Blocking

In football, we block to keep something from happening to allow something else to happen.

In our emotional lives, we do the same. Sometimes it starts out as blocking out a painful memory in order to get through the day without crying. Or to get through the day without shaking like a leaf from fear. And that's fine. For now. Or maybe forever. but...

At what point does blocking turn into a type of denial? Denial that we have had some experience? Denial that we have lived through something. Yes, lived through something! Something that might have been or seemed life-threatening, but the bottom line is, we lived! And if we lived, (which we did or we wouldn't be here right now), then we proved to ourself that we were more powerful than that which we feared. We did it. And we lived. So why fear what we lived through? Do we fear that we might die? But hey, we didn't!

Fear of death is a biggie. In the yoga sutras, it's called "abhinivesha" - fear of death, fear of loss, fear of losing something you desperately love, like a loved one, or even your own life. And it is because we really think that we are a body, that we are our bodies. that the hunk of meat that houses our essence is who we really are. but it's just a hunk of meat. A hunk of meat that houses an essence. A hunk of meat with an innate intelligence. A hunk of meat so fine, that it houses an essence that can recognize itself as more than physical. that can make choices and not act from purely animal instinct. A hunk of meat that can consciously evolve itself.

Pretty awesome, right?

So, we had some big thing happen. and we lived.
Damn straight we did! cuz do you think that this essence that can evolve itself would choose a house that couldn't handle all that life had to throw at it, just when we are waking up?
Of course it wouldn't.