Divine justice

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We live in an unfair world. For the most part, the dice are thrown at birth. If you are raised in an upper-middle class family in Silicon Valley, your chance of professional and financial success are a million times higher than if you were born into a broken family with an alcoholic father in Cameroon. I have traveled to over 50 countries in the world and I can see how determining the environment we are raised in is.

Life is unfair

All leaders understand that an organization is far more successful when its members believe they are treated fairly and that the system is a meritocracy, where progress is based on ability and talent rather than on class privilege or wealth. Many good leaders strive to create order from the natural chaos of life, and ensure that group members are rewarded according to their actual contribution, themselves included. Unfortunately; many leaders in all branches of society are only making the pretense of justice through sophisticated manipulations and dissimulations, while continuing to follow purely selfish desires. This is why people are more and more disillusioned with politics as they see more and more clearly through the web of lies of leading political parties. But this trend is encompassing all fields of society.

I have had extensive experience with the US legal system and I can only see there the law of the fittest and not the law of justice. People are being fooled by the illusion of fairness in the legal system because laws appear to be neutral and impartial. However, people interpreting the laws are subjective and can easily fall into diverse manipulation, corruption or weakness of character. Most people that have had to endure the US legal system realize that the system itself composed of judges, lawyers and specialists was a more redoubtable adversary than the foe they intended to protect themselves from. I may sound harsh with the US legal system but it is actually better than many legal systems throughout the world that are even far more corrupt.

The injustice system

Following the same train of thoughts, many people, mostly atheists, are arguing that if God was omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, justice and love as all religions claim, then why would the world carry so much pain? We can witness so many real stories where “the good” are abused by “the bad” or where “the cheaters” win over the principled ones. This goes against everything we read or watched as a kid. We get to realize we were led to believe in justice so that we could better manipulated but that it is mostly an illusion.

However; there are many people that came from horrendous childhood environments and managed to overcome their challenging background to achieve extraordinary success. Motivational speakers abound in citing examples from famous people overcoming early struggles.  Though they are a minority, I personally know people who endured the worst possible childhood and who were later on able to raise on top of their field. But if we look at these outliers, these same people had some extraordinary talent that made possible for them to create new opportunities in their life. So to an extent, they were gifted with some good cards despite their environment. So even this argument is more the exception that confirms the rule that we do not live in a fair environment.

Oprah Winfrey and Steve Jobs came from humble beginnings

We make the mistake to equate financial & professional success as the ultimate goal in life. However, if we dive deeper within, we realize that genuine happiness is really what we are after. We only want to be successful as far as we think it is going to make us happy. We all know financially and professionally successful people that are miserable and ordinary people that live a truly happy life. So it appears that happiness may be far less dependent on external situations than we may think.

I can see in my meditation that behind the background of emotions we got to experience every day such as excitement, sadness, joy or disappointment, we can find another dimension of self, the one that is beyond the roles we play everyday. When we commune with our inner self, and we touch our core, what do we find there? Peace or torment.

Torment has many characteristics. It feels like something is missing, that we are out of integrity, we cannot sit still as a result and we are looking for ways to distract ourselves. Judgment towards others or self-hatred which is really the same thing, restlessness, shame, the desire to hide our shameful self by projecting a new persona, identification with negative emotions, feeling split and divided, the feeling unworthy of love, alone and disconnected are all attributes of this state. Actually; many successful people are tormented. Their professional activity or financial success may be simply a coping mechanism for hiding their unhealed traumas or not a direct creative expression of their being.

torment

Peace, on the opposite, comes with the alignment of our personality with our higher self. In that state, we feel love effortlessly by the simple act of being alive. We feel complete, and we may be alone without feeling lonely. We have desires without compulsive needs. We have faith in our future, and we are grateful of the lessons learned even if they were painful. We feel guided and protected. We stay the same authentic person in all situations. We are able to be fully present. Our activities are a natural and direct expression of our being and not an escape.

peace

Genuine and lasting happiness comes mostly from our inner-self and it will determine if we experience torment or peace. This is where divine justice lies. When life brings us joy, we can simply rejoice in it but as life brings us suffering, we have the choice of using this hardship and learning from it. We can then get more loving, compassionate, pure and wise. The conscious experience of suffering can help us narrow the gap between our personality and our spirit, to live a more authentic life and experience inner peace as a result.

One year ago, I lost the woman I loved which compounded the loss of my 2 children 2 years prior. This brought very deep torment to my soul. I struggled with guilt, sadness, betrayal, disappointment, bitterness, discouragement, and depression. I used the very same tools that I am practicing daily on my healing clients, to heal myself.  These tools include: inner work, introspection, conscious somatic experience of negative emotions, learning the lessons, surrounding the hurt aspects with unconditional love & presence, taking responsibility and initiating the appropriate actions.

Divine justice

During the past year, my external situation did not change. However; I am now feeling very different. I am finally AT PEACE. I realize this is the most important thing. This makes me believe that divine justice does exist because there is always a way to make a profit from suffering that comes our way. We are not choosing suffering consciously (though it can be argued that our higher self does) but when tragedy strikes, we still have a choice to look for the hidden gift. The fact that the painful external situation that revealed the inner struggle or unhealed traumas (the loss of love or children in my case) is not changing despite a drastic improved inner state is not a contradiction with the law of attraction because we live in an abundant universe. The law of attraction needs to respect the free will and the point of attraction of all parties involved. So, for example, if one has been alienated from his children, a loving stepchild may appear. Or if the former beloved does not come back to your life, an even more beautiful love will manifest. This is why it is so important not to be fixated on the outcome, but instead to follow one’s heart and surrender to spirit. Human justice may be imperfect so take refuge in divine justice, and inner peace becomes our ultimate reward. Help yourself, and God will help you.

How I ran a full marathon without ever training for more than 3 miles

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Vaillant completes a full marathon

I am a big believer in the balance of the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual aspects of us. Actually, each aspect is symbolized by one of the four elements. Fire for spiritual (really for the soul plane as spirit correlates to Ether or the 5th element), water for emotional, air for mental and earth for physical. Earth is the resultant of fire, water and air elements working together. The quality of our external physical manifestations is therefore directly connected to the quality of our intentions, feelings and thoughts. From my perspective, human beings true mission is to bring the truth of the higher spiritual spheres into our physical reality, hence to bring heaven on earth. Many of us deviate from this purpose as we listen to our ego rather than to our heart.   

A healthy mind in a healthy body

Many spiritual people deny or reject the physical dimension while it is the crucible of our spiritual achievements. This is why we say that actions speak louder than words. On the same token, Mens sana in corpore sano is a Latin phrase, usually translated as “a sound mind in a sound body”. The phrase is widely used in sporting and educational contexts to express the theory that physical exercise is an important or essential part of mental and psychological well-being. Emotional healing needs to go hand in hand with physical healing so I got inspired to get myself back in shape. I also wanted to make a statement for a cause that is close to my heart so I decided to sign up for my first full marathon in Salt Lake City.

As I was doing some online research on preparing for the marathon, I came across a video with Wim Hof, a Dutchman that ran a full marathon in shorts and sandals in temperatures close to −20 °C (−4 °F) above the arctic circle in Finland. He is an adept of meditation and yoga. A lot of scientific studies have been conducted about him that proved his claims. In one of his videos, he said that “awakening is to be happy, strong, and healthy; the rest is BULLSHIT!” And I could not agree with him more. I subsequently read a book he co-authored with Koen De Jong “The way of the iceman”.

The Way of the Iceman

There is a lot of information online about it but basically the Wim Hof method is a combination of breathing exercises and cold training. I am a morning person and this is when I have the most energy. I decided to create my own routine built on these two principles. I would wake-up, put on some motivational workout music, do 3 series of abdominal crunch and push-ups. Then, I would start the Wim Hof breathing exercises that he actually learned from Tibetan Buddhism. I noticed that holding the breath is the part that kicks the primal brain that is responsible for survival and the immune system. While I could only hold my breath for 1 minute initially, I managed to hold it for 3 minutes a month later. Wim Hof is able to hold his breath for about 10 minutes. I noticed that after the third repetition of the breathing exercise, I felt strong and inspired to do anything. The first day I tried it, it was 6 am in Salt Lake City on March 14th under icy condition. I went out with a shirt and shorts. After 2 minutes running, I felt a sense of exhilaration and I took my shirt off and started running bare chest. I felt amazing and so alive. I ran 1.5 mile that first day. The rare people or drivers I came across may have wondered about this crazy guy running naked in freezing Salt Lake City Avenues. I came back home and took a shower, first warm to bring back my body to normal temperature but ended with a cold shower. My torso was red due to the blood circulation but this is actually a healthy sign. Then I would meditate to connect to my heart and plan my day accordingly to live an inspired life. And it happened to be a good day so I got motivated to do it a second day. My body would actually wake me up naturally early, because it was getting already addicted to the high of feeling alive, typically associated with a dopamine or melatonin rush. I kept this strict routine for 7 days in a row. Then I hit a wall. I intuitively felt would get sick if I were to push harder so I took a break.

inner children in adults

As I mentioned in previous blogs, we are a multitude within ourselves. If we keep pushing while ignoring the internal parts of us that feel weak, depressed, worthless or unlovable, these parts will eventually rebel which may manifest in illness or accident. These so-called parts are actually very powerful as they are connected to the inner child, the seat of the soul. During the following week, I did a lot of meditation to listen to these hurt and tender parts of my being, which is commonly called inner child work, while giving my body a well-deserved rest. The adult and child selves within me starting to collaborate more effectively, and I created an inner child playlist mostly made to songs of my childhood. Moving forward, during my routine, I would play both playlists so all my inner children and adults could feel included into this process of getting back in shape. The inner adults bring discipline, knowledge, reason, toughness while the inner children bring enthusiasm, joy, kindness and connection to spirit. Once they start working together, true miracles are possible.

I have included my actual detailed jogging training. As you can see, it alternates cycles of training with periods of rest. And this routine takes relatively little time, 45 minutes at most.

jogging schedule

So I ran a total of 24 miles in total to train for the marathon (less than the marathon distance), never exceeding 3 miles on any given morning however all of these runs happened at low temperature (between 20 and 40 degree Fahrenheit) while running bare chest.

Wim Hof running half naked in winter

One of my training was rather funny and somewhat embarrassing. One of my friends invited me at his cabin in the mountain with over 10 feet of snow. While he started running with me, he quickly returned home. After my regular 20 minute running, I came back but for the life of me, I could not find my way home, as all cabins looked the same. I circled for a while but I was definitely lost. There was also no cell coverage so there is no one I could call. I had to find someone to help me out but the whole neighborhood was empty. There was so much snow that to access any cabin, I would have to plunge into 2 feet of fresh snow well above my knees. There was no street access to the cabins, and most residents there have a snowmobile. There was a small sense of panic but somehow my primal brain had already kicked in due to my new routine and I felt relatively calm and confident. After a few unsuccessful tries, I managed to locate a cabin with people inside. They were definitely surprised to find a naked man asking for hospitality but they were very gracious about it. I called my friend using the WIFI of my unexpected hosts. My friend did not even know his exact address, only the street name as all numbers were covered in snow. I got a map of the residential neighborhood from my new host, and started running again to my friend’s cabin. But after another 25 minutes running in the cold, I still could not find him as it was a rather long street and all cabins looked the same so I had no another choice to return again to my kind hosts. This time, I asked my friend to stay in the street and my compassionate host drove me this time with his snowmobile. And I arrived safely to my friend’s cabin. I was not at all shaken from that experience. We simply laughed, I took a hot shower and then snowboarded the whole day after that. No unnecessary energy had been wasted in fear.

It had snowed the day prior to the Salt Lake City marathon on April 13th. I went to the start a race with shorts and a custom shirt I had designed for my cause, which was now holding my bib. My cold training proved to be very convenient as most runners start the race with lots of layers that they probably had to remove later as it got warmer. I started the race slowly, understanding that I would need the endurance to run approximately 5 hours. I would only play meditation music the first two hours, keeping my workout and inner child playlist for the second part of the race to give me the necessary boosts as things got tougher.

Vaillant running a marathon

My cardio and my spirit felt great however after only one hour, I felt that my legs were heavy and that my kidneys were strained. I had not trained my legs enough so they would realistically be my limiting factor. After 3 hours, my legs and feet were hurting a lot and I used my playlists to kick in my primal brain. This is a form of NLP technique as the music can now be used to trigger the state. I was then running on heart and will alone. I ran one more hour this way until I reach mile 20. Then my legs abandoned me. I became simply incapable of running so I switched to walking. Walking seemed easy at first as it used different leg muscles, and I found out that I could walk relatively fast. The last two miles were however excruciating and I started limping. I had thoughts of giving up but I could not do it now so close from the finish line. And I finally did cross it after almost 6 hours!

Vaillant slowly decomposing when running a full marathon

I called my friend Branson and he picked me up. But little did I realize that I had only won half the battle. Recovering from this grueling effort was next. I had to crawl to get to my bedroom as I was incapable of walking anymore. There, I laid on my bed completely disabled so I called Christian to bring me bananas and water. I just did not have enough energy to have a regular meal. For the next 20 hours, I just alternated between sleep and waking time where I would listen an audio program to distract myself. My energy was even too weak to watch a movie on my phone. The hardest part was to crawl to the bathroom to urinate as I had to drink lots of water to support my kidneys’ healing. It was like being sick. The second day of recovery was a bit better. I still could not leave my bed but I could binge on watching movies, and got myself a real meal. During that recovery time, I use a lot of my awareness to be fully present to my body in order to speed up the healing, no matter how much it hurt. The following Monday, my mind was alert and could do some work on the computer though I was limping pretty badly but at least I was mobile again. Tuesday, I was able to go out at night with friends. I gave ample rest to my body during these days, keeping an easy schedule. On Thursday night, I was scheduled to play a tennis league match against the best team of the league, which had won the nationals last year. I had recovered just in time. Just before the match, I did the breathing exercises taught by Wim Hof which I had not done since the marathon. It kicked back my primal brain. I was calm, and determined to win. As expected, I played against a much better player than me but I felt so strong mentally that I ended up winning 6/3 6/4. My opponent lost his composure, as he could not make sense of my resistance on the tennis court to what was supposed to be an easy win for him. I had an overwhelming desire to win while not facing any stress at all. All my teammates were impressed by my win as they were all severely defeated and we ended up losing 4 matches to 1. This single win was however determinant as it kept us on the second position of the league, keeping our chance to qualify for the district tournament.

Vaillant doing the 999 bike ride in Salt Lake City

But the night was not over. My friend Matt called me up and asked me to join him for the 999 ride in Salt Lake City. It is a weekly bike ride that happens at 9 AM at the corner of 900 S and 900 E. So I went biking with over 100 fun people in the streets of Salt Lake City on a beautiful full moon until midnight. I ended up also speaking with a homeless guy to try to help him out, and meet a bunch of interesting people. The night got cooler but I felt great all along. Even after I came home, I still had plenty of energy. Thank you Wim Hof. I can attest from my own personal experience that your stuff works!

However, just like every new information, it is important to make it your own. We need to experiment just as a scientist would do what works and does not work. We use our body sensations, feelings and emotions as our feedback mechanism and inner guidance system. While a teacher such as Wim Hof can provide valuable information and point us in the right direction, our progress lies first and foremost within ourselves. It takes personal discipline, curiosity, introspection, intelligence, proactivity and persistence.

What are you willing to experiment to create a higher quality of life?

French translation below – Article en Français ci-dessus

Comment j’ai couru un marathon de 42 km sans jamais m’entraîner sur plus de 5 kilomètres

Je crois en l’équilibre des aspects physique, émotionnel, mental et spirituel à l’intérieur de nous. En réalité, chaque aspect est symbolisé par l’un des quatre éléments. Le feu pour le spirituel (je parle ici du plan de l’âme, car l’esprit est associé à l’Ether qui est le 5e élément dont les 4 éléments sont issus), l’eau pour l’émotionnel, l’air pour le mental et la terre pour le physique. La terre est la résultante de l’action des éléments feu, eau et air travaillant ensemble. La qualité de nos manifestations physiques externes est donc directement liée à la qualité de nos intentions, sentiments et pensées. De mon point de vue, la vraie mission de l’homme consiste à apporter la vérité des sphères spirituelles supérieures au sein de notre réalité physique, et donc à amener le paradis sur terre. Beaucoup d’entre nous s’écartent de ce but en écoutant leur ego plutôt que leur cœur.

De nombreuses personnes spirituelles nient ou rejettent la dimension physique alors que c’est le creuset de nos réalisations spirituelles. C’est pourquoi nous disons que les actions parlent plus fort que les mots. De même, « Mens sana in corpore sano » est une expression latine, généralement traduite par « Un esprit sain dans un corps sain ». Cette expression est largement utilisée dans les contextes sportif et éducatif pour exprimer la théorie selon laquelle l’exercice physique est un élément important ou essentiel du bien-être mental et psychologique. La guérison émotionnelle doit aller de pair avec la guérison physique, et cela m’a inspiré pour me remettre en forme. Je voulais aussi courir pour la cause de l’aliénation parentale, alors j’ai décidé de m’inscrire à mon premier marathon à Salt Lake City.

Alors que je faisais des recherches en ligne pour me préparer marathon, je suis tombé sur une vidéo de Wim Hof, un Hollandais qui a couru un marathon en short et sandales à des températures proches de -20 °C juste au-dessus du cercle arctique en Finlande. C’est un adepte de la méditation et du yoga. De nombreuses études scientifiques ont été menées à son sujet, qui ont prouvé la véracité de ses propos. Dans l’une de ses vidéos, il a déclaré que « S’éveiller, c’est être heureux, fort et en bonne santé ; le reste, ce ne sont que des bêtises ! ». Et je ne pouvais pas être plus d’accord avec lui. J’ai, par la suite, lu un livre qu’il a coécrit avec Koen De Jung : « La voie de l’homme des glaces ».

Il existe de nombreuses informations en ligne à son sujet, mais la méthode de Wim Hof consiste essentiellement en une combinaison d’exercices de respiration et d’entraînement au froid. Je suis une personne matinale et c’est, à ce moment-là, que j’ai le plus d’énergie. J’ai donc décidé de créer ma propre routine basée sur ces deux principes. Chaque matin, au réveil, je mets donc de la musique motivante, je fais trois séries d’exercices abdominaux et des pompes. Ensuite, je fais les exercices de respiration de Wim Hof qu’il avait, en fait, appris du bouddhisme tibétain. J’ai remarqué qu’après les trente hyperventilations, retenir le souffle est la partie qui déclenche le cerveau primal responsable de la survie, de la motivation et de l’instinct. Alors que je ne pouvais retenir ma respiration que pendant une minute au début, je réussis à présent à retenir mon souffle pendant trois minutes un mois plus tard. Wim Hof est capable de retenir son souffle pendant environ dix minutes. Après la troisième répétition de l’exercice de respiration, je me sens fort et je suis impatient de commencer à courir. Le premier jour où je l’ai fait, j’étais à Salt Lake City le quatorze mars, à six heures du matin, dans des conditions glaciales. Je ne portais qu’un T-shirt et un short. Après deux minutes de course, je me suis senti exalté et j’ai enlevé mon T-shirt pour courir la poitrine nue. Je me sentais fort et vraiment vivant. J’ai couru deux kilomètres et demi ce premier jour. Les rares personnes ou conducteurs que j’ai croisés ce matin-là se sont peut-être interrogés sur ce fou qui courait à moitié nu dans les rues de Salt Lake City à une température négative. Mon torse et mes jambes étaient rouges à cause de la circulation sanguine, mais c’est, en fait, un signe de bonne santé. Je suis rentré à la maison et j’ai pris une douche, tout d’abord chaude pour ramener mon corps à une température normale, puis j’ai fini par prendre une douche froide. Ensuite, j’ai médité pour me connecter à mon cœur et j’ai planifié ma journée en suivant l’inspiration du moment. Et comme ce fut une bonne journée, cela m’a motivé pour recommencer le jour suivant et ensuite, celui d’après. En fait, mon corps me réveillait naturellement plus tôt, parce qu’il était déjà accro au sentiment de se sentir vivant et en bonne santé. J’ai gardé cette routine pendant sept jours d’affilée. Puis je me suis heurté à un mur. J’avais intuitivement l’impression de commencer à tomber malade si je venais à trop forcer. J’ai donc pris une pause pendant une semaine.

Comme je l’ai mentionné dans mes blogs précédents, nous sommes une multitude en nous-mêmes. Si nous continuons à forcer en ignorant nos parties internes qui se sentent faibles, déprimées ou sans valeur, ces parties finiront par se rebeller et pourraient créer une maladie ou un accident. Ces soi-disant parties sont en réalité très puissantes, car elles sont connectées à l’enfant intérieur, le siège de l’âme. Au cours de la semaine suivante, j’ai donc beaucoup médité pour écouter ces parties de mon être douloureuses et tendres, un processus communément appelé travail de l’enfant intérieur, tout en donnant à mon corps un repos bien mérité. L’adulte et l’enfant en moi ont commencé à collaborer plus efficacement, et j’ai créé une liste de musique pour mon enfant intérieur, principalement composée de chansons de mon enfance. Par la suite, pendant ma routine du matin, j’alternais mes deux listes de musique pour que tous mes enfants et mes adultes intérieurs puissent se sentir impliqués dans ma remise en forme. Les adultes intérieurs apportent discipline, connaissance, raison, endurance tandis que les enfants intérieurs apportent enthousiasme, joie, gentillesse et connexion à l’esprit. Une fois qu’ils travaillent ensemble, de vrais miracles sont possibles.

J’ai inclus mon entraînement de jogging détaillé. Comme vous pouvez le constater, il alterne des cycles d’entraînement avec des périodes de repos. Et cette routine prend relativement peu de temps, 45 minutes au maximum.

J’ai donc couru trente-huit kilomètres au total pour m’entraîner pour le marathon (moins que la distance du marathon), ne dépassant jamais cinq kilomètres chaque matin, mais toutes ces courses se sont déroulées à basse température (entre -5 et 5 degrés centigrades) en courant torse nu.

Un de mes entraînement était plutôt amusant et quelque peu gênant. Un de mes amis m’avait invité à son chalet dans la montagne avec plus de trois mètres de neige. Alors qu’il avait commencé à courir avec moi, il est rapidement rentré chez lui. Après mes vingt minutes de course habituelles, je suis rentré, mais malgré tous mes efforts, je ne parvenais pas à retrouver mon chemin, car toutes les chalets se ressemblaient. J’ai tourné en rond pendant un bon moment, mais j’étais vraiment perdu. Il n’y avait pas non plus de couverture réseau, donc je ne pouvais appeler personne. Je devais trouver quelqu’un pour m’aider, mais tous les sentiers étaient vides. Il y avait tellement de neige que pour accéder à un chalet, il me fallait plonger dans un mètre de neige fraîche bien au-dessus de mes genoux. Les chalets n’étaient pas accessibles par la rue et la plupart des résidents avaient une motoneige. J’ai eu alors un léger sentiment de panique, mais mon cerveau primal avait déjà commencé à fonctionner à cause de ma routine et je me sentais relativement calme et confiant. Après quelques tentatives infructueuses, j’ai réussi à localiser un chalet avec des personnes à l’intérieur. Ils étaient vraiment surpris de trouver un homme nu demandant l’hospitalité, mais ils se sont montrés très aimables. J’ai appelé mon ami en utilisant le wi-fi de mes sauveurs. Mon ami ne connaissait même pas son adresse exacte, seulement le nom de la rue, car tous les numéros étaient recouverts de neige. On m’a donné un plan du quartier et j’ai recommencé à courir vers le chalet de mon ami. Mais après vingt-cinq autres minutes supplémentaires de course dans le froid, je ne le retrouvais toujours pas, car la rue était assez longue et tous les chalets étaient identiques. Je n’avais donc pas d’autre choix que de retourner vers la maison de mes gentils hôtes surprises. Cette fois-ci, j’ai demandé à mon ami de rester dans la rue, et une personne m’a conduit avec sa motoneige. Et finalement, je suis bien rentré au chalet de mon ami. Je n’étais pas du tout ébranlé par cette expérience. Nous avons simplement ri, j’ai pris une douche chaude, puis j’ai fait du snowboard toute la journée. Aucune énergie inutile n’avait été gaspillée dans la peur.

Il avait neigé la veille du marathon de Salt Lake City le treize avril. Je me suis présenté au départ avec un short et un T-shirt personnalisé que j’avais conçu pour ma cause de réunification familiale, recouvert maintenant par mon dossard. Mon entraînement au froid s’est avéré très utile, car la plupart des coureurs débutent la course avec beaucoup de survêtements qu’ils doivent généralement enlever plus tard quand il fait plus chaud. J’ai commencé la course lentement, comprenant qu’il me faudrait de l’endurance pour courir environ cinq heures. Je n’ai fait que jouer de la musique de méditation les deux premières heures, afin de réserver mes musiques d’entraînement pour la deuxième partie de la course, quand la fatigue allait me rattraper.

Mes poumons et mon moral étaient hauts, mais après seulement une heure, j’ai senti que mes jambes s’alourdissaient et que mes reins étaient en suractivité. Je n’avais pas suffisamment entraîné mes jambes, et elles devenaient donc mon facteur limitant. Après trois heures de courses, mes jambes et mes pieds me faisaient très mal, et j’ai utilisé ma musique de motivation pour enclencher mon cerveau primal. C’est une forme de technique de PNL, car la musique pouvait maintenant être utilisée pour déclencher l’état. Je courais alors simplement avec la force du cœur et ma volonté. J’ai couru une heure de plus dans cet état jusqu’à atteindre le vingtième kilomètre. Puis mes jambes m’ont abandonné. Je suis devenu incapable de courir davantage, alors je suis passé à la marche. La marche semblait facile au début, car elle utilisait différents muscles de la jambe et j’ai découvert que je pouvais marcher relativement vite. Les trois derniers kilomètres étaient cependant insoutenables et j’ai commencé à boîter. J’ai pensé abandonner, mais je ne pouvais pas le faire maintenant si près de la ligne d’arrivée. Et je l’ai finalement traversée après presque 6 heures !

J’ai appelé mon ami Branson qui est venu me chercher. Je ne réalisais cependant pas que je n’avais gagné que la moitié de la bataille. Se remettre de cet effort exténuant était le prochain défi. J’ai dû marcher à quatre pattes afin de rejoindre ma chambre, incapable de marcher. Je me suis couché sur mon lit, complètement handicapé et j’ai appelé mon ami Christian pour qu’il m’apporte des bananes et de l’eau. Je n’avais tout simplement pas assez d’énergie pour prendre un repas régulier. Pendant les vingt heures qui ont suivi, j’ai simplement alterné les heures de sommeil et de veille, où j’écoutais un programme audio pour me distraire. Mon énergie était même trop faible pour regarder un film sur mon téléphone. La partie la plus difficile était de ramper vers les toilettes, car je devais boire beaucoup d’eau pour faciliter la guérison de mes reins. J’étais comme malade. Le deuxième jour de récupération a été un peu mieux. Je ne pouvais toujours pas quitter mon lit, mais je pouvais regarder des films et prendre un vrai premier repas. Pendant ce temps de récupération, j’ai utilisé une grande partie de ma conscience pour être pleinement présent dans mon corps afin d’accélérer la guérison, peu importe la douleur. Le lendemain, mon esprit était à nouveau alerte et je pouvais travailler sur mon ordinateur même si je boîtais encore beaucoup, mais au moins j’étais mobile. Mardi, j’ai pu sortir le soir avec des amis. J’ai donné beaucoup de repos à mon corps pendant ces jours, en allégeant mon emploi du temps. Le jeudi soir, je devais disputer un match de tennis contre la meilleure équipe de la ligue, qui avait remporté les championnats nationaux l’année dernière. J’avais récupéré juste à temps. Peu avant le match, j’ai fait les exercices de respiration enseignés par Wim Hof, ce que je n’avais pas fait depuis le marathon. Cela a réactivé mon cerveau primal. J’étais calme et déterminé à gagner. Comme prévu, j’ai joué contre un joueur bien meilleur que moi, mais je me sentais si fort mentalement que j’ai fini par gagner 6/3-6/4. Mon adversaire a perdu son calme, car il ne réalisait pas ce qui lui arrivait. J’avais un désir irrésistible de gagner sans être stressé. Tous mes co-équipiers ont été impressionnés par ma victoire, car ils ont tous été battus à plate couture, et nous avons perdu quatre matchs contre un.

La nuit n’était toutefois pas finie. Mon ami Matt m’a appelé et m’a demandé de le rejoindre pour la balade 999 à Salt Lake City. Alors, je suis allé faire du vélo avec plus de 100 personnes dans les rues de Salt Lake City par une belle nuit de pleine lune jusqu’à minuit. J’ai parlé également avec un sans-abri pour essayer de l’aider, et j’ai rencontré tout un groupe de personnes intéressantes. La nuit s’est refroidie, mais je me sentais bien tout le temps. Même après mon retour à la maison, j’avais encore beaucoup d’énergie. Merci Wim Hof. Je peux attester par mon expérience personnelle que vos outils fonctionnent !

Cependant, comme pour toute nouvelle information, il est important de la personnaliser. Nous devons expérimenter comme un scientifique, et faire le tri entre ce qui marche et ne marche pas. Nous écoutons nos sensations physiques, nos sentiments et les émotions de notre corps, et nous les utilisons comme un système de guidage interne. Un enseignant tel que Wim Hof peut nous fournir des informations précieuses et nous orienter dans la bonne direction, mais notre progrès repose avant tout sur nous-mêmes. Cela demande de la discipline personnelle, de la curiosité, de l’introspection, de l’intelligence, de la proactivité et de la persistance.

Que voulez-vous expérimenter aujourd’hui pour améliorer la qualité de votre vie ?

Multiplicity and finding one’s way home towards integration

We are a multiplicity of selves

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I was looking to go to the movies recently with a friend, and I noticed that all movie theaters were playing the latest Captain Marvel movie. A reason why this type of movies attracts such big crowds is because most of us have a powerless inner child that we have buried. Super heroes movies are an enjoyable fantasy for our powerless young selves. This is how it works. We come to this plane of existence as a divine child with no limitation, and no negative imprints. But because of our previous karma, our soul may have decided to come into a family and society environment that is challenging (to say the least for some of us). Our soul has not made the decision to punish us because we are bad. It simply wants us to learn love, joy, faith, celebration, compassion or any other higher vibrational states by first experiencing its opposite. Our soul will then select an environment with a negative imprint that we are meant to transform, and our life purpose is typically the opposite vibration of this negative imprint. This is how our inner child finds itself initially in a traumatic environment. From this place of darkness, a new desire is born, and the first split occurs.

Child playing super heroe

As a baby, we are completely dependent on our primary caregivers. If they are not able to meet our physical and emotional needs, there is very little we can do besides crying or being sick to signal them something is not quite right. It is a very powerless state. In order to survive, we need to adapt to our environment and figure out which strategies will help us best meet our needs and feel the love we are desperately starving for. This process is mostly unconscious. It could be crying, developing an ailment, being quiet, being funny, ignoring one’s needs to the benefit of others (common in big families), being angry, becoming the golden child, not bothering the parents and staying alone, and so on, so forth… When we start going to school, the same process occurs but this time with peers and authority figures such as teachers. So by the time we have become adults, we have already created a whole arborescence of different personalities, and aspects of the selves that live within us. They were all born from the same process of desire and splitting. Some of these parts are repressed in the subconscious while others live in the conscious mind.  These parts may or may not be conscious of each other. These parts may be physical, emotional, mental or spiritual in nature. As a result, all of us are a multiplicity of personalities.

For example, one part may decide to wake up at 6 AM the next morning to go to the gym and start shedding these extra pounds. Unfortunately, when the alarm clock rings the next morning, there is another part that just wants to rest and it shuts off the alarm clock. As a result, we stay in bed until 7:30 AM, the time to get to work in a hurry. Or while we are at a conference, we find this girl super attractive and we decide to talk to her. She is talking with other people. As we come closer, another inner part of us jumps in. It tells us we do not have the time, that she is not that attractive after all, that she is busy with other people, that she will not be interested in us anyway, that she is probably with another guy. So we change our mind and we do not talk to her. This part was probably connected with a fragile aspect of us that got hurt through rejection. The list is endless and this is why we have so much difficulty manifesting a life that feels good. Our parts are constantly fighting each other, having contradictory opinions, sabotaging each other. Basically, it just feels like the US congress 🙂

If we had a traumatic childhood, our state of multiplicity and inner division is often a source of intense suffering. We may have repressed angry, desperate, lonely, suicidal, or bitter parts. They may show up uninvited under pressure or with our intimate partner. Because we have not done the work of inner integration, we are like a big overpopulated house where anarchy reigns. The person in that house with the most energy at a given moment takes control, but then may be replaced with someone else with completely different ideas. In that house, everyone is leaving a mess, it is a cacophony where no one can hear each other, where there is little concern for other house members and actions are only taken when survival is at stake. There are some good people there but they feel powerless to get anyone to listen to them.

Mob representing the different aspects within the self

Whether we are aware of this or not, we have the desire for better integration and this playground that we call life is simply a perfect reflection of our inner parts and how they interact with each other. It takes immense bravery to see that all the close people in our life are a perfect mirror of our internal parts. How is that possible? How could this authoritarian boss, this crazy ex wife, these rude teenagers, this friend that just betrayed us be all a part of me? They are everything what we cannot stand, and want to push away because they hurt us. Yes, this is why they represent parts of us that are repressed because they were deemed unacceptable by the conscious mind. But they keep manifesting in our physical reality to torment us because they are desperate to come into the light of awareness too. Our soul always attempts to bring light into darkness, or awareness into unconsciousness so this is why these hidden aspects keep manifesting externally. This is why someone on the spiritual path will look inwardly when s/he is triggered. They know that this is an opportunity to heal by bringing a repressed hurt aspect of their past into the light of consciousness for integration.

The first important thing to realize is that we can work on our own internal parts with the way we treat people. So working with other people to develop more collaborative, loving, harmonious relationships is doing the same internally with our own inner parts. This is one of the big secrets of life. This is why the quality of our life is first the quality of our relationships. Our relationships never lie and act as the most accurate mirror of our internal world. So the more strongly we feel about a person (whether positive or negative), the closer mirror s/he is. People we dislike represent aspects of us that we repress and people we like or admire represent aspects of us that we want to develop. Someone in your acquaintances may attract a lot of attention, but you may be mostly indifferent to him/her. This means that s/he is not presently mirroring you so you are ignoring it because this is not important for your personal growth. People that used to be very important to our life may disappear naturally as we keep changing and evolving. And because we live in an efficient universe, many of our immediate relationships would be typically close mirrors of our inner parts, and the relationships that do not provide this mirroring would eventually fade away from our life.

Osho's quote about relationship mirrors

There are people working in highly hierarchical and even dictatorial organizations. It means they may have one or more internal parts that are tyrannizing the rest of them. Most healers are wounded healers because they are healing their parts by healing other people. You will actually not find a healer without a traumatic childhood. The judges and lawyers are people with many critical parts that they need to constantly punish or save. The engineer thinks that his parts have a problem and needs fixing. The professions we have chosen are a very good indicator of our inner world. When a professional occupation ceases to be interesting, it means that it has stopped to be a good mirror to our inner world. Life is not what it appears to be. Many professions that are seen as successful and well paid are actually reflective of deep inner torment such as judges and lawyers. A doctor that sees sick people all day long is not in a much better place. This statement should not be perceived as a judgment. In order to be happy, we need to feel we are growing and healing and these environments are very rewarding so some people.

Judge

There are often two sides to these professions. From a karmic standpoint, a policeman is often someone who graduated from being a criminal (same as a criminal lawyer), a doctor from being a patient, a psychiatrist from someone with mental health concerns, a spiritual leader from a follower, a victim from being a perpetrator. The soul desires to understand both sides of the perspective. Actually, it is well documented that many of the Nazi officers during WWII developed very serious mental illnesses.  As they followed orders and killed their stated enemies, they were killing aspects of them at the same time. Scholars also speculate that Hitler suffered from schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, syphilis, severe headaches, dizziness, insomnia, monorchism and Parkinson’s disease. So was Hitler the most powerful man on earth in 1941 or the most powerless one?

Let me repeat this very important shortcut for your spiritual growth. By working on external relationships, we work on ourselves. The hardest reflection is often our own children. For example, a conservative and righteous Christian father with a gay son is often indicative of his own homosexual desires that he had to repress earlier on to fit society model. A fearful ex wife doing protective gatekeeping with her children may prevent at all cost any contact between the father and their children. To be a mirror of this situation, the alienated father may have a strong protector personality that may have shut down his own hurt traumatized inner children in order to survive his own childhood. It is interesting to look at the challenges that children are facing, and how this may just be the reflection of aspects that one or both parents may have repressed.

Many people want fame but to become a star, one needs to be or become a reflector. Basically, s/he needs to project a persona that most people can identify with. A famous person is someone that can mirror the parts of millions of people. Ideally, this star is able to mirror a positive potential to inspire people such as Elon Musk, Oprah Winfrey, Roger Federer, the Dalaï Lama or Jackie Chan. But otherwise, one can become just as famous by projecting the repressed darker parts of the collective. Roger Stone, Donald Trump’s political advisor, knew that very well when he said “it’s better to be infamous than never be famous at all. And, the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about”. Fame, however, is a double-edged sword. If fame does not come as a natural consequence of who you are as a person from your core, then it is easy to get lost in the process of being famous and appealing to the masses. The projections of these millions of people will destroy the famous person who is desperately looking for that attention to have a sense of self. This is the paradox: to be famous and stay mentally healthy at the same time, it is critical to be unattached to fame.

Taylor Swift in concert

From my perspective, kindness is an underrated quality in our society however we all know that being kind and helpful makes us feel better about ourselves even (or especially) when we do not get anything in exchange. Kindness creates safety, trust, and positive relationships within us too. Loving-kindness is therefore one of the most effective approach towards true integration and this is why so many spiritual practices include it. This is the platform on which the most sustainable collective organizations are built. It is also the most effective way to share constructive feedback with someone. If someone feels shamed, judged or criticized, his or her ego will reject the observation as an attempt for self-preservation. However, it is true that kindness needs to be balanced with firmness so that other people or inner parts may not abuse it.

The kindness of children

So if life continues to mirror our inner world to help us grow and heal, what is our ultimate destination?  As we experience life in an introspective way, we learn to recognize what feels the best. What feels the best simply resonates at a higher frequency. We are naturally compelled to look for higher vibrational experiences, emotions & relationships. There is a hierarchy of emotions and every individual need to feel it, experience it within themselves and build their own graph.

Theory without experience is counter-productive. The more wisdom we acquire, the more we are able to affect our reality in a positive way. When we have nothing more to learn from this hologram-based reality, which means when we have integrated all aspects of the self, shadow and light, our spirit graduates to another world or dimension to continue its progression towards oneness because evolution is infinite. Awakening is nothing else than the integration of all of our parts. First by becoming conscious of them and then making them work harmoniously with each other.