“You take the blue pill. The story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe…whatever you want to believe.
“You take the red pill, and you will see how deep the rabbit hole goes. Remember. All I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.”
– Paraphrased from the movie The Matrix
You’ve seen the now classic scene (and if you haven’t then you should watch it at least twice before returning to this article): Morpheus offers Neo a choice – either see the truth for all its discomfort, or continue to live in the constructed unreal dream world of the machines, where you are enslaved so much that you don’t even know it.
The fact is that many of us live life by taking the equivalent of the blue pill. We don’t want to see the truth, because the truth is not familiar.
And so we continue to live a life that is not really free, except we don’t even know it.
But we always know the truth in our hearts. We know the direction we should take. We know our potential. We may be too scared to break free, but deep down we always know.
Now, I am not suggesting that following your dreams always has to be an upheaval. The greatest revolutions are often the quietest. Some people say, “there are no good role models,” or “we really don’t have good teachers.
But in fact, any event in your life is a teaching. The more uncomfortable or troubled you are by the event, the bigger the lesson that life is trying to teach you.
So when you face a difficulty, remember this – you are in the classroom of life. When you learn that lesson, the discomfort will stop.
But the problem is that because of the discomfort involved, you may be tempted to ignore the issue. You may do one of many things to prevent the full realization of the issue. Some common ways people do this are by –
a) Completely ignoring the issue. “What, me worry?”
b) Playing the victim. “What to do, I am like this only.”
c) Becoming angry with someone else. “It’s all your/their/her/his fault!”
d) Becoming angry with life. “Life is horrible, it’s so unfair! There’s no point living!”
These are all variants of the blue pill. Ignorance is not always bliss. Instead, be bold and chose self-awareness. Here’s how to do this. Say to yourself –
a) I am okay just the way I am. I am not perfect, but no human being is, and that’s okay.
b) Even though I am okay just the way I am, I can always learn and improve myself.
c) I can learn by deepening my understanding, of my motivations and feelings, and thoughts and others.
It’s a practice of course. It doesn’t happen as easily as Neo swallowing the red pill. But your awareness will grow until you are free, of all internal inhibitions and self-imposed external ones.
Your freedom will reflect in increased joy, energy, motivation, and happiness.
(From my Blog on Coolage.in)