I have felt my fair share of craziness. I sometimes fear its return. Nonetheless, I owe a great deal of my happiness to the madness I once felt.
I recently took a family trip to Cancun. One afternoon, we were sitting on the beach under the shade of palm trees as the sun started to hang lower in the sky. I was reading The Awakened Brain by Lisa Miller. In the chapter I was reading, she described a simple but helpful meditation. She said to take several long, deep breaths and then invite an animal to appear in your mind’s eye. She said to ask the animal then if it had a message for you.
I decided to give this a try as I lay on the beach. I took five deep breaths and then invited an animal to appear in my mind. I suddenly thought of a koala. I asked it if it had a message for me. It didn’t say anything.
I knew a little about koala bears, but I decided to research them further to find my message.
I found that koalas have a specialized diet that is almost exclusively composed of eucalyptus leaves, which are tough to digest and toxic to most other animals. They possess a unique digestive anatomy, where a complex community of bacteria breaks down the fibrous and toxic components of the leaves. This microbial digestion process neutralizes the toxins and extracts vital nutrients, allowing koalas to derive energy and sustenance from a food source largely inaccessible to other species.
However, koalas are not born with the community of bacteria in their digestive system. The joeys introduce the bacteria into their system by eating their mother’s feces.
Yes. You read that correctly.
This is not the message I was expecting as I lay on the beach, but it was the one I got: the evolutionary advantage enjoyed by koalas is made possible by eating shit.
When I look back at some of my most difficult bouts of anxiety and mania, many of those days felt like I was eating a shit sandwich. However, those days also unlocked my ability to experience a more profound happiness. I developed new receptors of joy that weren’t always there. My system learned to digest the eucalyptus leaves.
Mindless Labs exists to help people become and stay mentally healthy. Losing your mind is a very common part of the process. We embrace every part of the journey, including the most challenging parts. We don’t shy away from it or pretend the craziness isn’t there. The madness is the medicine.
Then a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.
And he answered:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.
Excerpt from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
I loved this article thanks!