One of my good friends recently emailed a link to a documentary he found compelling. He shared that the content deeply resonated with him. Like most people we connect to, my friend and I have a common outlook and shared values. We engage our lives in a similar manner. That is enough for me to want to watch the movie.

The documentary is called THE 1 FIELD. It was written and produced by Tsipi Raz. The link is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7m2jsKcZa4. I started to watch the video and immediately dismissed it as “new age-ie.” A genre that quickly loses my interest. Without context to my life, I often find a lot of gibberish in the content. Heeding my friend’s advice, I gave it more time and watched the entire movie.

Although I found a significant amount of the movie a bit “out there,” in terms of relevance, Tsipi Raz clearly articulated several important perspectives. I consider those perspectives part of my spiritual practice and work at keeping them in my awareness. I want to share just two.

The first perspective conjectures that our mind can’t help but constantly interpret the input coming into our awareness. It adds a slant to the incoming information that is uniquely ours. That is what it’s built for, and it does it masterfully. The question is, how reliable is that interpretation? Is there another interpretation? Is there a more accurate one? What life experiences influence how we interpret the circumstances of our lives? It is easy to assume that the thoughts, suggestions, and judgments our mind conjures are the absolute truth of our existence. Where does the truth of our being reside?

Our minds are like attorneys, always in search of evidence to prove we are right. I find letting go of the need to be right and always first trying to move toward relationship paramount to living a life of integrity. As I have often said, I want to engage my life with an open mind and a full heart. 

The second thing I found compelling was what was shared about coherence, the connection between the heart and the brain. 

According to Google, “The vagus nerve carries information from the heart and other internal organs to the brain. Signals from the “heart brain” redirect to the medulla, hypothalamus, thalamus, amygdala, and the cerebral cortex. Thus, the heart sends more signals to the brain than vice versa.” This connection plays an important role in determining the quality of the feelings and emotions we experience. With a very complex nervous system, how do we, as human beings, maintain a state of optimum coherence? How do we stay connected to our hearts and move through life with kindness, compassion, and understanding? How do we provide a state of coherence to our entire life?

What, as individuals, can we do to bring peace, understanding, and well-being not only to our lives but to the world we move through and engage in on a daily basis? How do we lower the level of violence and restore peace around the world? I don’t want to be an innocent bystander. Considering the state of affairs of the world at large, it is a challenging thing to do. Ultimately, how do we self-regulate our stress and its impact on our lives, so we don’t contribute to the chaos? All great questions.

Considering the magnitude of chaos in the world, the obvious answer to practicing meditation or mindfulness seems trite. There is no single answer to bringing love and compassion into an uncertain world. I am left to continually redeem the gift of my life by finding a way of living a life of integrity. 

I belong to a men’s organization called ManKind Project. The tagline for MKP is “Healing the planet one man at a time.” That can easily be changed to “healing the planet one person at a time.” The license plate of my friend’s truck reads the “Power of 1.” I find inspiration in those few words. 

Amidst the chaos and uncertainty of life, I remain open to Grace and the gift of my life.

If you have any questions, please email me at garymerel@gmail.com or call 732-208-2836. Also, please visit my website at leanintoyourlife.net