Comfort
_I: Four in the morning, and a mosquito woke me up. Since then, I couldn't sleep, and I felt totally uncomfortable, stressed, nervous. Until 6 am, I couldn't sleep again, and I woke up very late, but with my head full of horrible situations.
_AM: Nightmares...
_I: Yes. I was in the same room I am now, and I knew we were waiting for something important. I think it was the event of 2022, in February. People were starting to arrive, and I felt a bit impatient, or anxious rather, about everything that would come. People were happy, but they became somewhat invasive. Some even got into my room through the window, without permission, and I kicked them out. One of them got so angry when I kicked him out, that he took a tool and started breaking the entire balcony, destroying the facade. I called the police, but no one came no matter how much I screamed. I had to do the broadcast as usual, but as I sat in front of the screen, people came in, sat anywhere, broke things, took others, and I tried to stop them. I felt powerless, and I looked for people to help me, but there was no one, no friend, no acquaintance. Many people gathered in front of the increasingly deteriorated space, and, although everyone with a huge smile, I felt attacked. I tried to complain to the hotel staff, but no one saw the problem, only me, and the guards said, "well, we can't do anything, they are customers."
_AM: Desperate.
_I: I remember there were dogs in cages that needed to be fed, but I didn't want them to be in those cages, yet everyone said that was the best. At one point, when I returned to my room to try to do the broadcast again, I saw how everyone had destroyed the room and taken everything. And then, in the same dream, it said to me: "I feel like in the movie -Mother!-", by Darren Aronofsky. When I recognized this, I woke up, strangely having rested, but with a horrible feeling in my being.
_AM: What do you think this means?
_I: Some close people told me there were energy attacks, to take care of myself...
_AM: But do you know why there are attacks, don't you?
_I: Because of what I do? Many don't benefit from what I'm doing...
_AM: No. Beyond a messianic view of your task, there is a deeper truth, the root of all this.
_I: I'm... Weak. I feel the attacks because of weakness.
_AM: Why do you think you're being weak?
_I: Because I feel exhausted...
_AM: Of what?
_I: Of... Sharing. There's a part of me that loves being in front of people, and another part that doesn't... That needs its freedom... And for almost 300 days, my daily life has been for others.
_AM: But you feel like you're too comfortable. That stresses you.
_I: Yes, I feel like I don't deserve to be living the way I am. I feel like I don't deserve to live so well for what I do, and others who do much more live badly.
_AM: Did you seek to live well?
_I: No... Things just turned out that way, days before starting this path...
_AM: You were going to be very uncomfortable without the pandemic, and the pandemic put you in a strange place you would always call "comfort zone."
_I: That bothers me a lot. The comfort zone. Comfort gives me a mixed feeling. My Leo sun sign loves to live like kings, my Capricorn rising feels like I don't deserve to live well, that I should strive and work harder to deserve what I have. And my Sagittarius moon only hopes that this nightmare of dependence and routine disappears as soon as possible and I can escape limitlessly.
_AM: Even though there is still quite a bit left, your journey is coming to an end, and this is stirring up many things in you. When a path is nearing its limit, the body begins to have problems. Your mind wants to leave, your soul seeks to travel again, but your body, it got used to it. Your dream uses people, that factor that sometimes terrifies you, to destroy your comfort zone, to show you that it's time to let it go. "This is not your home."
_I: That's why this month I've been doing nothing but looking for a home...
_AM: The dogs are locked up because you feel you're not true to yourself, you feel tied to a higher will, like the mother in the movie, who is at the mercy of the father, her husband. In your case, the mission, the purpose, is that father who tells you what to do, where to go, who to talk to, while you feel like that mother, containing her children every day, in every alignment, wanting to feel harmony, stability. But the father's children seek more and more, comfort, answers, truths, they will ask more of you, until they exhaust all your reserves, and this destroys your home, your comfort zone, your room which is your home.
_I: I'm afraid to open the windows sometimes, in case someone who knows me is peering from the balcony... Sometimes, my comfort zone turned into a prison.
_AM: Because for you, a house is not your comfort zone, that zone for you is moving around the world, detached from places.
_I: Although lately I need a place to feel... At home.
_AM: But that place is not here.
_I: I understand...
_AM: You don't feel safe here, no one can protect you. Yours are not here, they are no longer here. Now you belong to other places. Egypt is no longer your home, it is the land that saw you rise, but it is no longer your home, because home is where you are with yours, not where you have laid foundations. You know well that when everyone comes to Egypt in 2022, it will be the end of your dependence on this land, and you know well that each one who comes will take a part of what you have done here... Your being feels that they will tear down your house, taking away what you have built, but what they come to do is to take what you built to the whole world...
_I: A friend dreamed one day that at the 2022 gathering, so many people came, that at one point I said, "now each one take a little stone from the pyramid to take it to the world", and suddenly it got smaller and smaller with each little piece, until it disappeared.
_AM: Do you see it? Are you afraid that what you have built will disappear?
_I: Maybe... Maybe I've gotten used to things being as they are... A part of me wants to keep them that way... Why? If I know we came to transform things, why do I have the thought of not wanting to change things? Sometimes I feel like I would like to have a little house in the middle of nowhere and forget about the world...
_AM: Isn't that what most humans think sometimes?
_I: I think so... At least with everyone I talk to, they usually have these thoughts…
_AM: Comfort.
_I: Yes...
_AM: ...Today's topic is Comfort.
_I: Ah!
_AM: Putting your feet in a place where all the forms you desire come together. The word Comfort comes from the Latin "commodus," from the words "com" (with) and "modus" (middle, measure, mode). The idea of the concept conveys the will that the forms or ways of doing something combine into a single way, united in a concrete way of doing things. In English, it's called "comfort," alluding to the set of united forces (from the Latin com-fortis = unity of forces). Comfort is the idea that forces do not dissipate externally but are contained together internally. A word that combines English etymology with Latin is the word "commodity," which refers to "merchandise," that is, the products that are owned, that are had and that do not need a greater or external effort to obtain.
_I: When I think of comfort, there's a part of me that says: you deserve to live comfortably (and I do), and another part of me that interprets it as a defeat (that's why I always want to do something uncomfortable). There were friends who told me to go on a week's vacation to Cancun at an all-inclusive hotel, and for me, it's the worst thing that could ever cross my mind: everything perfect, not even waves in the sea, no adventures... And life ended up taking me there for work, where they gave me everything to spend that week like that. The strange thing is that I didn't want to. I refused to that... And of course, I didn't rest a single day, but did a thousand adventure things that exhausted me, just to not feel like I was wasting time sitting on a beach.
_AM: Comfort goes beyond the current concept in which being comfortable implies being relaxed and not wanting to move, or in the fact of being comfortable and not possessing a will for action. Comfort is related to directing all forces and attitudes inward, poured into the idea of preserving energy, of taking care of what is had, and not unnecessarily spending reserves, one's own goods. In nature, many species of animals and plants base their subsistence on comfort or on the concept called "conformism."
_I: What is it?
_AM: Conformism is the brother of Comfort, of Comfort. While comfort speaks of the way, the methodology, or direction in which an energy is arranged, conformism speaks of the way in which that energy is contained (com-formis = unit of forms, images). After a long period of change and evolutionary adaptability, which implies a huge expenditure of energy by organisms, they find forms that serve them to adapt without generating much change, to be more "perennial" (constant). One of the optimal means for energy conservation is to maintain form. An object that maintains its form for the longest possible time does not lose energy, and for this reason, certain species try to remain the same for long periods, which is why evolution is slow, and why beings that change a lot in their lives tend to adapt faster but live less time.
_I: Like the tortoise and the hare... Or the water bear and the butterfly.
_AM: Yes. Comfort and conformity, giving rise to conformism or the globally called "comfort," are not negative tools but of evident utility in nature. There is a factor that turns these concepts into a conflict: the modification of the environment. When there are changes in the environment, forms may be affected if they do not adapt easily, which is why many species become extinct at the slightest change.
_I: Like corals, which for millions of years maintain the same form, and with just one degree difference in the water, they die.
_AM: The same thing happens with people at a social level. For centuries humans adapt to a system, to an environment, that in the face of the slightest change, generates a crushing crisis.
_I: Like the emergence of computer technology left many people marginalized, defending worker rights typical of social revolutions after World War I.
_AM: Adapting to a form that is considered good for a circumstance eventually becomes the key to its extinction due to a minimal change in context. The stability of a system provides security, which is provided with wealth, but that security is affected by changing paradigms. The fear of losing arises, and evolution, progress, and development are denied for fear of losing control over the known.
_I: Like those who cling to defending obsolete or deceptive systems like representative and parliamentary republican democracy.
_AM: It was the most feasible stability found in the face of anti-monarchical revolutions and against absolutisms. But it no longer works because we are in the era of Technocracy. And here a paradox arises.
_I: What?
_AM: Democratic and republican social revolutions defend work and effort as a way to dignify the being. This is contrary to conformism and comfort. The work culture punishes laziness, as a deadly sin, putting conformity and comfort on the same level. This leads to the idea that being comfortable or living comfortably goes against the values of our development society since these states are attributed to the monarchy.
_I: Yes... It makes sense.
_AM: But at the same time, the effort of the work culture is based on achieving stability, security, tranquility, so that a being feels "comfortable."
_I: The famous "American Dream."
_AM: Arising from the American idiosyncrasy after its independence, which sold the image of a new land where one didn't have to work to suffer, as in Europe, but where one could work to live well. The paradox is that the work culture fostered comfort.
_I: Turning people lazier than before, by having more things than before, more possibilities for rest.
_AM: And technology improved this, facilitating the comfort of work.
_I: But... Is that not good?
_AM: It is, yes, but like everything else, the conflict lies in the meaning given to it. Today, technology is largely synonymous with Leisure.
_I: Entertainment and relaxation.
_AM: Do you remember what leisure truly means?
_I: Yes, it was the time that the Greeks devoted to learning, studying, sharing, philosophizing, to step out of their daily jobs.
_AM: Today, leisure is not used for learning but for forgetting. To let go, not to confront anything, to live from comfort.
_I: Why?
_AM: Because the system has fostered such dissatisfaction among its citizens that they, instead of seeking to take responsibility, prefer to escape, facing the question: "Why bother? Everything stays the same, and it's always the same."
_I: Oh... Yes, I recognize that phrase...
_AM: It's the typical escape of the Piscean Era: inventing a dream to evade reality and thus, creating "virtual reality," an escape from comfort where one doesn't face the adventures of the real world because it was designed in such a way that individuals don't have to deal with anything, just work and relax on weekends.
_I: It's as if we were cattle... Cows for the system.
_AM: But this is not the fault of the system. The system saw what the people wanted and built it systematically, finding a status quo: "if no one wants to take care of the government, we'll take care of it, and you do what you can, work so that we can ensure your rest and relaxation."
_I: We ourselves got into a comfort prison.
_AM: That's the Comfort Zone, it's a space that you created for yourself to save energy, because leaving it implies an excess that the system is not willing to give you, and you will have to generate it yourself. That's why, outside of that zone, there are conflicts and crises to face, problems to solve on your own, all of which is called adaptation and evolution.
_I: To evolve, you have to leave the comfort zone...
_AM: But recognizing that it's not bad, but it aims to stabilize your energy. The conflict, as always, lies in considering it the only way out, for fear of losing, and turning it into a habit. This word, habit (in English: custom), defines a person's habit in relation to others, that which has been repeated mechanically and constitutes an integral part of their physical, emotional, and mental being, with which changing the habit implies making a comprehensive change that requires a lot of energy, and even generates the fear of losing a part of oneself. Losing even oneself.
_I: That's what terrifies many, that phrase "you weren't like this before, you changed."
_AM: Exactly. Which leads to one of the most ancestral fears: being rejected by the herd. Social traditions keep us in comfort for fear of being different, and therefore, being rejected by the group. This keeps us repeating the same things, feeling safe in the same place.
_I: So, if I understood correctly, comfort, conformity, are not negative things, but they define the ways and methods in which a being finds stability. The negative thing is to cling to those ways for fear of being rejected, which prevents me from evolving and adapting to something new. Getting out of the Comfort Zone is not an organism's priority, but a necessity, until the environment transforms.
_AM: Those who transform inside naturally leave their comfort zone, knowing that comfort implies the forces, forms, and ways of managing energy inwards. But if that inner force decides to emerge and express itself outwardly, inevitably the system of comfort disappears, and its mission will be to face the environment that has stagnated in its comfort. This is what leads many to fight with the environment, to want to change others by force, something unnecessary. But in the opposite effect, that it is the environment that has changed, the environment will ask for a change to which the individual, even if he sees it, will refuse for fear of getting lost in it.
_I: How to transcend fear and leave the comfort zone?
_AM: Slowly changing small things in our lives. Slowly, calmly, educating the physical, emotional, and mental body through the intention of doing something that we wouldn't commonly do.
_I: Like what?
_AM: If you're a sedentary person, try taking a walk on weekends to a place you've never been before. If you're a person who does things quickly, try starting to read a book or watch a series. If you've never cleaned your house, one day decide to clean. If you don't dance... One day put on loud music and dance. You don't need to make big changes to leave the comfort zone, just show the body, the being, that you're willing to change in case something happens. Little by little.
_I: I understand.
_AM: Now... Have you started already?
_I: This week, I only went to the pyramid twice... I felt the need to start thinking about other places, imagining myself in other projects than this one... And I started to manifest them. I also started painting pictures that aren't maps, and that took me out of my comfort zone of believing that I couldn't do anything else. I started going to the gym, which I hate. And I slowly changed my diet, a habit that is difficult for me.
_AM: Step by step. Changing like a butterfly at the pace of a tortoise is the key to balanced evolution. Enjoy feeling comfortable, as it shows your state of stability. Just recognize what your comfort zone is, to dare to take a walk outside this circle. And every day you'll be able to move further away without fear.
_I: Remembering that who feels comfort is me, and wherever I am, I must feel comfortable.
_AM: Therein lies the greatest strength of a being, "being comfortable with oneself." When you enjoy being with yourself, when you don't need others or external things to feel fulfilled, you have understood the true key to Comfort: when all things refer to you.
_I: Well, I am the Origin of all Destiny.
_AM: Conform to be your own destiny... Conform to be The Destiny.