"We humans think we're such good..."

predictors of the future. But we're not."

I overheard someone saying this in a conversation and appreciated just how true it is. We humans spend so so so much of our time predicting the future. We use our past experiences as a basis to plan and predict what could potentially happen in the future. But if we took a moment to truly look, we would realize that we have no idea what is to come. No idea where life will take us or whether we'll even be alive tomorrow. There are no guarantees, no matter how hard we try to find them.

I say this and I feel it. I feel a sense of excitement for a world of possibilities and futures. A completely unpredictable tomorrow. Yet, under that sense of excitement is a fear. A fear that I am constantly stepping into the unknown and the world is constantly changing without anything to grab onto. Something I know to be true in this moment, in the next can be proven false. I find my mind grappling with this often. Trying to grasp the past. Trying to come to terms with change, people change, situations change, plans change, I change. I am nothing solid.

The idea of a permanent me is where this desire for solidity stems from. Yet this I is a fallacy. This I is built on memories and past experiences. This I truly only exists in this moment, as a feeling, sensation, experience. I do not exist as a culmination of my past. I am only now and thus I should not fear the flow of the life. The ever changing circumstances. It is only in wanting to solidify and grasp them that I experience suffering.

Alan Watts speaks of the idea of life being like water. That water can be beaten and trapped, etc. and yet it only yields as it is able and flows around the obstacles that arise. I love this analogy. We too can be like water accepting life as it is without rebellion, without suffering, just flowing as we are able, following gravity as it shapes and dictates.

Alan Watts also talks about the problem of humans relying upon their brains too much and not being in tune with their bodies enough. He talks about the innate knowledge our bodies have that we are out of touch with. Similar to the instincts of animals, we know when to eat, when to rest, when to have sex, when to migrate or move. But we choose to follow our mind's desires rather than our bodies. We over eat because our mind wants more pleasure. We are lazy or overly busy trying to reach goals our mind sets out for us. We lust after pretty people and superficiality rather than listening to our bodies and visceral appeal. We chase pleasures or avert pains based on thinking and intellectualizing that which our instinct and innate self knows.

I think meditation and finding space from our minds is the first step in tuning in to what our bodies need and know. Listening more than telling. Slowing down and feeling rather than trying to manipulate and dictate. Exercise and yoga too seem to increase our mind/body connection rather than increasing the divide. Choosing to be aware and allow the body to lead for awhile. I think we might all be surprised with how much our bodies know.