Signs of the Times: Four

Re-wire Your Nervous System

Many of you are familiar with the statistic that the total of human knowledge is doubling every ten years.  The statistic is several years old so I suspect things are moving even more rapidly now.  How is this a sign of the times?  The average person today experiences more in one year than an ancestor in 1900 would have experienced in an entire lifetime.  That’s why we’re feeling out of breath!  More feelings, more information, more sensory input, more choices, more avenues of expression.  And there’s more coming, fast.

How did this happen?  How can we deal with eighty or ninety or a hundred times the information and experience our ancestors handled?  Because humanity has taken an enormous leap in consciousness since 1900.  We have been energetically rewired and our nervous systems are different.  Practices such as meditation, allowing our imagination a place to play, and working to develop intuitive abilities will continue to energetically rewire our nervous systems and enhance creativity, innate wisdom, compassion, awareness and problem solving capacity.

The growing understanding between science and religion points toward humans learning to use all of their minds rather that just the ten percent Einstein noted.  In his book, “A Whole New Mind,” Daniel Pink explains why right-brainers will rule the world.  He declares that it is the union of the right and left brain that will create the geniuses of the future.  When intellect and intuition work in concert, each side absorbing, processing, sharing information and mutually making choices, a radically expanded intelligence is available to us. 

Here is one of my favorite quotes from Mr. Pink.  “The future belongs to a very different kind of person with a very different kind of mind – creators and empathizers, pattern recognizers and meaning makers. These people…will now reap society’s richest rewards and share its greatest joys.”  - Daniel H. Pink, A Whole New Mind

Another point of view comes from an Episcopalian minister.  Oprah had a traditional cleric, Ed Bacon (Rector of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena) in for an interview. A part of his belief is the insight that congregations of the 21st Century must be of an interfaith nature (as opposed to preaching that our way is the only right way).  He feels that the sense of separation which is caused by people feeling sole ownership to the right way is at the root of violence and hatred and the justification of war.

My point of view is that it requires a mind which integrates intellect and intuition to make the shift from us-against-them mentality to an open attitude supporting the worth and wellbeing of all.

http://www.wisdomquestwizards.org

Signs of the Times: Three

Radical Gratitude

As Thanksgiving approaches, it’s obvious that there are many in the world with little to be thankful for, even in our ‘advanced’ western societies.  I would like to invite you into a state of radical gratitude that will hopefully become your practice reaching far beyond this holiday.  In these changing times the personal energy we each broadcast is the most powerful change agent of all.

Someone I know once took a vacation in Bali where she met an amazing woman.  The woman lived in a grass hut with a dirt floor.  She was thin, prominent bones witnessing to malnutrition.  She also had a radiant smile.  She supported herself by weaving cloth for the beautiful sari’s so common there.  She herself only owned two sari’s; one thin and ragged and the other lovely silk that she wore for special ceremonies.  The visitor asked why she smiled so much, and her response was to recite a litany of all the beauty she saw around her.  That humid climate produced a year round riot of colorful flowers.  The birds were amazing and the sky glorious.  She had friends and family who loved her.  She had work she enjoyed.  The visitor admired the beautiful silk sari and the woman insisted on giving it to her.  She would accept no payment other than a promise to carry smiles back to her own home.  Her focus was one of gratitude and she lived in joy.

Radical gratitude is about the little things.  My lovely stone tile floor collects balls of cat fur rather frequently.  I can be annoyed at needing to sweep, again, or I can smile about the four affectionate Maine Coon cats that share my life and make me giggle.  The wind blows a lot where I live.  A Navajo urged gratitude for the wind blowing bad spirits away.  I am getting older and sometimes that’s uncomfortable, but I have lived fully and joyfully in this body, and still do.  I have had some very difficult relationships but each one taught a priceless lesson and I’ve finally grown up enough to be in a very good relationship.  My flower beds are full of newly planted violas and pansies that will survive the winter and burst into incredible bloom in late March.  Mice and tiny lizards nibble in the flower beds, putting on a daily wildlife show.  Oh, and have you ever seen a hummingbird war?  Two species visiting your yard at the same time makes for an amazing ruckus.  I have the time to write.  Finally!

Begin with a small notebook, or a document that sits on the desktop of your computer.  Put it in your calendar if you use one.  No bit of appreciation is too small or too silly.  Write something down at least once a day.  If you are not a writer and hate that sort of thing, you’re not off the hook.  Instead you can find at least one person a day to listen as you speak aloud the blessing of your gratitude.  Become the Pollyanna of your tribe, the one who always sees the good and speaks the good.  That is not a position of weakness; it is a stance of power.  Your words, your thoughts and your attitude are the greatest gift you have to give to the future of the human race.  Your choice is to stand under a cloud of gloom and feed it with your thoughts, or radiate a spirit of joy that will lift those around you and lift you to a new level of experience.  Get your light out from under that bushel and shine on!

Signs of the Times: Two

The Times We Are Leaving

The rioting of Penn State fans over the firing of coach Paterno is bone chilling.  To these people, “my tribe winning” is more important than young boys being raped.  Repeatedly.  By a so-called sports figure looked up to as a hero and an example for  young people.  Then the rapes are covered up by the aggressor’s superiors, including but not limited to Paterno.  The cover up went even higher.

This sort of madness is historic, tracing back through all of recorded history.  Rape and torture of the conquered was encouraged because it broke their spirits and discouraged further fighting.  We Americans like to think we are evolved enough that we don’t do those things any more, but the torture of prisoners in Iraq by American military, including electric shock and waterboarding among other things, proves otherwise.  Yes, the actions were performed by low ranking young people, but they were encouraged by their superiors all the way up to George Bush and Dick Cheyney who still claim it was the right thing to do.

If you are thinking that rioting football fans being compared to military atrocities is a bit of a stretch, think again.  Anyone who still believes they belong to a tribe that must win in order to feel good, even to the point of ignoring the rape of children, has the personal capacity to engage in similar acts and find a way to feel justified doing so.  This mentality is the root and seed of warfare, cruelty and ‘collateral damage’ being acceptable, and we must find a way to heal the psychosis of hate if we are to step into a future world that works for all.

Each of us has one simple thing to do in order to support the shift to a better future. Just speak up, with those you know.  We don’t have to march or do anything extreme.  Find a way to talk about the need to see things differently and do things differently with your circle of friends and family.  You can also post your ideas on this blog, then invite friends and family.

Signs of the Time One

After observing the “signs of the times” for years with great dismay, finally hope is blossoming.  It began with my friend and astrologer telling me she searched for planetary aspects which might indicate what to expect for 2012, and there weren’t any.  Astrologically, 2012 is unusually peaceful in terms of aspects; it’s all happening now.  This is the year of great upheaval, some of which will bleed over to early 2012, but by the time we get to the dates which were noted in the Mayan calendar, we will be living in a new reality.

New realities can sound frightening to some, particularly those most resistant to change.  Perhaps it will ease some anxiety to look at how far we have come, say in the last thousand years.  In the generation living in 1012, CE, you lived and died where you were born, if you were lucky.  If you weren’t lucky, you were conscripted into some army and died violently very soon after.  No one expected to better themselves or rise above the life of a serf and become wealthy.  Today anyone with enough drive and vision can go anywhere.

The reality we are approaching will be as different from today as today is different from the way people lived a thousand years ago.  Einstein said the most important decision we all have to make is whether or not we live in a friendly universe.  I am convinced we live in a friendly universe, one that conspires for our good.  For me that indicates that the new reality will bring a better life for all the children of the earth.

I will be posting the “signs of the times” that I see in future blogs.  Please subscribe and add your own observations.