PSYCHE REHAB

Let’s face it. The greatest obstacle we face in the pursuit of peace and happiness is that we are full of belief systems that govern the way we perceive ourselves, the world and role in it. Prejudices about ourselves and others, conditioning that is the product of our education and upbringing and the intensity of life experiences and our reactions to them all contribute to the internal clutter…

Imagine if you could hack yourself. If you were to take a journey into the mainframe of your mind, what would it look like? Would you find the various components of the circuitry humming in harmony, or would you see a messy collection loose screws, stray wires and burned out pathways? Would the transformers all be in place, or have they shut down from lack of use? Would it even let you in, or would you be blocked by some firewall of trauma or And whatever it is you found in there, would you have the courage to confront it, or would you choose to replace the dusty cover and continue ignoring the problems until the entire system crashes?

Let’s face it. The greatest obstacle we face in the pursuit of peace and happiness is that we are full of belief systems that govern the way we perceive ourselves, the world and role in it. Prejudices about ourselves and others, conditioning that is the product of our education and upbringing and the intensity of life experiences and our reactions to them all contribute to the internal clutter. The question is how much we’re aware of the effect these belief systems have on our daily lives, and the extent to which they can manipulate us and even dominate us.

If left unchecked.

The counting of the Omer is a 49-step program designed to strip away the belief systems and figure ourselves out for real. It is the ultimate system overhaul that systematically separates fact from fiction by exploring each detail and facet of our emotional and psychological make-up, to understand where we are and where we need to get to.

In the journey of our lives, most of us make the mistake of trying to find ourselves, even though intuitively we know that true enlightenment and happiness come from letting go of ourselves. You can’t lose yourself without knowing yourself, but you certainly can’t lose yourself if you’re obsessed with yourself. The subjectivity of this approach is at best futile, or even maddening.

Some of us somehow manage to avoid this mistake and instead seek the euphoria of an objective, omnipresent truth. But in the quest for objectivity we tend to lose sight of our place in all of it. In removing ourselves from the equation, the objectivity denies the significance of individual existence and providence.

The balance then is to seek my own inner truth – one that holds true in both the objective and subjective realities, encompassing both who I am as an individual and how I fit into the cosmic master plan. By extension, everything that follows from this refined and redefined self is that much more truthful and sincere, making the self a fitting conduit for something greater than the self.

I usually like to think that my primary purpose lies in achieving something by harnessing and utilizing the strengths of my unique individual talents. But perhaps an even greater and less obvious purpose lies in confronting the challenges I face by peeling away the layers of falsehood, fantasy and disillusionment that clog each of the 49 components of my psyche until each one shines. And once the system is hacked, I can make it whatever I want it to be.

Reprinted with permission from Exodus Magazine