Tag: individuality

thoughts

~ Infected ~

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~ Infected ~

“One day in this life you realise you are infected with the condition of being an outsider. The symptoms are revealed to you gradually. As you walk the neighbourhoods of normality you realise your heart yearns for something else. Stability and security only give you a feeling of sadness. You have no interest in the contract of life offered to you. As you stare at the rows of houses and green lawns and shiny cars, as you look up uninterested at career ladders before you, as you stare wistfully into space in the supermarket queue, you gradually begin to realise that something isn’t quite right about it all. Every ounce of your being rejects the things you were told to desire. What gives you fulfilment simply isn’t available in their stores or on their menus. You have no interest in material riches or status. Their television shows and newspapers are toxic poison to your mind. You are allergic to their conventions and expectations. The suits and ties don’t fit you. What is important to them, to you seems utterly meaningless and trivial. In your world adventure and exploration and art rank above all else. Yes, accept it: you have the alien madness – the condition of being an outsider. You are infected. Do not trouble to even try and cure yourself, it will only make you worse. No, no, no: forget the therapists, forget the sensible advice, forget trying to fit into a society which doesn’t fit you. Do not trouble yourself. Here is what you shall do:

Let the infection take over. Let your eyes become bloodshot with blinding passion. Let your skin be shed, let your soul be set on fire – let that heart of yours become filled with poetry and madness. This is it: you were never one of them anyway, and the sooner you accept you never will be, the more powerful your mutant soul will become. You will liberate yourself from society and walk those streets with a rare strength and joy – a feeling of freedom not known or understood by those who define themselves in groups. The world around you will glisten with magic – you will see things they can’t see; do things they can’t do; go places they can’t go. You will attract strange glances and stares – sometimes in secret admiration, sometimes in fear. You will terrify some and inspire others beyond belief – and as the infection spreads further, you will grow stronger and stronger – fiercer and fiercer. Nothing will be able to hinder you. Things like isolation and rejection will only fuel your desire further. No cage or poacher will be able to capture your wild heart. You will be unstoppable like a storm; you will be impenetrable like a mountain. You will live the life of a fearless adventurer and go to the grave knowing that your life was lived with absolute fullness. The flowers around your grave will blossom with an exotic beauty; the birds will sing songs about your adventures at your headstone. You will have been totally consumed by your passion. You will have stayed happily infected till the end of your days. You will have died knowing that this world could never find a cure for your beautiful madness.”

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~ A Storm from Within ~

“It takes courage to be yourself. It takes courage to walk your own path. It takes courage to pursue the life you truly desire and not the one expected of you. Too often you will be surrounded by those who want to see you fail; by those who will seek to pull you back into the darkness in which they dwell because your breaking free causes them to reflect on their own choices and limitations. Throughout the ages of human history the mavericks and pioneers and dreamers have faced such a challenge when liberating themselves from cultural conformity and convention. Many are tamed and return to the safe farm of normality with their dreams and desires slowly gathering dust in dark, forgotten corners. Many let those voices of fear and doubt also infect and infest their own minds. It’s no easy feat to break free from the mould to live a life of total authenticity and personal truth, but there will be ways to stay strong to who you truly are as you walk the path through the wild to the shores of your destiny. Stuff your skull full of madness; overload your heart with passion; summon a storm from deep within your soul. Shake some windows, rattle some walls – let the words of your heart rain down mercilessly upon the blank pages of the world. Don’t apologise for the mess and madness. Let your spiritual thunder awaken this world into life.

Let your soul’s lightning ignite the darkness of the night.”

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thoughts

~ Going it Alone ~

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~ Going it Alone ~

“Deciding to go it alone is not something that will come easy to many out there. From a young age we are taught that the best way to be happy and successful is to follow the guidelines of those before us. It’s sticking to conventions; it’s trusting in your elders; it’s following tradition and doing things by the book. Such things may indeed have their uses, but the greatest things that have come from humanity have come from those wild souls who did not fear to venture away from the safe farm of everyday life. Those artists, pioneers and rebel-hearted explorers, they were the ones who dared to walk where none else had ventured, and it was only inevitable that they were the ones that found the gold and treasure. Paved roads and crowded places have already been stripped dry of their riches; to find new wonders you have to tread where few have tread, to look where others have not looked and experience what has not yet been experienced. Perhaps there you will be able to see and learn what few others have, and that unique perspective will allow you to see the world with an understanding more valuable than anything that can come from any teacher or textbook. That walk through the wilderness will cause a rare wisdom to surge through your flesh and bones, and when you return back to the others, they will note a look in your eyes that is wondrously foreign. It is the look of a person who dared to explore a bit further than their confines. The look of a person who knew what it was to stare life straight in the eyes. The look of a person who knew that daring to break free and walk their own path was what it was to truly be alive.”

thoughts

~ Being Yourself ~

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~ Being Yourself ~

“I guess when it comes down to it, no one else is going to make you truly happy but yourself. When all is said and done at the end of the day, it’s you and that mirror reflection. It’s you and the solitude and silence. It’s you and that voice inside your head. And if you can’t be happy in those environments, then you are always going to be a slave of another person or system. We think of loneliness as being alone but often the greatest loneliness is felt by those dwelling in crowds to which they do not belong, who depend on others’ validation for their happiness – who speak words that they do not feel and follow paths which are not their own. These are the people who have wandered so far from the essence of themselves that they see only strangers in their reflection. These are the people whose true selves are locked away in forgotten places of spiritual isolation. Each year that neglect slowly tears away pieces of themselves. Learning to be happy on your own is what is necessary to keep your true self intact. Not dependent on the crowd, you will retain your individuality; not defined by the system, you will retain your unique shape. And from there blossoms the beauty of the individual. The strength of a person who is at home in their own inner world, rather than that which is constructed and dictated by others. Self-actualized, empowered – the one who looks into that mirror knowing that their life is their completely their own. The life of personal truth. The life of substance and authenticity. The life of someone who isn’t afraid to be totally and completely: 

themselves.”

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thoughts

~ Rolling The Dice ~

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the spirit of the wild
~ Rolling the Dice ~

“Life was relatively straightforward if you listened to your brain and followed sensibility and convention. But to be truly and totally yourself? To follow your heart through the wilderness? That’s where the real action was at. That was the gateway to the treasure. Yes, on the journey you were guaranteed isolation, doubt and a whole load of other things, but you were also guaranteed thrill, adventure and a deep inner fulfilment the likes of which could not be purchased in any store. In this life those that truly follow their heart are few and far between. Most will dilute themselves down in order to find an acceptable place in society; most will sacrifice their passions for convenience and trade their dreams for security. It takes something different to abandon such notions and follow the heart with reckless abandon towards one’s deepest desires. Perhaps it even takes a little bit of madness. After doing this for some years, I’ve come to realise that yes – it is a life of pain and discomfort. It’s a life of unpredictability and risk. You may not make it. You may end up going insane. Hell, you may even die alone in some roadside ditch. But giving it a shot is what has made my life an adventure to write home about. It has made me able to look into the mirror and be proud of the person staring back at me. In those eyes I see the wildfires of life; in those eyes I see the unbreakable spirit of the wild. In those eyes I see the look of someone who went out and experienced life, rather than let themselves walk safely to the grave without ever knowing what it was like to taste true freedom.”

thoughts

~ Being Yourself ~

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~ Being Yourself ~

“You march to a different beat. You know it. You’ve always known it. You hear the things they don’t hear, see the things they don’t see. You feel something different when you stare into those skies and walk down those busy streets. And it’s that moment when you stand and face out into the great unknown, and you feel it calling you away into the wild. The adventures. The wonders. The dreams. The magic and mystery. Don’t shy away from it any longer. It’s time to stop hiding who you really are. It’s time to stop dwelling in a life which doesn’t fulfil your soul. Accept you are destined for something more than another standardised existence. Break free from that crowd. Emerge into the light of your truest life. Move fearlessly towards the shores of your own destiny. Ruthlessly pursue your unique passions and gifts. Be bold. Be different. Be beautiful.”

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thoughts

~ The Outsiders ~

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~ The Outsiders ~

“Too often in this life I have stood before non-understanding eyes, unable to explain how I feel, unable to communicate my total and profound incompatibility with absolutely everything that surrounded me. Too often it has been a case of standing on the sidelines and observing how mindless conformity was rewarded while originality and genuity was neglected. At first, like many, I thought something was wrong with me; that there was an illness that must be cured so I could be like the others. With this in mind I silenced my inner voice and tried to fit myself into the paradigm of my society; but like a jigsaw piece taken from the wrong puzzle, any attempts to slot myself into place only twisted me up and left me worse off than ever. Confused, I returned to those sidelines, trying to make sense of my place in the world. It was a place that was empty; a place that was solitary. It was the place of the outsider.

To others out there who stand on the sidelines and stare in, know that you are not alone in this madness. The problems with cultures is that they seek to mould and meld every unique individual into a particular shape and form – into a being who sees reality in the same way as everyone else, who follows the same path as everyone else. It is a mechanical system and not all of us were meant for such a rigid path or confined state of being. The truth is the second we join a crowd and fit in we sell off a part of ourselves – and for some of us that part of ourselves is simply not worth selling off. There are as many ways to experience life as there are as many people on the planet, and if we were all to follow that same path, the world would quickly become a nightmarish, Orwellian nightmare devoid of art, originality and colour. A fresh perspective is truly priceless in this world and any society needs its outsiders to create the novel, to see the new and rescue the wisdom from the wilderness. This normally comes at a great cost to the individuals who are destined to walk their own path away from the herd.

From the outsiders who do not follow the script of culture and convention, we are often troubled. We suffer anxiety in a crowd, we remain frustratingly misunderstood by those around us, we often turn to the bottle to try and create some excitement. But the cost of all of this is one that must be paid to protect ourselves; it is the price that must be paid to protect the heart of original thought and being. For it was the outsiders who pushed the boundaries of art and science. It was the outsiders who charted the uncharted, who said what hadn’t been said, and who saw what the others could not see. And no doubt in this age it will be the outsiders who will save us all from losing our minds and destroying the very planet we live on.

So here’s to the outsiders, misfits and eccentrics. Here’s to the artists, adventurers and explorers. Here’s to those who march to a different beat; who dance to a different tune. Don’t be afraid to stand up from the crowd and be your true self. Go out there and shine your light. Wear your colours. Scream a little with whatever sets your soul on fire. Fearlessly explore the new and original. Fight for what you believe in. Go forth into this world and don’t compromise your unique nature. Your free soul is a precious and beautiful gift. So hold onto it all you can. Stay wild. Stay weird. Stay wonderful.

This world needs you more than you know.”

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thoughts

~ A Warrior of the Wild ~

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~ A Warrior of the Wild ~

“And there comes a moment in your life when you know that they have failed to break you down. As you emerge with those eyes full of fire from the swamps and storms, as you throw down the muck and mess and madness – as you stagger forth fearlessly with the light of the cosmos still blazing bright in your heart. You will know that they have failed to break you down. When you hear that wolf still growling inside your head – still untamed, still rising up – your raw truth still propelling you forward against all the hollow-hearted and empty-eyed creatures who abandoned the very essence of life and themselves. You will know they have failed to break you down. When you remember that you chose love and not hate; courage and not fear; freedom and not slavery. And though your journey through the wild may have left you scratched and scarred, your very flesh will shine in the sun like a beautiful beacon of victory. You will bear the marks that show you fiercely followed your heart – that show you walked the path of the wild warrior. You’ll bear the marks that show you went out there and lived a life, and didn’t just exist in one.”

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thoughts

~ What If? ~

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~ What if? ~

Don’t ignore it. Don’t shrug it off. Don’t wait for it to go away or, worse yet, try to make it go away yourself. That deep feeling of abandonment towards something is your call to arms and it is your duty to follow it wide-eyed into the wilderness whenever you feel it. Such a neglect of the soul can lead to a hollow-hearted existence in which you try to buy satisfaction externally because you have rendered yourself powerless to obtain it from within. It can lead to a life of silent heartache and confusion. In a convoluted society where it’s so easy to have a thousand voices scramble your senses, one must keep their ears to their heart and learn what makes it beat with purpose and desire. One must know when to respond and not to ignore the importance of it. Because what if you thought the pull of your destiny was nothing more than a stage you were going to grow out of? What if you that voice you silenced out of fear was the voice to lead others home through the swamp? What if that walk into the woods you wanted to take but were too afraid to finally led you out towards that place you could call home?

     In this life there are few souls more incomplete than those who ignore a strong innate calling – who suppress a deep inner voice and instead allow themselves to be moulded and melded into a formulaic being who lives a life conditioned for them instead of the one they were truly destined for. Such a person grows old in bitter contempt because they allowed the fire in their eye to slowly dwindle away in exchange for some convenient and crowd-pleasing state of existence. They are left staring wistfully out of windows in morning traffic jams wondering what the hell ever happened to the colour and magic and madness of life. They are left looking for non-existent ways to alleviate them from their spiritual emptiness. There is a feeling which will warn you from this and you will know it when you feel it. You will feel it in that burning ache in the heart, in that rumble of fire in the belly – in that rushing in the veins which makes you feel strong enough to march to victory against a thousand armies. That feeling is a light, a guide – a shaman – and it is your duty to follow it whenever you feel it calling within you.

    We are our species so lost and led easily astray in the need to be accepted or to be blindly ushered through the journey of life. Too often we drown out our inner voice and suppress our true nature. Too often drift into idleness and choose convenience over exploration, acceptance over authenticity, comfort over freedom. Such a nature has lead to a society where mediocrity and banality flourishes while the real genuine thing sits ignored in the shadows. It has lead to style winning over substance, to pretty fonts and filters being more important than meaningful words – to fake plastic faces being what’s celebrated over the gritty face of someone’s raw and rugged beautiful self. It had led to a society where others are afraid to follow their inner voice.

    Something real and genuine is a rarity in those crowds of conformity and convention. And now the world needs more than ever those who are unafraid to follow the burning desire within them. So if you feel that fire of passion flaming at your gut, don’t shy away, don’t hold back – don’t tell yourself it’s ‘just a phase’. Throw it all onto the fire and give this world the brightness and warmth it needs. We need the ones with the fire in their eyes – the ones who are ready to fearlessly chase what their very hearts ache for. We need the ones who are willing to go out there and rescue their truth from the wilderness. What the world needs is the raw and rugged face of you, fearless and free, living life so beautifully and authentically that those around you will have no choice but to join you on the same path. The hour is already late wild warrior so rise up now and let your unique passion and madness leave its stain upon the world.

This world waits desperately to hear the symphony of your soul.

an inner discover

thoughts

~ An Original Path ~

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~ An Original Path ~

“It’s okay wild warrior. You feel different from them because you are different. There’s nothing wrong with you at all. You don’t need to change and there is no reason for you to hide or compromise who you really are. There are as many ways to see reality as there are as many people on the planet. The secret they don’t want you to know is that there is no such thing as ‘normality’. Normality is relative and changes from culture to culture, from country to country – from decade to decade. It is nothing more than an ever-changing, collective hallucination about how life should be lived. Recognise this simple fact and liberate yourself from the masses out there frantically tripping over themselves in the rush to fit into the same mould. Trust in yourself and embrace your alien madness. We all face the same fate at the end of the road anyway, so just go for it: live a life that is true to yourself. Live a life that contributes to the human adventure. Live a life so ferocious and free that even the gods sit on the edge of their seat as they marvel from above.”

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thoughts

~ Hunted ~

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~ Hunted ~

“Forget that “you can be anything you want to be” bullshit they told you in school. This society cannot stand true individuality; it cannot stand seeing an empowered individual being happy while living an alternative lifestyle. I know this because I decided to live life my way and not society’s from a young age, and for that I have been hunted relentlessly. They have come after me with their stabbing stares and piercing comments. They have come after me with their nets of fear and hatred – with their weapons of degradation and mockery. Life can be a relentless struggle, but I have learnt how to survive. I have even began to enjoy the thrill of their hunt. I am out on the wild plains and I run with the hunted. I run with the wild horses. I run with the madmen and maniacs – with the artists and adventurers. My hair is messy and my spirit uncombed. I warm myself with the fire in my heart. I feast off the carcass of my own madness. I experience great periods of isolation and solitude, but I will never quit. I will never let them capture or tame me; I will never let them drag me down. I shall run with those wild horses until the setting of the sun.”

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(taken from my book ‘The Thoughts From The Wild’ available here)