I am writing from the beautiful coast of Baja, Mexico where I am blessed to be quarantining from.
Like everyone, I am doing my best to make the most of this challenging time of radical change we find ourselves in. Spending lots of time on the beach, watching and listening to the waves, and asking myself ‘what is it that I truly value in this life? The beauty of Nature is definitely at the top of the list.
I continue to be so grateful for and inspired by the Heart series because it keeps me grounded in qualities I am committed to. Particularly as I notice how easy it is to get hooked into the big dramas playing out in the world – things I know I have absolutely no control over and are quite simply distracting and anxiety promoting.
Although I am staying away from most media, I highly recommend if you haven’t seen them, two excellent Netflix documentaries which speak so profoundly to this time – ‘The Social Dilemma’ and ‘My Octopus Teacher’.
The first addresses many of the problems that come from our collective addiction to technology. In particular, its impact on children’s emotional development as well as how social media contributes to our cultural polarization and divisiveness.
The second film speaks to the solution, how we need to reconnect back to our natural wildness, to our caring and compassion, and how it is Nature – our own true Nature and the natural world, that heals and sustains us.
Both films renew my faith in humanity’s ingenuity and creativity. We have everything we need to solve all the issues we face – but, from my perspective, it will take also take a deep humility and willingness for each of us to embrace our shadow, and to stop projecting the problems outside of ourselves.
Embracing the shadow is the current theme in the ‘Awakening The Heart’ program. Although it may at first seem a scary or unpleasant exploration, I find it quite liberating and exhilarating to explore the unknown parts of ourselves.
When we can see that we each contain the full spectrum of human qualities, we become less afraid of those aspects we consider ‘negative’. We stop trying to be some ideal version of ourselves and become more fully alive.
Our hearts do not operate in terms of good and bad but has an extraordinary capacity to unconditionally accept what the intellect considers unacceptable.
Being willing to see the aspects of ourselves that we have rejected is not an easy path and takes courage and compassion. Yet it is often the very thing that brings a deep felt sense of peace, because we are no longer at war with any aspect of ourselves – or others.
It becomes easier to see that there is no us and them – it is all us – even those we judge as unfathomable.
No one is unscathed by the current collective challenges we are facing. We are all feeling varying degrees of sadness, confusion, anger and fear to name a few. We are all being forced to feel what we may have been able to deny before now.
But there is always grace and goodness – regardless of how difficult our circumstances.
For myself, my focus is on staying as grounded in compassion as possible.- and to support others in the same.