't dawn on her that she is asleep.  (Read more:  Burning The Candle) - posts 6/20/17
    

5. Mortimer - Pain And Difficulty

   Mortimer thinks that life is just about pain and difficulty.  He goes to his doctor appointments and takes the medications that his doctor prescribes.  He knows that the doctor knows best and so he doesn't question if there is anything different he needs to do in his life.  He just follows the advice without question.  Mortimer thinks he has solved his health issues through medication but what he doesn't realize is he is asleep.  (Read more:  Pain And Difficulty) - posts 6/21/17
    

6. Amy Lou - What We Put In Our Body

   Amy Lou thinks that eating healthy is just something those new age people do.  After all, she knows that every now and then she eats a salad when she goes out to eat.  Yes, she is health conscious because she drinks her diet sodas and consumes the low fat snacks and food as stated on the packaging of the food item.  Water is something she gets when drinking her coffee, but not something that she drinks regularly.  Her body reacts with headaches and fatigue, but she blames this on stress and age, not on being asleep. (Read more:  What We Put In Our Body) - posts 6/22/17
    

7. Frank - Connected To The Job

   Frank thinks that taking time off is a good thing, but he is always too busy for that.  He knows even if he tries to take time off, his email and phone will be buzzing day and night.  Plus when he gets back to the office, he will have twice the work to catch up on, so time off becomes a dream.  Yes, his employer forces him to take at least one week a year away from the office, but he's constantly checking email and working on projects.  He doesn't realize he is asleep. (Read more:  Constantly Connected To The Job) - posts on 6/23/17
    

8. Sally - Asleep By Smart Phone

   Sally loves her brand new smart phone that she got for Christmas.  It makes it so easy to keep up with her friends and follow along on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  Every free moment she gets, Sally is on the phone.  She feels so good.  It keeps her company.  When she is bored or just needs an escape, out comes the phone.  It helps her while sitting there waiting in a restaurant or when friends are chatting.  She can just go to her happy and safe place with her phone.  Yes, it is disconnecting from everyone, but hey she is still there present with them, although asleep. (Read more:  Asleep By Smartphone) - posts on 6/27/17
   
   

9. Donnie - Feeling Pain In The Body

   Donnie thinks everything is going fine.  He goes to the gym, works hard around the yard at home, and pretty much thinks everything is okay.  He sees others struggling with body aches and pains and thinks, "I'm glad I'm not like them."   After all, he doesn't have time to deal with pains in his body.  There is just too much too accomplish.   Yeah, he gets an occasional headache maybe, but for the most part he has absolutely no pain in his body.  His body is 100% pain free.  Unfortunately, that's a good sign of how asleep Donnie is. (Read more:  Feeling Pain In The Body) - posts on 6/28/17
    

10. Mirabel - Asleep By Happy Thoughts

    Mirabel knows that life can be very difficult, but she will not let that ruin her life.  She shows positivity to everyone around her.  Even if she is so sick she can barely stand up, she puts the smile on for everyone she meets.  After all, it is up to her to set a positive example of what being happy is all about and she sure can't let anyone down.  She can't show anyone that her life is anything but happiness.  So she only shows the happy smile and shares happy thoughts online, avoiding anything and everything that is hard for her to deal with in her life.  Unfortunately Mirabel doesn't realize just how asleep she is.  (Read more: Asleep By Happy Thoughts) - posts on 6/29/17
     

These are all examples of being asleep in life, rather than being fully aware and conscious.  We all have our moments where we are asleep, but it should be our endeavor each day to awaken more and more.

Being fully aware and conscious is not just an exercise for the mind.  We may focus on that and we may only know that route, but this requires a connection between the mind and body.  It is where we discover more of who we are, as we let go of the ego.  It is where we become grounded so that we can soar.

Many of the things that concern us in a day really don't matter in the grand scheme of our life as much as we think they do.  We have allowed our ego to tell us that all of this matters, but the ego is feeding us an illusion as if it were reality.

We often tell ourselves that what we believe is true, yet we fail to stop and see that our own paradigms and beliefs are holding us back.  They are locking us into a box, rather than helping us grow and discover how awake we could be.

I'll try to take each one of these examples and expand more upon it them the coming days.  If one of them resonates with you, there's a good chance that there is a reason it does.  Some of these are firsthand examples from my own life that I have had to deal with, so don't feel like you're alone.

Being human is not about being asleep. Instead it is a continual journey of discovering more of who we are and what makes us human.  The more we open our eyes from our sleep, the more the world looks differently.

Make sure you check out the next part in this 11 part series

 Part 2 is "Are You Asleep Online"

 

---

Blog Post And Images (c) 2017 by Don Shetterly

• Permission required before any part of this blog post is reprinted, reworded or used in any form. 
• You are welcomed to share the LINK to this blog post.  

---

How Awake Are We?

How awake are we? This is an important question to ask one's self. I'm not referring to hitting the alarm clock and pulling ourselves out of bed to start our day. I'm not referring to being asleep in the night time or awake as in the day time. This is the basic question of our lives that is philosophical, yet very real.

Through The Media:
If you watch the news and follow the accounts of what is happening in the world according to the different media outlets, there is a good chance that being asleep is normal routine for your life. Most of what is reported in the media is not balanced, not factual and not fair and balanced as some outlets would suggest. There is no more balance in the far left reporting than there is in the far right reporting. CNN, MSNBC, and FOX NEWS all have their biases and their own pools of thought that yield to their agendas. Yet, many millions of Americans take the news to be the authority on what is happening in the world. We even have pundit after pundit now analyzing the way we should look at news.

It is not a world that allows us to wake up no matter how much we may think it is. Try turning the news off for a month and only reading some headlines if you feel the need to know what is going on. If you tune out all the extra stuff and just focus on the main thoughts in a headline, you'll be surprised at how your view changes to the news. Try turning off the TV news and you'll begin to breathe much easier and find more enjoyment and peace in life. If you don't believe me - try it and see if you can prove me wrong!

Our Daily Activities
Another major area where we tend to "sleep in life" is that of what we choose to do in our day. Time and time again, I see people who are running to and from all kinds of activities for their children, all kinds of events and various other things as well as all the running in high speed that they do in their jobs. There is never a moments rest. All is about getting to this place and doing this or that, having this day filled up and that weekend booked with things. Granted, some of these things are good things but when they get to the point where you have no down time and no rest in a day or even in a week, they become interference and noise in our lives.

Our bodies need the down time and the rest. We were not meat to multitask forever and ever in our lives. The brain and the body can not rest and repair itself when we're running in high gear. Try taking a look at your schedule for a week and see if you cannot cut in half all the things you do. Give yourself some down time where you might just go for a walk, or sit in a park or maybe read a book, take a bath or some other restful activity. One that does not involve the TV would be very important in these down times. And at the end of the week, see how you feel and see how life seems to you. I'm willing to bet that you'll see a difference in your life and things that you thought were helpful and important may appear differently.

Health Care
Another area where virtually most of us are asleep is in the area of our health. We tune into the media and health care ads to see what it is that we should do to keep our lives healthy. Some of us might consider the route of exercise as being the way we keep our self healthy. While this does help, health is much more than that. Some of us might be looking for a drug that helps some infliction that we face in our life or maybe a term that describes a condition we face. We feel that is healthy. Some of us feel that test after test prescribed by the medical community gives us the edge on preventive measures while in some ways, they are masking the true source of what may be going on.

Yes, some medical procedures are warranted and one should always make informed decisions but so many of us follow the medical establishment blindly because a Doctor makes some statement, or a internet site makes a claim or there is some "research trial" that suggests it is so. Do you know just how much research is done that is not being truthfully and honestly reported? Some of us might think that taking a flu shot is the best way to stay healthy when in fact, it is in all reality introducing the toxin into our system. I'm not advocating that all shots and vaccines are necessarily bad but I am urging people to open their eyes and be 100 times more informed than they are.

If you think I've fallen off my rocker, try to consider this? Listen to all the side effects of the drug commercials and in fact list them on a piece of paper. Now, take some time to ponder what these are. I'm sure you'll begin to see that some of these drugs can be more harmful than good. Realize to that with each drug that helps to alleviate some symptom in your body, it means that some other part of you is being turned off which of course leads to an imbalance in your body that will require further drugs or treatments. That's a mind blowing thought if you think about it.

Spirituality
One other big way people are asleep is through their spirituality. Yes, as spiritual as people want to be to themselves and the world, they are often asleep. Whether it is one church denomination or another or some spiritual self help group or even some new age/spiritualism thought pattern, they are all acquainted with being asleep to some degree. I'm often amazed at how one church feels they have more figured out than the next and they are the ones going to heaven while the others are going to be lost in Hell. I've even seen churches where clapping, instruments and certain activities are ok while it being considered wrong and sinful in others. Oh how I remember one church we went to that the church split up because some people liked to clap in a worship service while others thought it was immoral.

I'm more amazed at just how the new age spiritual movement tries to flee some of the teachings of the mainline churches. In it, they think that they have reached a higher enlightenment because they don't do things like the main denominational churches do. Yet, if they truly looked at what they did, they would quickly notice that their vocabulary and customs mirror that which is in the churches. Yes, there may be differences but if you look at the root of these things, you'll see the same elements in the churches.

Again, I ask you to take a look at yourself and see what is similar and what is different. Don't just follow someone's teachings or some book's teachings and treat it as the entire basis for life. That is being asleep. Question everything that is being taught and realize that much of what is being said, is nothing more than that person's own interpretation of what spirituality is all about. Spirituality is much more then following dogma or church teachings. Most of us limit spirituality though to something that has been regurgitated over and over throughout the ages without giving a thought to what is the true meaning behind our spirituality. I've got a feeling that there are going to be many surprised people one of these days when heaven and hell don't appear in the form they were taught.

All too often, we as humans look to others for our source of inspiration, knowledge and answers. We feel that the answers we seek to the conscious and unconscious questions of life, lie in what others tell us. In fact, the answers we all seek to life are within ourselves. This involves the spiritual, the physical and the mental. We all have the power within us to do much more than we realize and to understand much more than we allow ourselves to. Instead, we take the easy road and wait for someone out there to show us the way, to take us out of pain and to make up for our own insecurities. However, in doing so, we have given up the most basic part of our human nature. We have made ourselves powerless when in fact we are powerful.

Stepped On Toes
I realize that I've probably stepped on many toes here and I'm sure to those that read this, many are saying - yeah right - I don't do that or this writer is just not aware of what I know. You can take whatever road you want to take after you read this but at least consider how your life matches up to some of the things I've written about. I'm not asking you to take my word for this. I'm just hoping that you'll think about these things in an honest and truthful way to see if there is something within these words that sparks something in your brain. If you're not able to get to that place, than just hold this in the back of your mind for a future time in life where it will become more valuable to you.

It's In The Body
Many things that I now know in my life came to me many years ago. When I first heard them, I scoffed at them and tried to distance my life from them. I thought, how crazy can someone be to even think about these things. Yet, I have been shown things through very physical ways in my body that I could never understand before. When you see things through your own physical body and not as just some "unknown concept", you can know for sure that there is something to it. Too many follow too many unknowns when in all reality, the answers for most of what we need lies within us. That's all the further we have to go. If you can experience it in your body, than it is real.