My Routine Is My Path to Freedom

The world is spinning faster than ever before these days. Scientists are even considering shifting the way we keep time because of this phenomenon. I am staying a float by losing myself in my routines. From the moment I rise, until the second I go to sleep, believe it or not–I am engaged in a ritual of some sort. “My routine is my path to freedom” is an umbrella phrase that captures my current programming code I’ve worked vigorously to develop. It’s really as simple as a mindset shift, but those are always easier said than done. Am I right?

Zora Neale Hurston wrote in her folklore tales the story of a man who showed Black folks how to dis-locate back when our ancestors needed it most. His name was High John de Conqueror and he was the saving grace among the slaves. Legend has it that it was this godsend that gifted us with our coveted unspeakable joy. The art of the subliminal escape started when ole High John gathered up the servants and told them, “leave your old tired bodies here under the tree.” The lazy black body was then used as a prop to satisfy the unyielding gaze of masters and overseers that had an insatiable need to have us all figured out. After we set up this front, we followed High John on the wings of a giant crow into a new dimension across an invisible plane. Our people didn’t know much about being non-local, but they trusted this captain of joy with their lives. High John de Conqueror guided our people through heaven and hell while they were dressed in dazzling garments right from within their collective consciousness.

The facade worked like a charm, the captors only saw their slaves lazing in a daze underneath the oak tree. This front was effective in masking interdimensional travel to lands that only admit our free spirits. As Mama Hurston taught it, the collective joy we share as a community maps back to us traveling on the winds of High John’s guidance. The present circumstance of their conscious world paled in comparison to the kingdom they had keys to internally. When the tour throughout the multiverse was done and our people were snapped back into their timeline with the yells of the slave drivers, they had no choice but to fall out in laughter. They confused their captors, who chalked their infectious joy up to a product of being subhuman. A laugh that sprang from a deep place, the oppressors could never access– we learned from High John why “trouble don’t last always.”

 

I take elements of that folktale into our current 21st century living conditions. Yes, we may have moved beyond the cotton fields, however, our time and especially our attention is in as much captivity today as it was back then. For millennials, we work jobs that are attached to our hips and wrists at all times as long as there is internet connection. Our creative wells are being drained to feed the machine that is social media and marketing for corporations. We are the product, the consumer and unfortunately, also the consumed. We are the fuel, the fire and the final product. I take the time today to resurface the lesson from High John as a cheat code to escape the drone programming of this matrix.

The key is to get lost in your imagination while your body is busy tackling the tasks. Some psychologists may describe this as dis-association, however, I’m not credentialed enough to expand on the subject with those kinds of terms. The way I see it, is that part of our resilience is our ability to find inner peace amidst the turmoil. The way to silence the chatter of the mind is by immersing ourselves in a task that allows us to enter the flow state. Let your body go into autopilot and watch how your imagination unfolds. This is the way I live as a full time creative.

Balance is the mortar that binds us to this side of polite, functioning society. It may seem hard to believe at first but in the months that I have solidified my daily routines, I’ve found myself venturing deeper into my creative wells than ever before. Yes, my “old tired body” is hard at work doing the maintenance of my lifestyle– however my spiritual self is often at rest and or at play. The next time you are folding clothes, washing dishes, cleaning your backyard, etc. Try this simple shift of the mind and allow your subconscious mind to wonder. Set a timer if you must. Reach into the abyss and realize that there is no time and there is no failure. “Acting like you got all the time in the world,” shifts from a criticism to a compliment at this new level.

Meditation is yours to receive whenever you want. You can look like you’re here when you aint, present but absent at the same time–like a mythical haint.

May is National Mental Health Awareness month and I challenge you to explore the multi-dimensional worlds housed in your mind as a way to alleviate the mental anguish of burnout culture. I hope you find freedom from linear time, from stationary locations and access to other worlds that unlock new versions of yourself. We are all so busy “being busy” that we’ve forgotten how to “just be.

” Let your fun side drive a while and trust that your body can do the tasks while your mind explores the depths of your own internal paradise!

-Ariel (05/14/2024)

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