So much of our lives are spent trapped within the prison of our identities.
Only when we break down the walls that have been built to keep us small can we look out over the vast expanse and endless landscape and begin to remember our true nature.
Only when we can identify the inner narrative that has been programmed in us and plays continuously in the background of our minds, and distinguish that from the voice of the eternal that lives inside, can we begin to realise our potential.
By connecting with the natural world through all of our senses, and particularly through sight, we can gauge the scale of what we are. It is during those moments when we stand atop the mountain and gaze for miles upon miles over open land, that we free ourselves from the mental prisons that have contained us for so long. Only then do we allow for our minds to grow far beyond our own miniscule existence.
The key to this life, I believe, is to transcend the thinking mind and our three-dimensional, physical existence. Only when we are in Nature, can we access the portal to this higher dimension of being and see what we truly are beyond the beliefs and ideas of society and the fears that have been programmed into us from a young age.
Too often, we listen to people who tell us what we are and what we aren’t. We take on their judgments as our own and believe them when they tell us about our own inabilities. We spend so much of our youth obeying orders — being told what we can and can’t do; not to leave the confines of our garden and then, in our adult lives, we continue to apply the same kind of thinking.
Why is it that we are so afraid to realise our own potential and see all that we are capable of?
For many years, I, too, was afraid. I was someone who played it small. Throughout my childhood, teenage years, and early adulthood, I would sit and hide away in my bedroom, escaping from the real world into worlds within computer games. I held on to so much fear — fear that wasn’t my own; fear that was inherited from my parents; fear that was learnt and not yet understood. Fear kept me crippled. Fear kept me small. I would walk around with my shoulders rounded, my heart closed, and my throat completely constricted. I could talk in depth about the weekend football fixtures, but I could not talk about why I felt such intense amounts of fear about the world.
For us to become what we are — for us to remember our true nature, we must face our fears. We must forget all that we think we are. We must spend our time unlearning and unbecoming, so that we can remember that we are, indeed, eternal and abound with endless potential and capacity for growth.
As we stand atop the mountain and breathe in the crisp, morning air, as we lie beneath the giant oak tree who’s branches reach as far as the heavens, and roots as far as hell, we must remember that we are the mountains, the trees, and the rivers, too. With every breath, we become the air that fills the lungs of the earth. The same salt that is in our tears is the salt that fills the seabed and, so, we must remember, that inside of each of us, the sea rages and roars amidst the storm, and her waves crash upon our inner shores until she lays to rest. In that moment of stillness, we know. When the storms within our minds finally subside, and we find a moment of peace amidst the chaos, we can look out over the tranquil waters and allow our minds to expand into the nothingness from which we came. Only then, can we remember our true nature.