Modern man seems to have lost the technologies that enable us to let go of things, and so they simply pile up inside of us, year after year after year.

The tipping point of consumerism is hoarding and overindulgence.  They are inevitable parts of a society that doesn’t let go.

These sometimes manifest physically, through depression, stress, feeling overwhelmed by life, feeling trapped, being burnt-out, not feeling present, etc.

The belief that one should covet things, hold onto them and that they define us has had a profound affect on the way we deal with emotional stresses.  Things happen, we simply pack it away somewhere and never look at it again.

If life is a house, ours is filled with so much “stuff” that we rarely spend any time there.  Most people live their lives hovering slightly outside their own bodies, simply because there’s no space left in their own heads.

We are emotionally stifled by things that happened twenty years ago, that we never had the opportunity to let go of, and so we operate in a state of semi-hysteria most of the time, because of this hoarding – we can barely breathe.  We are running, always running.  Add one more thing to our agenda and the whole tower will come tumbling down.

We have deleted all the processing elements that are necessary to be functional human beings.  We don’t process in our daily lives, as families, as communities and as countries.

This has left us emotionally and spiritually congested, which has systematically caused a disconnect from our soul desires and tasks.  We are disconnected from ourselves, our families and our communities, lost in a world filled with things and devoid of meaning.

We never purify ourselves, we never purge.   We gather and gather and gather.  We have become a compulsive race.

If you’re lucky, you visit a psychologist who will talk you through things and help you to make sense of it.  Speaking it out is a partial release, but it is not a purification. 

After many years of hoarding we have become afraid of creating space, of letting go.  We believe that if we let go of things a big empty chasm of nothingness will be all that remains.  We seem to think meaning would seep from our lives.

In truth, we would be making space for meaning to return to our lives.  We would make space to see what we’re about again.  We would breathe again.  We’d ventilate our lives.

I am systematically becoming more and more convinced that the fact that we’ve lost this simple technology (sacred purification) might be at the heart of our unhappiness.

Sacred Purification means letting go or burning out excess emotions, ideas and energy through the use of symbols, rituals and various forms of abstinence in order to find and re-connect with your soul.

It requires physical engagement, commitment and sacrifice from the person to be successful.

We need to scrape off the dank, smoky remains of the industrial revolution within ourselves, as much as in the world around us.

We stand at the precipice of a new era, a new time, and as with all ritual change, we need to prepare ourselves mentally, physically and spiritually for it.

A paradigm shift is required, if we are to reconnect to ourselves and each other.  We need to move back to embracing who and what we are by uncovering ourselves  – to set ourselves free and find our own individual empowerment, to survive and flourish as  a species.

We have to “un-domesticate” ourselves to some extent, as domestication by nature requires relinquishing your power in order to be taken care of.   It requires handing over responsibility for yourself.  It means being submissive, and accepting the status quo.

It also means you are more vulnerable, which heightens you levels of fear.  What should happen if the hand that gives disappeared?  What would happen if the superficial system in place was to dissolve?

The metaphorical garden gate is in the process of opening, and either we’re going to be prepared for it, or we will suffer a great deal because we didn’t.

Connect to yourself: your own needs and desires.  Don’t underestimate how much time this might take.  You are a deep well filled with things.  It might take some time to unpack all of it and get to the water at the bottom, but when you do, you will have the ability to sustain yourself.

Connect to the world around you.  Go out into nature.  Go camping.  Stick your hands into the ground, swim, get out of your head and into your body.  You are part of all of it.

Connect to beauty.