In a previous newsletter I explored some ideas around the illusory nature of linear time and how past and future lives are actually happening at the same time. Following on from that is a question – how might we use this to help us live in better balance?
One area around this I want to focus on is ‘repetition’. I feel it’s true to say that the second time we experience something is rarely as exciting as the first. However hard we chase, it just doesn’t give the same buzz. We can try a more expensive version, or a more exciting one, but the magic of the first time has gone. It’s so hard to replicate that initial feeling of joy, of newness, however hard we try.
I believe there is a reason for this. Our souls are here for the experience, but they live in eternal time, so once something has happened it stays with us. Our souls just aren’t interested in repeating the same feeling because they are already living in it, able to access it in any moment. That first kiss…. that amazing holiday…. that first bicycle ride….they are happening all the time in Spirit.
The only part of us that seeks to re-experience a pleasure is the human part of us that lives in linear time. That part of us feels that, once something has happened, it is over and therefore lost. If it was good, then we should try to find it again.
This means that, in chasing the memory, we are doing so without full investment or support from our soul. Our soul wants something new.
I believe there are gifts held within the process of linear time if we allow it to flow with grace. It allows us to be constantly in motion, moving through the various seasons and cycles of life with all their new opportunities.
This still allows for structures and some pillars of stability, but these should hold us, like a loving guardian, and not constrict us into rigidity or repetition.
Our bodies also help us through the way cells replicate. If we like adrenaline charged experiences, our cells regenerate with more receptor sites for adrenaline, meaning that more and more excitement is needed to generate the same feeling. The same applies to sugar, spicy foods, drugs – pretty much any experience – so we are being shown the ever increasing cost of trying to find happiness through repetition.
Too much of the same, whether foods or experiences, can make us unwell or unfulfilled. Science is now recognising this with our microbiome, that diversity of good bacteria through a healthy and varied diet is key to our mental as well as physical health. There is a message in that.
This should encourage us to look for new expressions of love, fresh nuances, rather than attempting to recreate what has already ‘passed’. If we can master this, knowing that all our experiences can be accessed forever anyway, if we want to, then we no longer need to chase life. We don’t need to be caught in greed, adrenaline, addiction or repetition. We can embrace each new moment knowing that nothing previous is ever lost to us.
I want to finish by coming back to where the inspiration for this newsletter actually started, the words of my favourite song lyrics, written for Whitney Houston by Albert Hammond and John Bettis. Perhaps you can read this short extract with a fresh perspective…
“I want one moment in time
When I’m more than I thought I could be
When all of my dreams are a heart beat away
And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time
When I’m racing with destiny
And in that one moment of time
I will feel
I will feel eternity”
With love
Andrew