Humanity's Journey to Life: responsibility

Showing posts with label responsibility. Show all posts

Day 228: What is Our Responsibility as Consumers?

So, in continuing from the last post, Day 227: Bunions and Self Education, I'm going to now look at in more detail how this relationship to our footwear came to be and namely, what is our responsibility in it, if any? Lately we have a tendency to blame corporations and businesses for the products that exist, but it's not like any product could just be 'foisted' upon us, whether we like it or not. It has to be something we will buy so that the businesses can make a profit because that's how they work.

Even considering all the money and research and effort that goes into marketing schemes and advertising to 'convince' us to buy certain things, in the end who makes the choice to buy it? Who decides to believe in what we see in the marketing without actually investigating it?

We're actually living in a pretty cool time what with the Internet taking communication to another level, where we can give direct feedback to companies about what we would like and what we don't like. The key would be to take an active role in that, and that would actually require a lot of self education, just as for example with myself all my life wearing improper shoes and never realizing what I was doing to myself, until I finally got an understanding of what is actually going on – how the feet actually work and in conjunction with the whole body and how our footwear affects our feet and thus our body and thus our entire life and well-being, and what proper footwear might rather be like.

Now I want to also discuss my own process in terms of how I even got to the point of educating myself on this topic, or even any topic, because this was not something I would normally do in the past, some years ago. Part of that is due to the Internet not being what it is today with information so available. Never has self education been this facilitated and really in the power of your own hands. But just because we have this tool available to us, doesn't mean we are using it to its utmost potential.

When we have the typical ideas and beliefs about what it is we like/don't like to do that are impulsed into us from early on in our lives, spending our free time doing research doesn't really fit into those preconceived notions. It typically has more to do with 'relaxing' like vegging-out to the TV, or maybe seeking a party to get intoxicated and have a 'good time' or being consumed with the hunt for a mate or some such encounter, all the general things that we're shown is what we apparently want to do, and all of which largely goes nowhere and amounts to nothing of any real substance or positive impact in one's life, but rather actually tends to cause negative consequences and generally waste one's time here. Now, I'm not saying to not be social or have relationships or anything like that, that is cool, but obviously there is a balance where your social activities should be positive in nature and not degenerative.

So, it's after quite a process of going through such types of distractions myself throughout my life and learning the consequence the hard way – many years wasted and not much to show for it – that I now see and understand the value in applying myself in practical things that actually have a positive benefit in my life/world, like educating myself on this world and what is here. I mean, obviously this is sorely needed, considering all the myriad problems we face from the global to the personal level, we require to finally get down to educating ourself to how this world really works and what is really effective living.

So I wanted to share the process that has now taken me to this point where I see the validity in taking the time to educate myself, for anyone who might come across this and still be at the point of not seeing this or some similar topic as being something that fits within one's 'prescribed interests' so that one might begin to consider that it is possible to broaden one's perspective and interest for one's own actual benefit.

Not only was it a process to get to see the value of self education, but also to sort out my value system overall, in terms of what I use, what I wear, what I do, what I buy, and looking at, is it benefitting me or not? Because if I was still attached to the ideas that I was in the past where for example what I would choose to wear was more based on fashion/style/look/imagination than actual practicality or whether an item was properly designed to physically support my body, then I wouldn't even be open to wearing properly fitting shoes, because they didn't fit in with 'what I liked'. For example, I can remember seeing here and there some shoes that had a wider toe and thinking that they looked terrible ad I wouldn't be caught dead wearing something like that. So that shows how our value system can be so backward where I was actually valuing things that are harmful to me, like seeing high-heeled pointy-toed shoes as really cool for example, and rejecting the more properly designed shoe that would have been supportive!

In essence, this is how we abuse ourselves and our bodies for fashion, for an image, an idea, that has grave consequences for our lives and livelihood. We have some reason, excuse, justification in our mind as to why we simply aren't/won't just do what is best for our body. We lie to ourselves that we're not really doing any harm, and it can seem that way because effects are accumulative and take time to show and progress so gradually.

So within this, you can see how it's actually our responsibility as individuals to sort out our own value systems. To question that which is presented to us as a 'positive' thing to see whether it really is so in reality. The products that are available to us are the result of our own value systems and what we accept and allow. If we want to see a change we have to become that change and find the solutions ourselves, because it is not going to be done for us.

This is where the process of self-forgiveness has come in very handy, to sort out my value system to see where I am placing my value in that which is harmful and correcting that to instead valuing what is actually supportive, and I'll continue more on that n the next post.

Day 192: Is Responsibility Power?

So how is it that we have taken what just might be our Most Powerful Ability – and Reversed it into our Ultimate Limitation? Now what you’ll find when you look at humanity and how the mind work – is that everything that could have been a way to expand ourselves, has within the mind been reversed into a way to limit ourselves. And this is so for what we call Responsibility. Which when you break it down, is – Response Ability. So it’s the ability to respond in a situation/to a situation. But we don’t normally see it that way do we? Responsibility is often given a negative association, where it is seen as ‘obligation’ or ‘duty’ like something you are apparently supposed to do or must do – I mean, how I learned responsibility was essentially like ‘doing your chores’, which you ‘have to do’ because ‘it’s expected of you’ by an ‘authority’ such as a parent, or else you will be punished if you don’t.

For a detailed look at how words are programmed into us by parents as children with energy which then corrupt the meaning and thus the living of the word, suggest listen to the Parenting series of interviews available on Eqafe: Parenting - Perfecting the Human Race

Now, this is not a particularly self empowering definition of Responsibility and no one like to be or feel ‘forced’ to do anything, and so this ‘version’ of ‘Responsibility’ is usually met with resistance. And so this then becomes one’s stance toward anything perceived as a responsibility as something that one has to/must do or else. And so, we form a pattern of seeking to avoid any and all responsibility in our lives, because we want to be ‘free’ to choose what we want to do and not be forced to do things. So within this, we form an overall detrimental relationship to Responsibility, and where a lack of responsibilities is seen as a positive thing. Imagine for instance – summer vacation – school is out, no more responsibilities for the moment – you are Absolutely Free, to do Absolutely Nothing.

Whoops. Is that what we really wanted? To avoid doing things? Is that really an engaging way to exist that is worthwhile? Does it lead to a more expansive and fulfilling life? Or one that is increasingly more and more limited where one’s world seem to get smaller and smaller and smaller? Is that really the path we want to go down? Or is it the one we choose because we didn’t see there was an alternative? Which was to – take Responsibility.

Because what was missed within this, is what Responsibility does in fact entail, what it really means, and how it is actually our greatest power. Because, you can’t control anything that you separate yourself from. When you give up your responsibility in any aspect of your life, and rather take on a stance of avoiding responsibility, you make yourself a powerless ‘victim’ if you will, of your world/environment. Essentially saying, ‘world - do what you will to me, I wash my hands of any responsibility’. As if somehow this is what we want, as if being powerless is somehow going to benefit me in any way whatsoever? How can that be? If I rather take responsibility for/wherever I can, I place myself in a position to be able to do something about my world/reality/the situation.

Basically, in a nutshell, you go from avoiding/giving up the ability to do anything in your life/world/relationships/scenarios, and rather shift your focus to what you Can do. And thus, you are always looking for what you can do to take action, to make a change, to have an impact, to correct situations that come up, which is the ultimate self empowerment. Because you are going from – I’ll just do nothing and let everything happen to me for better or, more often, worse – to – how/where/what am I able to do because I’m not willing to wait around for things to somehow change without me having to do anything, because, it’s not going to happen.

And we can see this stance on the large scale in the world, where we have on a collective level, accepted ourselves to exist in a system where we are taken advantage of in every possible way, where every possible kind of abuse is allowed in the world, for the sake of profits, instead of focusing on what we actually can do to change the situation.

And further, to really understand Responsibility, it must be realized our connectedness to all that exist here, how we are not separate from any of the various forms and beings that exist in this world that make up our reality and the very planet which we live and exist on as an individual human being. And that it is this world and all the other beings in it that make our life even possible.

Responsibility thus takes on a new definition within the realization that this world is our home and that we depend on it, and it is up to us to take care of it, as that is the same of taking care of ourself. If you have a look around, no one else is here to take care of our world except us, there are no aliens, angels, gods, or whatever that is taking care of anything. Because as you can see everything is really running amok, because we are running amok, and not realizing that harm we are doing to ourselves, because we haven’t yet realized our Responsibility. Which is our ability to change ourselves and this reality, into one that support Life, instead of destroy it.

I urge that every definition, of every word that you live, must be considered within that realization of our connectedness, and how everything we say/do has an effect on this reality and thus, we are response-able – we have the Ability to Respond as proven by the fact that our words and deeds affect reality, as this world is made up of each and every individuals’ collective words and actions.

To get involved with the thousands of others who have also realized their individual responsibility to care for the world that cares for us – join and support Equal Money and investigate Equal Money Capitalism as the transition from what is here as Capitalism into a system that reflects our understanding of our responsibility to care for Life.

Day 191: What’s Required for Change?

Change require an understanding of how one exists and what is the problem with how one is existing, and the decision that one do not want to continue that way creating the same consequence over and over. So what this means is really Facing Oneself.

Facing the Reality of oneself, to really see - in total self honesty – just what/how I am existing as, what have I become in fact, and understanding the context of who I am within existence as how it currently exists.

You can reverse engineer this also to see that the reason we’re existing as we do and not changing is because we haven’t yet seen in self honesty and full understanding what we are/have become and the consequence we create. So we don’t have the context to yet understand what is the problem with how we’re living, to then understand why change is necessary, and especially how to change for real.

A good example of this you will see in the show Thailand - Blood , Sweat and Takeaways - Chicken where before they were exposed to the reality of what is going on in the world, they were fine with how they were living, but when realizing the context in which food products are being produced for the elite of the world by slave labor, and by going and experiencing that slave labor and that reality for themselves, then the need for change become obvious. The gravity of the situation become obvious, and the reality of how and what one has been existing is, and how that fit in to the context of how reality is currently existing, is then understood, where one realizes for example how most of the complaints one may have are quite petty in comparison to the actual suffering that’s going on in the world, and one realize that one has been living and benefiting off of the blood, sweat and tears of others without any regard or consideration for the lives that are sacrificed in the process.

And, ultimately, that one is responsible for the fact that such suffering exist, because we didn’t question where things came from or how they are made so cheap, when we know it must mean someone else is paying the price. It is this way, because we have accepted it, within our living, within every moment in which we ignored the reality so we could have cheap things. And thus the solution is to change ourselves, change the words we speak, change our living, from support of Ignorance of reality, to spreading Awareness of What’s Really Going On, why it’s a Problem, how We’re Responsible, so that we can then understand why we need to change, and then actually change, to no longer accept ourselves to benefit at another’s expense, as we wouldn’t want to be in that position either, so that this lead to actual change in reality, and ending slave labor.

So what do we know – if slave labor hasn’t ended yet – we haven’t effectively changed yet. We haven’t yet made change in reality – because reality hasn’t changed – it’s still the same, the same things going on, the same abuse, the same suffering. Whatever we’ve done thus far, has not been effective. And that’s because up till now, we have really only paid Lip Service to the problems in the world, but not ever getting down to the point of actually changing reality. Nothing has changed, and thus up to now it has just been Empty words, because we did not live them.

So, because there has been no substantial change in the world – we know we have not yet got an effective understanding of ourselves, of the reality of the situation, of our responsibility for how the world exists as it does, of the consequence that we’re creating. We have for so long, never got around to actually facing reality, facing ourselves, holding on to the hope that somehow we can just keep ignoring what we’re doing, and everything will work out anyway. Yes, it’s quite ridiculous.

We have for so long, accepted a reality in which massive abuse and suffering exists, when the solution has been here all along, which is – to CHANGE. So – why have we not really got this point? What is it that has made such a simple and obvious solution, so apparently not obvious or simple? What has been so instrumental in us not ever effectively applying change? It is – Responsibility. What do I mean? That we have never grasped our responsibility, and in fact what responsibility really means. A fascinating thing – we have taken that which is our truest power, and formed such a resistance to it, that we’d cut ourselves off from that which is our ability to have power in our lives and have a real impact in reality, to make Real Change.

We will look at this further in the next blog – of what Responsibility actually is and how we’ve misunderstood it to the extent that we’ve robbed ourselves of our Real Power in this world.

Day 128: Validation Character: Fear Dimension (Part 2)

Self-Defeat by Andrew Gable

This post is a continuation to:

Day 108: Waiting to Value Myself

Day 109: Waiting for Approval – I Need You To Like Me: Thought Dimension
Day 110: Waiting for Approval: Thought Dimension: Practical Application
Day 111: Validation Character: Imagination Dimension
Day 112: Validation Character: Imagination Dimension: Self Forgiveness

Day 113: Validation Character: Imagination Dimension: Commitment Statements

Day 114: Validation Character: Backchat Dimension

Day 115: Validation Character: Backchat Dimension: Self Forgiveness

Day 116: Validation Character: Backchat Dimension: Self Commitment Statements

Day 117: Validation Character: Reaction Dimension (Part 1)

Day 118: Validation Character: Reaction Dimension (Part 2)

Day 119: Validation Character: Reaction Dimension (Part 3)

Day 120: Validation Character: Reaction Dimension (Part 4)

Day 121: Validation Character: Physical/Behavior Dimension (Part 1)

Day 122: Validation Character: Physical/Behavior Dimension (Part 2)

Day 123: Validation Character: Physical/Behavior Dimension (Part 3)

Day 124: Validation Character: Physical/Behavior Dimension (Part 4)

Day 125: Validation Character: Physical/Behavior Dimension (Part 5)

Day 126: Validation Character: Physical/Behavior Dimension (Part 6)

Day 127: Validation Character: Fear Dimension (Part 1)

In this post we’re continuing from the previous post in which I wrote out the Fear Dimension of the Validation Character, taking a look at what the fear is that came up in some experience in my past, that is the original reason I created/participated in this character in the first place, in trying to ‘protect’ myself from what it is I feared. So here now continuing with walking Self Forgiveness Statements on the Fear Dimension of the Validation Character:

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to as a child and until now, not understand my relationship toward meeting/interacting with others as since for the first few years of my life in this world I primarily only experienced my relationship to myself, and during that time formed a relationship toward what I experienced as ‘positive’ and thus when I was introduced to meeting/interacting with others, this did not fit in with my mind’s definition of a ‘positive’ experience as playing and having fun.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not see, realize and understand how as a child, I remember facing a moment of meeting/interacting with someone, and didn’t want to do it, because in my mind I pictured doing the things I usually did, things that I ‘chose’ to do cause as a child I was essentially ‘free’ to do what I ‘like’, like playing outside or riding my bike, and so in that moment of facing meeting/interacting with another, realized, then I ‘can’t go and do what I want’ if I have to be interacting with this person, and so would be missing out on what I usually am ‘free’ to do.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not see, realize and understand that since I’d come into this world and really only experienced my own personal reality, where I was ‘free’ to do what I like and play and have fun, with no introduction yet to my responsibility within interacting with others, that when I was introduced to it, and it was done so from within a starting point of ‘you have to do it’, ‘you have no choice’, that I then diverted my reaction towards the parent and getting mad at them for and blaming them for me not being free to do what I’d like, not realizing that the reaction I’m having toward them was in fact coming from within myself from the inner-conflict of me not yet understanding my responsibility in this world, because all I’d understood thus far was My Wants, which I was experienced as being taken away, and thus blaming the parent because they are the one ‘enforcing’ my responsibility, so basically a case of ‘shooting the messenger’.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to as a child, define the experience of meeting/interacting with another as ‘not fun’, as something I ‘don’t want to do’, and that in meeting/interacting with someone, means I’ll be ‘missing out’ on being able to do ‘what I want’ and being ‘free’ to choose to do so.

Within this, I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not take into consideration that I do not exist here alone by myself, but that I exist here with many beings and that how I live in this world as my words and actions and my responsibilities will determine the nature of the relationships I’ll form with others, and so my future in this world. And thus, I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not consider the consequences and responsibilities within effectively interacting with others here, but to only consider my own personal Wants.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not see, realize and understand that I’d formed a relationship to Time, within having to meet/interact with someone, means that I can’t do what I’d like Now, and thus will have to Wait to get what I want, and so feeling like I am ‘missing out on something now’ where I could have been doing what I want/like Now, but since I have to have this interaction, I am missing out on the Experience/Fun I could have had.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not see, realize and understand how I from my childhood til now still accept and allow myself to react in resistance toward meeting/interacting with others within this fear of me missing out and not getting to do what I want, and so have accepted and allowed this relationship to become a living condition as this Character/Personality that I use to justify me to get what I want and disregarding the consequences I’m creating in my world/relationships in not considering my responsibility here with all the other beings I exist here with.

We’ll go up to here for now, and continue in the next post with Self Forgiveness on the Fear Dimension.