There’s a lovely documentary on Netflix called ‘Bears’ that follows a female Brown bear as she raises her cubs in Alaska. The program highlights that there are certain mission critical lessons she needs to teach the youngsters in the ever-changing terrain, things like finding food, making shelter, and avoiding predators, especially people. As humans, we also need to pass on vital information to the next generation to ensure their survival. Sadly, the last two centuries have been particularly deficient in the quality of education we have received, with the focus shifting from intuitive understanding to assimilating facts and figures.
After completing my O and A levels at Slough Grammar School, and a Business Studies Degree at Portsmouth Polytechnic, in England, I acquired what many would consider an excellent education. I was taught how to think and fit into the socio-economic system of the 20th and 21st centuries, but what I had not learnt was simply how to be. The pressure coming from the three dominant systems of cultural conditioning; nuclear family, formal education, and organized religion, had me jumping through hoops of expectation and conformity, until I was completely disconnected from my own inner nature. By the time I finished my honors and master’s degrees in psychology, I was suitably programmed to reinforce the prevailing societal norms and values on my equally disassociated clients. Dependency and pathology were the order of the day, until Covid-19 arrived.
I remember the feeling of vulnerability as the first hard lockdown was imposed and thinking how far from nature we had moved. I suggested to my wife that we need to become more self-sufficient at home, with a veggie garden and water harvesting solutions, as I sensed a world heading into darker times. But what I didn’t realize was my own imminent crisis and awakening. A prostate cancer diagnosis in November 2020 and recurring clinical depression forced me to reconsider what I had always believed was real. I started to fundamentally question all that culture had taught me, and with the help of a handful of soul teachers, embarked upon a journey back into self. I call it my greatest lesson, as I intuitively recognized the importance of nurturing my own nature.
I learned to consciously breathe, taking back control of my nervous system. I learned to regulate my emotions, tuning into, and fully expressing my feelings. I learned mental flexibility, by thinking about my thinking patterns in a constructive and emancipating way. And finally, I learned to meditate, choosing time to be still and observe my mind’s activity, bringing it back to the one thing. Through all these practices of presence, including writing morning pages, and taking a daily cold shower or swim, my instinctive creativity, confidence, and clarity have reemerged after more than 50 years of dormancy. It is now my purpose and my mission to pass on my greatest lesson, much like a mother bear teaching her cubs not merely how to survive, but how to thrive in this beautiful world we call home.