What happens in a situation when we have to spend a long time in a confined space with others?
We are often surprised to discover something that we have long “overlooked” in the others, as well as in ourselves. In the interaction with the “other”, we can discover a lot about ourselves. However, this only happens if we are not merged with the expectations of “what my life should be like, or who I should be but I cannot for some reason”.
Otherwise, if we don’t know how we are designed and what to rely on within our own body, we lean on the mind, on opinions and concepts, often not even our own, not knowing what or whom to trust. Lately, life has increasingly shown that no one knows for sure what is right and how it should be for everyone. Because we are all unique, and everything works completely differently in each case.
However, when we live out of mental reasoning, relying on how it seems to work for others, we become driven by conventional dogmas, losing connection with the reliance within ourselves, which is unique for each individual.
In such a way, “clouds of thoughts, driven by winds of motives, pour down with a rain of words” (Vygodsky), and interaction with others quickly turns into misunderstanding, mutual blame and claims.
As a result, life and communication turn into a war of opinions, for example, whether to wear masks or not, where to wear them, whether to enjoy the lockdown, whether to slow down and how, etc.
And the thing is that:
- There cannot be one right answer for everyone and for every moment
- All of this teaches us that nobody knows what it means to be Me, so we need to learn to rely on ourselves, on the built-in tools within our bodies, in order to be in the right place at the right time with the right people.
And then, interaction with others will be what develops us and repeatedly brings us back to ourselves. Knowing our own nature and living up to it eases life because it sets us free from everything unnecessary, from everything leads us away and causes suffering, not serving the flourishing of who we already are.