When you see a huge rolling field reaching into the distance, do you ever have the crazy desire to run across it with your arms held wide just for the joy of it? Or have you found yourself at a party where no one is dancing, but you really want to be shaking your booty and you don’t because no one else is? Do you ever feel like you’re just doing the “right” thing but not really your thing? Do you find yourself jealous and even judgemental of those wild and crazy people who simply don’t adhere to the same rules as the rest of the world?
If so, you’re not alone. A good percentage of the people in the world today are living what I refer to as a “half life.” They have been conditioned to believe that they have to act, walk, talk, and be certain ways in order to be “normal” or to fit in to societal standards of acceptable behavior. They subscribe to rational thought over the passion of the present moment and rarely let their hair down for fear of being seen as “weird” or “different.” There is something domesticated and an air of being well trained in people who live safely inside the box.
Are you living a “Half Life?”
I think of it as a “half life” because while order, stability and doing the “right” or “responsible” things are absolutely vital to a productive successful life, the Wild Side is also necessary if we are to become truly alive and empassioned beings, inspiring growth and evolution. Living the half life is proving, over and over again, to give rise to a myriad of diseases, neurosis, dysfunctions and mental malaise in our world. Depression, overwhelm, anxiety and isolation are huge concerns both societally and individually and there is growing evidence that points to our disconnection with nature and the wild nature of ourselves as huge contributing factors to the malaise.
Living the modern life of domesticity keeps people “inside” the box, with less and less connection to nature and the healthy natural risks that challenge us and make us stronger and healthier individuals. A great deal of our cultural conditioning seems to advocate remaining in fear of the Wild Side rather than breaking out of it and questioning the norms.
In truth, modernity has created a fear of anything wild, an insatiable desire to tame the beasts, control nature, keep us separated from the animal nature of ourselves through distraction, technology and social systems. The farther we go from the true nature of the Wild Side, the more imbalanced, lost and confused humanity seems to become. The balance is needed if we are to live any kind of rewarding inspiring life!
Getting out of the Box
The Wild Side, in contrast, wants us to dance at that party, to do what feels good sometimes even if it’s not the socially acceptable thing to do, to let down our hair and shake it like crazy in the wind, to howl at the moon, to seek out sustenance, to make love like wild beasts all night long and wake spent and blessed by the sun’s radiance. The Wild Side invites us to embody passion, to cultivate authentic purpose and live passionately in every moment with our senses alive, our nostrils quivering for excitement and the hair on the back of our neck standing up to keep us safe when there is true danger present. It invites our intuition and stimulates our senses to be alert, ready and receptive to life!
Living fully means giving ourselves permission to honor and acknowledge the need for stability, order and responsibility, but also to grant ourselves equal and full permission to let it all go and experience the nature of our primal passionate existence as humans.
Living a full life means taking some chances and releasing the need to look and be “perfect” all the time.
It means stepping out of your carefully crafted box to walk fearlessly into the jungle of playfulness and passion. It means letting (or sometimes training) yourself think beyond what society or others tell you. It is to embody and live a life on your own terms with you as the director of the movie of your life.
It is also the foundation to cultivating a more authentic connection with your world and yourself.
So next time you’re at a party listening to some boring monologue and you hear the music calling you, get out there and shake it. You might just inspire others to follow your lead. You giving yourself permission to have fun and be free could be a catalyst to change the lives of many others who might also be ready to leave the half life behind and enter the domain of the Wild, Wise & Free!
http://www.wildwisemuse.com
Del.icio.us
Digg
