UNCOMPLICATING THE SELF

Why do we need to say self? Because who we truly are is not complicated. What we become or do to our selves creates our complication. The first thing we need to address is that life becomes complicated. It is what people do. We make things complicated. Societies. Systems. Individuals. It is a thing of life. So to be a human being, we are navigating complication. In this we have necessary complication and unnecessary complication. Necessary complication is something we can recognize as a non negotiable aspect of our existence and we can create strategies and practices that can minimize the negative impact of such things on our well being. And then we have aspects fo life where we make life more complicated on our selves to which we will discuss.

To truly solve this puzzle of how to address these two challenges that often intertwine, we must simplify to the core. If we are not accustomed to stripping our selves down to our most simple nature, when we do so, it can feel like returning to our child state. It is a refreshing state of innocence. A return to who we truly are? Maybe. So, let’s discuss. What is of concern in this process is when we are simplifying, really simplifying what has become a complex adult self and adult can be anything past our childhood, we can still be young, we are not regressing to any place we can stay, not as an innocent child. We are preparing to pull weeds of sorts, and we must re enter life as an adult. This means we are walking back into al the complexity we just stripped away.

The reward of simplifying and doing an honest look at our self complication, is to remove the things we unnecessarily complicate for our selves. Whether it is by creating drama, turning life into an excessive burden, setting our goals so high we are destined to fail under duress, or very commonly, we are trying to solve our emotion issues through our practical engagements with the world. Unnecessary complication has a shelf life. Much of us enter adulthood with some form of this that is catered to our nature and reaction to our surroundings. But as we age, energy becomes too valuable, and our personal attempts to add challenges to our already challenging lives make things increasingly harder, and can honestly, eventually drive us into an early grave. Dramatic but true.

To this discussion, some people are complication averse. They naturally avoid all unnecessary complication. I know many of such people and there lives seem to be much more linear, predictable and healthy. But some of us thrive on complication. It becomes an almost athletic pursuit of how much complication we can handle. We feel a sense of value and perhaps importance in our ability to machete our way through endless complications. This is a weakness of the highly intelligent mind. Knowing when to put things down and step away. The genius wants to solve everything, and maybe in the right circumstances, they can? But life really doesn’t care if we can solve everything. In fact, it laughs at us for trying. What are you doing? Seriously?

YOU ARE NOT COMPLICATED. LIFE IS COMPLICATED. LIKE A TREE, WE GROW BRANCHES TO MANAGE OUR COMPLICATIONS, YET LIKE A TREE, WE ARE NOT TRULY COMPLICATED. WE JUST HAVE A LOT OF BRANCHES.

We all know that wandering mind. Necessary complication is one thing, but unnecessary complication is tied to self importance. It is no crime to want to be important. No crime to want to solve something. But in the end life is the master and will ask us, what do you want to do? Are you sure you really want to complicate this? More than it already is? Why do you need to carry any burden of importance? Is that serving you?

At the very root of this idea of important complicating, for many, is a reaction to lifetimes of being insignificant. Finally we have an opportunity to be important. To solve something. Maybe even be the hero. This is being new to the game of having the ability to evolve, and most of us don’t take a quick turn to simplify. There is so much tempting us to be complicated. To truly uncomplicate one self is a spiritual journey. It has to be. This is essentially any spiritual path. How do we leave a world of complcated things that tempt us to complicate them more with our own personal agendas, and then strip our selves down, find our true souls, and the return to the complicated world we left? Doing what we truly need to do and nothing more and nothing less?

What is uncomplicated is the soul, the true self. It is not the mind. That is by nature complicating everything. It is not our emotions, same thing. And it is rarely things around us, am I right? To be simple we must give ourselves permission, but we also must humbly accept the rules of life. That is all. Simple people can be frightening. They can seem aloof or unconcerned. The can seem like puzzles, or people hiding some secret we wish we had. If there is a secret it is simply, don’t complicate your self. Life is complicated, but keep your self simple. It is okay not be interesting or fascinating.

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