The Systems.

For a millennia we have interacted, reacted, been impacted, told stories, passed down information advice, educated, experienced, absorbed, and received (whether voluntarily or involuntarily) what THEY think. 

From moment we are born -- a time you could argue that, for most, is the moment where you have the most attention and control you will ever have -- our conditioning begins.

• what we eat
• what we watch 
• what we hear
• what we feel
• what we are dressed in
• who we interact with
• where we go to school
• where we work
• how we spend our minutes
• what we experience (from the folks around us based upon what they experience)

What we are taught - and what is hidden from us - creates a map of who we are supposed to be. Even when we become productive citizens of our many societies and have a modicum of "choice," our conditioning is the only map we are given.  

Acknowledging and understanding the systems gives us the autonomy to choose how, where, and when we interact with it. The village can only explain the stakes of being a villager. 

Point of Grace: The systems are not (all) inherently "bad." Many were created to keep you safe, healthy, or cared for, but we have to shine light upon them to see what the system is - it's goal, and how it's offered a framework to willingly ignore your quiet inner voice (sometimes consciously, sometimes not) in order to fit in, or in exchange, for something the system has offered that you thought you needed.

It's a suffocating mountain of "you should"...

• be good.
• listen to your parents, priests, doctors, teachers, bosses (but don't question them).
• be a productive citizen. 
• go to church.
• follow in their footsteps.
• go to college and advance to the highest level of education you can.
• obtain a successful role in the adult society of a corporation, professional practice, or trade.
• get married (and stay married - success is measured almost exclusively by its duration).
• have children (more than one).
• buy a house, have a dog and a fence, and a Saturday morning Home Depot practice. 
• make money, save money, and make more money.

Accomplish The List, and you should be happy. 

Point of Grace: The people who told you to 'be good' and 'go to church' probably didn't tell you why -- likely because they inherited The List from someone who also didn't explain.  

You’re miserable. You ache with empty. You know, this can’t be it.  

You've achieved everything on The List and still ache with empty. 

- or - 

You are churning, burning, and working into oblivion never to achieve The List and ache with empty. 

- or, recently we’ve noticed a 3rd varietal - 

You don’t know why exactly because you’ve checked some of The List’s boxes, but you're wildly dissatisfied and flatlined into existing.

Worse, some of us identify with each. 

Bad news - no one is coming to rescue you. 

Good news - you get to choose how to rescue you. 

It's time for The Work.