I recently saw two movies that expose corruption and greed in two American iconic sacred systems, the National Football League and Wall Street. Both institutions offer participants fantasies of success and fame. These movies reminded me how exercising integrity is not always the popular or easy choice and the price we pay when we don’t. I felt the pain of all the times I betrayed myself. Exposing truths is one way we are collectively breaking down paradigms and systems that no longer serve humanity.
This is the time of year many reflect and this past year has been challenging globally and individually. We are collectively and individually breaking down the old and building the new. Remembering just three years ago on the cusp of 2012 when Mayans ended time keeping as we know it, not because the world was going to end, but because we would create and experience inner transformation to the degree that the way we keep time would no longer be the same.
Mayans called us the “In Between” People
The Mayans ending is reflected in the “Age” viewpoint – we live between the Age of Pisces and the Age of Aquarius. The Age of Pisces valued developing the individual, independence, reductionism, materialism and separation. Conversely the Age of Aquarius values unity, community, collaboration the value of the individual in their contribution to the good of the whole. Read more about paradigm shifts with my free download.
Systems built that take care of the individual at the expense of the whole are being exposed and breaking, leaving opportunity for wholesale change. Challenges we are experiencing are driving us to embrace values of the new age. Human nature doesn’t allow us to let go easily, even when we know we need too.
Change can be Painful
We are invested and attached to things that produce predictability, sense of security and ease or a sense of purpose or power. The more we acquire the more we have to lose and the more we function from fear than love. We separate and divide ourselves from ourselves and others and the separation is so vast and wide, it becomes part of our identity and then we fear removing it. Then we have to keep those divisions clear and wide because we no longer see who we are without it. A strong attachment takes energy to dissolve it, and we may resort to things likes violence, corruption, fraud, betrayal and exclusion. We increase suffering, loss, pain, anger, grief, disappointment, chaos, overwhelm and despair.
We see a system, its functions, relationships or structure break down, but what is really “breaking down” are the “things” dividing and separating us – that manifest through systems. I find comfort in this perspective, that what is actually breaking is not really a system at all but something that held up this energy of separation and that energetic or literal wall of separation is what is coming down. Self empowerment starts with self-discovery. Nevertheless, what it feels like is not comfortable, especially when it is happening in my inner world.
We are in Rubber Band Times
(feel free to conjure up the rubber band man song now). When dividers are breaking down it feels like I am a rubber band and that is what I call ‘The Rubber Band Theory’. Imagine taking a rubber band and stretching it out, twisting it around holding a tension. Then release the tension and the rubber band is flaccid and relaxed again. Then stretch it to its outer limits and let go again. Maybe the rubber band is thick and hard to pull; maybe it is thin and easy. As the rubber band ages it becomes more fragile, the elasticity is reduced, it may even feel rigid and the next time you pull to stretch it out, it snaps.
Every time I am triggered to let go of something not serving me I feel like I am stretched out like the rubber band, even twisted. A thick rubber band is something I am really attached to and a thin one less so. I am out of my comfort zone and routine, I am tense in some way. I am angry, frustrated, depressed, fed up you name it; it is a feeling I don’t like. I might even shoot some pain to someone else in drama and trauma like shooting a rubber band. If it is and old trigger, something I thought I had figured out and was done with- that is like the aging rubber band where I am rigid and fragile and it feels like I am going backwards.
You can see this in our world too, racism playing out in law enforcement or immigration policy or the assault on women’s or voters rights feels like we are going backwards. Didn’t we conquer that? And sometimes, the tension on the rubber band is too much and it snaps, I snap and I am forced to let go through drama and trauma. Yuk. Every time Yuk. I don’t like me and often someone else.
Evolution is a Process, Not an Event
My rubber band theory has reminded me that self improvement and evolution are processes, not events. Each time I can hold the tension of the extended rubber band and be in it while I am above it, I create change one moment, situation or circumstance at a time. So do you. Together all these moments add up to create the shift in paradigms toward realization of the values embraced by the Age of Aquarius. Holding the tension of an extended rubber band takes awareness, courage, and soul stamina to learn how to be comfortable in the uncomfortable. We are in this energy for sometime ahead so the sooner we learn to navigate it versus fight or ignore it, the more suffering we eliminate and faster we arrive.
Each time you expand and hold that tension without a snap, when you relax you are new. You learn to love yourself when you successfully reclaim your truth; you reduce separation from yourself, Source and others just a little bit more. You access your truth and claim the power you thought you gave up. Sometimes we need to snap the rubber band to get where we need to go and that is okay too; that is why we have tools of compassion, forgiveness and blessings – to provide for ourselves first and then others. This happens to us on a personal and individual basis, but we bring life energy to the collective to create and evolve all of us.
What will You Chose to Focus On?
This coming year will be more of the same, truth telling, breaking systems, suffering until critical mass awakens. In order to improve your life, what will you chose to focus on?
I invite you this coming year to listen to the wisdom of your heart. Integrate the wisdom of your heart with your intuition and mind. We need the qualities of all three in balance. I invite you to let what you love into your life fully and it will guide your path forward. Allow small and simple practices like being present, simple words and just showing up repeatedly crack open profound personal and global transformation. Live simply and give more. Play and create more.
As Zig Ziglar says, “A great attitude becomes a great mood, which becomes a great day, which becomes a great year, which becomes a great life”. A great attitude comes from valuing and loving yourself.
Source thinks you are good enough to be here and values who you are, no need to question that anymore. See yourself. Value yourself. Quit arguing with reality by letting go of think things and people should be, they are and you don’t need to know why or change them. Let that go and follow what makes you feel alive. Believe in “pronia”, the opposite of paranoia; the belief that the Universe is conspiring in your favor.
Right now I’m offering … for your exploration into how to learn to love yourself. Join me!
Blessings to you and who you are right now and thank you for being in my 2015 and 2016. Namaste.