Home I Ching Remastered Joy The Ride Food for Thought A Little Tale of Life Release

The Journey

Here's what We're In for

• Quit the Losing Game

  • The Riddle • Riding • Focus • Routine •

• Admit to Misery

  Breaking DenialTop of mind, we’d think it’s not hard to admit to misery. Yet, a core and primary coping mechanism to most of us is denial. We psych ourselves up, numb, seek distractions or keep ourselves oblivious to pain to survive. Admitting to misery is terrifying, it means embracing the pain. Granted, It would be a terrible idea to focus on misery if we were going to keep basking, or dwelling, or drowning in it. Thankfully we are doing this to get unstuck, we're here to leap and take stock of what the actual problem is, so it can be resolved.

  • Misery • Control • Self-Knowledge • Honesty •

• Stop the Bleeding

  Breaking the Vicious CycleNo healing can happen while the destruction process is in bloom. When every cell of our being is depleted of its resources and distracted from its primary function in favour of crisis-abortive measures, we can’t recuperate and detoxify fast enough, let alone operate. When every feeling is numbed, heightened, judged, rejected, denied or screaming for attention, we are not available to experience anything nurturing or rewarding. When every thought is spinning, cruel, defeated, repetitive, or second-guessed until the mind goes blank, we cannot make sound choices. When our soul is a distant acquaintance, a place of escape, that thing we once had and have betrayed or lost track of, we can’t enjoy life - we can’t enjoy being alive. When we can’t recuperate, can’t be nurtured, can’t make sound choices and can't enjoy being alive, we’re bound to deepen our misery day after day; That’s the vicious cycle. Stopping the bleeding means starting a virtuous cycle.

  • Crisis • Vicious Cycle • Insanity • Time-Out •

• Choose Life

  • Life • Spiritual Beings • Direction •

• See the Path

  RememberingSpirituality has become popular. Sometimes promising magic, sometimes as stress management, often esoteric and separate from “real” life. To us, spirituality is about caring for our spirit, the part of us that is larger than our mind, the life force that connects us to cosmic truth. It is about accessing the meaning of life, of our own life, and from there, recovering our ability to enjoy who we are, and what we have come here to be and do. The Ride is our journey to a personal experience of cosmic truth, from misery to joy. Seeing the path means accepting the possibility that walking this path is the cure to our misery.

  • Resistance • Seeking • Spirit • Faith •

• Embark on the Faith Journey

  Choosing Faith over Fear“When there is a will, there is a way”. Or more accurately, it doesn’t matter that there is a way until there is a will to walk the path. Faith is not a feeling — It is a way of life, actions we take, a discipline we abide, a belief system we stand & go by, a guiding outlook on the world. When we are new to the spiritual journey, we know very little of what this looks like practically. Most of what we know is false, tainted, or enmeshed with ideas of worship. We have to relearn the basics. When we are less new to the journey, we know we have infinite road ahead, that our perception and consciousness can always grow deeper and sharper, that through re-exposure comes new insight. We also relearn, to deepen our practice. Either way, we need to decide to do things differently, let go of old ways that do not work, of old views that blur our vision.

  • Ego • Courage • Surrender • Journey •

• Figure out What is Wrong

  • Dysfunction • Coping • Fear • Fallibility •

• Witness your Struggles

  Trusting the TruthBetween the denial, the judgement, the secrecy and the shame, the facts of our pain have a hard time coming to light. Even as the pain is throbbing, vision blurring, screaming, all we know is the hurt, while the facts are left to fester in the dark, rotting our insides, deepening our disconnect, our bafflement and our reluctance to participate in life. Until we gain some clarity on how our pain works, what causes it, and where it hurts - we don’t know what needs healing, care and attention. However, reliving or wallowing in the pain helps no one. The witnessing is about finding the relevant facts, those that support a shift in our well-being.

  • Pain • Witnessing • Clarity • Compassion •

• Look for your Choices

  Shifting perspectiveFor each situation, event or person our misery focuses on, there are choices we make that keep the pain alive. We feel pain, we react, and even when we know what we’re doing is less than ideal, we still choose the best option we have in this moment, the one that is better than a dreaded alternative we foresee. Whether our reasons are out of sheer habit, in the lens we wear, in the script we act along, in the sense of obligation, the obliviousness to other options, the risks we are not willing to take, the story we like to tell, the avoidance of thoughts, feelings and responsibilities, in the sense of urgency, or in any other reason-shaped fear, we do believe, at least in the moment, that this response is our better option. Anything that tells us unloving action is the better option is a false belief. All misery-provoking action is rooted in a false belief. The occasions when our choices don’t serve us, when our actions and our intentions don’t match, when we do not recognise ourselves in our behaviour - those are where our power to change lies, those are where we can gain the freedom to choose differently.

  • Scripts • Enabling • Independence • Power •

• Share your Truth with a Guide

  Exposing blindspotsWhat we hold to be true may or not be; Our misery attests to the fact that we hold false beliefs. Yet to us, the true and the false thoughts are equally true. All the candour and willingness we can muster cannot undo that. When we are “in it” we can’t see, we are too close to it. We all see others’ misconceptions more clearly than our own. By the same token, we need other eyes on our experience to access new perspectives. A guide is an outsider who has clarity on false beliefs. Through their experience of working through their own dysfunction, they have wisdom to offer and to gain in examining someone else’s predicament with them. A guide is on the path too, maybe some steps ahead, maybe not, but that is not important — what counts is their willingness to uproot false beliefs compassionately.

  • False Beliefs • Trust • Shame • Integrity •

• See what to Change

  SheddingFinding problematic areas in our life may be painful, it is not hard once we dare open our eyes. From there however, finding how else we can do things is more challenging, because it still is our normal, the natural unfolding of life as we see it. Until we grasp the reality of the cost of those behaviours on us, until we access alternative and truer truth, until we realise that the harmful beliefs and behaviours are not part of our makeup but obstacles to being our true selves, we can’t really grow out of our misery — not substantially, not lastingly. We can’t truly let go of those beliefs and behaviours until the truth of their dysfunction registers in our hearts, guts and bones.

  • Change • Self • Miracles • Freedom •

• Course-Correct

  • Perfection • Dissatisfaction • Forgiveness • Grieving •

• Embrace Humility

  Availing ourselvesOf all the harmful beliefs we’ve nursed since childhood, the climactic one is that of our inadequacy. The paradox of humility is that it means accepting ourselves as we are, perfect as we were made and NOT requiring a change. It means renouncing changing ourselves and instead, finding ourselves and learning to live authentically. All dysfunction comes down to an attempt to control who we are or how we are affected by our circumstances. All dysfunction assumes we can’t be ok in the world unless we fight, avoid, pretend, manipulate our senses, find protection or dominate others. Humility teaches us to embrace it all — to accept every experience, feeling, sensation, challenge, thought, encounter and demand, as an opportunity to find and express ourselves.

  • Overthinking & Overwhelm • Humility • Energy • Candour •

• Identify your Deviations

  Spotting self-betrayalsAs we meet ourselves, the real self we were given to experience in this life, we become aware of why we were lost and confused, of how we had strayed from our authenticity. Each new facet of ourselves we uncover needs honouring, embracing, integrating. That includes acknowledging the times we have dishonoured that part of ourselves, identifying places where we fail to express and manifest who we are. Deviations feel wrong, they create discomfort, shame, nausea, a sense of betrayal, a cringe. When we learn to listen, we hear a signal to make a change. Instead of condemning ourselves, insisting we are failing, we switch to our own side and take the opportunity to course-correct.

  • Harm • Energy Field • Intimacy • Abundance •

• Let Go of Baggage

  Mending & DeclutteringAnything from the past we carry into today qualifies as baggage. Whether it is reputation we care to maintain, guilt we want to crawl under, shame we let rot our insides, debts we can’t repay, mistakes we punish ourselves or others for, past dreams we obligate ourselves to, old wounds we won’t close or toxic habits and relationships we cling to, we stay stuck. Baggage binds to the misery cycle until we let go. It will take grieving losses, nursing wounds, righting wrongs, admitting short-comings, quitting habits, saying goodbye. Letting go means decluttering, making space for the new. Joy can’t come in if misery takes up all the space. Letting go gives us a blank slate.

  • Commitment • Respect • Healing • Spiritual Channels •

• Welcome Growth & Flow

  Showing UpNature abhors a vacuum. It is the order of life to flow. Letting go of the old removes the blocks, it invites flow, it is the fastest way to attract the new. Our next task is to let the new in. As known patterns repeat we let ourselves respond differently. As new opportunities come in, we dare say yes and try. As new options present themselves we learn to seek resonance and choose what feels like us. As things don’t work out we choose to persevere or walk away. As new inspirations spark, we nurse the dream and give it life. As old wounds resurface we welcome the chance to process and heal. It is astonishingly counter-intuitive to let ourselves change -grow- after we’ve held on for so long. Watching our emotions pass, our tastes evolve, our perspectives refine, our affairs clarify, our mind change, our relationships deepen or dissipate, is unsettling. It is also liberating, and proof that all can and does change.

  • Disturbances • Balance • Progress • Responsibility •

• Enjoy Life

  • Cycles • Contrast • Flow • Expansiveness •

• Be You

  Inhabiting our LifeIf such a big part of our misery is rooted in our sense of inadequacy, then consciously embracing who we are is at the core of healing. ‘Be You’ is a very short instruction for a tremendous task: the unsparing undoing of a life time of striving for achievement or avoidance. Being who we are requires an understanding of what makes a who, fearless presence to this who, and last but not least, willingness to expand the repertoire of expressions of this who — through relationships, various endeavours and facing life's challenges. Not least of the paradoxes ahead of us, who we are is in constant re-invention. Experiencing, thriving and reflecting make for a fluid, uncontained, versatile, and organic definition of our identity. Only at this juncture does the quandary of ‘staying present and in resonance with ourselves' take on its full meaning. Who are you? When no one is looking, what makes your heart sing?

  • Consciousness • Inner Truth • Experience • Freewill •

• Connect to the Divine

  BelongingHealing our spirit is synonymous to expanding our consciousness. There are many schools of thoughts, rituals and practices that achieve that. None of them is exhaustive, all of them are flawed. Our personal growth requires us to commit to exploration, on our own terms and at our own pace, in the order we choose and through any channels we are willing to. The options are infinite — any claim to the contrary is narrow-minded. We are looking for what works for us, to nurture that sense of connection, of belonging, of embracing that human experience of ours as divine beings. We are embracing a discipline that is not made of systematic routine tasks, but of an attitude of open-mindedness and committed teachability. Connecting to the Divine requires evolving and varying our practice with our circumstances and along our progress.

  • Practice • Consultation • Serendipity • Awe •

• Reap the Serenity

  ReceivingContentment doesn’t come naturally to those prone to misery (that would be most of us). With all that talk of spiritual growth, facing the facts, owning our part and embracing change, we may forget to rest, to play, to enjoy.

  • Serenity • Awakening • Gratitude • Joy •

• Spread the Joy

  Gifting the WorldNothing is quite worthwhile that isn't worth sharing. So here we are, grateful holders of some wisdom, itching to make the world happy, or a little happier.

  • Creativity • Connection • Love • Light •

• Ad Infinitum

  • Fellowship • Collective Consciousness • Infinity • Transcendence •