It’s All About Connections
What if the questions of life, the Universe, and everything are all about connections?
There is nobody in your head but you.
You are the only consciousness inhabiting your mind, body, and soul. The notions, ideas, beliefs, values, habits, and everything that makes you, you, are singular. There is no us inside of you, no them, just you.
But you’re not alone on this planet. No, there are nearly 8 billion other people here. And that’s just humanity – the animals on this planet outnumber us a lot.
Despite all the people and creatures on Planet Earth – you’re alone inside of you. And given human nature to be social – that’s a lonely place to be.
We all know introverts, extroverts, and ambiverts. There are plenty of people we encounter who we see as the life of the party, everybody’s friend, and so on.
Likewise, we know plenty of people who prefer solitude. They would rather sit alone and read than go to that party. But there are times that they, too, seek out others for company.
Most of us fall somewhere in the middle. We want to have our people around us – and we also like to go it alone. I love the morning solitude of sitting on my couch (with or without a cat) and reading. Writing is a solitary act. But I also love to hang out with friends in groups when we can.
When all is said and done, we are, ultimately, alone within ourselves. And because of this truth, we all seek out connections.
How we connect is variable. But why we connect – I believe – is the answer to the great questions.
Connections and life, the Universe, and everything
Because we are alone within ourselves – but naturally curious and social creatures – to be social, we must make connections.
Some social circles are super broad – religions, nationalities, genders, and so on. The next level in is narrower but still broad – families, individual churches, workplaces, social organizations, and the like.
Then it gets personal. The people we choose to call friends; physical, mental, and emotional intimates; close-knit family; partnerships, and other direct personal relations. These are your people versus people in general.
What’s the difference? People can be exhausting, infuriating, disturbing, distressing, and every other negative you can imagine. When you stand on one side of a divide – natural or artificial – the people on the other side might be some you have less-than-zero interest in knowing or associating with.
On the other hand, YOUR people – and some of the people that tend to be their people – are okay. You have connections, shared values and beliefs, and other elements you can come together over.
There is comfort in our connections. We seek and find people we can talk to, who “get us” and our way of being. People we can imagine sharing our brains, getting into our hearts, minds, and souls, and knowing us as intimately as we know ourselves.
Except, of course, they can’t enter into us any more than we can enter into them. This means all connections we can make are impermanent, changeable, and potentially unstable. While this is something we frequently relegate to the back of our heads – it’s still there. And it can become brain weasels and similar notions you carry of unworthiness, imposter syndrome, and the like.
To overcome feeling alone inside of ourselves we seek connections. But even finding them, we know – deep down – that they are impermanent.
Impermanence in the human condition
Buddhism and Hinduism both put a lot of energy into the notion of impermanence and its impact on the human condition.
In the worlds of Jen Sincero –
“You are a human, being.”
To me, what that means is that we’re here to be – and as such to experience the vast offerings we will encounter in our lives. Unless, of course, we choose to curl up in a ball and await death – or just let life live us like a bear lives in its fur.
The notion of impermanence, if you are unfamiliar, is that all is transient. Nothing lasts forever, period. Both philosophy AND science agree with this. NOTHING lasts forever. Change is the only constant in the entire Universe.
The concept of forever and infinity is impossible to grasp by the human mind. The meat popsicles that are our bodies are tiny and short-lived in the grand scheme of the cosmos. And no matter how many connections we make in our lives – we remain inside of these bodies, all alone.
Many, many people hate being alone. And loneliness is the cause of depression, anxiety, suicide, homicide, and numerous other negatives.
It’s almost like we have a need – in our loneliness and lack of connection – to rob others of THEIR connections to feel the same.
Coming to understand the notion of impermanence is one way to get over the loneliness of being the only person inside your head, heart, and soul. How? Because beyond our bodies WE ARE All CONNECTED.
The whole Universe is made up of energy. Energy that can neither be created nor destroyed – it just changes. Ergo, all of us come from and return to the overall unseen energy that hasn’t transmuted to a physical form. We might feel alone – but we aren’t.
Recognizing we’re ALL alone forms connections
I recognize that’s a paradox. But it’s still true. In acknowledging that we are each alone inside of our perceptions of ourselves, we have made connections.
These connections within, to our sense of being, help us to make further connections without.
This, I think, is what the philosophers and gurus have been trying for nearly all known written time to understand and explain. Because of the ego, and the notion of self, we have the notion of being alone. That causes us to seek external connections.
But when we see that internally all is one and the connections already exist – we can alleviate that loneliness. We can see that we’re not alone. The connections exist – deep within.
But the outside picture is how you and I perceive this world. First, there is the identity of self, followed by the identity of others. Because each of us is alone inside of the self, we make attempts to connect with others. But even with those connections, we remain alone inside of ourselves.
However, when we connect better within to the depths of our subconscious and core being, we can see that we ARE, in truth, interconnected with the entire cosmos. That’s the point of enlightenment and trying to understand how the ego and notions of self are the cause of our loneliness. And it is our loneliness that drives the act of making connections.
I know that this seems roundabout and convoluted – but it’s simple. The answers we seek to the questions of life, the Universe, and everything aren’t outside of us – they are inside. They’re already here – we just need to stop feeling alone in the identity of the self to make those connections within.
Permanent connection
The energies that make us all up are connected for all of time. Again, this is because energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It just IS and changes form over time and circumstance.
You, me, grass, sky, subatomic particles, and galaxies are comprised of one thing – energy. And it is connected permanently.
However, when you are a being and have a sense of self – that creates a disconnect. And in the process of forming connections without the constant of change has an impact and influence on all connections we can make.
I am not saying making outside connections is bad – it’s not. It’s necessary for our wellbeing on multiple levels. But to better understand it and to escape the loneliness, we need to connect to our inner selves. Seeing that we are interconnected and not truly alone – despite being the only person within our bodies perceiving reality – can overcome the loneliness.
When we are better connected within, we can be kinder, more compassionate, more empathetic – and connect better without. We can recognize and acknowledge the abundance of the Universe and that there are more than enough connections to go around for everyone.
Maybe – just maybe – connecting more within will lessen the disconnect without. And that, I believe, empowers everyone.
It isn’t hard to make connections within or without
It begins with mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions.
Knowing that your perception of self and being alone is why you seek answers to complex questions – you can see that forming connections is the answer. When you further come to recognize that forming connections without is good – but forming connections within to the energy of the Universe can help alleviate the loneliness – that ultimately empowers you.
When you feel empowered, your mindfulness increases, you become more aware overall, and that gets reflected and spreads to people around you. This creates a feedback loop of awareness and positivity.
You build more positive feelings and discover further reasons to feel positivity and gratitude. That can be the impetus to improve numerous aspects of your life for the better, help overcome the overwhelming negativity of any current situation, and generate yet more positivity and gratitude.
You are worthy and deserving of all the good you desire.
An attitude of gratitude is an attitude of pure positivity. That positivity can generate even greater positive energies – and that, like you, is always worthwhile.
This is the three-hundred and seventy-fourth entry of my Positivity series. It is my hope these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.
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