Subtle contrasts

Content I found interesting:

This podcast about the nature of consciousness and the sense of free will.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/34oZBtmWGo4QKoBsmG2wnM?si=57ea2eb3c8f6447d

Thoughts and realizations:

Our body is built to only feel contrasts.

Our mind is built to only see the chaos in life.

This is because the ordered and constant things pose no immediate threat to us. Evolutionarily, it makes sense, it’s a way to conserve energy and to focus on surviving in nature.

So, we ignore everything that is ordered and only focus on the chaos of life.

We ignore what is constant and focus on what contrasts.

But there are various kinds of contrast. There are more obvious ones that are easy to notice, like the sun rising, and there are more subtle ones that need a lot of attention, like a thought arising.

When you are anxious, when you are not paying attention to the present moment, you can’t sense the subtle contrasts, you only perceive the rough ones. So, you won’t notice that you gained some weight until you are obese, you won’t notice that a friend is sad until he gets depressed. 

When your mind is not at ease,

you won’t notice contrasts until the subtle become the rough

When your mind is at ease,

you will feel every little change outside and inside of you

you will see that everything is changing every moment

you will feel the fullness of this present experience

You will never leave anything undone because you will address everything as soon as it arises, instead of waiting until it transforms into a big contrast.

We are built for contrasts, and our mind represses the subtle ones, so it has the energy to worry about the rough ones. But, if you sense the subtle ones, the worry disappears, not only because you will address every problem in its infancy but also because you move closer to the present and you see the beauty of it. 

If you move with the subtle contrasts, you will be able stop your suffering before it happens.

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We need to learn how to let go, how to detach from ourselves and accept every outcome when we are in deeply stressful situations.

Our worst decisions are made in times of stress, and our greatest and most profound decisions are made when we are ‘playing’, when we are not worried about the outcome.

When we are stressed, we are paying attention to our thoughts and not listening to what the body is saying, our mind becomes stiff, and we can’t sense subtle contrasts.

In stress, you can’t follow your intuition, you can only follow your survival reflexes. 

So, even in deep stress, we need to learn how to play, so we can be at ease, so we can take action and make the best decisions, decisions that are not based in survival instincts but based in deep wisdom.

Notice that I don’t say we should not be anxious or stressed, these are normal human conditions that are inescapable. I say we accept those feelings and, at the same time, don’t allow them to control us. The problem is that we repress those feelings and don´t listen to our body to know were are they coming from. 

If you stop repressing the stress and the anxiety you will see that life is nothing but play.

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Don’t despise yourself for feeling, it means you are a healthy human being.