It's easy because it's complicated
Knowing is half the battle.
With all the factors required for simple things, like figuring out what’s for dinner, is it any wonder that life can feel so gosh-darn hard?
The human experience is mind-bogglingly complicated. The logistics, the feelings, the relationships, the family dynamics, the voice(s) in our heads. It goes on and on - we think we get one thing under control, and another thing falls to bits.
Many of us settle into some stability, which mitigates many of those stresses. Yet, even for those fortunate souls who no longer live in chaos, feeling good in our minds and skins and getting along nicely with others is no small feat.
Or, at least, it hasn’t been for me.
I used to do (and still know I’m capable of) this thing where I’d feel perfect for a while, and then the world would blow up. This article is a little intro into the perspective I’ve arrived at through practice and research that has been helpful for me.
Four Worlds
Our experience seems to have four worlds, each building off and supporting the others.
The four worlds are:
Body
Emotion
Intellect
Will
Part of what kept getting me is that I would work in one world, maybe two, and occasionally three, but never all four. I didn’t know I had to. When two or more worlds had stuff happening, I was more likely to be destabilized and uncomfortable … and see legitimate changes in my life.
The nice thing, and the problem, with language is that it conveys meaning. When I say concrete things like body, emotion, intellect, and will, you pull forward the meaning those words have for you. Odds are, it’s close enough. But it’s incredibly limiting, and I want to invite you to explore these worlds.
We discover new horizons through exploration, not by going over familiar ground.
This is where metaphor comes in. Each world has a corresponding element. Each element connects us to specific characteristics. We can explore the different worlds by examining each element’s attributes and how they interact.
The color associations and lists of characteristics are just general launching points. For example, sometimes relating to Earth might call forward golden yellows or shades of green, and Air can feel more like lighter, sunny yellows.
The correspondences we can make around each element are limitless, and that process is what hones our capacity to work in each of the realms. With ready access to each of them, we can be in tune with the totality of our system and make profound shifts in our lives. Importantly, we can not only see how each element is present, but we can see how their relative influences are functioning together.
To go into all the ways that we can notice imbalances is far too extensive for this intro. For example, excess of Earth can be apathetic, excess of Water can be irrational, excess of Air can be anxious, and excess of Fire can be out of control.
One Container
The fifth element is Space.
Space isn’t a world so much as it is the potential for there to be elements in the first place. Most critically, when we can connect with Space, the other elements can be seen in their ongoing harmonies - the appropriate interplay of each for the situation.
It’s the element that is most frequently tied to ideas commonly considered spiritual, like Pure Awareness, Spirit, Mahamudra, Consciousness Itself, the Dao, Prima Materia, Mushin/No-mind, Unified Field, etc.
Space is not directly knowable; it is invisible and beyond words, but it can be experienced as the eternal, sublime essence within which all of our experience rises, persists, and disintegrates.
Touching into the qualities of Space is to connect with:
Bliss
Contentment
Clear-sightedness
Fearlessness
Vastness
Silence
Unity
While the other elements are all realms of action, Space is recalled through stillness.
Bringing it Together
I have become much more intimate with my experience by exploring the four worlds and Space through these metaphors. This has enabled me to feel where things are appropriately harmonized and where things feel off.
As an example, writing this Substack only became possible for me after gaining some facility with this model. For years, I’ve felt creative pressure (Will/Fire) to share the skills that I have curated for myself with others. I kept blocking myself in different ways with different elemental imbalances. It can still happen, so I have to rest in Space and look at the harmonization. If Earth gets too dominant, I become passive, apathetic, hopeless, and give up or don’t start. When Water dominates, I block myself with insecurity and a lack of directed focus. When Air dominates, I become anxious/rigid about deadlines, shield my self-expression through an overly intellectual style, or aimlessly procrastinate. If the Fire gets too hot, I burn myself out and collapse (usually into Earth).
Noticing when something feels off is exciting now because the framework has given me a systematic process of checking in on each world and seeing where the dissonance lies. Before, doing the exploration without giving it structure was like setting off on a trailblazing adventure without having learned bushcraft, reading a compass or map, or even having a direction in mind.
It was a crapshoot. Will I get lost and give up and hope for something different next time? Will I find a total gem that revolutionizes how I live? Let’s find out!
Breaking things down into a more complicated framework allows the simple “I don’t feel quite right” to be explored much more deeply and safely.
The unknown, final frontiers will always bring surprises. Now, I can face them with excitement and curiosity.
Up Next:
I’ll continue this series with more in-depth explorations of the worlds and exercises to get to know them, their strengths and weaknesses, and bring them into harmony.
I invite you to follow along and try it out; maybe it can help you, too!
I'm very curious how this will change my view on different situations...