So I've been in a bit of a slump recently.
I thought I'd just mention that.
Because I've been in a slump before and Well,
Then I was out of it,
So you can get out of them.
Slums can feel very difficult to get out of when you're still in them.
But it's a relatable experience,
Right?
You can be in a rough patch,
Feeling a bit stressed,
A bit struggling,
A bit overwhelmed.
Things are perhaps not going as smoothly in some ways as I'd like.
I sort of generally feel a bit rubbish,
And that's okay,
It happens sometimes.
What I think is tricky actually sometimes is how we can feel that when we're going through a rough patch,
It's like some kind of personal or moral failing on our part.
I find this particularly for me as I've kind of.
.
.
Especially in the domain of wellness,
Right?
The thing I studied at university was positive psychology,
Right?
The kind of science of flourishing of human well-being.
So I studied this stuff,
Look at the positive psychology,
And I'm very interested in what it takes for a human to be happy and well and flourishing and then I'm done.
Kind of feel a bit rubbish,
And I have a bit of a rough patch,
I think,
Well hang on a second.
.
.
How can this be?
But I think that it's important to recognize that.
It's a natural part of the journey,
Right?
It's unfortunately not going to be smooth sailing and happy all the time.
You get in life naturally ups.
And downs.
And that's okay,
I think I prefer.
.
.
Looking at mythic frameworks for this kind of thing,
Because they allow for that,
Right?
The descent is part of the journey,
Right?
And you think,
Oh,
But I've done all these practices and.
.
.
All this inner work,
I thought I was past this issue and it seems like there's something still bugging me.
But it happens.
So right now,
I'm in a bit of a slump.
That's okay,
Maybe you are as well.
I think it's good to acknowledge the slump being there.
It's like,
Okay,
Cool,
But you're in a bit of a slump.
But like I said I've been in slums before and they're not permanent.
So I imagine I wanted to think a little bit about ideas that helped me get out of it last time.
I was investigating this particular slump and I was thinking of ideas that helped me previously and I remember thinking a while ago a lot about the concept actually of devotion,
Which may seem like an odd leap.
How have you gone from slump to devotion?
It's a bit of a jump,
But I will explain.
Or at least I'll try to.
Think sometimes when I'm in a slump or I kind of feel like in a rough patch I feel sometimes like I'm somewhat out of alignment.
In other words,
The things that are important to me,
That I want to prioritize,
My values or beliefs or the things that I believe I ought to be doing,
Aren't actually being prioritised in the way that I would like them to.
I'm not acting in a way that is congruent with my values as much as I would like to and that's not to attack myself,
That's the danger of to attack yourself.
It's just to recognise that and investigate,
Be curious about the disparity.
Why is that?
One of the things that's really helped me in previous slumps is the idea relating to devotion of this idea of a kind of transpersonal ideal,
Something to kind of propel yourself towards that's bigger than the immediate sense of you.
It could still be a thing that's helpful to you personally.
The nature of devotion often implies some kind of sacrifice,
Right?
But this doesn't,
And I also want to mention,
Doesn't have to be a religious context to this.
You can be very devoted to Christ or Buddha or Vishnu depending on your belief structure and upbringing and all the rest of it.
You could also be devoted to your partner or children,
Family in general.
Devoted to your mission or purpose or your work,
Your craft.
There's all kinds of things but it's the benefits of devotion itself.
That I want to look at and talk about.
As a way of keeping you aligned but also keeping you I'm moving towards something and I want to break down why this devotion thing.
Came to me as a sort of important concept or idea I wanted and it's worth considering,
Worth helping me get out of my slump.
And what it is,
Is I'd considered,
You know,
I think most humans in the world,
There's many loving and many disciplined humans,
But it'd be hard to find humans that wouldn't like to give receive and express more love or to be more consistent and disciplined there are some people out there of course many who are very disciplined many who are very warm and compassionate and loving.
Slightly less,
You can manage both of those,
Which is partly what I want to talk about.
Um because i've kind of struggled in both of those camps at times especially when i'm in a slump it's hard to feel as kind of loving and expressing of that in my life as I would like to be.
And also,
It's a little bit more harder to show up and be consistent with things,
Which is not to say it's impossible,
But it's that bit harder when you're in a stampede.
And what I wanted to mention.
The reason I think the devotion is interesting is that you have on the one hand,
If you had a Venn diagram,
Love on the one hand,
And discipline on the other.
I think if you overlap those circles or those domains,
In the middle would be devotion,
The combination of discipline and love.
Generally towards a concerted aim but you get to choose what that is what you fact the question I was kind of building up towards here I've been asking myself recently is been more right well what is it actually in your life that you would say you're devoted to.
And sort of sit with that question.
What am I devoted to in my life?
And for some of us it might come very quickly the answer to that but you know maybe sit a second longer And one thing that's fun with this as well is you can sit there for a moment and you can think,
Well,
You know,
What am I devoted to?
And think about it.
It can be quite fun to ask the question,
What am I devoted to?
And then kind of just sit there in a meditative sense and just see what floats to the surface.
Kind of another fun way to go about this.
What also might happen is you might be like,
Well,
Actually,
I'm not sure how to throw them to anything.
Perhaps this devotion piece is a piece that hasn't been in the jigsaw of my life recently.
And to that end,
The interesting question becomes,
Well,
Actually,
What would I be willing to be divorced to in my life?
Well,
There's this devotion thing,
It could help me have a sort of.
.
.
Transpersonal mission beyond myself that is ultimately hugely self-rewarding in a kind of paradoxical fashion.
But actually,
What am I willing to devote myself towards?
For some of us we might have already found the answer to that question in our lives,
And for some of us.
.
.
It may not be immediately obvious,
Right?
So the question is,
In my life,
What am I?
I devoted to,
Or what would I be willing to devote myself towards?
It's worth recognizing that inherent to the concept of devotion is a certain element of sacrifice,
Of giving up,
Of our kind of transient wants.
In the service of something greater,
Right?
But the fun part is you get to choose what that is,
Right?
That's funny.
There is an element of sacrifice,
But it's meaningful sacrifice towards higher ideals or ambitions.
I wanted to convey that cleanly.
I'm sure I've said enough about why this is important or what it has to do with the slump,
Right?
I think you encounter many individuals who are quite capable of being kind of very loving and warm and compassionate and enthusiastic.
But then,
At times,
They can be a little inconsistent,
Right?
Very enthusiastic,
But then do they consistently show up?
Not always.
It can be a little bit airy-fairy,
Wishy-washy,
A bit all over the place,
Which can be lovable,
But.
.
.
Difficult to deal with sometimes,
Right?
On the other hand you can have individuals who are extremely disciplined and they very consistently show up but there's no kind of warmth and compassion and loving.
It's like what is all that discipline for?
What's it going towards?
Can be a sort of emptiness it's all kind of it's just a sort of empty grind i'm grinding but i'm not sure to what or to why and it doesn't necessarily feel meaningful i'm just out here grinding in a very disciplined way.
And I posit to you that.
.
.
What is aspirational,
To me at least,
Is the idea of being capable of being very disciplined and consistent.
But also kind of very loving,
Compassionate.
And switched on in assets,
Right?
So I think both those two things together.
Is aspirational.
It's things to aim at.
Although,
You know,
You may be thinking,
Well,
I'm actually already a very disciplined and loving individual.
It's like,
Well,
Congratulations.
Well done.
Fantastic.
But it's,
You know,
There's a danger of endlessly optimising.
That we can always.
I think it's beneficial to just orientate ourselves in that direction.
I certainly in my life feel like that.
I don't think I'm necessarily not a loving person who doesn't express and kind of.
.
.
Express and receive love and compassion for the rest of it.
But I wouldn't,
You know,
I think I could express it better.
I have this shamanic teacher in Peru,
He's called Puma.
He said,
Mark,
You've got a big heart.
It's closed and i said puma how do i open it and he just kind of gave me a sort of enigmatic look which wasn't terribly helpful.
But yeah,
The work is always there to be done.
I'm in danger of rambling.
So let's wrap it back up a little bit.
You can ask yourself,
You know,
Am I kind of as disciplined as I'd like to be?
Am I as kind of warm,
Loving,
Compassionate as I'd like to be?
And again,
If the answer to those questions is no,
Then don't beat yourself up about it.
Just get curious about it.
Investigate.
What kind of why not?
And would you like to be in?
What would that look like?
Just ask yourself these questions.
Get kind of curious.
But I do really think there's a benefit to understanding this concept of devotion as being the kind of thing that ties those things together,
Right?
What,
Again,
Would I be willing to devote myself towards,
Or what am I devoted to already?
If I say I'm devoted to this perhaps I'm devoted to my work,
My craft,
My mission.
Does it look like that?
Maybe I believe I'm devoted to this,
But if someone was in a third person view to look at my life and say,
From an outside perspective,
What would you say this person is devoted to,
Right?
Would they be able to tell that you're devoted to the thing you say you're devoted to?
And again,
This isn't trying to.
.
.
Attack you and say,
Oh you said you were devoted to this but.
.
.
I'm not sure you really are.
It's just to ask the question.
There's no performance review.
It's just.
.
.
Hmm,
That's interesting,
You see.
Maybe.
.
.
I'm not showing up in the way I want to for myself or the thing that I've determined is worth being devoted to.
So yeah.
I think that's more or less most of the concept I wanted to convey here.
And yeah,
With that said,
I'm really curious about.
Any feedback or thoughts you guys have in relation to this?
I often like to hide as well behind a certain amount of psychological.
.
.
Research or surveys and well some of this is my own working shall we say so i don't take it as gospel think about these ideas challenge it It's something I've said you think is not it or wrong or what do you think was good.
I'm curious about what you think about this.
I'm not saying I have the answers.
If anyone is saying they have the answers,
I always find them a bit suspect.
But anyway,
I hope you found some value in this talk.
And I'd see you again soon.
