Our Inner-Hierarchy

Inner Pyramid Scheme - As delicate as a house of cards

A reflection on the silent architecture within us, and how reclaiming our wholeness begins with seeing the structure we've unknowingly lived under.

I have been deeply incubating this piece of writing for some time. I trust that what I share resonates in some way or at least sparks your own inner reflection.

It is my belief, from personal experience, that we have been subjected to what I call an “Inner Pyramid Scheme” programming, which unbeknown to us creates a hierarchical structure within our Self. This structure is not part of how our human nature organically works and has led to a disconnection from our whole and our true essence (true self, authentic self…)

Whether this has been done on purpose or not, I really do not know yet. However, I do believe it to be a key part of a programming that is deeply embedded in societies across the world and our educational system.

This hierarchical structure within ourselves hasn’t only led to our inner disconnection, it has disconnected us from our Earth and each other – reinforcing the Identity of the independent individual, instead of that of “sameness” as the root of the word relates to.

You may be asking yourself, what inner pyramid scheme? This one…

"Inner Pyramid Scheme" (Our inner-hierarchy)

The MIND (Mental Self) is at the top of the pyramid (or “pyramind” hehe) governing & controlling every aspect of the Self. This is not all of our mind, it is the rational part that we are all programmed to function from and not the all-knowing mind. From the body to the emotions, and even our soul, our Mind believes it has the first and last word on everything related to us and creates an Identity of the Self based on knowledge and what it can process from life experience. This always reminds me of the very popular phrase “Mind over Matter”.

Then comes the Body (Physical Self) the loyal servant of the Mind – the one who follows orders without complaining, until it reaches breaking point. The container within which the mind creates its Identity, although not necessarily in a loving way.

After the body and with no say or barely any say whatsoever are our Emotions (Emotional Self) and I hear another phrase again echo in my head which was very popular in my time – “Be Seen but not Heard” or “You are too emotional”

Then we have our Soul (Spiritual Self) that I have put somewhere in the middle; although it could also be invisible or hidden at the bottom of the pyramid. The positioning of this on the hierarchical pyramid depends on whether or not you are exposed to some type of religious or spiritual belief when you are young, from your family, school or culture. If you are not, it will all depend on your own belief system, this is when it may take a random place on the pyramid, if any at all.

This way wasn’t always the way we functioned. I believe this has been a slow cooking process that has been going on for millennia, I feel it deeply in my bones, in my inner truth.

This is how I came to birth this pyramid concept, I have not read if anyone out there has written about this, because it comes from a knowing that doesn’t require knowledge.

Before I started on my healing journey, my Identity was solely formed by who my Mind thought I was – it did not include my body, definitely not my emotions as I swallowed them all & my spirituality had also been stuffed away.

Growing up my intelligence was highly rewarded, my emotions were either disregarded or I was asked to “swallow them”, my body became a part of my Self I dissociated from due to trauma & my spirituality was too out there to be spreading around.

Here is where my mind started to gain control and thus, took Head position on the hierarchy we are programmed to function under. Slowly disconnecting from the body, emotions and spiritual self; all of which became either silent and loyal servants, or useless and unnecessary for the mind to control and create its identity successfully.

Fast forward to my depression in 2015, having had operated primarily from my mind, can you imagine what happened when depression kicked in? Well, my mind started telling me all sorts: “I was broken”, “I had failed”, “There was something wrong with me”. What happened? Everything was running so smoothly….

This is where our mind starts to show its true colours; becoming our worst enemy when things don’t go the way it was planned in its realm (I will call this the Head) showing how little control it had over our Self and how little it really knows about what it means to be human, because it always has to make sense of everything. If it doesn’t make sense, either it doesn’t exist or there is failure.

I must interject at this point though and say, that I do not believe all of our mind (Mental Self) is like this. I believe this to be primarily our left-brain, which is the one we are programmed to use and operate from. The part that is easy to “brainwash”.

During my depression, the first thing I did was go and treat my mind with Psychotherapy. It was very useful but, after one year and weekly sessions, something started to awaken within me and it wasn’t my mind. I had this inner knowing that I needed to look at those other parts that my mind had neglected or subjugated, because they somehow held a lot of my story – I learnt about holistic approaches & I started to learn and do as much as I could to start to get clarity on what my inner knowing was guiding me toward.

I started my inner re-connection process, all the parts of my Self coming together and working symbiotically in order to fully process the human experience. Together they are strong, they give a foundation for your True Essence to start to come out, the one who is sovereign, free, intuitive and wise. This inner-reconnection led to the reminder that we are all inter-connected, our connection to the Earth and the importance of community.

Ten years into this journey, from breakdown to breakthrough, I have awakened about what it means to be human and our human experience.

The awakening to this inner hierarchy system is part of my healing journey.

It is my belief that we have been born in a time of our human existence when we are ruled by governments that wish not only to keep us small, but very disconnected from the inside out. This makes it easy for them to control & manipulate us into whatever they want us to believe and whoever they want us to become.

Creating a divide and a disconnection within ourselves, slowly leads us to disconnect from all that is outside ourselves – the Earth, other human beings, dissolving the sense of community, etc. And the world that we see playing out before our eyes right now, is a projection of what we all believe ourselves to be; separate from one another, from our Earth, from our ecosystems.

We will continue to experience separation, division, racism, inequality, supremacy, selfishness, as long as we continue to experience that same disconnection within our Self.

A HUMAN that only operates from the MIND (Mental Self) isn’t a true human and will get lost in the human experience, always needing to be told what to do and who to be.

So, if you find yourself lost, or hear your mind being critical of you or judgmental, start questioning it. Start questioning its identity (self-enquiry) and start implementing holistic practices in your life that allow you to re-connect again with your whole self.

We have always been WHOLE, we have simply been programmed to forget this.

As always, if this doesn’t resonate with you, please leave it and don’t pay any attention to it. Discernment in these times 0f profound change is of utmost importance to start realigning with our truth.

With love always,

Zoly