Born in The U.S.A. - Wake Up for More Resilience and Mindfulness

<p> Hey there, it's Michael. Welcome to Whole Again, the show that's here in support of the person you're becoming in your quest to live a meaningful life. And today, I wanna take you back to the summer of '84. Before Apple Music and Spotify, before CDs, I wore out my vinyl copy of Born in the USA by The Boss, Bruce Springsteen.</p>
<p></p>
<p>I was just feeling the vibe that summer. We had the '84 LA Olympics. I was totally into that. I really thought that Courteney Cox was just a random fan at a Bruce concert when he pulled her up on the stage in the video Dancing in the Dark, and they did a little dance. I now know that was all staged. I've grown up.</p>
<p></p>
<p>I've become wiser to how the world works. That summer, man, I was so into our national pride, albeit I was teenagerly naive. But that didn't stop me from going to Buffalo, seeing him on tour- And I was right there, along with maybe 38,000, 40,000 other people, belting out the lyrics to "Born in the USA," right? I was feeling it.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Everyone around me was doing the same, and a whole bunch of people will do it this week as America celebrates July 4th and officially turning 250 years old, which, although compared to other nations, we still are a bit of an awkward teenager. But I digress. That's for my Perfectly Imperfect series that I hope you're checking out.</p>
<p></p>
<p>But back to the song, back to "Born in the USA." Have you actually listened to the lyrics? Because back then, I never really truly understood the lyrics. The song opens up with a guy who got into a little hometown jam, so they put a rifle in his hand and sent him off to a foreign land to kill the yellow man.</p>
<p></p>
<p>That is not a song of celebration, my friends. That is a raucous chorus with a very powerful message. "Born in the USA" is a wake-up song. It's not a celebration song. And it took one of my customers from my first professional gig in Washington, DC, as a copier salesperson, who served in Vietnam, to point out the lyrics to me.</p>
<p></p>
<p>He was like, "Son, really listen to the song And I did just that, and I was like, "Oh, man, did I get that wrong." Since then, I've grown to appreciate lyrical dissonance, which is something that "Born in the USA" taps into. Other songs that maybe are easy to dance to, that have high energy, but also utilize lyrical dissonance are songs like "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster the People, "99 Luftballons" by Lena, "Hey Ya!"</p>
<p></p>
<p>by OutKast, and the list can go on and on. They're pretty clever because they create tension, tension that is meant to wake us up. They wrap something deep and uncomfortable into something you want to sway or dance to, or belt out the lyrics because it's about patriotism, baby. But these songs invite you to go deeper below the water's surface and really listen, instead of just dancing to a song with a good beat.</p>
<p></p>
<p>And I bring this up because this week we step into July 4th and America at 250. And long before there was an America, Indigenous people lived, as they currently do, on this land. And in particular, where I come from in New York, the Iroquois lived, and they have a worldview called Long Body. Long Body describes the literal and spiritual connectiveness that we all have as people.</p>
<p></p>
<p>It speaks to how we're connected to our ancestors going back seven generations, to our community, to even the ground that we plant our feet on, how we're connected to Mother Earth, to Mother Nature. To them, it's simply the truth of what it means to be alive, that we are truly all connected. In some circles, you might hear people say that we are all one.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The concept of Long Body does align to many worldviews of global religions like Christianity and the body of Christ, and the idea that we are all members of one another, or say, through Buddhism and the concept of inner being that Thich Nhat Hanh taught so beautifully. It's the understanding that nothing and no one exists in isolation These traditions span centuries, as does long body in Iroquois Nation.</p>
<p></p>
<p>So ultimately, we're not just where our skin ends. Now, in contrast, in the Western world, there's a concept called short body That was coined by psychologist Dr. John Seed and Dr. Joanna Macy. In short body, it basically says that you end completely at your own skin. Your problems are your problems. Your pain is your pain.</p>
<p></p>
<p>You gotta figure it out. So short body, we end at our skin. Long body, we are connected beyond it to our ancestors, our community, and Mother Earth. "Born in the USA" is about what happens when a nation or a society operates from short body. The veteran came home from the war, from Vietnam, wounded in ways that don't show up on a X-ray, and the culture said, "Those are your problems, not our problems.</p>
<p></p>
<p>We wish you good luck." What a way to support the troops, right? As I went through my own recovery, and I tell people this all the time, that it took a whole peloton, my take on long body. So many people came to help support my healing, my recovery, my growth, people who were close to me and complete strangers and people halfway around the world that were simply sending me prayers and good healing energy.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Long body. My recovery was fueled by long body, not short body. The thing is, none of us can do really anything in life by ourselves. We need each other. We need connection. We need to support each other, and that's what Springsteen is trying to wake us up to, that we need to be together in all of this. What I also learned through my recovery is that reality has a way of winning all its arguments, even when we try to numb reality, deny reality, or scroll past it.</p>
<p></p>
<p>The broken places in all of our lives, the places where we hurt, and that goes for our country as well, do not stop being broken, do not stop from hurting just because we turn up the volume when the chorus kicks in As I've connected with so many already in the new series I'm putting out this summer called A Perfectly Imperfect Union: Reflections on America at 250, they talk about how to offer each other grace and more courage to find a way to connect, to help us heal and grow.</p>
<p></p>
<p>And so many have offered this up, is that acknowledging where we have cracked, what we've gotten wrong in the past but haven't fully acknowledged, is not unpatriotic. It's actually a deeper form of patriotism that we as humans can hold multiple ideas and thoughts and feelings in our head, in our body all at the same time.</p>
<p></p>
<p>We can acknowledge where we've gotten it wrong and at the same time celebrate what we've gotten right. Because the thing is, is that you can't love a country into healing by looking away or past what is hurting it any more than you can do the same for an individual person We need to be with it. We need to face it.</p>
<p></p>
<p>That's how we form a more imperfectly perfect union. So as we head into the Fourth of July holiday this weekend here in the States, my encouragement to you is if you wish to turn up the volume, turn up the volume, feel the pride. It's real. There is so much in our country, despite where we're fractured, to celebrate.</p>
<p></p>
<p>I do believe this. This is why I'm doing this series. But let the song take you somewhere deeper. Listen to the lyrics. Let it ask you about the world that you live in. Ask it to ask you about short body, because you can be intentional. You don't have to do what everyone else is doing. You can practice long body behavior.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Because supporting someone else isn't just a nice or kind thing to do. It's actually biologically and spiritually essential because we are wired for connection. We are wired for long body. And the people who live a meaningful life and step into the person they're becoming practice this. They might not get it right all the time, but their intention is to practice this, to get better at it today than they were yesterday, and they'll be better tomorrow at it than they are today.</p>
<p></p>
<p>And this is not a political statement. This is really just what it means to be human. So take a moment. Go over to Apple Music or Spotify. Queue up Born in the USA by The Boss. Listen to the lyrics and see what conclusions you draw from that</p>
<p></p>
<p>As always, thanks for being here. Thanks for listening. Happy 4th of July for everyone listening who is celebrating it. I hope you'll check out the next episode in our series, A Perfectly Imperfect Union. We'll have another episode tomorrow. But until then, let's remember to celebrate our scars as golden symbols of our strength and resilience, and don't forget to have fun storming the castle.</p>
<p></p>
<p>And if you wish to learn more about creating beautiful ripples and how to prevent a bad moment from turning into a bad day, please visit my website, michaelobrienshift.com, and sign up for my newsletter called The Ripple Effect. And join us each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday here at Whole Again, and discover how you can heal, grow, and become more resilient, and celebrate our scars as golden symbols of strength and resilience.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Until then, remember, you can always come back to your breath. You've got this, and we've got you.</p>