The WAR Inside Us

Did you know – since 1816, there hasn’t been a single year without War in the world.

There have been 654 Wars in less than 200 years.

This is serious and this is HUGE.
But how can this have anything to do with us?
Does it affect us because it is not on our doorstep?
Why do we care if it is out there in another part of the world?

Let us start with the definition of War from the Oxford English Dictionary

State of armed conflict between different countries or different groups within a country.
State of competition, conflict or hostility.
Sustained campaign against something undesirable.

If we bring it back to us, the individual living everyday – could it be possible that we do have an internal “state of competition, conflict or hostility”?

Could it be possible we have a “sustained campaign against something undesirable” going on inside us every day?

Could it be possible that we feel like there is a “state of armed conflict between different groups” going on internally for us?

Could it be possible that this internal state leaves us feeling anxious all the time?

Could this anxious alert state become an unsettled feeling in our body every single day?

Whilst these questions may seem to have no relevance to the seriousness of what is going on in our world today, is it possible that if we took a moment to stop and ask questions about the War inside us, we may just see the internal state of how we are truly living?

Should we be asking the following questions?

Where is the War inside us?

Why are we fighting?

Who are we fighting?

What are we fighting?

How are we fighting?

When are we going to stop the conflict inside us?

Most of us at some point in our life have some sort of internal battle going on and it could be minor or it could be big and affecting others.

  • Is it possible we are fighting with our relationship to food?
  • Is it possible we are in conflict with our family?
  • Is it possible we are in a battle with our kids, neighbours or the systems out there?

Could it be possible we are at War with our true self?

Could it be possible that we are in a constant state of tension, which we have created because we choose not to listen to our body?

Could it be possible that the internal War in us never seems to take a break because there is always something else on the agenda?

Could it be possible that our inner conflict is the root cause of the external conflict we see in our world today?

Imagine living in a body, which has a constant tension and is in ‘fight, flight or freeze’ mode all the time.

Imagine what our internal organs have to deal with to cope with this type of demand daily?

Could it be possible that we do have a sustained campaign going on everyday inside us with different things?

For example, you want to give up smoking, alcohol or lose weight because you know it is making you ill and the frustration of not being able to deal with all of this is a constant daily battle + the frustration gives you headaches, so now you got another thing to battle with on your list.

Could it be possible that all our conflicts with other people are really about us not dealing with our own deep hurts?

We do have the Absolute Power and Authority to end the War inside us by simply making choices that end the conflict inside us.

The War ended inside me the day I started to take Responsibility for all of my choices and how I was living every day and making sure I stopped the harm to myself first and then to others.

What I now have is a constant state of steadiness that allows me to deal with any conflict that comes up and take the necessary action.

Example – if someone presses my buttons, I will go for a walk and in that movement track back what was it that really disturbed me or what the feeling was that got triggered. I get a reality check of what it is by being honest with myself and then I have a choice – deal with it and move on or hold the tension in my body as it sure is not going to go away until I sort it out.

Could it be possible that if we all did our bit by ending the War inside us, then it would on some level have an effect on our world? Could this be the answer to all Wars?

We all know basic physics say that the tiny micro does affect the big macro on some level so could this be the answer?

Could it be that simple?

References

(2010, March). The Correlates of War Project
http://cow.dss.ucdavis.edu/data-sets/COW-war

 

 

 

Share

Comments 44

  1. This article really resonated with me and makes perfect sense – My steadiness returns when I actively choose to commit to taking responsibility. That choice then frees me and tension leaves immediately. It may return and there again is the choice. Thank you!

    1. Great what you say here Bernadette Glass abut how you take action and commit to ‘taking Responsibility’ and bingo things instantly change. This confirms that the very movement and choosing to commit once again can have a profound affect. It is always a choice and once we get this we realise that it is really all down to us and we can stop that War inside us.
      The internal steadiness you mention is well worth living day in and day out and it supports you to not get hooked out with what is going on in life but to observe it all without it entering your body and disturbing you.

  2. War brings so much hurt upon hurt. What if we tended to the hurts that led to the war?

    I also see this ‘war inside us’ and have suffered in a fight within myself for a long time too but I understand, now, through experiencing another way to live and be that this horror is unnecessary; that when I stopped blaming my family & the world for my own depression and disfunction and began to take responsibility and work hard on opening my heart again, re-gaining self trust, trust in humanity and committing to life I stopped feeding this inner war and began learning how to live in and contribute to peace.

    With immense appreciation to Serge Benhayon, Bina Pattel and others for being the role models who are living in a thoroughly honest & loving way and have inspired me and so many others to come back to a meaningful life, to come back to the Love that we are.

    1. Great how you comment here Jo Billings about how you ‘stopped feeding this inner war’ and it does come with commitment and Responsibility.
      You mention blame and its a big one for many as we go around blaming anyone, anything and everything but never once stop to pause and reflect on how we are the ones contributing and how this affects our behaviour. Reactions play a big part when it comes to our internal war and again with a deeper understanding and applying the teachings of Universal Medicine, I am now claiming I am no longer at war within myself. If things disturb me I am equipped to deal with it and nothing gets to world war inside me anymore. This means I get to experience a constant state of steadiness and not that nervy unsettlement feeling that comes from anxiousness and nervous tension.

  3. The war inside us is a brilliant expose on the way we as individuals contribute to the misery of all. War has no winners in truth. And thus it is true to say that war, on any level, be it with ourselves our partner, son, daughter or neighbour, village, city or country matters not for the hurt that has been the incendiary device for this battle is still not healed. We have to look deeply at our own wounds and hurts and take full responsibility. Change will come with consistency and then the macro will start to shift. Thank you for the inspiration to keep digging and healing the hurts that fuel the tension behind so much harm.

    1. Great comment Lee Green and well said.
      Love what you say about ‘War has no winners’ – this is so true.
      Even our bickering with partners, kids and anyone close to us is a mini war.
      AND
      Yes we all need to take full Responsibility for our hurts and deal with them consistently if we are to ever see the macro (our world) shift. Our hurts are harming our body and when they are buried we sort of become unaware like they are not there and then boom they raise their ugly head and we behave in a way others think is out of character. Truth is its our hurts stacked up and locked up being triggered. Some of course have ways to keep them buried with drugs, alcohol, food, sex, TV, social media, shopping and other distractions.
      Once you deal with them, things really change and you have increased vitality as there is no energy being consumed to keep them buried. Better out than in I say always.

      1. Bickering is a interesting word – it means to argue about things that are not important.

        In fact, thinking about it, there are loads of words for this sort of fighting: squabble, row, argue like cat and dog, quarrel, fall out, having cross words, altercation, scrap…

        It feels like we use words to belittle ‘small’ arguments, particularly in families. Why do we do that?

        Is it because it’s easier? It is because it means we don’t have to look further?
        Is it because we don’t want to consider that we have have ‘mini-wars’ going on inside our family?

        If we did look further, what would we find? And what would we do about it?

  4. Yes , if we want to stop the fighting , we need look inside and make peace with ourselves. Thank you Bina for supporting me to do just that.

    1. This is true Ken – we really do need to look inside ourselves and restore the harmony thee first and foremost. How on earth is anything ever going to change without us making the change first. If you think about it this is common sense stuff really but for some reason we don’t want to look at life and our world in this way.
      The thing is nothing is working as this blog has confirmed so why not explore and be open to another way.

  5. Lots of well posed questions to get me to be up front and honest about the wars within myself….. As I sat with the questions from the first part of the blog I could feel the war or tensions I choose for myself and then you posed the question – Could it be possible we are at War with our true self? Yes – this is very possible and yet the tug of war continues as I choose to disconnect from my true self by self bashing , choosing self doubt, comparing myself with others, being hard on myself, judging etc etc when my true self is the one thing I want to know, feel, honour, nurture and love more than anything else. I guess I just have to let go of the tug of war rope so to speak and not choose anything that brings a tension into my body and stand as me and just get on wth living life rather than spending time grabbing hold of the rope and starting another war.

  6. Great way you put it Sally about the tug of war inside you. All the things you mention brings us some form of tension and this means anxiousness in our body as it is not in its natural state. Imagine living that day in a day out and then adding daily life and is it any wonder we got so much fighting going on that really seems to never end.
    There is not a day in our media that we do not hear of war somewhere in our world and what about drug wars that go totally under the radar where no-one even bothers to talk about it. What is that telling us? Why are we not asking or demanding that this is out in the open so we know what is going on in our world?
    Surely that type of news is far far more important than the latest celebrity story.

  7. With the Chilcot report out last week on the Iraq War, I watched all of the finger pointing and blame and thought of this blog.

    In 800 words this blog is presenting real tangible questions that every man, woman and child on this Earth can ask themselves as most, if not everyone can relate.

    Until we deal with the tension and conflict and war inside ourselves, we will continue to have war upon war in our world and another 200+ years of the same.

    Could it be that simple that the answer to any external conflict is in dealing with any war and conflict inside ourselves?

    Is it about listening to our bodies and acknowledging what we feel?

    How many times in one day do we ignore, push down, squash and suppress what we feel – through talking, running away, pretending that we did not see something, eating food, smoking cigarettes, having that glass of wine to take the edge off the day – for example. I know I have.

    Could it be that simple that to express and not suppress what we feel would stop the inner conflict and turmoil?

    In my experience the answer is yes. The more that I allow myself to listen to and feel what my body is communicating with me during the day – the lighter and freer I feel. I know that has an impact on those around me; so it makes sense that being in conflict would also.

    1. Top comment here Shevon and a great confirmation of what this blog is simply spelling out. You have made it clear and simple about how our daily living is contributing to this global issue that is everywhere.

      The thing is nothing is working and it is has been 200 years and things are getting worse.
      Everyone knows a bit about science and how the tiny particle does affect the whole. They call it the microcosm, which is us as individuals affecting the macrocosm which is the world. If we just look at it from this angle, it is a no brainer that we collectively, with our internal wars going on are causing so many wars in our world and that conflict is not changing until we do something inside us and make the shift.
      If we think for a moment this is way off, ask yourself has anyone else come up with any valid common sense answer?

  8. 654 wars in just the last 200 years-that’s over 3 wars a year. When you break it down like this, how ridiculous does this sound? What is it in us humans that we feel we have to go to war to sort out our differences? It seems to be the default position of any group/nation that has been wronged to go to war. People talk about this being the most peaceful era in human history. But what exactly does ‘peace’ mean? The dictionary states that peace is “the normal, non-warring condition of a nation, group of nations or the world”. If we look at the amount of wars in our history, there doesn’t appear to be a ‘normal, non-warring condition’. Maybe what people consider peace is actually a ‘lack of war’. What you present, Bina, about the war being inside of us sounds very true. If we had no war inside of us, if we looked at our issues and dealt with them, the chances are, that ‘going to war’, would not be the default position and a true peaceful harmonious way of living would be the ‘normal’. And I agree totally, to change the micro inside of us would definitely change the macro of the world.

    1. Great comment Tim and again confirming that we need to look inside ourself and stop that war first. We go into battle everyday with some issue or something that comes up from our past or someone presses our buttons and we go off like a bomb. Or we move around in anxiety on alert like a time bomb waiting to explode. Usually we blast off at the wrong person and this then makes things worse and then you spend more time beating yourself up, being hard and critical with your internal chatter and the nonsense continues.
      Any opportunity to vent you go ahead and do so OR you play nice and bottle it all up under a disguise whilst inside you are boiling, bitter and seething. I take it you know what I am saying here and lets face it most of us can relate to some if not all of this. OR we know others like this.
      So nothing changes and no wonder the world is at war. We all know basic physics tells us that the micro – us individuals affects the macro, which is the world.

  9. A war every single year since 1816, this really brings it home where humanity is at. To bring it back to each and every one of us in how we are living our daily lives with wars inside us as, you have presented, highlights the responsibility we each have in contribution to this. I learnt the importance of dealing with the disharmony within me and the benefits it has on my health, wellbeing and how I am with others, and the impact it has on the whole. This blog is huge and calls for us all to take that responsibility for our part in conflict and war and look at and deal with whats going on inside. Thank you Simple Living Global.

    1. Correct Ruth – this blog is huge and a wake up call for all of us to take that RESPONSIBILITY for our part by looking at what is going on inside us and then dealing with it. Nothing else is working and history is confirming this so surely there has to be another way and why not give it a go. It makes sense if nothing else.

  10. Now you mention it, most people I know have a war going on inside them of some kind or another most of the time: buffeted around on the winds of emotion and reaction, wrestling with one thing or another. It’s actually no surprise, then, if we have internal conflict, that our personal/external relationships are not in a good place. And if that’s happening for the majority of us, then neither should it be surprising when conflict happens at a group or national level. Just today someone pushed my buttons and I can feel the physical effect of it and how it could build if I let it. Reading about the ‘constant state of steadiness’ of the author somehow provides a real anchor in this – proof that there is another way and we can build that up in ourselves. Just the example of going for a walk is hugely powerful and you can tell it’s not some of the cuff advice, it’s something tried and test and lived. It’s really motivating to shine a light on this: there IS something we can and must do and that’s make a commitment to our own steadiness.

    1. Correct JS that most of us have some kind of war going on inside of us. Think about it with simple common sense – if we have some tension, frustration or anxiety then something inside us in push and pull mode and not settled. In fact any emotion including stress, anger, sadness or resentment tells us our body is not steady and settled.

      Thank you for the confirmation that the author provides a real anchor by their living way which has a ‘constant state of steadiness’. How you can feel this is in the practical example of walking, is because it is tried and tested and lived. In other words ‘walk the talk’. This is what is a game changer for our world when those who are truly committed to all areas of life and express through words what they live day in and day out without the need for perfection. It holds a quality, a vibration that others feel and by that reflection others are inspired.

  11. Surrender. If I let go and surrender to myself and God, I have all that I need to change the course of humanity. I am actually doing that now and for the first time in my life I feel ok. No more inner turmoil about am I doing it right. I will know exactly what to do if I listen to my heart.

    It is not complicated to do this, I just needed to regain trust in myself, by taking responsibility for myself and my actions. When I started doing this all sorts of things started changing in my life. There is incredible support available if we allow it in.

    I am feeling that everything is possible, the way I felt as a young child.

  12. I LOVE this blog.

    I would have appreciated reading this years ago. I lived with internal destructive war from a young age and followed throughout till probably a year or so ago.

    I am now more aware when I fall back into the old pattern and make the choice to not hurt myself again. We wouldn’t say these things to someone we loved so why do we do it ourselves? Don’t we love ourselves?

    1. Most of us live with that ‘internal destructive war from a young age’ as you say Shushila.
      The thing is our role models have the internal tension and that means parents, guardians, siblings and teachers growing up. So war is around everywhere and it starts inside us.

      Innately we are not people haters or anything like that and yet we have all this division amongst us through all the wars currently going on in our world.
      What drives us to harm others, to kill to take human life?
      What is missing and why is it that we do not focus on the void and deal with it?
      Our realisations that something is very wrong in our world which has so many wars going on may give us the awareness that it really does start with the war inside us.
      This means we each have a RESPONSIBILITY to do our bit and get our act together by dealing with our internal battle, tension, stress and whatever it is that stops us being connected to our inner most self.
      Nothing else is working so this blog and website may just be showing another way.
      https://simplelivingglobal.com/is-there-another-way/

      1. Somebody told me recently that human nature is innately divisive. That did not feel true for me at all.

        What this blog is presenting however does feel true. That we have stuff going on inside us and when we don’t deal with it, that battle comes out and affects others.

        For example, on Sunday I shouted at my son. He was mad about something and it went on and on and I wanted him to stop. I didn’t acknowledge what was going on for him at all, I was just thinking about myself and that I wanted some peace.

        If I’d built in more space for myself in the run up to that moment that day, I know for a fact I would not have gone into reaction and there is zero chance I would have shouted (we have a no shouting rule in our house). The tension simply wouldn’t have been there.

        So this ‘RESPONSIBILITY to do our bit and get our act together by dealing with our internal battle’ you mention, rings absolutely true for me and what I’m experiencing day to day.

  13. My internal war was such a conflict that I simply went around in circles, getting more frustrated with life and the world and its brothers and going nowhere with my venting.

    I saw no way out but I did have a solution and that was serial shopping on plastic cards with my lemonade money and fancy restaurants was my champagne lifestyle choice.

    I say choice as that is exactly what it was.

    Thank God I have grown up and replaced all that nonsense with a life of true consistency, which is a life of true Responsibility. I always say to clients and anyone who is ready that our ill choices got us in the ugly mess and our new choices can get us out.

    These days it would be true to say that there is absolutely no war going on inside me and I have the natural ability to support others and inspire them to deal with their internal war. Let’s face it, there is no purpose in having a battle with ourself, knowing we sure ain’t going to get anywhere.

  14. 50,000 people were evacuated last week from their homes in Hanover, Germany, so the authorities could dispose of bombs dropped by the Allies in 1943, during the Second World War.

    1943 is 74 years ago.

    I was thinking about those 50,000 people and imagining what it was like to be evacuated that day. Their everyday lives disrupted with a stark reminder of war and of our history.

    What was on their minds?

    Were the continuing reverberations of war front and centre?

    Was it humbling?

    Was it an echo of what evacuees experienced back then?

    Will war be on their minds more now?

    Will it be on ours?

    Will we think twice about the part we all play?

  15. Acid attacks are on the increase in the UK.

    There were 700 reported cases in 2016 involving ‘corrosive or noxious materials’ being used as a weapon, which is 3 times the number in 2012.

    6 in 10 of these cases were by men, on men.

    What is going on here?

    What sort of self talk and revenge is taking hold for someone to buy acid and throw it on someone’s face?

    Where is this going to end if we carry on like this?

  16. One of the ways the war inside me played out was negative thoughts, I would run over and over things that I wanted to say but didn’t express and because I didn’t I would have whole arguments going on in my head, with resentment and blame. The impact on my body caused illness, then surgery. The impact/harm this caused to my body helped me to understand the energetic impact this could have on everyone else.

    Learning to express what I feel and deal with situations differently, not reacting but observing then responding the arguments in my head have stopped. If I get a niggle now I look at why within me, where is it coming from, have I reacted.. what am I responsible for.. then I surrender and let it go.

  17. I was reading about the battle of Passchendaele, in Ypres, France 100 years ago, in the First World War.

    500,000 people representing 19 countries died in that battle.

    One of the most hideous facts was not even the mustard gas used for the first time, but the fact that shellfire churned up the clay soil and then torrential rain turned it into a quagmire so deep that men and animals actually drowned. Body after body swallowed by the mud.

    For me this was a massive reminder of the futility and devastation of war.

    What if we can do more than remember these experiences with respect – if we can see them as motivation to look deeper at how we are living in our every day in our own relationships.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/07/did-the-hideous-carnage-of-passchendaele-gain-the-allies-anything/

  18. An article in ‘The Week’ magazine talks about how ‘Middle America has lost its mojo’.

    The first lines of the article talks about how Americans should stop worrying about how to get rid of Donald Trump. “He’ll seal his own fate.” What they should be worrying about is how to replace him and how to respond to the slow growth and social disaffection that gave rise to him.

    Recent studies by political scientists have revealed that for every American man aged 25-54 looking for work, there are three that have dropped out of the labour force. Of those that have dropped out, about half take pain medication on a daily basis.
    “A survey in Ohio found that over one three month period, 11% of Ohioans were prescribed opiates.”

    Americans have become less adventurous and more static, less migrating across state lines and less switching jobs. The share of American’s who own businesses has fallen by 65% since the 1980’s.

    It all speaks of a country that is “decelerating, detaching, losing hope, getting sadder.”

    So what do we do about it? “If Trump is not the answer, what is?”

    Is it possible that if you take America out of the above, this article could be representative of almost any other country?

    Donald Trump has been blamed for a lot of things, before and since becoming President.

    There will be those that will point the finger at Donald Trump and blame him for anything they don’t like but Donald Trump is not the one who put himself in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

    Donald Trump is not the one who makes violent extremists.

    Donald Trump is not the one who makes people take opiates.

    Donald Trump is not the one who makes people racists, prejudicial or bigots.

    Is it possible that his election to President of the USA has shown us the true depth of intolerance and hatred there is in the world?

    This hasn’t just emerged overnight. These feelings have been around in people for a very long time and for some, Donald Trump is seen as an avenue for releasing those feelings in the belief that they are justified.

    Is it possible that blaming Donald Trump, or anyone else for that matter, is not the truth?

    Is it possible that if we want the truth, we need to look a lot closer at ourselves?

  19. It is 72 years since we dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima in the Second World War and then Nagasaki, killing 250,000+ people.

    Skeletons piled up where they lay. People walking miles for help before collapsing dead.
    Flayed skin. Internal erosion. Bone marrow degradation.

    Devastation and suffering for survivors.

    Having suffered a nuclear attack, Japan renounces war outright and calls for nuclear non-proliferation treaties.

    Do we remember this today, as we trade nuclear threats between countries?

    Do we listen to Japan as it shares the true horrors of its history?

    Did we learn anything?

    And when we talk about world peace, do we strive for the absence of war or do we strive for true harmony, inside ourselves as well as with each other?

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/nagasaki-hiroshima-70-anniversary-atom-bomb-survivor-show-effects-of-nuclear-10446573.html

  20. The artificial intelligence community has gathered to warn of the dangers of ‘killer robots’. They are concerned ‘AI’ will be used to create autonomous weapons that will lead to ‘the 3rd revolution in warfare’, where this new technology will be used to inflict damage on unprecedented scale.

    Experts have written to the UN asking them to close the ‘Pandora’s box’ and ban AI weapons, before the technology is developed further and falls into the wrong hands.

    Here is the letter:
    https://futureoflife.org/autonomous-weapons-open-letter-2017

    This feels like a critical moment and reminds me of what Oppenheimer said after he saw the damage inflicted by the atomic bomb he created:

    ‘Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’

  21. Today is Armistice Day – 11/11.

    The day 99 years ago when armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany, ending the First World War.

    An opportunity, then, to reflect on the devastation the War wrought and on where we are now.

    It feels like the energy of war still rages on and we see the evidence of this in the number of conflicts happening around the world right now, not to mention in our homes.

    Time to take stock again?
    Time to re-read this blog?
    Time to look at our living way, with honesty?

  22. Out in the countryside recently, I drove past some army trucks and a tank. It was a beautiful day – nothing out of the ordinary happening.

    And yet I noticed my body tighten, especially in the chest. There was an echo of fear in my head.

    It reminded me we all sense the impact of war. It is physically felt, even when conflict seems far away.

    The physical impact for those actually living in conflict must be brutalising.

  23. A colleague just came back from visiting the First World War battlefield sites in France.

    He was deeply moved by the experience. He talked with incredulity and sadness about the sheer numbers of men killed – 10,000 or more on both sides every day.

    It was clearly hard for him to process this information, and for me listening, too.

    10,000 humans killed. On each side. Every day.

    And yet what if it was just 1 person? Should that not be equally as devastating?

    This is what is happening today, though the numbers are way more than 1.

  24. I saw an argument recently over an intercom system.

    There was a lot there to see.

    One of the arguers didn’t speak English very well and whilst he thought he was communicating clearly, the other person was not understanding him. He kept repeating one particular word as if it would clarify everything, but it was the wrong word and confusing.

    Not being understood caused huge frustration, which quickly turned into impatience and then fury.

    The person on the intercom started out professional and open but as soon as the anger came, he shut down and gave up trying to understand.

    The impact of the lack of human, face to face contact was clear to see. It is like it was easy to dismiss a disembodied voice through a speaker.

    The impact of not being understood was also clear to see.

    It seems obvious that this was a reflection of all our conflicts.

    A forgetting of the real human on the other side. A sole focus on personal needs. A fury that builds from those needs not being met and from the breakdown in human connection.

  25. Listening to a radio programme about the war in Syria. It made me reflect on how much energy goes in to hatred.

    Day after day to keep planning the downfall of another. To keep thinking of ways to hurt and crush them. How to increase suffering, fear and death.

    To keep making weapons, keep deploying weapons, dropping bombs, rallying troops against an enemy.

    It feels like hatred wanes if it is not fed: it takes constant feeding.

    It brings new focus to our own responsibility – what are we feeding in our own thoughts day to day?

  26. I wonder how many of us put up with the daily tension, which comes from a demand or a bullying email which we can feel is not the Truth and call it a mini war inside us.

    What if anything that we find challenging or feeling a force that disturbs us by way of email or face to face conversation is creating a war inside us?

    Then how do we go forward?

    Get our weapons out and start the fight and see where it goes?

    Circulate the ugly vibration we feel, by chatting to others, blaming and making judgements?

    OR

    Do we observe and clock how the correspondence is going, in this case by email?

    Give ourselves a bit of space, go for a walk and take a break?

    Go to what knowing is absolute – in other words what you know works and you can feel the Truth of it through your movements?

    Take action but not from a place of wanting or needing it to be fixed, resolved or winning but simply going out of our comfort zone to take the next step?

    Being super real and honest and speaking about it and not sending another email which is going nowhere on this long thread?

    BINGO – things change.

    This was my recent experience and what I realised was giving myself space meant the tension was simply not there.

    I know Truth because I live it and my body confirms it to me.

    I made the choice not to budge from that regardless of the ugly thoughts entering my head telling me otherwise.

    I stayed firm in what I know and live is the Truth and things shifted.

    There was no war inside me – zero tension, just space allowing for what is next to happen without anxiety or anticipation.

    There was no blame, emotion or any nonsense about the other people involved.

    No surprise this matter got closed swiftly.

    As I said to a few people recently –
    TRUTH WILL ALWAYS BE THE LAST ONE STANDING.

    One day the world will all know what I am on about with this sentence.
    Right now I am deeply Appreciating what is possible when we live Truth and not waiver from that knowing.

  27. Some history research with our kids this week has shown up how cyclical war is.

    In some ancient ruins we visited, the Christians had built a huge reinforced wall to keep the Muslims out.

    They were afraid of being attacked because they had previously been the attackers. They expected to happen to them what they had perpetrated on another.

    In this big wall they had used headstones from a Muslim cemetery.

    Imagine that – digging up the place where a community had laid its dead.

    No wonder they expected retaliation.

    And the cycle has repeated itself through history. First one group on the offensive, then the other.

    Constant division, reverberating in all our lives.

    I see this same cycle on a different scale with my kids.

    Someone will affront the other. That other wants to retaliate. If they do, the cycle goes around again.

    How do we break this cycle?

    Can we live in a way that means we do not buy in to the judgement and the aggression and the reaction in the first place?

    Are there answers for us in this blog?

  28. Noticing this week the affect on a colleague of wanting to achieve a particular outcome in a particular way. Fixing on to this creates tension – a mini-internal war, in fact. We close off to other options and to wisdom.

    We want what we want, but what if the wanting is actually an imposition that gets in the way?

  29. A young woman on the train yesterday on the way home from work.

    She was on the phone to her friend, talking about how bad her work situation is and how horrible her boss was being to her.

    You could hear the deep sadness in her voice and the tears that were there to be cried.

    She didn’t cry and as she talked, she got more and more angry. The swearing came. She started slagging her boss off and calling him names.

    It was clear to see the sadness turning into fury as she pushed it down. And this affected the entire carriage.

    It made me think of this blog and how much it hurts us when we cover up or push down how we feel. How much it hurts us when we feel we can’t be honest in the moment or say no to abuse when we experience it or express how we really feel.

    If each of us is doing this even a tiny amount in our every day, what impact does that have on how we are inside and the tension that builds and how that comes out (as it eventually must) in our behaviour and interactions.

    I can feel in this how important it is (a responsibility in fact) to give space to our feelings and to express what is there to be expressed, before it gets channelled into something else more harmful.

  30. There was an article in the Metro, 12th June 2018, that said, ‘More than 600 people have died during fierce fighting between state forces and Houti rebels in Yemen. The government troops backed by a Saudi-led coalition, have been closing in on crucial port Hodeidah.’

    This was only a small article, which took up the space of a small matchbox in the newspaper. It was so small that it could have easily been missed.

    Throughout the centuries, the only thing war has done is to cause heartbreak and suffering to many millions of people.

    Nothing ever changes with war.

    And without doubt, no matter how intelligent we think we are as a race of beings, we have yet to get to the realization that war is pointless and never solves anything.

    How have we, as a race of beings, come to trivialize the deaths of over 600 people?

    This is just one article today in just one newspaper.

    This is just one incident in a small corner of the world.

    How has human life got to the point that it means so little to us?

    This comment could really go on several of these blogs from this website…

    • Intelligence
    • Is there another way
    • Have we lost the plot
    • Are we a careless society

    …to name but a few

    We treat human life, as we have done throughout history, as a throwaway item.

    But how did we ever get to this point?

    When was the first instance that we realised that we could take someone’s life without it meaning anything?

    If you think about it, at some point, someone had to be the first to take the life of another human being.

    Was there a realization that this should never happen again or have we, since then, come up with a myriad of ways to extinguish the life of another?

    The fact that we can now kill hundreds of thousands of people in one single bomb speaks volumes.

    Whatever the reason, whether the war is about religion, territory, politics, the war is about our perceived differences.

    The biggest irony here though is that we are all the same.

    On the outside, we may be different colours, we may have different religions and we may have different politics but on the inside we are all the same.

    If we didn’t know any better, it would be quite easy to think that there was some invisible energetic force that was controlling our lives.

    I mean, how else can we explain what goes on in this world of ours!!

  31. On a recent training course to a local council office, when I entered the building and was looking for the training room, I spoke with a few members of staff who were very helpful.
    However when one lady found out where I worked she made a comment that the two organisations are rivals. I stated simply that we were not rivals.

    When it came to the lunch break I approached another member of staff to ask if I could use a microwave to heat my lunch – we had spoken previously. He stated that there was none available and as I walked away this man called me back as if to change his mind. He asked if I worked for his council.

    I said no and stated where I worked and he expressed that he could not help.

    The reason for this comment is because I observed what I would call a war within this man. His body language seemed tense and uncomfortable with whatever decisions he was making in our interaction. It was like he wanted to reach out and help another human being but was torn between company policy, ideals, beliefs, rivalry or whatever it was that lead him to say no, when his body was telling me he wanted to help.
    I saw that he had to physically stop his movements and pull back to say no when he heard where I worked.

    This interaction got me thinking about many of the divisions we have in the world – race for example, area postcode divisions that lead to gang warfare, country divisions and more.

    If we take what was observed in this one interaction and apply it on a larger scale – is it possible that we have all of these wars and divisions in our world simply because we do not allow the natural way we would move towards another to be paramount but instead we allow any differences to get in the way?

  32. TODAY is International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. 19 June 2020

    https://www.un.org/en/observances/end-sexual-violence-in-conflict-day

    What on earth does that mean to most of us who are unaware of what goes on in our world?

    Are we interested or is this just a bit too much right now as our own life is not so great with this pandemic stuff going on?

    Do we realise that the pandemic is impacting dramatically the lives of victims and survivors of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV)?

    The following is taken from the link above on the United Nations website.

    Stay at home restrictions and other measures inhibiting the movement of people have contributed to an increase in domestic and gender-based violence.
    Women and girls already in abusive situations are more exposed to increased control and restrictions by their abusers, with little or no recourse to seek support. Accessing help can also be more difficult due to confinement with the abuser.

    The term “conflict-related sexual violence” refers to rape, sexual slavery, forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, forced abortion, enforced sterilization, forced marriage and any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity perpetrated against women, men, girls or boys that is directly or indirectly linked to a conflict. The term also encompasses trafficking in persons when committed in situations of conflict for the purpose of sexual violence or exploitation.

    There is more but enough for the purposes of this comment.

    It would be true to say that the majority of us living in the comfort of modern day life never have to experience anything like this.

    We could agree it is awfull and should not be happening and leave it at that because we think there is nothing more to say or do on matters like this.

    However, since 2015 the United Nations are choosing this day to raise awareness of the need to put an end to conflict-related sexual violence.

    It has been 5 years and how many are now aware – Thousands? Millions? Billions? Or very few?

    What if the media world took the lead and made sure ALL that they can reach had access to the news stories that would shock most of us and told us how these acts of violence are happening daily in some parts of our world?

    What if we all started conversations at the dinner table about this topic and see what happens thereafter as a result of more people talking and raising awareness everywhere?

    What if those of us who hold platforms like this website, take the responsibility to comment or write blogs to raise awareness?

    We all know that this type of stuff has been going on for a very long time and it is only just coming to the awareness of some of us AND we all know that hoping is not going to cut it as history tells us that does not work.

    What will it take for us to unite together and bring an end to conflict-related sexual violence?

    Do we need to start with the conflict we have – the War Inside Us?

  33. Aljazeera News – 12 February 2021
    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/2/12/un-warns-covid-hardship-could-swell-ranks-of-child-soldiers

    A top United Nations official has warned that more children could be pushed into joining armed groups in conflict zones as families face increasing poverty due to the pandemic.

    “There is a real threat that as communities lack work and are more and more isolated because of the socioeconomic impact of Covid-19, we are going to see an increase in the recruitment of children for a lack of options.

    More and more children will be either attracted or sometimes told by their parents to just go and join because someone has got to feed them.

    As children are not in schools, the target of attacking a school for abduction or recruitment of children is shifting to where children are.

    The pandemic has delayed progress on implementing legislation in different countries to prohibit and criminalise the recruitment and use of children by armed forces and groups.

    The issue of accountability is fundamental”.
    Virginia Gamba – UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict

    Girls and boys are still forced to join armed groups as fighters or in roles such as cooks or for sexual exploitation, in at least 14 countries including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Somalia.

    Covid-19 has changed the tactics of armed groups against children. There was a surge in attacks in 2020 which included kidnappings, killings and forced displacement.

    7,740 children in 2019 – some age 6 were recruited and used as fighters or in other roles by mostly non-state armed groups, according to UN data. The exact number of child soldiers is unknown.

    Dear World

    How many of us know about this?
    How many of us are interested?

    How do we really feel, if we can be honest about this type of disturbing news?

    We have a huge division in our world and for the purposes of this comment, let us focus on children.

    Those that are parents with so-called privileges, where there is no concern whatsoever when it comes to material wealth – can we relate to this in any way?

    Those of us that are so absorbed in the welfare of our children and can only focus our whole lives on close blood family as being everything – can they start to look outside and understand this?

    What about those of us that are so busy with school runs, uploading our kids and ‘happy days, happy family life’ on social media – do they have any time to even consider this type of news out there in the world?

    What about those of us that are living in what society calls ‘poverty’ in the modern western world – can we expect them to be interested in this when we know their life is not great?

    What about all the rest of us, without the kids – how do we find this type of disturbing news going on in our world?

    How busy have we got with downloading apps to get more and more food delivered to our door?

    How big is our list of self-medication, which includes excess social media, streaming late night movies on the net, taking illicit drugs and using alcohol to get through this pandemic?

    Most of us want change and we can sense a tension within us that things are not great – be it at home, in our neighbourhood, community, town, city, country or overseas. So what now and where next and how is change going to happen?

    Some of us may be saying – how can we get caught up in child soldiers and their future when we are anxious every day about how we are going to get through this pandemic and all that it has brought with it?

    Others may be more prone to ignoring this type of disturbing information and order another delivery as food seems to be plentifull when it comes to almost anything delivered to the door.

    Whatever our go to is when we find out what is going on in the world outside of us, we can be certain and beyond doubt – it is happening, it will get worse and it is not going away.

    What if we just started talking about it with those we meet and engage with so that more of us become aware of the real state of our world?

    Deep down we all know war is wrong in every way and yet we continue fighting and recruiting at a young age. This tells us that those that do survive will know no different and so a proper, real and true human life will not be on their radar.

    Can we stop and ponder on what has just been said, so that we can feel the un-comfortable-ness of what is actually happening in our world?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *