In quiet meditation, when the mind and heart are calm, when the breath is long, slow and deep the body has the opportunity to reset, readjust and return to a state of pristine awareness when all that is normally unknown swims up to consciousness. And then one is granted knowledge that in an ordinary state of everyday consciousness is unattainable. Find time to sit in quiet meditation. It will do your body, mind and spirit good and your life will be less frantic and driven. With a calm heart it is much easier to face the busy times you live in.
Just like the roots of our computer programs, that boil down to zeroes and ones, human beings are all, at their core, a combination of male and female, (+) and (-) energy. Psychologically, this means that our wholeness includes the existence of an inner contrasexual partner.
Jung called the inner feminine character in a male personality the anima and the inner male character in a woman the animus. These characters are living entities that interact with our ego, and various other characters within our psyche, where they impact our attitudes, beliefs and moods. Often these characters project themselves onto actual people in the world, which greatly impacts how we judge and feel toward the recipient of their projection.
We are, psychologically, hermaphroditic beings, conjoined together for life. Our individuation challenge, regardless of our sexual orientation, is to achieve union with our inner contrasexual partner. This requires getting to know our opposite side, respecting and accepting its existence, and achieving inner harmony with what is often experienced as a highly conflicted self.
Failure to achieve union with one’s inner other-half often results in suppression of one’s inner partner’s perspectives and feelings, a total denial of its existence, and countless conflicts with one’s outer intimate partner, who may be confused with one’s inner unknown partner.
How often do we feel judged and offended by what we assume another person thinks and feels? Little do we know that our ‘intimate knowledge’ of our outer partner is actually a reflection of our own unknown, or rejected, inner self.
Qualities of masculine energy include the mental function of thinking, most dominantly within the constraints of logic. Masculine energy tends to be active and solitary.
The dominant feature of feminine energy is relatedness, which seeks emotional connection. Feminine energy tends to be receptive, seeking to receive and compliment the energy of another. All of human experience involves some combination of masculine and feminine qualities and energies.
Writing this blog has required my feminine energy to become pregnant with masculine ideas needing containment and maturation to bear fruit. My patience with this congealing process is reflected in the words and thoughts pouring forth as I write.
Sometimes my anima insists upon a colorful word because she likes an idea dressed in her style. Sometimes my masculine ego is too abstract, refusing to give a down-to-Earth example that would facilitate ease of understanding.
In dialogue with my anima, I concede my abstract bias and agree to use this example of my personal process to help readers connect to my idea. My anima agrees to let go of her attachment to attractive but unnecessary words.
Often one’s contrasexual partner defends the ego by using its ability to reason to argue a point, regardless of the absurdity of its argument. Sometimes the defense comes in the form of powerful moods, where one’s inner other tells it how undeserving it is of the treatment it has received.
Through genuine interaction with our inner other, we achieve a collaborative relationship that facilitates progress in our individuation and also clears the way outwardly for positive relationships with others.
If we find ourselves in conflict outwardly, we do well to first check in with our inner contrasexual partner, who we might be avoiding and meeting instead in projected form in our current impasse. Most relational problems originate in one’s lack of relatedness within. As is often said: as within, so without.
Go within; work it out. Become that boy and a little girl, actually changing that whole wide world.
Refine your attempts to evolve and grow each day by facing what keeps you away from your goals, addressing your concerns with honesty and an attitude of absolute truthfulness. Evolution and growth may at times come in slow steps, for with you, just as with nature, there are dormant times. But even during dormant times tremendous things are happening out of sight. Those are the times of inner work and contemplation, perhaps the most important and unique strategy in human evolution, the ability to go within and contemplate the self on a deeper level. If you can change yourself on the inside by deep contemplation and study you will naturally change on the outside as well. What’s going on inside you today? That’s the question to ask, to face, and to work on within.
Gather your energy to remain grounded and fully present to the life you are in. Get aligned with what is right, positive and productive, in spite of the chaos that surrounds you. Stay on the periphery of the chaos by containing your energy for uses that keep you aligned with your spirit and the spirit of universal good. There is no cause for alarm if you stay contained and immersed in the good.
Remain in awe. Turn always to wonder and the possibilities that abound in life, to the surprise synchronicities that show you that you are not alone, that you are on the right track, and that all will be well. Find the awe in everyday life, within and without, whether in the quiet of the inner self or in experiences in the world around you. Remain in awe.
