I don't doubt that in our modern lives, sometimes it seems like it takes all we've got just to make it through the day!
Often, we are our own worst enemies as we take on too many obligations, overcommit, give and give to others and forget to take care of ourselves. It's not uncommon to fall into a pattern where we're just making it day to day, doing everything we can to survive.
I was having a great discussion the other day about why we do these things? What is it in us that drives us to do and do and do? Why do we give so fully to others and why are we, most of us at some deeper level, doing things simply because it pleases others without having a connection to whether it is serving us or not?
Survival mode - that is one way of expressing how many of us can operate, and when you start to understand the para/sympathetic nervous systems, it's easy to see how many folks are blasting along continuously on their adrenals, pumping out that cortisol and staying in the 'flight or fight' reactivity state. It's addictive, and our society rewards it and as we are taught to want and desire and covet and crave more and more, we are 'rewarded' for doing more and more. Quantity of efforts overshadows quality of experience, often; and, in the pursuit of it all, we lose what we have right eat hand!
So, surviving?? That's what thousands of generation of our ancestors worried about. We're extremely blessed, extremely fortunate and extremely supported in this time and space. We should honor that ancestry by moving towards thriving, not staying in this primitive survival mode! It's about evolution of consciousness and learning newer and higher practices in order to more elegantly make our way through life.
Thrive? Survive we might already understand, but what exactly would it mean to thrive?? Here's some language, that always helps me:
Survive (v.) early 15c., "act or condition of one person outliving another," originally in the legal (inheritance) sense, from Anglo-French survivre, Old French souvivre, from Latin supervivere "live beyond, live longer than," from super = "over, beyond" + vivere "to live".
Now, we know the definition to be broader than that, but at it's base, Survive simply means to 'live through' an experience. I can't argue that we survive, day to day, but that seems like the least of the effort, the lowest expected outcome. Onto thrive.
Thrive (v.) c.1200, from Old Norse þrifask "to thrive," originally "grasp to oneself," probably from Old Norse þrifa "to clutch, grasp, grip" (cf. Swedish trifvas, Danish trives "to thrive, flourish").
Flourish, I dig that, but I actually really like the implication that the flourishing comes from 'grasping oneself', or maybe we should say to "get a grip!" Really, as in grasp life and direct it, rather than simply living through the ride.
Survived something - be proud and use that resiliency, but that experience is over so let it go. Grab on to what is, what has come, where you are going. Grab the wheel of the vehicle we call 'me' and drive that chariot onto your victory. Thrive!!
Isn't that the message you would give your friend in need, your child in wonder? Why not yourself?? I beg you, survivors, become Thrivers!!
And, give thanks and praise, we get that choice!
Often, we are our own worst enemies as we take on too many obligations, overcommit, give and give to others and forget to take care of ourselves. It's not uncommon to fall into a pattern where we're just making it day to day, doing everything we can to survive.
I was having a great discussion the other day about why we do these things? What is it in us that drives us to do and do and do? Why do we give so fully to others and why are we, most of us at some deeper level, doing things simply because it pleases others without having a connection to whether it is serving us or not?
Survival mode - that is one way of expressing how many of us can operate, and when you start to understand the para/sympathetic nervous systems, it's easy to see how many folks are blasting along continuously on their adrenals, pumping out that cortisol and staying in the 'flight or fight' reactivity state. It's addictive, and our society rewards it and as we are taught to want and desire and covet and crave more and more, we are 'rewarded' for doing more and more. Quantity of efforts overshadows quality of experience, often; and, in the pursuit of it all, we lose what we have right eat hand!
So, surviving?? That's what thousands of generation of our ancestors worried about. We're extremely blessed, extremely fortunate and extremely supported in this time and space. We should honor that ancestry by moving towards thriving, not staying in this primitive survival mode! It's about evolution of consciousness and learning newer and higher practices in order to more elegantly make our way through life.
Thrive? Survive we might already understand, but what exactly would it mean to thrive?? Here's some language, that always helps me:
Survive (v.) early 15c., "act or condition of one person outliving another," originally in the legal (inheritance) sense, from Anglo-French survivre, Old French souvivre, from Latin supervivere "live beyond, live longer than," from super = "over, beyond" + vivere "to live".
Now, we know the definition to be broader than that, but at it's base, Survive simply means to 'live through' an experience. I can't argue that we survive, day to day, but that seems like the least of the effort, the lowest expected outcome. Onto thrive.
Thrive (v.) c.1200, from Old Norse þrifask "to thrive," originally "grasp to oneself," probably from Old Norse þrifa "to clutch, grasp, grip" (cf. Swedish trifvas, Danish trives "to thrive, flourish").
Flourish, I dig that, but I actually really like the implication that the flourishing comes from 'grasping oneself', or maybe we should say to "get a grip!" Really, as in grasp life and direct it, rather than simply living through the ride.
Survived something - be proud and use that resiliency, but that experience is over so let it go. Grab on to what is, what has come, where you are going. Grab the wheel of the vehicle we call 'me' and drive that chariot onto your victory. Thrive!!
Isn't that the message you would give your friend in need, your child in wonder? Why not yourself?? I beg you, survivors, become Thrivers!!
And, give thanks and praise, we get that choice!
