I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and am often reminded of it as a correction to our collective orientation.
We with CFS express, often without intending it, what’s missing from the collective orientation in our culture and civilization. We are a reminder of what’s missing. We are an invitation for the rest to bring more of what we live into their own lives, as medicine for an imbalance in the culture.
What do I mean by that?
A CORRECTION TO A DOING-FOCUSED CIVILIZATION
The most obvious is that it’s a correction to the doer orientation in our culture. We are trained to find our value in our actions and what we do. The more productive we are, the better. What we produce tells us and others who we are. It’s telling that the first thing we may ask a stranger is: what do you do? meaning what work do you do? What do you produce? We ask this as if that’s going to tell us the most important thing about that person.
Those of us with CFS are invited to find our value independent of what we do or produce. Who am I without identities related to doing and producing? Who am I independent of what I produce? Where is my real value? When I find that, I also find the more fundamental value of others and all beings.
Can I find genuine peace with resting? With taking care of myself? With saying an honest “no”? Do I see that an honest “no” is a yes to myself?
Can I find the genuine blessing in all of this?
Whether we notice or not, all of this is a blessing to society as a whole. It’s a reminder that we all have adopted the production-oriented mindset of our civilization. It’s an example of a different way of being.
The examination is an example. The freedom of certain shoulds is an example. Finding value in ourselves and others independent of what we produce is an example. How people live it will vary greatly, of course. If we can, we will still do and produce but from a different place in us.
HEIGHTENED SENSITIVITY
Another side of this is heightened sensitivity to several products of our culture and civilization.
I am highly sensitive to noise, certain foods, chemicals, and more, as are most people with CFS. We pick up the effects of these things and are strongly impacted by it. Most people experience and live the same effects, but they may not notice since their system is more robust and has more energy to deal with it and regulate its way out of the most obvious effects.
Noise impacts all of us. It creates stress. It takes energy to process and deal with. Those of us with CFS pick this up and express and live it, as a reminder to the rest of us who may not notice it so clearly.
Many of the foods common today are harmful to our health. My system has a strong reaction to just about anything I cannot make in my own kitchen from ingredients that are simple, whole, and low on the food chain. It’s a reminder to us collectively. This food is not what our bodies are meant to digest, it causes problems, and simpler foods are more natural for us to eat.
We willingly surround ourselves with a large amount of industrial chemicals in perfume, cleaning supplies, clothes, and so on. The sensitivity of us with CFS is again a reminder that this is not what our bodies have evolved to deal with, and it can and will impact our health.
We are canaries in the coal mine. The way our systems react is an early warning to the rest of humanity.
SIMILAR TO DREAMS
This is similar to dreams.
We have a conscious orientation, conscious identities, and so on. And yet, far more is going on in us and a lot doesn’t fit our often one-sided conscious orientation and identifications. Any orientation and any identification leaves, by necessity, a lot out.
Many dreams remind us of what’s left out. They are invitations to become more familiar with these sides of us, notice how we are already living them, explore other ways of more consciously bringing them into life, and embrace them more in our conscious view of life and ourselves.
This dynamic also happens in the world.
A problematic child is often a symptom of an imbalance in the family. They remind the family of what’s not consciously included and embraced.
Many health problems are a symptom of an imbalance in our culture and civilization.
Many of our current ecological crises are the same, a symptom of an imbalance in our civilization.
We can see all of this as a problem to be ignored or fixed so it can go away, and we go about it without looking at the bigger picture. We treat the symptom, which often means the imbalance will create other and more severe symptoms.
We can also see it all as a symptom, find some curiosity about it, and see what we can change in ourselves and in our culture and civilization.
This requires some receptivity and willingness to change, and what we need to change is often something deeply ingrained.
Finding that willingness can take some time. It may be the last resort for us after everything else has failed.
ONGOING PROCESS
This doesn’t mean that there is something inherently wrong with having an imbalanced orientation. It’s inevitable that our orientation is one-sided and leaves something out.
This is more about the process. We can look for signs of what’s left out and consciously explore, embrace, and live it.
There will always be something left out to notice, explore, and embrace.
There is an infinite amount of things that we leave out in our conscious orientation, as individuals and collective, and that’s wonderful. That means it’s an ongoing process. The exploration will not end because we run out of things to notice, explore, and embrace.
INITIAL NOTES
CFS as a correction to our collective orientation
- highly sensitive to food, noise, chemicals etc
- Correction to doing oriented culture, finding value through doing,
- Instead, value in being, as we are independent of doing
- Similar to a dream, shows a correction, a complement, a side not so consciously aware of
….
This dynamic also happens in our society and civilization. Anything that doesn’t quite fit into the mainstream is a reminder of a narrow set of values.