What we believe forms our reality. Take currency, for example. The only reason why money is deemed “valuable” to most people is because we believe it to be valuable. Gold and silver by themselves are pretty to look at, but can we eat it? Do sentient beings and living things gain sustenance from consuming it? No. Same goes for paper bills and coins. Societies that once lived a very simple and humble life now work extra hard to exchange their goods for money to buy things in which they don’t need. They exchanged their simple existence for a false one that supposedly will bring about happiness, status and excitement, but, in fact, brings about misery, sorrow and suffering.

What do fast food, TVs, multiple vehicles, multiple houses, a bursting closet with clothes, shoes, accessories, food in the pantry and refrigerator that can feed a family of five for the next ten weeks, all have in common? They share the notion that more is better, quantity is more important than quality, convenience is better than slow preparation. More is less, less is more. The more we accumulate, the less we are happy. The more we stuff ourselves with physical and mental junk, the less we are at peace with our bodies and minds.

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To work not for personal gain or ulterior motive is to work for the sheer pleasure of it. It is to work because we choose to work, not because we have to or because we believe we’ll gain something from it. There are countless people in jobs they dislike to have more money, thinking this money is their salvation, but, rather, creates some sort of hellish way of life. The vicious cycle goes on and we are the ones who created it by first believing in it to begin with.

Is this being unrealistic? Unrealistic is the way we are living right now. We are literally destroying each other and ourselves. We are literally destroying this world we live in. We are destroying and we are happy about sustaining our division amongst us. We slap labels on each other, just to box each other up, put a grand, wide-sweeping statement over a broad category of people and place prejudice or stereotypes on such people. In reality, we are so very unique, each and every one of us. I no longer am just an American. I no longer am just a female. I no longer am just Asian. I no longer am just Nina. I no longer am just a human being. I am me. No more labels, no more divisions, no more boxes.

At the core of every action and reaction we make or take are two emotions: fear and love. Out of fear comes jealously, greed, anger, lust, hoarding, consumption, materialism. Out of love comes compassion, empathy, kindness, patience, understanding, peace.

What we do becomes who we are. And who we are is based upon what we believe. What are the thoughts that make up who we are? Are they based out of fear or out of love?

Fear-driven living is addictive and all consuming. Most of us live in fear whether we believe it or not. We do not have to believe in the sun to rise for it to rise, it just does. If it didn’t rise, then all this has been an illusion.

Those hypnotized by the illusion that money is everything and will bring them what they need or want in life are sometimes so possessed of this mindset, this illusion, that they murder, steal, lie, or cheat, whereas if they did not believe in this, they would not have. It’s a terrible tragedy, one I am witness to or hear of almost on a daily basis, and all centering on this fear-derived belief. If we do not work harder, we may lose our jobs or won’t get that next promotion. Why should we work in order to gain something that can easily be taken away from us? Why do we work just for the fruits of our labor? Why has our society — us — created this world we live in that centers around a credit-debt, gain-loss, reward-punishment system? Isn’t it diabolical that we should want that, that this is what’s become of our human race? I am saddened by our humanity sometimes and I am disheartened when I see people treating other people, animals or things with no compassion, with meanness, with hatred.

Even seeing a person’s car with the boot on it made me sad the other day while I was riding the bus. This spawned my thoughts of how we are constantly butting heads, how we are constantly in a metal stage, the stage of rigidity, lack of fluidity, hardness. How we want something for something and that we can’t just be happy with what is. This world is far from utopia and it’s because we’ve made it so. Not Nature, but Man.

In The Walking Dead, sometimes it isn’t the walkers (the undead) that the people should be wary of. It’s the other survivors. What’s worse? The dead killing the living or the living killing the living? How is it any different? One operates without a brain or human emotion and the other one does. But both can destroy, infest and kill, and without logical reason too. Who is to fear then, really?

We are already killing each other. We are killing ourselves. We believe in things that do not bring us happiness and we applaud each other for attaining stature, prestige, power, money, things that don’t really mean anything in the end. We believe in an illusion and we are the ones who have to live with the consequences of our beliefs and actions. Look at our bodies. Look at our mental, emotional, spiritual and physical health. We pop pills and push away responsibility onto our doctors to make us healthy and well. We don’t take any responsibility yet expect all the results of taking action would. We want something for nothing. Nature gives freely, expecting nothing in return. Why can’t we?

Flowing with Nature, with the Tao, with our truth, we become our true and real selves. We no longer become limited by what we’ve believed to be our limitations or what someone says is our limitations. We are freed to live as we are and as who we are. No one can tell you that you are unnatural if you know in yourself that who you are, what you feel, what you do, is the truth of your essence. No need for affirmation or validation to justify who you are. What good does that do?

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There is no pressure except for the pressure we place upon ourselves and there is no place to go, thing to do. You know where you need to go, so go. You know what you need to do, so do it. No need to rush to a thousand places just to do a thousand things. “I have no place to be. I have nothing to do. This is where I’m at, this is what I’m doing. Be here; this is it.” This mantra helps me to slow down and stop rushing.

When we know that our future is nothing but an idea, we can then start to live fully in the present, the here and now. What’s happening in us and around us is it. Life can change the very next moment — and it does — so to try and predict an outcome or event that is, at best, a mere guess, is wasteful. Live in the now, live in your truth, be who you are.

When we think we’re supposed to do something or not do something, this becomes an idea, an opinion, an expectation. So when we fall from that expectation, we become miserable and hurt by it. Leave those expectations, they serve nothing. We end up serving our expectations and becoming the slave to our preconceived notions. This is loss of our true being and promotes polarity, dis-unity, non-harmony.

No longer can our spirits remain the slaves of ego, money, advertising, status, achievements, expectations. We can’t any longer. There is so much suffering in this world; it is time to lessen it. We can only start with ourselves first. From there, we move forth.