goggins vs blondin

Tame your inner bitch vs Keep it tender, open and honest

Goggins is a military machine all about self discipline, physical exertion and taming one's “inner bitch” while Blondin is a meditation master and wordsmith who paints poetry with her soul in guided meditations.

Goggins and Blondin sit on polar opposites of the human spectrum. They are as different as night and day, from their genders through to the words they use to express their personal truths.

David Goggins gets me amped up and running out in the mountains exploring life, nature and testing my limits. His voice, in my head, gets me out of bed when it's raining and miserable outside.

Sarah Blondin calms the over-excitement, stills the mindless chatter and gives me space to breathe and be still. Her voice gently walks me into stillness and reminds me that what I really yearn for is a calm mind and a strong heart.

I mused lately; if they were locked into a room together, what would happen!? Could they see and hear one anothers divinity, being so fundamentally opposite from one another?

These two personalities have become helpful archetypes which I have used to navigate life over the past few years.

I invoke Goggins when needing to finish a difficult run, do morning breath work or when I need to finish my filing on a Friday afternoon on a cracker day in one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

Sarah’s “Surrender” meditation is often a weekly listen if not daily, used after sitting with a client who is terminal or another struggling to be self compassionate and in other times when I need to soften the edges around something that didn't end up going according to how I expected (too tied up in controlling a specific outcome).

These scenarios are fairly black and white - which archetype to use and when, somewhat like when I used to believe that I had the devil whispering in one ear and an angel trying to get my attention in the other. The old good and evil; right and wrong dilemma ;-)

The difficulty comes when the gray between these situations feels like decision making fog.

Do I push through the discomfort and the mind stories (Goggins) or do I give some space and allow for more objectivity (a Blondin meditation), which might be helpful in questioning whether enduring the discomfort is actually helpful or is it only feeding my “endurance/hero” stories? That mischievous ego again - sneaky little shit ;-)

One of the deeper truths which anchors my life, is that life is not only meant to have experiences of happiness, joy, or success but is also meant for growth, creativity and “all the” experiences.

This often means it can be exceptionally difficult and painful in moments and like most other humans, I don't like being in pain or questioning myself.

The Book of Joy by Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu has this beautiful message which they dance with throughout the book - allow the pain and injustices of life to welcome humility and grace into one's life, rather than to stand in judgement & anger of pain as lacking divinity, purpose or meaning.

So then when must we endure and when must we let go?

A far trickier answer when the subject matters and the consequences could just be quite painful. This relationship or not? This job or not? Holiday or finish this project properly? A braai with close mates or time on my own?

My mind says that if I get this wrong I am going to suffer and that sux!

My soul says - yeah but the suffering is there for a reason broseph and I also remember a scene from the Mission Joy documentary where Desmond and The Dalai model with their lives and words the alchemy of suffering into compassion, humility and grace. What amazing humans!

I would hope that Goggins and Blondin might see the divinity in both thier approaches to life and that both are needed with wisdom and timing, but my money would be on Goggins being held by Blondin in tears in a closely fought battle of the heart. KO - Blondin smokes Goggins ;-)