Seeing the truth or disillusionment can be difficult to manage sometimes because of its profound and reaching impact. We can feel dejected, hurt or experience a sense of loss. We can feel uneasy or anxious. And we can feel euphoric and be bursting with creativity and optimism.
One of the most remarkable things about the human brain is the ability to normalize almost any situation. People may wish for a better life, but they are able to function fairly effectively in most circumstances and environments. We are seeing new truths constantly and most are processed and interpreted unconsciously; they require very little on-going mental energy to assimilate. We can normalize deviance very effectively in most many instances.
Disillusionment is a little different because it occurs when a critical piece of our world view changes forcing a cascading wave of changes in other areas. Re-writing these changes will take time and it causes stress and mental arousal. The degree of stress is mitigated by support structure, health, available coping strategies and the size of the deviation from normal. Direct effort will also speed things along if you act according to the disillusionment vs. your previous world view. Direct effort forces experiences that are averaged into, and therefore change, what we hold as normal. Do this for long enough and your daily life will stop causing anxiety.
The direction of our conscious thoughts is important also. Think past, present, or future. By looking back on things, we are sustaining our old world view. We are ignoring the truth and choosing to pursue something that we know isn’t accurate. Doing this ENSURES suffering. Suffering is stopped by directing conscious thought onto the present and by accepting the truth. Disillusionment and enlightenment mean the same thing but what that is changes completely when you choose which word to use as each captures a different mindset and a different set of behaviors to embody.
When presented with a new truth that forces a change to your world view, you are best served by accepting and acting in accordance to it as quickly as you can. You are going to have to eventually anyway so why not front load the experiences so you move through the process most quickly?