A Tale of Two Realities
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (artist unknown)
The human experience is made up of two, often competing, realities. One is the reality of the mind and the other is the Reality of the soul. Whatever reality you choose to live in, invest in, believe in, and relate to determines your happiness and sense of well-being.
The reality of the mind is formed by a combination of neurological wiring, psychological conditioning, and nervous system imprinting. This reality is primarily about a sense of safety and identity. It is constantly using comparison and projection to affirm this reality through stories and narratives.
I will use my brain as an example. As a mammal, I have the same neurological and baseline nervous system imprinting as everyone else. I feel a normal range of emotions and have typical fears, wants, needs and desires. However, there are two additional significant factors that influence the reality of my mind:
Trauma - which influences my relationships with others
ADHD - which influences my decision-making
As I’ve continued on the journey of raising my consciousness, I can more clearly than ever see the difference between the reality of my mind and the Reality of my soul. When I was further down the consciousness spectrum, I saw things primarily through a lens of beliefs and personality traits. I wasn’t aware that trauma and ADHD were informing so many of my behaviors and so much of my mindset and decision-making. I was not aware of a Reality different than what my mind was calling reality. I had safety and an identity. And I had the authority and resources to continue to feed this reality.
As I went through the awakening process, what used to make me feel safe and what used to be my identity both evolved or died. Yet the mechanisms that made this reality remained in place. I began to see that these mechanisms were mostly about protecting me from rejection - which was the primary indelible mark left by traumatic experiences.