Courage to Look Under the Hood

When something breaks, most people become distraught. They tend to feel helpless, or worse. This generally means they’ll need to take it to get repaired, or get a new one. It’s not often that people take things into their own hands and look “under the hood” to fix it themselves. It certainly takes a dose of courage to ask, “If I wanted to fix this myself, what replacement parts would I need, and what servicing tools would be necessary to install those parts?”.

For some, it may be a matter of finances – as repairing it yourself it usually the cheaper way to go. For others, it may simply be about confidence building and facing the challenge. Others still may tackle it themselves for socio-economic or environmental reasons.

So where does this courage come from to Do It Yourself, and how great are the benefits? Let’s see how this DIY attitude can be applied to the principles of personal development and self-discovery.

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For a long time, I would assume that things that aren’t working properly are “broken”. I wouldn’t bother taking the cover off of the DVD player, or installing something myself under the hood of a car. Similarly, I was just as easily intimidated to tackle my own subconscious when I had issues with emotions, creativity, and or health. As I became more accustomed to taking on the challenge of opening up a computer and snoop around, possible risking breaking something, it became much less intimidating to snoop around inside my subconscious and painful memories – especially when there’s no way to shine a flashlight in there and take a look!

Just like in disassembling mechanical devices, there are tools which come in very handy for exploring oneself. Most people think of meditation and yoga as relaxing techniques for easing our stress – which they certainly can be. However, when tools like these are used to their full potential we are able to clear limiting emotional issues permanently, so that they will never come up in the same way ever again. This is often referred to as ‘reprogramming’ ourselves (our biocomputer), because we are simply changing the resulting meaning of the input data. Sound hard? Let’s see how hard it really is.

Life is a lot less scary when you make the decision that everything can be disassembled, and nothing is off limits. If something breaks, there are clear steps to getting right back on track again. When one takes the confident attitude of “I’m willing to get under the hood”, or at least “I’m willing to give it a try“, a whole world of options opens up. A disk is stuck in your computer? No problem, because I’m willing to try to get it out myself. Your dishwasher is leaking? No problem, let’s go for it. You get angry whenever your mother gives you that look? No problem, let’s take that anger as an opportunity to see into our subconscious and tweak it a bit.

Now, this does indeed seem like a mechanical approach when seeking quite intangible results, and the mechanical approach is indeed a very masculine one. The important thing to remember is that finding this courage is the main reason for this approach. Once the decision has been made, a nurturing feminine energy of understanding and acceptance is essential as well. Combined, they become a balanced and powerful force for healing.

Humans always have a source of health available within them, which can always be accessed given the right tools and some patience. These tools can create an experience which is both organized and liberated at the same time. I always encourage the middle way wherever possible, rather than extreme at either end.

On How this relates to Cannabis Users:

Cannabis doesn’t just “work”. It has a mechanism, like anything else. This can be described in Western Medicine/chemistry terms, in Chinese medicine terms, in stoner terms, or even in artist’s terms. It depends which language you understand and which is most effective. By cognizing the energetics of the psycho/spiritual plant medicine’s effect, we’re able to use it to our advantage.

Please feel free to share your favorite tools in the comments below.