Most psychological problems are not solved through psychiatry. You do that all day long: by talking to each other, by seeing each other.

Voltage marks the spot

When you think a lot, more voltage goes there.

It’s not a bad thing, but it’s useful to know.

When you walk and don’t think about anything, the voltage is distributed differently.

One is not better than the other.

But it’s useful to be aware of it.

I like using a lot of voltage to think deeply about things.

The consequence is that a lot of voltage builds up there.

It’s a Whole-Body Thing

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When you sit and think, most of your voltage goes to your head.
When you work, most of your voltage goes to your body.
When you walk, it’s a bit in between.

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Somebody with ADHD uses a high voltage when in hyperfocus and a lower voltage at other times.
Somebody with autism uses a higher voltage per frame and therefore needs more recovery time.
Somebody who is manic operates at a high voltage for months until they collapse.

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If you use part of your voltage to counter something else within yourself—for instance, if you counter bad feelings with food restriction—you can create imbalances.

Those are not necessarily bad; that’s called choice. But be aware that you are doing it. Suppressing your own voice, sexuality, or emotions can hurt you over longer periods of time.

Why I sometimes take a moment of silence and don’t have to do anything...

That’s when my nervous system releases all those emotions and thoughts.

It feels good to do this from time to time. You release the tension, and everything can simply fly away.

But not before I have learned from it what I can.

Don’t use it too early. First, learn from your thoughts and feelings.

“Where is paradise?” the boy asks.

“You are already there,” Mary says.

“That specific thought you have right now is exactly how it should be. At least, I think. Since I don’t know your thoughts, of course. And that feeling too. It unfolds exactly as it should. You don’t have to change it. Don’t be scared,” Mary says.

“This is what we call anxiety or panic. It isn’t going to hurt you. It shows that you were, or are, in distress. Maybe when you were unconscious, when you had surgery, for instance, or something else happened when you were too young to understand it. Your body saves that and shows it to you later. Otherwise, you wouldn’t know. Yes, that can be scary when you wake up. Your body tells you, ‘Something happened! Look!’”

Your body operates on one level of voltage. You can increase the intensity of your whole body, or lower it.

When you are in psychosis, the emotional part is overworked. It works disproportionately harder, for example, because too many emotions were blocked. The line is too tight.

The worst level: bracing yourself for something that hasn’t happened yet.

As if you are bracing yourself for a feeling that could happen at any moment, just one second from now.

The worst level to be stuck on: always being afraid of the feeling that hasn’t happened yet.

You are already afraid of the feeling that is going to happen one second from now.

As if you are a child who is already preparing to be hit.

For me, consciousness is the journey you make from being a child to becoming an adult.

You learn that you are your entire body at the same time, and not just your brain. Because of this, you start looking at reality differently and experiencing it differently.

It is an incredibly difficult journey, with many challenging levels. I can almost only explain it through examples.

Imagine I say to you:

“Relax your entire body completely.”

How do you do that?

Do you tell yourself to do it?

Or do you engage your entire body at once and relax your arms and legs by keeping them as loose as possible?

It is not that one way is better than the other. The point is that we can do things in completely different ways, and learn from each other.

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First of all, consciousness is the most incredible journey there is. There are no words for it. But I am going to try anyway.

Consciousness is the language you use to describe the inside of your body.

One person might describe it like this:

“This is my nervous system, and my heart is beating fast.”

Someone else might describe it like this:

“I am still in the 3D reality, and we are all moving toward 5D.”

And someone else might say:

“For me, everything is about faith and a higher power.”

Many people, especially those in the first and third groups, think they are the only ones who understand what is really happening.

Fine.

But I think there are many different angles from which you can describe the same thing.

And just like with everything else, you can learn from each other’s perspectives. That is exactly what makes it interesting.

In some situations, you need faith.

In some situations, you need a scientific perspective.

And then you choose the perspective that works best for you in that particular moment.

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People who are manic have not yet reached the level where they can fully relax their entire body.

That is why they may use their body at a tension level of 150%.

And then they crash.

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People with OCD can get stuck at a level where they constantly try to push away a feeling or thought, which causes it to keep coming back.

The challenge is to allow the feeling to be there, or to let the fear play out in your mind without trying to control or suppress it.

That is how you learn to separate yourself from your thoughts.

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People with an eating disorder can confuse an unpleasant feeling with a particular action: not eating.

A lot of emotions are experienced in your stomach, so at a certain stage in your development, it makes sense that you might try to control those feelings through food.

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I was personally stuck for a long time in two particular levels: touching everything on the left and right.

For a while, I deliberately played along with these thoughts and rituals to an extreme degree, until I understood that my thoughts were actually beginning to disconnect themselves from the rest of my body.

I have also experienced psychosis.

In that state, relaxation and tension can constantly become mixed up, while you remain stuck in very rigid ideas about reality.

I also learned that I often start thoughts in the same way.

Often because I started by suppressing a feeling.

And suppressing that feeling created a lot of tension in my body.

Through consciousness, you can identify weak spots in the health of your brain.

Important: the brain is not a scary thing. The inside of your skull should be no scarier than the inside of your ankle, so to speak. It is also very flexible, like a muscle that progressively gets stronger.

If you are struggling—for instance, if you are experiencing psychosis—always start by identifying the strong points of your brain. By continuing to do things that are not overworked, you also help maintain the health of your brain as a whole.

Remember: your brain wants to talk to you, too.

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You may not realize it, but you have an internal conversation with yourself all day long. This conversation goes around in circles. You talk to yourself about what you see, what you think, and what you do. This process is what you call consciousness.

It is completely normal to have this conversation going on throughout the day. It is also completely normal for it not to be there all the time, because sometimes you are actively doing things. You need both.

This conversation is incredibly useful because it goes around. The moment it stops going around, you can use that to see where your inner voice is being interrupted.

Don’t shy away from this conversation. Take the time to see what happens. We often think of the brain as something scary, but it is no more frightening than the inside of an ankle.

It talks back to you.

So sometimes it is important to listen and see what it has to say—and why it does what it does.

See It for What It Is

Look it in the eyes.
See it for what it is. Don’t run away.

It takes courage to face
your greatest fears. Stay with it and see it for what it is.

Principles

It took me years to stop identifying with the label ‘psychosis.’ Labels like that are heavy. It’s tempting to keep running away from them forever.

I changed everything in my life. After a few years, I noticed there were days when I didn’t think about the label anymore. I wasn’t afraid of it anymore. It wasn’t who I was anymore.

Then I thought: what is a human being, really? The idea you have about what you are says a lot about what you do, and eventually, you become that. If you think you’re worthless, you stay home, and your life becomes worthless too.

Then I thought: that’s useful to know. What is a human being, really? If I stop identifying with all the labels I have, then I can live in freedom forever. If I stop identifying with all my thoughts and feelings, then there is no ‘me’ left.

And then I thought: absolutely not.

I identify with all of my labels. I identify with my feelings. My thoughts. I face them. I don’t run away from them.

It’s too easy to use disidentification as a band-aid without disinfecting the wound. So that’s the part I want to share.

And it was the right decision. And I’m proud of that.

For me, consciousness is about learning how you look at the world.

Along the way, you get to know yourself very well. There is often very little room for different perspectives.

If you are religious, you may want to see everything through that lens.

If you have a scientific lens, you may look at everything that way.

If you are Buddhist, you may believe in nothing.

If we gave children more freedom to explore, we would have billions of different perspectives on the world. Fortunately, this still happens in many places.

But be careful: if you grow up in a place with a lot of rigid beliefs, make sure you continue to broaden your knowledge and explore different perspectives.

Don't get stuck in just one way of seeing things.

I can guarantee you that there is real value in seeing the world from different perspectives.