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On Elementals, Part III

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I talked about the needs of the elementals in Part I. But sometimes it's not only important to know what you need to do, but what could be helpful to stop doing.

Actually, stopping doing things might be as hard starting to do them. The elementals possess momentum, and exercising restraint is just as hard at times as getting your butt up and doing something. Getting up and doing sports might be hard for many, but once you get it going it tends to get easier. On the other hand, if somebody is addicted to adrenaline rushes, stopping doing too much sports might be just as hard.

Even the elementals have needs they might not automatically steer you towards what will satisfy these needs. They are indiscriminate about what they take in. Just as the physical body can get used to and even addicted to bad nutrition (fast food and junk food come to mind), the elementals can become hooked on what is not good "nutrition" for them either.

Video games can be an example at times. I don't want to diss them outright, but there are clearly people addicted to them. Humans weren't made to sit on a couch and stare at a console game for hours. Yet these games provide thrills and seem to stimulate, but in many cases these thrills and that stimulation are replacements for other stimuli the elementals truly need. The elementals themselves are not smart enough to know that, but part of us knows if we can access it.

Another fine example is Facebook. Charles recently told me something that I find intuitively true: Facebook effectively fakes social interactions. People lacking enough fulfilling social interactions can become addicted to it because it seems to provide just that, but truly for the elementals it is food without real flavour or nutritional value. Like any substitute for a real "need-filller" you cannot get enough of it because it is unable to fill the need at any rate.

Not to diss it completely, though. It has uses, and it doesn't have to come that way. But Facebook carries the risk of distracting us from the people actually and potentially present in our lives, the ones actually capable of meeting our needs.

When being present in its negative aspect, FB can be illegitimate food for the emotional/astral elemental, just as a thrilling video game can be. A complex and mentally challenging computer game can do the same for the mental body. Watch out for boredom, it is a powerful sign that some vital elements are missing from your life and induces you to try to supplant them with surrogates.

As people need touch and intimacy, they might also turn to having random sexual encounters. If these turn to ashes in your mouth then you know have been had by fake need-fillers as well. The elementals try to get their fill, but they might do so in all the wrong ways.

On a more practical note, if your mind spins and you cannot sleep because you cannot stop thinking or truly relax, try to unwind yourself a good while before bedtime. No thrilling video games, no mentally complex constructed novels, no putting in another hour of thinking about work or late-night design sessions. What keeps your mind busy keeps your mind busy. Longer than you think.

All of this has to do with the elementals, their needs, but also with overcompensating for unfulfilled needs. Or overfulfilling some needs in neglect of others. If you already spent a long work day on your job, your being needs other activities at night - family, recreation, even cleaning your apartment. If you overstimulate one elemental it will act out.

The astral and mental bodies have patterns of acting out that can be identified. Prone to drama? Too much to process in the astral body. Lost in thought, cannot stop thinking? Same for the mental body. The answers as to how to remedy this are not always easy, but it's a start. It might pay to seek out a professional - a healer, a therapist, a spiritual teacher, a nutritionist, a physical therapist - to sort out issues with the elementals you cannot sort out for yourself. Nobody said you are required to be in this alone or have all the answers.

The elementals throw up signals all the time, and heeding them can help. A headache can mean that you are trying too hard at something or have been doing it for too long. Physical exhaustion needs to be heeded. Inability to stop thinking can be offset by engaging in sensual input. All the little and big discomforts in life are signals to change something or of change happening. It might not always be easy to tell which is which, but in the need it is ultimately rewarding to try to learn that.

(Book recommendation: "Menus for Impulsive Living" by Kurt Leland. It is one possible template for constructing a lifestyle that keeps the elementals in balance, even though it predates the concept of elementals in Kurt's teaching by decades.)

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