You are an Atomic Reactor

"Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; None but ourselves can free our minds. Have no fear for atomic energy, 'Cause none of them can stop the time." - Bob Marley

In the Redemption Song, I believe Bob Marley is speaking of the eternal time that IS, not 8am Central Standard Time. Atomic energy, or really its' misuse, could one day end human clock time, but it can never destroy the eternal "Isness" or existence of the universe. 

In thinking about atomic energy (or any large topic) I try and bring it back to a personal level for myself to understand it. How is this a metaphor for my personal life and what can I learn from it to help others. 

In a basic sense, I am an atomic reactor. I consume "exterior" inputs, split atoms, and create something from them. Everything has an input and an output, whether I acknowledge it, notice it or not. Nothing stays the same inside me, it always undergoes constant transformation - there is no static or neutral affect. I can transform good things to better things just as I can transform "bad" things to good things. 

How I transform things is based on how powerful my spirit is. If I am weak in spirit it will be very difficult to transform bad things to good things as that takes a lot of energy. Sometimes I can input so many bad things the spirit breaks, the mind breaks, the body breaks and then bad things get worse. 

The most simple illustration is eating. I consume food, split the atoms in my digestive track and transform the food into energy and waste. In my past I consumed too much of the wrong kinds of food and the result was I became overfat, created a lot of waste and little useful energy. It becomes a spiral downwards, which requires a massive amount of energy to get out of. It is much easier to not be overfat in the first place than it is to lose weight. Yet, it happened to me and billions of other people.

To bring in some science, the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics states that the entropy (disorder) of a system will always increase in time. So, over time I will always become more disordered, which means I will always require more maintenance to avoid disorder and then more energy to restore order to the disordered system. Think of a business, as it grows it normally becomes more disfunctional and needs more systems, rules and managers to keep it working properly. 

I like this definition of entropy below - 'gradual decline into disorder.' That pretty much defines our human existence in our bodies, it defines our governmental systems, financial systems, school systems, family systems, relationships... If left unattended, all of those quickly devlove into disorder.

It is easier to maintain a system than to repair one. Thus, eating properly, meditating, walking, smiling, talking and being present in my relationships on a daily basis are easier to do than let them all fall apart and have to make some massive energy to correct the problems. 

I have never been so good at maintenance and many times have had to make huge efforts to correct very systematic problems with my health and relationships. A good analogy is changing the oil in a car - sure it's annoying and boring, but if not done after some time the engine blows up and then it's a costly repair versus $20 here and there.  I have to develop the discipline to do the maintenance to avoid the disaster.

Many people think I did something great by recovering from drug addiction, recovering from bankruptcy and being able to keep going and not give up in the face of disaster. Maybe that's great, I still would have preferred to never be in the place of disaster in the first place. Many of the disasters in my life could have been prevented with some basic maintenance, but I did not know any better. I did the best I could in those times as if I could have done better I would have. 

Now I know better and still find myself falling into the trap of not maintaining things. I don't think I'm special in any bad way, it's a fault of the brain and human condition. We are not made to really think that far in the future. We are not that far evolved from apes, only capable of thinking about what we need right now to survive. 

So, I have to build structure, discipline and protection for myself and my mind to avoid falling into disaster again. This is difficult, especially when things are generally going well. That's when the maintenance and discipline are the most important. I'm very good at disaster recovery, I've been doing it my whole life. Maybe there is a career or job doing that, I'd be good at it and could get paid. 

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There is so much I do not control... you, them and everything else outside of myself. 

I start with the basics that I can control - the external inputs I allow into my body and mind. I spoke of food already, I try to eat healthy and nutrition food, that's a good start for physical and mental health. 

A more powerful form of consumption is that of the mind. This covers all of what I feed my brain with. This is a challenging form of consumption to control with all the forms of media in the world today. 

Every single image or piece of data is actually stored and logged in my mental memory banks building a warehouse of information in which my mind constructs a view of what I call "reality". Food for my mind also comes from the people I surround myself with and their "outputs". 

When I spent most of my time focused on what I saw, heard and was told  to believe about myself and the world, it was not a pretty picture. No wonder I can get overly stressed, depressed and worried. The world has something to sell and it is normally a need, want and fear to consume their product. It can be like drinking poison for my mind. I start to believe I need and want what they are selling because I will not be enough without them.

I consume all of those external "things" and through the power of the mind and body transform them into physical and mental energy. If I consume fear and negativity it requires more energy from my mind to transform it into something good. If I consume love and positivity, then there is little energy required and my mental, emotional and spiritual self is still on the path.

As Bob Marley sang, I must first emancipate myself from mental slavery. There is hope for personal emancipation and the one important step is refining my external environment to limit the amount of toxicity I allow into my spiritual core. Thus, why I don't watch the news, limit media inputs, try not to spend too much time on social media as a protection for my mind and spirit. Liberation is difficult when bombarding my brain with unhealthy external inputs.

Bringing in clean, healthy, non-toxic material into my core is the only way to be able to emit radiant beauty. Clean food, positive influences, loving people, a healthy environment, etc... are all absolutely essential in being able to live a positive, healthy and loving existence. Being there, after some time I am better able to transform the garbage from the external environment into flowers.