My eternal companion

My eternal companion was born with me on the same day and at the same time. We arrived together to assimilate this world. Without my eternal companion, my chances of survival would have been reduced to a minimum. Thanks to her, I understood the dangers (some real, some imagined) and was able to grow.

I don't remember how he spoke to me when I was little. I imagine he was just on guard. Probably, if he saw something upsetting, he'd walk away. If he noticed discomfort, he'd tell me to cry.

Then, like a computer, it accumulated records to protect me from the future. That's probably how it understood that darkness was dangerous and that loud noises were a warning sign (which isn't always true).

My eternal companion is similar to other eternal companions: those of family and friends. We all have an eternal companion that will live with us until the end of our days. That little voice that causes us anxiety, impatience, insecurity, and distrust, but that also pushes us to leave our comfort zone and distances us from threats (real or imagined).

The complex thing is when everyone's eternal companions unite in a collective and take control; because from there, only chaos can ensue. When the anxious, fearful, and depressed eternal companions unite, the collective behaves in the same way, and then we have a world with the same characteristics.

Eternal companions are like a small child who needs understanding and love. We can't fight them; we can only accept them. Accepting our eternal companion as they are opens the door to unconditional love.

When we feel an emotion we don't want—anxiety, impatience, anger—the desire to avoid it makes it worse. Unconditional love begins when we see the emotion and accept it: "I love you even if you're anxious"; "I love you even if I don't want to feel what you feel." This is how the relationship with our eternal companion begins to heal; this is how the relationship with ourselves begins to heal.

We must accept and love our eternal companion. Normally, we feel the emotion, but before that, our eternal companion dictated a thought. Sometimes thoughts are so quick that we don't see them and we just feel the emotion. We wake up and, in the first microsecond, we're thinking about "everything we have to do that day," so when we get out of bed, we're already anxious or angry.

First, we had the flashbulb thought of "everything needs to be done," and the second, we were already anxious or angry. This eternal companion's primary function is to "protect" us and react based on past events. So, when we wake up, it feels the need to put us in "survival mode" and alert us about "everything that needs to be done that day," and then "protect" us through anxiety.

Normally, when we feel an emotion (because we almost never see the thought), we want to push it away, so we distract ourselves with our phone or something else, but that only makes the emotion worse. What our eternal companion needs is attention and love. So, instead of ignoring what's happening, we must accept the emotion and let it pass.

This is a lifelong exercise, and there are those who die thinking that their eternal companion is greater than themselves and never realize that two of them live together.

We're all bothered by that little voice. We all have it. We all have thoughts we'd like to "avoid."

Some have been fortunate enough to be born into more pleasant environments (physically or emotionally), which makes their little voices less noisy; but for others, the opposite is true (so we shouldn't judge).

#consciousness #mindfulness #wecandobetter