(4.) The lies about success... Is what keeps us enmeshed, BOX TICKING) When our identity is enmeshed with the expectations of our social environment we strive to deliver ourselves to meet the successes that have been ordained for us. So to speak. But who ordains what those expectations are for success. Michaela

Success in the material world is a 100 metres dash through the societal milestones, but they are set in stone like the 10 Commandments. Ticking boxes. From the very first visual reception, and which continues with stepping stones, we see Televison and film flicker through our sensory perception, with pictures and images of house and home, loving family, success in school and education, career and love life, owning property, parenthood, business and investing, pensions and insurance, and then leaving wealth to our dependents. Girls play with dolls and create kitchens and apartments (or flats as we call them in London) for their doll avatars. The lead here is that a secure home is necessary for life... Great! because that is true...however as we tread further away from that possibility being open to everyone, a loud dissonance is created, and felt internally, and we see homeless and war torn people, further and further away from the shelter and stability of a safe home, a home where we can be at peace and where we can relax to cultivate a creative life. Even away from the places where a home is luxury that the masses do not experience, the extreme taxes. rent, mortgages and cost of living in countries, not only in of Western world, makes that an impossibility for increasing numbers...so that the people who do get to tick that box, have to work two 2 jobs, and if there are children involved, the parenting becomes secondary-if at all, as the parents have become so burdened with the WORK they have to do, to keep that going. Therefore the first box cannot be ticked for the very young children and babies, of being coccooned in a safe world and cared for by parents that see them as priority. Work and industry is paramount, and children's energies are given up to the industry of child care. Of course there are exceptions to this and they are valuable to include as the preferred experience that contrasts with what the majority experience. Mostly Children learn that they are on the wheel to carry on with this type of interaction with life and their soul calling is not heard. Or, if heard it is mocked or ignored. There comes some kind of resistance or rebellion in the teen years but ususally it peters out when nothing solid is there to meet it in the societal environment. Young adults go to university and follow the beliefs that this will secure the stability promised to them by life. In recent years we have learned that often they are let down by what meets them after university, and they feel betrayed by life's promise. So there is work and life insurance for those who can get it. But not for all. There are those who cannot work becasue they 'failed success' in the school and education boxes, or the social status luck of their environments, and they have to find different ways to live. There are also those who choose to drop out from the societal rules and regulations and choose other forms of success instead, personal to them and their breakaway social groups. But knocking on everyones door is the belief of 'success' that is maybe available to only the lucky few. Those that work hard to tick ALLLL the boxes of success, are either exhausted or depressed. Those who fail to tick the boxes of success, can be exhausted or depressed too. Who is winning here. Some may have had to make choices to ONLY be available to those choices. Spiritual fulfillment, mental fulfilment, emotional fulfilfillment and phyiscal ease may have to be left on the shelf while society gets busy with the boxes. We have the christmas release, religious and seasonal happy-holidays to enjoy, we enjoy the big blow out and financial splurge to MAKE CHRISTMAS GREAT. Christmas celebrations (now moving away from its religious origins) was always a carrot on the stick, to make us believe that the hard work is worthwhile, so we get a few days off and buy some great stuff. But the lament after, the anticlimax is there as many find that there has been NO spiritual fullfilment, or physical rest, or any other kind of 'fullfilment' recieved, and families have been left in their individual worry/sadness/come-down after the disappointments and arguments, traumans and tantrums as maybe everyone's indidual personal EXPECTATIONs and emotional fullfilment have NOT BEEN MET. It is these unfilled fullfilments that we have been led away from, by the lies of success box ticking. And NO one KNOWS how that happened, and Christmas or any splurge of material boxticking like halloween is NOT giving the answer. So what does the 'energy drain' down the black hole of all that box ticking....Or... of all those boxes UNticked, caused by an unfair or rigged system, DO TO US ??? Some are rich and some are poor, The top tier get everything. The bottom get nothing, and those in between find ways to drain their life energy, their skills or cunning, to navigate through the closed system, moving up sometimes, down sometimes, learning more about themselves and each other, how we compete, and see that there is not enough for all. This closed system of success shows that closed system has finite resources, limited resources, so grab what you can... and HOW you can... when you can. This gives a survival 'high' or even a temporary "survival emotional fullfilment" but it is fleeting, like a drug. And surviving is not thriving. So.....All our energies have been pulled into the deep pits of black holes of What we think we should be doing, that is..... What WE HAVE BEEN CALLED TO ENGAGE IN with our perception and experience, and where the drive and focus of our energies has been dicatated to by OTHERs. Who is is benefitting from our striving, and struggle to meet the 'success system' that has been rigged to allow ONLY some access to it, and others to fail. When our identity is wrapped up in that, it is our identity that takes a beating, either by ourselves or by the judgment meted out by others. Maybe we should be opening ourselves to 'leaning' into where 'fullfilment' is not societal trend, or socially engineered, but is something we use our own energy, spiritual/mental/physical and emotional, to determine what is true for us individually. Use critical attention to where your energy is going, and when Happy with the direction, place some rocket fuel energy into it... to recreate around that. We need to be learning how to make inroads into living a preferred reality, A parallel world that we consciously create. Perhaps this is the bifurcation energy that we have been hearing about, when more of us pull out and up and discern for ourselves where we are heading.