Moving back down south - when life takes over

In 2007, I left my hometown of Poole and embarked on a journey up in the north of England .. or oop norf. It was the best thing I ever did. I started off in Leeds, staying there until mid 2014, then moved west to Huddersfield, where I actually stayed slightly longer, before moving to Manchester in July 2022. 

I'll be honest, once the novelty wore off a bit and once I was a little less involved in the Manchester community - I became 'not all that keen' on Manchester. I actually prefer Liverpool as a city (even my Dad who grew up in Manchester pretty much said the same). 

But at the start of the year, I certainly wasn't thinking about leaving Manchester. I was happy up north. There was always in the back of my mind the desire to move back near a coastline, and I'd kind of had the Wirral in mind although I'd shelved any immediate plans to move there. 

I'd never really planned on returning to live in Dorset. It's nice, but it never had felt like home to me, and I have had A LOT of bad memories from there. Moving away was such a blessing for me and I got to see a very different part of the country when I moved to Yorkshire .. and I still miss Yorkshire now, particularly the Yorkshire Dales and some of the scenery round there. Sometimes a fresh start is good. 

I really had no idea how this year was going to pan out, and if I had .. well it's probably a good job I didn't know. I have had a huge amount of trauma in my life, some of it personal, some probably ancestral and some probably collective. 'You don't choose this, it chooses you' comes to mind. The path less travelled can be absolutely brutal, and make no mistake, if we are going to create a better world, there is A LOT of shit that needs to be faced. 

At the start of the year, I was in a long distance relationship. I actually paid for flights to the country in question and even took a vaccine which would have been needed to fly into that country. Most of you should know that as a general rule I don't take vaccines at all; I've avoided them since childhood. Life intervened and it became pretty clear that I was not going to get that flight as my mental health deteriorated rapidly in March; in fact, things had started in February but only really started to get proper intense after the last day in Feb when I felt dizzy on the way home from work. That was also the last day I worked at an opticians where there was a pretty toxic environment; that job likely caused me more stress than I realised. 

By mid April, to cut a long story short, I was very unsafe and going through a psychotic episode (which is one thing I definitely would not recommend). Life can become very weird when you're that far down, although I don't wish to go into any details. I had no choice but to go back and stay with my parents, and I'm grateful that they've been able to support me. 

Life was just hell until probably mid to late June. I wouldn't wish what I went through on anyone; it cost me a lot and it probably wasn't that far off from costing me my physical life. I couldn't end my own life, but I totally understand why people do; I had a friend, Nick, who took his life by jumping from a bridge in 2017. 

By July I kind of felt a bit better but was in a location I didn't want to be in; I couldn't see where life was going or really how I was going to build my life back; all I knew is that it was going to take small steps. 

It's been really hard to lose the life that I spent years building up north, and especially hard to lose the community that I had. Having now got to a point (after six months) where I feel ready to connect with groups again, it would have been easier if I could go straight back to the Manchester groups. But I know that I need to stay here for now; my mental health took a huge battering and moving back up north wouldn't, overall, be quite so beneficial at the moment, although maybe one day. 

So I will need to get involved with groups down here and build connections. Fortunately, this is something that I do have the capability to do, but it's going to take a bit of time. Sometimes life and life events take you on a journey that you hadn't planned, and leave you with little choice but to just go with the flow and surrender to the bigger picture. 

I highly recommend reading 'The Surrender Experiment' by Michael A Singer. 

Dorset's best town, Sherborne

Projection

Projection. Something that is absolutely rife in the UK, and probably a lot of other countries. The simple meaning is: Projecting is when someone unconsciously attributes their thoughts, feelings, or behaviors to another person.

Image courtesy of Picpedia

My own interpretation of projection is when people are unable or unwilling to express their frustrations in a constructive manner and so take out their anger on someone or a group of people who they perceive to be 'luckier' than them. 

Easily the most common example of projection I see on social media is related to people's jobs. Let's get this straight; the vast majority of people would not do the jobs they do if it wasn't for the money. Many people resent their jobs. But, they are unwilling to look at their own conditioning and choices they made. So they target people on benefits. No-one who truly enjoyed what they do would be spending their time getting pissed off at people on benefits or saying that their taxes pay for everyone on benefits (the mentality over taxes in the UK is weird and something I will never understand. If only they were told where their taxes really go ..)

If people were to express their true feelings, they would say:
This work isn't really for me. 
I wish I was doing something else and not working so hard. 
I want to spend more time with my family. 
I hate and resent my job. 

The establishment has such people exactly where they want them, stressed and burned out from overwork and spending more and more money as costs of food go up. But because they feel trapped as a wage slave, it's easier for them to be jealous of other people. Let's be honest - if being on benefits was that great, or if being a successful entrepreneur was down to 'luck' - why aren't more of these people doing it? 

Another reason they criticise people on benefits, immigrants etc is because these people are not THEM. Not part of their club. You never hear anyone complain about people who win the lottery then quit their job. They aren't called lazy. They aren't criticized for being rich. Because a lot of citizens would do the same thing, as well as eventually lose most of the money because of their mindset. But there is a stigma around being on benefits and immigrants - maybe because these tax payers think THEIR money is going to these people. Now, I am 100% of the view that taxation is theft, and should be abolished without question. But man, the way some people carry on about their taxes, it's as if they pay millions of pounds in tax. And the ignorance some people have over becoming an entrepreneur or being a professional footballer is astounding, I could go on about that in a separate post. 

There's another aspect of projection that I would like to talk about, that is quite popular in spiritual and self help circles. That is, that aspects of another that you don't like is a reflection of something within you. I think that's true up to a point, but not always. It just depends on the topic and situation. There's certain things such as lying, any sort of abuse, theft, greed and violence that should be an absolute no in anyone's book. There's also certain things that can be very triggering where it's possibly worth going deeper within to explore your own emotions around the subject. My biggie is false accusation or unfair treatment - if someone accused me of a crime I didn't commit, I would probably lose it. Unfortunately, this does happen and doesn't help people who have been genuinely wronged. 
There are other aspects of a person's character, such as laziness, moaning, short temper, anger or lateness that can trigger an aspect of ourselves. I'm not an expert on this subject matter at the moment so I am not going to go into great detail, but - to say that getting annoyed at something is always a reflection of an unhealed aspect of you, is a little dangerous in my opinion. 

Peace 

Three months to go until the big 5-0 .. lessons learnt in 2024

My goodness, this life has gone quick. 

The 17 years that I was up north absolutely flew by. 

I don't usually give too much meaning to age numbers, even though I like birthdays. This particular birthday, I'm not sure if I'll truly feel like celebrating. 

Life absolutely broke me this year. 2024 has been a brutal year; so many people have gone through huge challenges. I'm no expert on astrological and energetic matters but there must have been something in the air the last few months.  

At the end of the tunnel there has been good and unexpected things happen for me; also there is the possibility of a new job which could see me move to a place I really love; nothing set in stone yet but I'm feeling optimistic. Sometimes there is a gut feeling about something - I had another job interview but I kind of knew I wouldn't get it. 

The biggest lessons I have taken are: 

Letting life lead or letting my higher self lead - some of you may have read a book called The Surrender Experiment where the 'hippy' author continually surrenders to life's perfection and ends up running a big IT organisation amongst other things. 

That I need to take small steps - for a long time, I have felt like I am far behind in life - being a late developer is hard and not something I would recommend - especially without suitable support when trying to function in a world that is so not catered for such people. But I continued to get nowhere when trying to get from A to Z.

Not everything is for me - It's easy for me to get entangled in a viewpoint or concept that my friends are into and think it should work for me. But some things just don't. Human Design goes way over my head. Books like The Celestine Prophecy and A Course In Miracles don't float my boat at all. Concepts around masculinity - such as Warrior, Magician, Lover, King - I think are good but they do not completely align with my character. 

That I needed to come to terms with my neurodiversity - Autism has always been a bit of a dirty word for me; still is to some degree, as someone who grew up in a time when it was seen in a negative light and when the needs of people like myself were not understood or catered for. In fact, it's more my ADHD tendencies that impact me day to day. But either way, my brain function is different to the majority of people (although the rate things are going, it will eventually be more common to be neurodiverse - not a good thing in my opinion). I agree with my friend who says a lot of it is brain damage - and yes I do believe my brain has been damaged somewhat. 

That I don't have to like everyone. Nuff said. 

That it's ok to have regrets or wish certain things had never happened - One thing I can't do is change the past. It happened. All I can do is rebuild. Whilst it's obviously possible to build good things from tragic situations - Andy's Man Club being one example (the founder lost his brother in law, called Andy, to suicide) - let's just say that a lot of us would change some of our past if we could. Life sometimes does give you more than you can handle, and that's a fact. 

Perhaps most importantly of all, I have learnt that I have to be true to myself. There have been times when I thought I was being really authentic and living a life that was suitable for me. Now I'm not so sure. Some New Age hippy practices, I'm not sure are for me now. It's so easy to get attached to a set of beliefs in order to fit in. Now, I want to build my tribe of people whose outlook really aligns with the outlook I have now. 

Image courtesy of gettythings.com

What is critical thinking?

When the COVID-19 shitshow came into view, many people were completely taken in, believing that there was a deadly virus that even healthy people could spread just by breathing. Whilst I will never be one of the people who says that the virus didn't exist - there was plenty of evidence, at least from my interactions with people, to suggest that there was an unusual virus going round, certainly in late 2019/early 2020 - there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the severity of the virus was exaggerated by the media, and that all the big name politicians knew this all along. Although it's debatable as to whether the original intention was for the virus to wipe out many more people than it did - I think it possibly was. 

The fear porn was absolutely ramped up by the media. 

But then there was the other side, which I more or less joined forces with. The people who sensed that something wasn't quite right about what we were being told. The people who had researched on topics like the New World Order for years. I had made the decision fairly early on that certain things just didn't add up or make sense. And some of the people in these ranks called people 'sheep' for believing what the media was saying. At the time, critical thinking and 'being awake' was largely associated with seeing through the bigger picture of COVID-19.

Four and a bit years later, some these people who ridiculed the 'normies' are believing that all well known musicians are part of the New World Order, some even believe that male footballers are transgender, there are flat earth evangelists saying that you don't know God if you believe the earth is not flat, and just the other day I saw someone posting an image from the Simpsons and comparing it to an image with David Icke and someone else who I know personally, as evidence that David and my friend are shills. The most crazy thing I ever saw was someone saying that the shape of a football was the symbol of adrenochrome. And the extent to which people believe alternative media such as The Light Paper and other articles is, in my opinion, just another side of the coin to believing everything the mainstream media says. 

None of the above is evidence of critical thinking. There are several rabbit holes which, if one goes down them too deeply, can really mess with people's minds. And then there's black and white thinking - which can apply to religion, New Age spirituality or conspiracies. Thinking that we have knowledge of 'the truth' and that we are always right. That's something I've seen a lot of from the so called 'free thinkers', but - many of them predicted a terrible lockdown in 2022, some probably predicted we'd be living in 15 minute cities by now. 

To admit that we really don't know, on certain topics, is arguably the starting point for critical thinking. It's so easy to latch on to a school of thought or particular beliefs and then adopt these things as your own. It's easier to try and fit in to a crowd rather than march to the beat of your own drum. 

To me, critical thinking is examining the evidence in front of you, being aware that things aren't always as they seen and also accessing your own inner wisdom. 

MOB MENTALITY
This is one thing I particularly dislike and the media certainly encouraged this during lockdown - 'if you don't think what we are telling you, you are a bad person' is the basic premise, I guess - and it got to the point where people were grassing on their neighbours for breaking Covid rules. Such people should be embarrassed by their actions by now, although maybe they genuinely thought they were doing a good thing. The media and news outlets brainwash people to think a certain way and to shame people who behave differently. 
But this can also happen in conspiracy ranks - there were plenty of times that I saw conspiracists shaming others that just wanted to live their life as normal and not be totally drenched in what the New World Order was planning next. 

In summary, I have got to a place where I realise there are some things that I believe, but cannot prove 100%. I still believe that that Covid was planned and was an attempt at a power grab, and probably always will. But I also believe that some of the narratives coming from Conspiracy Land are without any real evidence and beliefs passed on by others. 

Peace. 

Beliefs are not necessarily 'truth'

One of the misused words is the word 'truth'. 

There, I said it. Just about every religious or spiritual path is likely to be referred to as the truth, at one time or another. Not to mention people's beliefs about what is going on the world. 

And it so often happens that people post something that they heard on Facebook without a shred of concrete evidence. Let's take the 'hotels are taking in lots of young, male immigrants' story. I do think there is legitimate reason for concern if this is happening - but I haven't seen this with my own eyes, and I don't believe half of what I hear from conspiracy land these days. So I'm not going to take it as gospel just because lots of people are saying it. 

I want to see concrete evidence. 

Of course, sometimes we can use our intuition. The first time I felt something was amiss with what the media were telling us about Cov!d was a gut feeling. I later saw clear, irrefutable evidence that people gathering together was not causing lots of people to become ill, far from it. At best, it was a case of an illness that was real being grossly overexaggerated, to the point where people who were suffering for other reasons did not matter. My feeling is still that there was more to the whole story than that. Certainly, the push for a vaccine was very sinister. And the government having parties should give some clue that the fear porn being spread by the media was not entirely accurate. 

I do believe that it was a control exercise. But I wouldn't say that this belief is absolute, irrefutable truth. Sometimes the whole story has more tentacles and storylines to it, and it's easy to fit a story around what you believe. 

And whilst we're at it, I certainly don't take any 'vision from God' as being absolute truth, either. 

It's worth doing research on things but there is very little that we truly know. 

One thing that's become very noticeable is that some of the conspiracy theorists can believe some seriously wild stuff and class it as 'truth'. I read of someone saying that Cristiano Ronaldo was born a woman along with other male footballers. I think it's fair to class that sort of thing as nonsense. 

I am starting from a clean state after my breakdown this year. My beliefs have been shaken. Now I'm in the process of working out what is real for me. And that's a good place to start .. 

Image courtesy of Flickr

Trusting the process and the word 'surrender'

One of the most common words I've heard in both Christian and New Age circles is .. wait for it .. surrender.

In Christian terms it tends to mean surrender to God's will or to Jesus. In New Age terms I guess it means surrender to the universe, to life. 

The word 'surrender' is probably a bit of a cliche, but it does have some relevance to me. I like to stay in control of things, but for some strange reason, that has never seemed to work so well. Life sometimes has other plans - I would never have imagined how different my life would be now, compared to this time last year. And having had a complete mental fuck up/breakdown/psychotic episode, maybe it's now slightly easier for me to trust the process of life. Whilst action is important, the first thing I need to do is trust my inner guidance. 

Life tends to become a little more in flow when I do that. There may be times of stagnation and uncertainty .. when I first came back to Dorset, I was in crisis and didn't want to come back, but I knew this was the most viable option at the time. I'd spent 17 years building a life for myself up north and it was one of the best decisions I ever made - but even taking that into account, it's probably true to say that part of the reason I moved up north was to escape my old life. 

It was always fairly clear that I needed to do some healing work in the place where I grew up, but initially the intention was to eventually move back up north as that was where I felt my home was .. and I still have a lot of love for the north and look forward to returning there for a holiday. Dorset had actually never really felt like my home prior to me returning. 

But as time went on (and sometimes, the passage of time can eventually provide the answer), it became clearer and clearer that my inner compass was showing me to remain down south. The coast was a huge reason, as well as being nearer my family - in fact, the thing that really swung my decision was a day out in Hengitsbury Head, one of the most beautiful locations in Dorset without doubt. I hope to move nearer that direction in the coming months, which will be about 12 to 15 miles from my parents. There is also some coastline near there that I've not been a regular visitor to, which definitely appeals - I don't particularly want to stay in my home village, as much as I like it - it's just TOO familiar. 

I am looking for work and forging new connections, and there are certain things that will require my trust that they will have as smooth a process as possible. I don't know if I'll be so involved with any spiritual communities like I was in Manchester - that's probably another thing that I need to trust my inner guidance with. 

I am still trying to establish the right balance between surrender and taking action .. but right now, I feel like I'm where I'm meant to be. I'm not a big believer in making long term goals, or rather, making long term goals doesn't seem to work for me. That's a bit of an ADHD thing. 

Peace out.

Image courtesy of Printerval

The world of work from my perspective

I find the work world strangely fascinating - even if much of it is not suited to my personality. I'm the kind of person who gets stressed in jobs that the majority of people would not. I can also easily see the lack of authenticity in many work positions and sometimes wonder how people can go on for so long playing a role that isn't really them - although if one has children then I guess it's a bit easier. 

I also see the romanticism of the 'follow your bliss, do what you love' viewpoint. I will expand on that in a bit, but for now, all I'll say is that if this was easier, a lot more people would be doing it. 

THE 9 TO 5 WORLD IS GENERALLY NOT CONDUCIVE TO NEURODIVERSITY
I honestly had no idea until more recently as to how much my temperament has affected my progress in the workplace. Like the majority of people, I was conditioned to become a wage slave - and once you become part of that system, the harder it is to escape - which is undoubtedly deliberate. If the world was operating as it should, there would probably be little to no need for many of the roles in place today - such as fraud investigators, prison officers, maybe even counsellors. And there would certainly be less jobs that require being in front of a screen all day. 

MOST PEOPLE DO NOT LOVE THEIR WORK
.. Which is a big societal issue, probably bigger than most people think. A big part of the ridiculous booze culture in the UK is due to work, many visits to the doctor are due to work, many people are suffering due to the demands of their jobs. And this seems to have got worse since the big recession in 2008 - employers can get away more with treating employees like shit because 'they should be grateful to be in a job'. No, good treatment is a basic human right. 

NOT EVERYONE HAS THE SAME SKILLS OR CAPABILITIES
This is a big one which I wish more working class people would get into their heads. Many people resent their jobs and are (lets be honest) slightly envious of people on benefits, with a particular focus on the minority of people that are on benefits who get enough money equivalent to a full time job. Most of these people are unlikely to do much to make any big changes - because it's not easy to do so. But for some of us, even the more basic tasks such as looking for work can be difficult. 

WILL THINGS CHANGE?
The short answer is yes. The old work model is outdated and it is staggering that in the age of so much technology, that the majority of people are still in 9 to 5 jobs. There's no way I can see this continuing that way for too much longer. Covid - despite causing A LOT of damage to businesses - which was deliberate by the way; the governments would rather everyone is a wage slave to another person or having to claim benefits - did see some positive changes such as the increase in working from home, which I see as a positive. There are more and more online opportunities - and hopefully as we strive to create a better world, there will be more opportunities and support for people to follow their passions. 

FINALLY .. FOLLOWING YOUR BLISS .. WHAT'S THAT ALL ABOUT?

Image courtesy of Flickr

Some of the self help books make it sound easy - 'follow your bliss and the rest will fall into place' kinda thing. This is misleading and potentially dangerous. It was absolutely devastating to be brought back to square one this year after I thought I was finally getting somewhere in changing my career. 
The truth is, following your bliss is not easy, in fact it's not easy even knowing what your 'bliss' is. The human mind is wired towards security and comfort and so most people will stay in the confines of a job. 
If, like me, your mind is constantly scattered and all over the place, you need to put in place a solid plan if you have sincere desires to change your life. And I'm still not at that point yet. 

The journey continues .... 
Peace