Josh Allred's Blog

When we learn to let go, we also simultaneously make room to let other things come into our lives.

Not just grief and suffering. But also relationships and products.

When you talk to an activist in the ’60s, they would say they thought the world was going to end. That same feeling exists today for many. The thing is, we always have been faced with danger. The difference is today, we have weapons that could end everything. Climate change continues to be an existential threat.

Every day, we inch toward that line of destruction. But what we have going for us is the knowledge we are accumulating to solve the problems at hand and the problems we don’t even see coming yet. As we gain more knowledge, we are also gaining more solutions.

I believe there are three levels.

The lowest level is the lizard brain.

The middle is the mammal brain.

The final brain is the human.

The three parts of our brain are in constant pull from each other.

The first two are there to take care of us. To help us survive.

The human brain, however, is there to get us to take risks to find meaning.

All the problems we face, if we are lucky, are there to get us to solve the first two parts of our brain and to confront the human brain.

Human problems are indeed the challenge of the times we face.

The ones who hate the most are the ones who struggle to find the love people see in them.

We often hate what we find ugly in ourselves.

We confuse dead ends with the end of the road. Life has more to offer. When we feel it’s the end, it may be just the beginning.

It’s okay to feel sorry for ourselves. Then, we must make room for the next emotion.

Being honest has a price. Sometimes, that price is making it about ourselves and speaking our own truth instead of listening to someone else’s.

When we realize that we are not here to serve ourselves and not just make ourselves happy, we find our lives are more useful. Meaning when we are looking to help someone along the way, we can ignore our pain and suffering and alleviate theirs. It’s not about us. It’s about everyone.

All we have is each other. We can learn to embrace each other then.

For many, we cannot stand when someone tells us what to do.

But what we fear more is embracing the power of freedom.

We create this system that requires our surrender of agency. And then wonder where did all the choices go?

The alternative is to take the agency back. And when we do, it no longer seems palpable to do what people tell you what to do.

We can do things like forgive, love, hate, fight, make peace.

What we can’t do is fight gravity.

We should be very clear about what it is we are capable of.

When we are, we can find power in controlling the things we can and surrendering to the things we can’t.