The Separation of the Inner from the Outer
The widespread problems we face today have a deep underlying cause. Examining the evolution of Homo sapiens over the centuries, we can see the effects of the growing imbalance between humanity and nature, masculine and feminine, inner and outer, and left-brained and right-brained awareness. Continuing our journey back in time to understand our current crisis, this post zooms in on the separation of the inner from the other.
In the centuries following the Scientific Revolution, life has come to be perceived as machine-like, a clockwork series of push-pull causalities comprised of independent objects operating in a mechanistic predictable way. These natural laws and universal principles, it was assumed, could only be fully understood in reductive analytic ways. After having analyzed the objectified parts and projected fixed rationale onto the complex dynamics of our existence, only then can we understand everything about human nature, life, and the universe.
As a culture, we no longer felt a deep empathic connection with life but instead focused primarily on outer forms of technological innovation and material progress, while deprioritizing inner wellbeing and consciousness.
The separation of inner (mind) and outer (matter) creates a wounding duality that divorces us from the immense richness of knowledge and wisdom we can only tap into when our inner-outer ways of knowing are integrated. This inner-outer dynamic is a fundamental area of our lives that has gone through the same Journey of Separation that the dynamics of human-nature, and masculine-feminine have.
Even in this century, many of us don’t know what it means to have a strong inner connection, or how we feel in our own body about certain situations. Do you? Do you know how it feels to be strongly anchored within; at peace and grounded in yourself?
Many leaders today deem bodily reactions and insights as irrational and unreasonable. Our relationship with nature’s innate wisdom may often be seen as hippy-dippy and not to be taken seriously. Intuition is something that is not really understood, and viewed as questionable. Any such irrational thinking we might mock as second-rate or woo-woo. In any given situation, many of us go immediately to our brains, to analyze the situation, while disregarding any intuitive insight or gut-feeling. We react (one might say ‘habitually re-act’) instead of taking a pause, breathing deep, and addressing a challenging situation wisely.
We have unwittingly removed ourselves from ourselves and out of our natural reality! Just look at the way we approach living. Have you ever looked to outside comfort — a new gadget, shopping spree, special food, a weekend getaway, an extreme sport experience, maybe even a date or an affair — when feeling confused or troubled inside? Have you ever put in more hours at work in an attempt to feel (temporarily) good or worthy? While we busy ourselves with outer ‘doing’ we are numbing our inner ‘being’.
The next post, focusing on the trend of rising ‘domination’ of left over right hemisphere, marks the end point of The Journey of Separation. A new era is on the horizon — ahead of us lies The Journey of Reconnection. A new way of being, living and working.
- Giles Hutchins and Laura Storm
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