When the S*** hits the fan

An increasingly common occurrence.

My usual comment on this is that when the S*** hits the fan, turn the fan off. Much less to clean up in the morning.

Easier said than done because by the time the S*** hits the fan you are so lost down the rabbit hole you no longer even know which way is up. You are lost in reaction, lost to the emotions / feelings that have arisen, seemingly out of nowhere.

Perhaps the best answer to this concern is to prevent the S*** from building to such a point that it never reaches the fan.

How to do this? The S*** arises from the subconscious, subconscious must mean that it is not in our conscious awareness. So, not being aware of its existence how can we know we have any S*** building up?

The subconscious, as I have mentioned many times is what Jung referred to as the shadow, aspects of the self that have not yet been brought into the light of conscious awareness.

Most people fail to recognise that this exists, simply because the experiences, the conditioning that allowed this ‘shadow’ to develop are buried so deep in the psyche that they appear to have become a part of who we believe ourselves to be. We are often blamed by others because we fail to meet their expectations, yet those others are also suffering from the effects of their own shadow. The old ‘pot calling the kettle black,’ hypocrisy born out of a lack of understanding.

In my experience of working with many people over the course of many years, is that most people spend their lives running from the shadow. This ‘shadow’ seems to hold trauma rather than pleasant, comfortable feelings.

Because these traumatic experiences can have their roots in many places, ‘soul’ memory, ‘genetics’ indoctrination or simply experienced phenomena that was too much for the young individual to process effectively it is hard, if not impossible to recognise their true origin, therefore a path not worth exploring.

We seem naturally inclined to gravitate towards pleasant memories, warm feelings, happy times and instinctively avoid the darker, less pleasant experiences., This is running away from aspects of the self that we are not yet comfortable with.

How do we know we have this ‘shadow’? All experiences that we meet along the way are indications of that which we have embraced and that which, for whatever reason, we avoid.

When issues stored in the shadow aka backpack are not recognised and released it seems as though pressure builds, this pressure creates, or appears to create situations, circumstances, people that challenge us, make us feel uncomfortable. The natural response to discomfort is to blame, to judge the other, to first become defensive, then aggressive.

By judging and blaming situations – or those around – us we are simply giving more energy to the subconscious conditioning. In simple terms this means adding more charge to the apparent conflict we face.

So, we run away from that which we do not understand. That which we ‘judge’ as unpleasant. How many pairs of running shoes have you worn outing your avoidance of the unknown?

The longer we run, and there are many manifestations of this running away, e.g. the jobs we choose, the life we live, the partners we meet up with, much of our life is both a manifestation of a subconscious drive and a limited amount of ‘free will’ although this ‘free will’ must also be a product of a subconscious drive.

The rabbit hole!

There comes a time, and it seems to be manifesting more and more in recent months, where we can no longer keep running away, than maybe a sign of the times, or maybe just the amount of pressure that has built within us that it is no longer containable.

Any system, mechanical, electrical or human, can only take a certain amount of pressure before the safety valve blows. This, in human terms, is called when the S*** hits the fan.

We get overwhelmed by information, most of which is unpleasant to the point we can no longer control the surfacing of old patterns that have been driving us for most, if not all of our lives.

Everyone seems to start this journey through life from different points, so there is no one fix for all. The charge that builds in the human system can be referred to as Karma, this karmic charge needs to be expressed in order for us to both live a more comfortable, effortless life and move on in the bigger picture.

This charge only exists as the result of some deeply rooted judgement, this is good, this is bad, I like this I duo not like that, etc.

As we learn to stop judging and blaming, others and the self, the intensity of the charge must reduce, when charge reduces it is no longer building in the background and therefore less likely to reach a point where it hits the fan.

Not much help for those experiencing the S*** now though. For those of you, seek support from those who empathise, not those who sympathise. Nothing last forever, just appears that way from where you are looking at life.

The storm will pass quicker if you can put your attention in places, other than focussing on the S*** Storm you appear to be going through.