God bless this communal space for vents & rants, cuz we got a heavily-charged one incoming…
There’s this part of me that wants to rage. This aspect of my psyche, spirit, repressed emotional body… I dunno how to categorize it… backed up with a couple decades of life experience that hasn’t been fully processed, let alone come to “peace” with. It’d probably be almost sorta disturbing, were this not building up slowly in the subconscious over the course of a lifetime. But even though it’s been effectively suppressed, there’s enough there to have slowly but surely tilted the scales from a (naive) youthful overoptimism that fuelled a twenties charging from one trial-and-error to the next towards an outright underlying cynicism towards life, spiced with sprinkles of bitterness, resentment, anger, and plenty of frustration that’s quite possibly eroded my capability to truly enjoy life and all the abundant blessings in it.
And the clincher: well, there’s certainly no one to blame here for all this other than ‘the man in the mirror;’ in fact, in some Divinely tragic twist of fates, the things that most commonly serve at triggers for those moments I wanna unleash the reserves of heat are moreless some kind of perfect reflections of my own karma. Perhaps that is not the technically-correct way of putting it, but gonna leave it at that and continue on rather than blow 10 minutes overthinking the details attempting to get at a precise articulation. Surely, we’ll get come clarity as exploring three specific cases - each compounded with their own sets of lessons & wisdom encoded (don’t think I was gonna just vent without transmitting something of priceless importance along with it 😘)…
I kinda wanna bitch slap the fuck outta every twenty (or thirty)-something know-it-all self-proclaimed “manifestation” guru regurgitating the overplayed “motivational” platitude,” there are no limitations.”* Or perhaps rather than do it myself, receive some assurance that the universe’s do it in ways that leave no uncertainty how ridiculously delusional and irresponsible it is trying to brainwash others into such a dissociative belief system reinforcing a narcissistic complex of grandiosity. Kinda like ‘it did’ to me. (Not to play victim, only use those words to simplify a concept while crossing over to a broader explanation - on the contrary, the acknowledgement of my own full responsibility is to follow). Of course, it’s probably none of my business as to what millions others think, say, reap, and sow. ”But…”
I kinda wish I could stop every one of these naively arrogant fools promoting detachment from reality in their tracks with one of those moments like from the movies where some advanced being touches their forehead and transmits lifetimes worth of experience, emotions, and lessons in an instant - imparting the clarity of Truth to snap them out of their slumbers… so as to save them years of their lives wasted in denial of reality, and to put an end to the propagation of such immense ignorance that has millions hooked on sugar-coated “inspirational” cliches void of VERY FUCKING REAL information necessary for people to actually be effective in living life grounded in reality rather than misleading, dead-end fantasies.
Holy jeezus, do the “no limits” believers have some hard reality checks coming sooner or later.
Why do I give so many fucks? Maybe cuz I haven’t yet accepted my own stupidity in having fallen for so much of that bullshit, and have only been able to process so much of the pain consequential of having lived as though the only universal laws that applied to me were the ones I wanted to.
And I can already hear the responses: ’oh my god, this guy is so negggggativvvve.’ People (a majority likely younger) who’ve invested themselves in the belief jumping to its defence, rather than listening and attempting to grasp why I’m saying/writing what I am with such conviction and what I actually mean. Judging before humbling themselves to see the limits of ‘their’ beliefs.. Projecting misassumptions, cognitive biases pulling strings of their consciousness in response to these perspectives challenging a view of the world they’ve found comforting and “empowering” as aligning with the doctrines of “inspirational” cults.
Though before veering off too far with all this rage in a direction that would leave no room for understanding, such aggression no doubt only triggering increasing resistance, this must all come with a clear confession: that was all ME. And hence the title, ”hypocritical” rage. While all this may require expression/transmission, there is to be no distortions left implying it would not be two-faced, moralistic, and/or self-righteous to judge any other for passing through these phases of the human journey, having gone fully into/through them to an extreme. I’ve been in not only the naively overenthusiasm delusion for close to a couple decades, but also the judgement, projection and and subconscious self-righteousness accompanying the “no limits” programs. (Just realized now, I was probably being primed for it as early as late-elementary, sporting the “No Limits” fashion apparel popular at the time.)
”But, but, but…” I can already foresee the statements of defence queued up, as though rote scripts awaiting activation. ”It means…” the triggered minds are ready to vomit in preservation of the ego - part “their own,” part the collective’s of which they’ve plugged into - the ‘individual’ ego finding a sense of safety & security in its associations and self-identification with a socially-validated collective’s reinforcing a dissociative worldview lessening the existential anxiety that’d arise from facing some harsher facts of the human experience few of us willingly prefer to experientially encounter on our own. (That’s a paragraph worth rereading and meditating on, in countless contexts of a wide spectrum of psychological social & cultural dynamics. Events on the global stage affecting us all the last three years have surely provided enough experience to apply the same principles & assessment worthy of volumes.)
But… let’s dig in to the details which no one can refute…
Irregardless of what high we might get upon letting our imaginations run wild as subscribing to the, “there are no limitations” program/belief/platitude, it doesn’t matter who we are, what we believe, how stubbornly we resist reality: life is bound to teach us all otherwise. No one is exempt.
Perhaps I was extra susceptible to the illusion - arriving now at a point of breakdown in my life requiring to face the fact I may have likely been living “with” ADHD my entire life, of which one common attribute is that of “time blindness.” Holy fuck, it’s no joke. And the whole egregor of “no limits” is undoubtedly one relying exclusively upon a foundation of time blindness;
The time each of us has allotted in this lifetime IS LIMITED.
It doesn’t matter what brilliant “productivity hacks” one adopts. It doesn’t matter how big of an organization you build, how many people you hire & delegate to, how many systems you use to outsource work to. Doesn’t matter how many nootropics or psychedelics you take that alter your perceptions of & relationship with time. All of us are maxed out at 24 hours per day. And there is only ever so much you can accomplish within them.
Likewise, each of us only has so much ENERGY.
It doesn’t how much motivation, inspiration, enthusiasm, or willpower you’ve got. Doesn’t matter how effective or productive you manage to get. There is always a limit on what you can accomplish with the energy you have in the time you have.
And this may be a tougher one for the younger among us to grasp: the body has its limits.
A crippled midget is never going to be a pro NBA star. A blind man is never gonna become a master at something requiring highly precise vision. Someone with debilitating Parkinson’s disease is never going to become a heart surgeon. And as “extreme” examples these may be, we all have some inherent limits or another to the functional capacity of our bodies & brains that can & will not be ‘overcome’ by “positive thinking.”
It’s all too easy when young and seduced by the “boundless possibilities” life has to offer to bite the apple of temptation and actually think “there are no limitations to what we can achieve.” But sooner or later, we all age. Years pass us by that cannot be retrieved. Opportunities are missed that will never come again nor can be created at will. Bridges get burned, doors close, retreat to past & preferred ways of being becomes impossible. The youthful sense of invincibility gives way to the inescapable absolutes of human frailty that don’t become apparent until later in life. Etc, etc.
The “Law Of Attraction” and all the other “spiritual” platitudes some use in fallacious support of the “no limits” beliefs account for shit all when dealing in certain domains of reality, just as the flat-earthers’ insistence that “gravity is a theory” amounts to nothing should either “believer” choose to test it by walking off the edge of a skyscraper: it don’t matter wtf you think or believe… there’s one inevitable outcome. Like it or not, your participation in this human plane on planet earth puts you automatically submissive to the limits of gravity.
Obviously, again, an extreme example. While there are surely a select few out there who may be allured with the idea of defying the limits of gravity with levitation, jet pack, or some shit, this is most likely not what most have in mind when parroting the “no limitations” mantra and would concur such a blatant law of physics in such cases like these aren’t what was meant. But, sometimes we need extreme examples to prove a point - to have certain principles amplified to a point where the subtle nuances in critical details become apparent, that may be easier to overlook otherwise. And the inclusion of the sidewalk-splat fate of the gravity-limit-denier is merely a stepping stone to a fundamental principle flying in the face of “no limits” extremism *and larger point of this whole transmission: when we play with fire, we risk getting burned…
For as much toxic positivity accompanies the whole “no limits” paradigm of thought, it is not “negative” to acknowledge the limitations that exist in our lives. On the contrary, the acknowledgement and acceptance of limitations beyond our control is absolutely essential should we actually intend on maximizing the possibility of achieving what we want / strive for in life.
Convincing ourselves “there are no limits” might bolster the ego’s sense of self-importance - perhaps even from a neurological & biochemical perspective, allowing the mind a free pass to produce endless dopamine in anticipation of all the superhuman feats we might achieve before actually even getting to work. But without a realistic assessment of the limited resources - the two biggest of which are likely most often those of time & energy - so we can conscientiously & wisely manage their utilization/application effectively, the likelihood of “failure” rises drastically. And the biggest “failure” may be not the one of failed attempts at things the mind/ego want, but the expenditure of our lives in pursuit of (the wrong) things, having completely misdirected our limited time foolishly & irresponsibility under the completely-flawed premise “there are no limits…” and thus, no serious consequences to actions taken in ignorance of them.
*Put your hand on a hot stove, it’s getting burned. Show a blatant disregard for the law, and the judge ain’t gonna exempt you from punishment no matter how charismatically you recite your beliefs that “limits don’t exist” in self-defence - whether a fine for disobeying the speed limit or imprisonment for ‘more serious’ crimes.
And thing is… it’s time to start paying close attention here…
it’s VERY easy to underestimate the different forms of imprisonment we can blindly end up putting ourselves in consequential of ignorantly pushing & exceeding VERY REAL limits.
As enticing as the sugar-high of candy-coated “no limits” type platitudes is, and for as much as they may serve at times to “expand our thinking” or manipulate/bolster the motivation to push ourselves in ways that can/might be helpful sometimes, ignoring certain limits is a sure recipe for complete fucking disaster in many cases.
Marriages & families destroyed. Wars between religions, cultures, nations. Lives destroyed to overindulgence in things that’d be otherwise okay in moderation. Dreams killed due to negligent mismanagement of resources. Terminal illness & permanent disabilities. So many different fates of karmic imprisonment activated through missteps over boundaries without leeway, which there is no quick or easy way out.
”You can do, be, and have it all…?” A fantastic sales pitch to reel in the naive wishing for it to be true, no doubt. But actually attempt to live as though the delusion is true… in all likelihood, one will inevitably find themselves at a point of realization not only of the falsehood of the statement, but the immense cost of having attempted pursuing too much without setting necessary limits. Having expended far too much time & energy on things detracting from the fewer ones that actually may have been most valuable. Having shot for the stars, thinking they were on track when passed the moon, and in for a blunt reality check when finding themselves floating in a void… the greed of having wanted to much driven the abandonment of what blessings were there for them on earth; the pride of ego seeking excess having resulted in the loss of what actually mattered most. Having sought “heavens” of material fulfillment and all that’d have pleased the ego, only to end up in the purgatory or hell for the remainder of this lifetime as a direct effect of having thought/believed limitations didn’t apply to us - and having pushed beyond them into territory control is lost, things changed, and retreat impossible. Karma cannot be outrun.
More extreme descriptions, sure. But we far too often take things nowhere near serious enough, that perhaps need extreme examples to demonstrate the end worst-case scenarios of walking down wrong paths that may not seem such until having passed points of no-return.
So yeah… that.
And maybe my response to the youngins still propagating self-help garbage is a bit much. After all, who am I to judge, having done it all myself when I was their age. Perhaps I’ve not yet matured enough to regulate my own emotional triggers, detach from the drama of the world, and allow each of the 8 billion humans on this planet to walk whatever path they may be without interference or giving a fuck.
Perhaps I’m still too damn impatience - seeing others spread bullshit and reacting with anger, rather calmly observing a bigger picture. Maybe they’re going through their own “rites of passage,” as I did mine at their age. Maybe it’s a specific classroom and/or set of experiences many of us have to go through. Just as a child goes through its various phases of development, learning through certain stumbles and growing through levels of maturity over time, perhaps so too the learning & growth continues on in different regards as progressing through adulthood - my reaction towards where the younger “no limits” believers are as objectively silly as getting angry at a two year-old for doing what two-years do. Maybe I’m in a different set of lessons now - working out a different set of karma, in process of escaping the prison of these overreactive emotional states and resistance to what is.
Though maybe simultaneously, there’s a seed of passion in these compulsions towards rage at such ignorance because I’m meant to pass on some of the wisdom learned through my time spent in the ‘classrooms.’ While it may not be my place to intervene or project my truths onto others going through their own journeys & lessons, perhaps there’s something to be contributed back to the collective, having passed through certain rites and debugged some of the corrupted code still being perpetuated in many subcultures.
I’d like to think that the majority of people here who end up reading this are smart enough to have either figured out these principles for themselves or that it’s just common sense for most people; I don’t really expect for any of this to be “enlightening” to my readers or be acting like a teacher of anything that really “ought to be” sorta common sense. Though with the way epigenetics works and the simply the contribution of our individual frequency to the whole of humanity - which may have a far greater ripple effect than any of us logically consider or would think. Perhaps the act of putting this all into words is not only for the purpose of literal transmission to the few reading them, but a refinement of the insights & wisdom as sculpting them into a clearer articulation of the lessons for upload to the quantum mainframe of our collective consciousness - adding my $0.02 to the open-source genetic code of human evolution… and simultaneously sending a ping request for a bit of code others may have already input that’ll be of help with ‘my own’ challenges around the emotional triggering & processing.
Is the compulsion to rage at kids exploring kids’ beliefs justified? Probably not. Perhaps it’s - at some level - reflective of my own inner kid who’s still stubbornly resistant to coming to grips with reality in ways he/I’m not all that keen on. Part of me still really wishes there were “no limitations,” and that I could keep on living as I did through my twenties - dissociated from reality, perhaps, but at least with an optimism & enthusiasm that made life far more exciting & enjoyable. Though I suppose we all gotta grow up at some point or another - and it may be the denial of / resistance to that fact of life which, in effect, serves to keep us in cycles in karma rather than spiraling up in advancement through - and ultimately out - of them. Or some shit.
Yada, yada, yada. And I thought I’d fit two more topics all into a single blog post half this size. 😹
Take what thou wilt from here, should bits of the code in these reflections serve you in any way.
Do feel free to comment - whether adding to the discussion, expressing appreciation, or to shine some light in blind spots that may be apparent to you. 🙏
Parts two and three to come in due time - should the energy flow for their completion, along with the backlog of others in queue…
Curious how that works that I had missed this post and only found it after posting -> https://hive.blog/hive-196233/@josie2214/s7ep11
This one gave me a bit more of an a-ha moment as to the angles we each are coming at this from and the differences stem from the fact that I already beat you to it I was cynical already in seventh grade. I was cynical BEFORE I ever knew anything about the law of attraction, manifestation, or even personal development, any of it.. and I also know what that cynicism does to a soul.
I don't have the capacity to get waaay deeper into the subject just yet, if/when I do, I will, but for now, I have to leave you with long ramblings distilled to a one-liner -
Not "No limits", more like "Yes, limits, but it's an escape room".
I do also believe that there is room for maturation in exploring these subjects and the whole field shouldn't just be left labeled 'for kids only'..
!HUG
~Josie~
The guru community is the latest in the history of money fleecers. It was tarot readers in the past, psychics. These days it’s gurus and their shit.
It’s good to practice stretchable limits but no limits at all is a bit of a fools errand. I feel it’s similar to the YOLO nonsense. You are not doing yourself a favor by living a YOLO or no limits lifestyle and allow hedonistic and other cardinal sinful ways to lead your life.
Yay! 🤗
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