To Beaver or Not to Beaver? In Pursuit of Greatness

Several years ago, I visited Tierra Del Fuego, an incredibly beautiful island off the tip of Argentina, and home to the southernmost village in the world. This land of jagged snowy peaks is also the home to an enormous colony of beavers. These beavers are not native to Argentina, I was told, but were brought there from Canada in the 1940s by some ambitious entrepreneurs, who thought they would be able to make a fortune out of the beaver's furs. Their reasoning seemed ingenious: the beaver's only predator was the bear, and there were no bears in Argentina! With no predators, the beavers would multiply quickly, and they would reap the benefits, selling the expensive furs and making a fortune.

The plan was soon put into action, and 25 pairs of beavers arrived in Tierra Del Fuego. As the beavers went about their beavery ways, the entrepreneurs waited gleefully for the fruits of their labor. The beavers did indeed multiply, but something rather unexpected happened -- the newborns did not develop thick coats like their Canadian relatives. In fact, their coats were totally useless.

The distraught entrepreneurs soon learned that the beaver's coat grows thick when the animal experiences fear. With no bears, there was no fear, and so their coats did not grow!

In our society, comfort is king. Anything that makes life easier and requires less effort, is prized. We have learned to avoid confrontation and conflict, to value routine over the unknown, and security over spontaneity. Yet often it is the things that make us uncomfortable -- the hard knocks, the disappointments and the losses -- that challenge us most in our lives. They are the storms we wish we did not have to weather, yet they are the storms that make us strong. They give us maturity and responsibility, for what better teacher can we have than our own direct experience?

Life becomes stagnated when we remove the challenges. Just like a spoiled child, who when finally facing the world, finds himself without the skills to function in society, if we overprotect ourselves and try to avoid the inevitable conflicts of life, we may find comfort, but not growth. We may find distraction, but not self-realization. To flourish and grow as an individual, we must face the world head on, and embrace the losses and disappointments life brings us. Then, instead of perceiving them as the obstacles in our way, we can use difficult situations to grow, to push through our boundaries and expand our horizons.

How did you grow from a child into a responsible adult? Was it by not making any mistakes? Or was it through learning from the consequences of your actions? Ultimately, we have to go through things ourselves before we fully understand. Maybe, when we do so, we will think, oh, now I see what mom was talking about, but it is having the experience that brings us to maturity. The way we raise our children often reflects our need to protect ourselves from the natural challenges of life; we don't want them to make the same mistakes we did, yet maybe they have to in order to become wise.

It is natural to experience ups and downs in life. We are having a human experience, and that entails a wide range of feelings and situations. When we begin to nourish an internal space of security and unconditional love through the expansion of consciousness, we start to experience these extremes more freely. We begin to embrace the contrasts of life, and find adventure in change and uncertainty. Self realization is not about living in a permanent blissed out state where you never feel any emotions. It is about embracing the contrasts of life fully, without fear: established in internal freedom, the need to control our circumstances falls away, and we can dance unfettered to the varying harmonies of the symphony of life.

You can receive notice of this blog every Wednesday by clicking on "Become a Fan" at the top of this page. Isha's latest book and movie, Why Walk When You Can Fly? explains her system for self-love and the expansion of consciousness.

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Comments

[Steady Mountain]

Hello Isha, are you sure you didn't travel through my mind when you wrote this article? =0)
It's so close to my actual life experience!
Thanks for making me conscious of my resistance to grow up and take responsability of jumping toward the fascinating adventure of the unknown, the variety, the joy... the enlightenment.
Hugs and kisses,
Steady Mountain

[Lucia B Lamberti]

this is exactly what i needed to read today. thank you very much!

[MerhabaAbi]

Hi Isha,

Meeting a challange and suceeding is a wonderful feeling. I think that's why so many people play sports and push themselves at other activities. I like the rush of 20 M.P.H. in my little sailboat and I know my heart beats a little faster when I jibe with the waves. The first time I wasn't even sure if I could do it without flipping the boat. Anyhow, maybe the beavers ought to move back to Canada and visit Argintina on vacation.

[Tammy Bartlett]

Wonderful food for thought and a great reminder. I often need to remind myself to just feel those "negative" emotions. The temptation is to talk myself out of them. I love that I always look for the lesson and the bright side of a challenge, but I'm apt to forget to honor my feelings first.

On another subject, I have just begun to read "Why walk when you can fly?" it is wonderful, but there is one paragraph that has blown me away. I had long believed that there are two emotions, love and fear. It has worked for me, when something feels bad or uncomfortable I try to remember to ask myself what am I afraid of, there is always an answer. So when I would hear there is only love, I was never able to understand, until I read this: "Once you recognize there is only love, you see the magic and wonder of everything. You see the love in people's anger, the love in their jealousy, the love even in their hatred. No matter what emotions they express, you recognize that all of it is nothing other than love seeking to break through." Finally I am ready to understand, it changes everything. I am grateful Isha.
T

[Isha - Huffpost Blogger]

Well it's great to hear you were so moved by that, Tammy! Sounds like you are opening up to a new experience of yourself, which is always exciting. I look forward to hearing more from you, and hope you can practice the facets you learnt in the book. As I am sure you have realized, they will help a lot in releasing the emotional charge.

[Sinick]

Beautiful Isha! I crave knowledge about how our species fits into the overall environment of the earth.

[Isha - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks Sinick!

I'm glad you enjoyed it. Always great to get your comments