These Very Weird Times of Stress Require Coping Skills

by Robert Wilkinson

I am reminded constantly that we live in very strange, difficult, and stressful times. It seems like everyone I talk to is on the edge of profound personal change, usually not very sure what's happening or how things will turn out, and are unsettled with the ways they are or are not responding to the changes. While feeling edgy in edgy times is understandable, it is also a very driven way to live, and wears on our nerves. While we cannot change the fact that we're all under pressure, we can learn techniques that lessen the pressure, or help us to steer the pressure toward productive ways of moving through the weirdness.

In my book, "A New Look At Mercury Retrograde," I made a point that can help to clarify the place and function of the many stimuli that fill our lives. Either we are acting, reacting, or being acted upon. I believe the first thing to regard in our immediate experience is which of these is at work? When we are acting, we are moving under our own steam toward goals of our choosing. These can be good or bad, depending on how accurately our desires and vision are guiding or misguiding us.

When we are reacting, we are moved by something to respond to it. It may not matter that the thing is entirely subjective, unconscious, or even unreal, we respond whether we need to or not, whether it's a good thing or not, or whether our response is appropriate or not. Echoes of memories of perception of memories from childhood often bring these up to the surface. When we are being acted upon there is something external that has become an immediate part of our experience, whether we react or not. How long we choose to live with it depends on whether we invited it or not, and whether the result of it acting on us feels unifying or dividing in a healthy or unhealthy way.

I've always been of the opinion that we should be driving our own boat in the direction of the dharma we may not even be able to formulate. It's a good thing to hold back a little on how much we allow others, even those who are well-intentioned, to drive it, since they very well may not know how, or where, or what to do when certain things are about to happen. When we learn to drive our own boat, we have a sense of power and potential, even when we're just idling and waiting to figure out which direction to go. It's not helped that everything is so weird, and the hitchiker you pick up could be an angel or a devil in disguise. And so we hope, and wish, and opine, and effort, and hope some more.

Of course, as a whole we haven't been offered ways to cope with feeling weird, or been taught to know how to act or react appropriately to the ever-changing conditions of our evolving reality. We're mostly told it's all part of a Mystery, or "God's plan," or some other homily, and that few can really know how to be in the ever-present NOW of the eternal flux and flow. And of course we are told to venerate "spiritual teachers," while being reminded over and over how miserably short we fall relative to the ideal, according to others' perceptions.

Psychology tells us that we supposed to learn from what others do to us, and if it's bad, to see "our part" and do forgiveness practices. However, it doesn't seem to come with the equally valid point that sometimes we are acted upon by others of no good intention, that someone else's free will has just jammed our gears. Then it would seem useless to overanalyze "our part" beyond knowing we just didn't need to go there, and probably won't ever again.

We can learn from our experience to use our imagination creatively, and this alone can prevent the recurrence of many old karmas. We can always learn more skills of how to move through this ever-changing reality, but must first train our mind to interpret our experience, what our 5 senses bring us, so that we can know the unreal from the real, darkness from light, the impermanent and the permanent, and acquire coping skills that can help us feel more competent in the future through knowledge of how to respond accordingly.

There are a lot of rumors, hopes, and dreams about the coming of "the New Age," and how much things will be different. Still, as long as there are humans, there will be lessons of learning and teaching detachment, dispassion, discrimination, and how to generate good will, or "bodhichitta," as it is termed. With a little effort and mindfulness, we can learn to regard all that comes and goes as part of a greater experience, not take any of it personally, and know the place and function of what presents itself.

When we are able to practice these virtues at will and couple them with a genuine willingness to generate positivity in every moment, whether we're presented with harmony or disharmony, then we will be able to maintain our equilibrium, our perspective, our sense of humor, and our strength and clarity of higher intention despite all the glancing blows of passing fortune. We can get free of the traps of feeling bad, or helpless, or discouraged by the passing parade, and even in the worst of times, be a light in our world, breaking the link between pain and suffering.

© Copyright 2006 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Nicole]

This article hit's close to home. With Uranus conjunct my Asc. Uranus Square Mars, and Transiting Uranus on My Pisces stellium, I feel like a live wire. Someone suggested Kundulini. I find myself having problems sleeping, I don't eat as much, and I feel as though i'm running on fumes! I feel like something is "calling" me, but I don't know what it really is. Also my obsession to "mother" everyone, has kicked in overtime! What's going on!..lol
March 11th 1973
8:26PM
New York, NY

[Robert]

Hi Nicole - Glad you found this useful. You ARE a live wire. IMHO, Kundalini is not what you need. I would suggest meditations along clearing out your subconsiousness of negative expectations. You have Uranus conjunct your Venus and square your Saturn. Your "container" is being revolutionized, so open up. Pluto is also conjunct your Mercury, so explore the mystery without getting too out there.

Purify your thinking, see the core of things, but back off from expecting anyone else to understand the depth and intensity of what you're seeing. And take it easy, since as they say "Do you know why angels can fly? - It's because they take themselves lightly..." Jupiter will bring you wider vision in 2007. If you must study anything, take a look at "The Yoga Sutras" of Patanjali. It's as intense a yoga as you need right now. There are other works that may be even more appealing, depending on your particular inclination.

[Nicole]

Thank you so much for the information. I have Libra rising, so does that mean I have Uranus conjunct venus?[since venus rules my asc]I'm a bit confused!

[Robert]

Hi again Nicole - It means that your Venus in Pisces, ruler of your Libra Asc, is being conjuncted by transiting Uranus. Libra rising doesn't relate to transiting Uranus, but transiting Uranus will occasionally make aspects to your Libra Asc.

[Nicole]

Thank you..lol Neptune is trining my Moon, trining my asc...I must have drifted off. I've been in a fog lately! Yes..transiting Uranus in Pisces is on my Sun/venus/mercury in the 5th. Pluto is also squaring my mercury, and my sun...I'm a bit of a mess right now..lol

[Tracey]

You hit the nail on the head when you said we can get free of the traps of feeling bad and I feel that's the real challenge of these changing and challenging times. In the last few months my almost constant mantra has been - "Be the peace you seek". Mantras, breathing, sharing humour, sharing, music, appreciating those around me, walking with my dog, hugs, disciplining my focus,disciplining my perception of events, choosing love, letting go of resentments and frustration and fears, reading inspiring words, reminding myself of values that matter..... I find that the choices we make in the challenges we face do make a difference. For me, these times have been a constant matter of choosing.

[christy]

Hi Nicole,
I too have a very active Uranus (in Scorpio). And an over active Neptune. I am with Robert on nixing Kundalini esp. if you feel like a live wire. Personally, my body eats itself, and I lose weight rapidly when I get amped.

Sounds weird, but making a conscious effort to eat very regularily, and very mindfully has helped me enormously. I make an effort to not do anything while eating except eat. It helps me feel more grounded. I also have been eating a lot of full fat dairy, which many people find nasty and intolerable, but also makes me feel less like a live wire and more like an earthbound person.

My Sun sign is Taurus, and everything they say about us loving to ingestible pleasures is true!

[Nicole]

Thank you christy!

The information, was truly needed. i am an anxious person by nature, even though I try not to show it. I feel creatively "constipated' for some reason, and I feel this overwhelmingly strong need, to create something, sculpt..etc.. There are moments, when I feel like i'll just go crazy, if I don't do something creative. As for my diet, I am a vegetarian, and i do eat some dairy. It's just lately that I feel as though I can live off of my own spirit[does that make sense?] I don eat something. Even if the meals are small.

[Don]

Lol- I scrolled down and what I see is "don eat something" then I back-track the paragraph "live off of my own spirit"...see how weird the mind can be?

Robert- the Solar Virgo has mercury at 0 degrees, my moon at 0 degrees...what'ya think?! We met on a merry-go-round.

This time your professional understanding on an exact degree could help guide my perception. She plays the violin and the clarinet, my friend!

I have got lots to say and a lot to be thankful for but I'm being instructed not to overdo it. So I'm "gathering information" while "seeing the turning."

Good morning,
Don.

[Robert]

Hi Don - Glad you're in the groove. Mercury on your Moon NN Jupiter could be good if it gives perspectives and info that help you learn discrimination, largeness of vision, and willingness to get a practical form of service. Could be just the precision you need to channel your musical gifts. 1 Virgo is the first degree of "Characterization" and teaches how to pick out the salient features in any whole. It's also the first degree of the Span of Idealization (with so many planets in early Virgo you are an idealist!) with a meaning of "the shaping power of idea or ideal over outer form and behavior." And of course, good morning to you.

[Nicole]

LOL...i meant to say: "I DO eat something"! Funny how things work out[wink]

[AceStar]

I am also Uranus Acendant Scorpio ... people see me as a diffrent person (unpredictable) Nicole i think Uranus and Venus conjunction is a good sign my best friend has it too .... its kinda Spiritual like you need some Spiritual teacher to seek and explore inner you :)

good luck

[Robert]

Hi AceStar - You are a unique piece of work, a walking agent for transformational change. Every so often your life will revolutionize due to other transpersonal agents showing you a different way to sing your unique song within a larger social context. Just don't get contrary for contrary's sake, and avoid needless power struggles, since many you feel challenged by aren't really trying to control you as much as assert their own opinion or experience. Still, you've awakened much the past year, so go for it! You're already setting new roots that will produce some major flowers in the next decade.