Hello, and welcome to Hitchhiker's Guide to Humanity. Today, we're talking about black and white thinking and how that's sabotaging your spiritual growth. Sorry. Sorry. So black and white thinking requires a binary. And if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, You'll understand that I don't like binaries because they don't allow for that middle section which is always there. I mean, even if you think about life, there's the gray areas literally where we live between death and rebirth. What happens when you have a binary like that is You don't have a way of traveling to that middle section. And since that middle section is where everyone really lives, it can become very isolating. For example, if you're in a relationship, a friendship, any type of connection with anyone, something happens. You feel betrayed. There's something that happens that causes you pain, anger, whatever you want to call it. If your first instinct is to run away, you're already setting that binary. I have to run and protect myself or I have to stay and it's not gonna go my way, right? Do you see how those two things Are binary. If you catas. Oh, I never get this right. Catas. If you think catastrophic. I can't say it. Catastrophic. Catastrophic. If you think catastrophically, that's not a word either. If you think everything's gonna go to shit, I guess I'm gonna say, all the time... Then those binaries are both negative. Yeah. And so what happens is there's no room for the gray area, but there's also no room for positivity. And so if you're constantly berating yourself for feeling what you do, And not honoring what comes up naturally, what you're doing is creating that binary. And so if you're in a relationship with someone, Or you have a friendship with someone or a work relationship, whatever you want to call it. If you create this binary in your head and there is no positive solution, then you have nothing. Because you create your reality. And what I see a lot of people, they don't leave room for the positive outcomes. And so their life is just this circular pattern of negativity. And I'm not saying that mental health and trauma don't. They absolutely do. And I legit believe that. And I don't think spirituality is a one and done when it comes to helping you with your mental health. I believe in doctors. I believe it's a combination of spirituality and therapy and doctors and all of that. I think I just would love to see more integration of spirituality into the field. Not only, there are so many binaries that happen in society, too. You're either this or you're that. And it's wrong. You can't just be this or that because we're human and humans are flawed. So if you're constantly thinking, And punishing yourself for things you're feeling, you're gonna create this world where there is no positivity because it's not possible. In your mind. And your ego, which for me is your human... Counterpart that wants recognition, that doesn't want to be alone, so it sabotages things. It's like that little negative voice in your head that wants things. And then there's another part of humanity, I don't know what I call it, your soul part, that, but it's your human soul that is so beautiful. It's the one that creates. It's the one that believes in things. So the way that black and white thinking is sabotaging your spirituality is if you're not surrendering to something higher than yourself. Emotions are powerful, but they are not the end-all be-all. They are signals that something is wonderful, something is off, and we've been taught As a society and as humans that there are certain emotions that are wrong that need to be buried and that's bullshit. Nothing that comes to you naturally needs to be It does need to be accepted and held and supported, even the negative stuff. Because all actions that are negative come from negative thoughts. Because emotions aren't inherently negative. And so what happens when you have a negative thought, if you take a negative action that harms other people, then what you've done is surrendered to that negative thought now. If you had felt the emotion of shame or guilt, whatever drives that negative thought, and you stopped it there and Went to a therapist, talked to a trusted friend, sought out help in some way. What would happen is that negative action wouldn't take place. And society has said to us, emotions are bad when they come out as anger, when they come out as intrusive thoughts and all of that. And what that does is it creates this protection shell, what I call the ego, that happens from that. And it grows and grows and grows the more that you push down your emotions. And eventually your ego turns into your mask that the outside world sees and vulnerability doesn't exist with that mask. What's inside, there's nothing wrong with what's inside. Even the worst kind of people on this planet or in this universe, their soul comes from the same place, the same well of consciousness. It's just reflecting the energy being put in. But we get to choose what parts of that energy that we use every day. We get to choose to wake up and say, today's gonna be a good day. We get to choose that when a thought comes in that is heinous and horrible and Bad, right? We get to choose whether or not that is going to become some type of action. Often thoughts and emotion come in together, but sometimes they come separate. Sometimes you get the thought first and the emotion comes. Sometimes you get the emotion first and then the thought comes. But either way... Those two things are linked and you can't really unlink them. What spirituality does is it gives you that awareness of that link in a non-objective way. No. In an objective way so that you can see what's going on, you become aware of your humanity more than identifying with it. I'm going to say that again because that just came out of nowhere. You become aware of your humanity instead of identifying with it. Because when you identify with your humanity, these things become huge to you. The emotions are huge. The thoughts are huge. Everything is huge. And it takes over. The idea is this equilibrium in between. That's where we live. That is where homeostasis exists in humanity. It's not in those binaries, that black and white thinking, that trying to always be on a side of something. Now, I don't want to be a total hypocrite here because I have said there's a clear side. I've said things like that. But I'm not perfect either. I still think in those binaries and it pops up sometimes. In my past life, I was a fighter. And I was a protector. I was a guide. And so when I see that happening, those binaries will come up because I'm still a human. But I do know the difference in the black and white thinking versus the middle ground now. And so what I can do now that I have... Become more spiritual, seen my past lives, seen my Akashic records, that kind of thing. What I can do now is be outside of those things. It's not a problem for me to admit that I'm wrong. It's not a problem for me to admit how I feel. Well, we're still working on that one. I'm getting better. It's not a problem for me to be seen, to be vulnerable also working on those. And my beautiful mentor, Christina Roche, if you don't know who she is, she recently said, And if you haven't gone to her page or taken any of her courses or checked out her YouTube, I highly recommend that you do that. She said, it's not about you. It's about your purpose, your divine purpose here. You were chosen, you know, quote unquote, to do what it is that you're here to do. Your human ego will make you think it's about you. And that was really profound to me. Because I really wanted to go to that binary, that black and white, and say, but I'm not special enough, so I'm not going to be anything. Right? Binary. Well, if I do this, it will result in this. You know? And it just isn't that way. And this is why I love her Being a mentor of mine because she advocates for you taking small steps, taking action. She also asks really great questions and she's been doing this a long time. I mention this because I'm feeling a little sentimental because I've been in her four-month healing certification program and we're graduating from Like, this week. And I've learned so much. All of this awareness has been supported by that program and by her. And I just wanted to give a shout out because my life has changed. Until then, peace and love to you all. Oops. Until next time, peace and love to you all.