Do you ever observe someone doing something and wonder “what were they thinking?”  In other words, how did they decide to do THAT?  Or, wonder the same thing about yourself?  (It’s often easier to be shocked by someone else’s actions.  At least, that is, until hindsight sets in.)

I recently had the opportunity to make such an observation of a decision that my mother made: filling me with wonder, puzzlement, and a bit of horror.  When I observe something that seems anomalous or surprising, I examine how it was created by looking at the “big picture,” or the reality construct, in which it originated.  Said another way, I go back to the source, rather than fish around in endless details for meaning.

My deeper observation of this event has inspired this article, to help you identify — and dispel — personal (and planetary) “clouds of thoughts.”  A lot of storms begin in these clouds, especially the dark and dense ones.  Most would agree that (life’s) weather is more pleasant under clear skies or with pink and fluffy clouds overhead …

The Phone Call

Late on a Sunday afternoon, I received a somewhat unsurprising, but still unexpected, call from my mother.  She informed me that her husband had died in his sleep last week.  Not a sudden or tragic death by any means; he has been kept alive by surgeries and medications for longer than anyone could have anticipated.  What was most remarkable about the call … he had died several days ago, and the funeral was in less than 24 hours (and 3,000 miles away).  She waited until now to tell me.  Despite spending over 40 years with this person in my physical life, I was amongst the last to call.  This didn’t strike her as odd or problematic at all.  Really?

In fact, she opened up the Christmas present that I sent him, and told me how much she enjoyed it.  I still am not sure exactly what day he died.  I think it was Christmas Eve or Christmas morning.

After the initial bit of shock faded, I was quite puzzled by the whole series of events, and the decisions of the participants.  I already understood that they have created a very different reality from mine, and it is quite distant in most respects.  In fact, it might as well be on another planet for most purposes.  I’ve observed the separation of many realities, on many scales over the past two decades.

Still, though, I figured that my mother might have gotten around to letting me know that he had died, sooner than later.

The next morning, I contemplated the situation, on my regular trail run up and down the Santa Cruz Mountains.  (Presumably while the funeral was occurring, though she didn’t disclose precisely when it was.)

In the stillness of the foggy dawn air, just after light rain, I perceived a beautifully clear metaphor for her “line or reasoning.”  My mother — like so many others — was acting from a self-contained “cloud of thoughts.”

The Cloud of Thoughts

The metaphor of a “cloud of thoughts” borders on not being a metaphor at all.  It is quite close to a description of true reality, from the sub-quantum to the physical level.  The physical experience of reality arises from the interaction of different “particles,” most moving so quickly that they are hard to discern individually.  One sub-atomic particle bumping into another.  One molecule bumping into another, triggering a cascade of internal biochemistry.  One thought bumping into another …

From the mountainside, I watched my mother’s “cloud of thoughts” for a bit, observing how it worked, and how she likely reached her decision to call me.  Complex, of course, but following well-established patterns of relationship and interaction.  With respect to her privacy, and the difficulty of mapping something like this for an outside reader, I will focus on how “the cloud” works.

Within the cloud, thoughts relate to other thoughts.  One thought leads to another.  And other.  I am guessing that you can recognize these trails of thinking within yourself, and how they can lead you to some glum moments?

The key aspect is that most thoughts are self-referential.  That is, the thoughts don’t refer to something outside the cloud.  Thoughts refer to other thoughts.  Therefore, anything is possible!  There’s no outside “check and balance” to evaluate the veracity, or even utility, of a thought.  The thought exists by right of its own existence.  Often based upon nothing more.

When someone has thoughts that are essentially based upon nothing of real substance, the results of the “thinking” can be wild.  At some point, they are classified as delusional.  I would like to propose that a LOT of “normal” thinking is actually delusional.  It might not meet social or medical criteria as such, but the structural pattern of unsubstantiated ideas generating realities is pretty much the same.  No wonder our world often seems insane?  Yes?

The Cloud: personal to planetary

The largely unsubstantiated nature of thoughts is the starting point to free yourself from The Cloud.

Like most transformative processes, the first step is recognition.  If you don’t realize that you are in a “cloud of thoughts” (like my mother), clear and conscious action is hopeless.  All you have is The Cloud to re-create The Cloud.  Thoughts to generate more thoughts.  The Cloud does not even realize that it is a cloud.

You can keep going indefinitely within this self-generating world, not understanding the cause and effect relationship of your thoughts, actions, and life creations.  Until you stop yourself.  Or something “stops” you.  (In some respects, a description of a spiritual awakening could be the self-recognition, or cessation, of a part of your internal cloud.)

In fact, the most destructive and dangerous “clouds of thought” are the ones that are most self-contained.  As I said, within the reasoning structure of the self-referential thoughts, there is no escape and no counter-balance.  Conclusions can be reached with no basis.  Actions can be taken with no recognition of consequences or impacts outside The Cloud.

Does this help explain the behavior of individuals around you — and in the larger world?

The Cloud can be scaled up from the individual to Collective Clouds.  Self-referential worlds are in abundance nowadays.  Sometimes they are called “social media communities.”  Or any sort of community.  However, insulated networks of perception, justification, and belief abound in digital realities that are detached from physical contact and feedback.

Free yourself from The Cloud

As noted above, the first step to free yourself from The Cloud is recognizing the cloud(s) which you inhabit. A personal “cloud of thoughts” is usually nested within other clouds.  Many of those clouds might even have long-standing “credentials” of authority, validity, and power.  Most of those credentials are not thoroughly analyzed or questioned.

Which leads to the next step: questioning your own thoughts.  Have you ever meaningfully and deeply traced a thought back to its origin?  All the way back?  And then, have you examined the origin?  Sometimes an explanation or description replaces the process of truly examining the source of the thought (or its quality).

Again, we are back to the problem of self-referential reality.  Because if a thought (which usually comes from a belief, an idea, an experience) seems credible or obvious, it is not questioned.  That’s often part of the “invisible” framework of The Cloud — something so obvious that it is not actually questioned.  (More here on the hard-to-see “energy drains” of life …)

I would like to suggest to you that meaningful contemplation is not “thinking your thoughts” about something.  Rather, it is “questioning your thoughts” about the subject/object of contemplation.  Those are VERY different pathways of inquiry, and, ultimately, understanding.

When you start questioning your thoughts, you are immediately “poking holes” in the cloud.  You can seal those holes up with more thoughts, of course.  But if you keep questioning, the holes will get bigger and bigger.  As the space expands, the cloud breaks apart.  In this way, you dispel the cloud from the inside.

The Quest for Clear Skies

Dispelling the clouds of your thoughts — and collective Clouds — is a systematic and sequential process.  One question leads to another.  One hole leads to another.  What was once dense and packed with beliefs, convictions, and ideas starts to thin out so that you can see these thought forms for what they are.  When you observe them, rather than automatically embody them, you can make a conscious choice about what serves your intentions and life purpose.

Like most lasting and genuine transformation, there isn’t a quick fix for the “cloud of thoughts.”  Some clouds are thinner and fade more quickly.  Others might not even be visible yet.  As I noted earlier, the invisible clouds are the most concerning and problematic.  I suggest that you form a strong intention to find those “unseen clouds” ASAP, if you are truly seeking freedom from the The Cloud(s).

From my perspective, the benefits — and hence motivation — for dispersing your clouds of thought are fundamentally these:  1) capacity for truly conscious action, 2) spiritual and physical sovereignty, and 3) inner freedom.

When dwelling within your cloud (and the collective clouds), you are not free.

Within the cloud, you are bouncing around in a container of limited perception.  In another article, I call these the “containers of reality.”  I would say that the goal of your effort is NOT to “change your thoughts”, but rather, to liberate yourself from your container of reality.  Then you will be truly free.  Otherwise, you will continue living in a (better decorated) cloud.  And probably not even realize it.

In essence, I suggest that you approach dispelling the Cloud — on whatever scale you are called — as if your life and freedom depend upon your success.

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To begin each new year, I have a tradition of offering a new teaching, awareness, or perspective.  Many are somewhat provocative — intended to sharpen your focus for the next 12 months.  Last year, I asked “what is really effective and enduring inner work?”

Quite obviously, 2020 was a very different year, on so many multi-dimensional levels. I contemplated what I wished to give at its end/beginning.  I concluded that my offering of The Expansion Principle is still the most resounding information and holistic guidance for empowerment that I can provide at this time.  Every being, day by day, has the opportunity to embrace their own form of (re)emergence in resonance with our elevating planetary and galactic systems.

Instead of a new expression of words and ideas, I was inspired to activate the unfolding of 2021 in a different, non-verbal way: with the purest direct transmission of energy, awareness, and uplift that I could envision.  How could I do that?

With photographs of 7 orchids that bloomed for us in 2020.  Not any 7 orchids — these are “alba form” — lacking dark pigments.  All purely white and gold flowers.  Plants originating from Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, southeast Asia, China, and beyond …

2021 will be remembered as a remarkable year of transformation and renewal.  Please open, receive, and bring your attention to the highest possibility for this unfolding.  Blessings and peace to you.

Emergence and Elevation …

More of my orchid images can be found on “An Essence of Orchids,” my website dedicated to orchid growing and photography.

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This is an unusual place for me to post images of orchids.  Most of my “orchid portraits” — of which there are dozens and dozens — have a dedicated orchid photography website: An Essence of Orchids.  But when there is a very special plant, she has the “honor” of illuminating this website.

It doesn’t matter if you know anything about orchids or grow them.  My intention in sharing these images is to communicate something that is beyond words and ideas.  A recognition, an awareness, an opening, an experience of something beyond the physical.  This is fundamentally why I create photography.

2020 was a very special year for this orchid species.  We have five blooming-size plants of Cymbidium tracyanum — and every one flowered at the same time.  This has never happened before.  In our location, they are a bit “fussy” about blooming.  The conditions have to be just right or they happily keep growing bigger and bigger … but no flowers.  (We’ve had this particular plant for 3.5 years without blooms.)

I’ve watched them grow bigger and bigger each year.  The largest is about 4′ (1.2m) wide.  I start to wonder why I have these shelves filled with really big green leaves.  And, then, when they bloom, I understand why.

For the 2021 solar new year (Winter Solstice), we had four of this orchid species in the house, and one at the door (it was just too big to fit inside easily!).  Not only beautiful, they are incredibly fragrant.  The orchids even seem to know when you are talking or writing about them — they spontaneously start to emanate beautiful fragrance at any time of day.  Like now.

Breathe deeply and receive.

I have two more “orchid portraits” of Cymbidium tracyanum.  You can experience photographs of the “really big one” that I described above here and a very different orchid portrait of the rare alba (white) form.

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I often use the word “navigate” to describe my suggested approach to our changing, and often tumultuous world.  With intention and awareness, you can consciously choose your destination.  Yet, even with a clear goal, the journey to arrive is often unpredictable and challenging.

Sometimes you need a laser beam of focus to see through all of the disturbances and keep “on track.”

In this article, I would like to offer you a “laser beam” for navigating with a deep and heart-centered perspective despite all of the disturbances enacted around you.  I call it “purposeful communication.”  Purposeful communication was born of my desire to NOT be used as a garbage disposal unit for others’ unprocessed energy, emotions, and thought forms.  Sound like a good idea?

With this approach, I invite you to rethink your mental, emotional, and energetic expressions, and how you engage with others.  And, of course, how others engage with you …

All of the stuff that people say

The inspiration for my approach of “purposeful communication” is all of the distressed and frustrated expressions that I have been experiencing around me since the COVID-19 crisis began.  I don’t need to elaborate that there are many people who are expressing unhappiness, anger, fear, and all sorts of inner strife.

Most do not recognize that much — and probably most — of their experience is self-generated from their own reactions to beliefs, expectations, and powerfully broadcast social narratives.  Unfortunately, it is an exceptionally tough time to point that out because the turbulence of the external world seems so dominant and outside of personal control.

(For a detailed three step process to health and well-being in a time of crisis and transition, please see my series of articles on the “The Expansion Principle.”)

As a tolerant, peaceful, mature, and loving person, I often inadvertently become a destination for people seeking an outlet for their trauma.  Sound familiar?  I surmise that many spiritually mature and loving people, especially women, are in this position frequently.  It can be difficult to be an island of sanity and positive energy in the sea of madness.

Initially, I continued as I usually do — listening with Stillness, compassion, and offering heartfelt suggestions for others’ experiences.  I endeavor to create a supportive space for people to elevate their awareness and self-reflect into a new reference point for their reality.  I have found this an approach with a high success rate.  Until recently.

One day, I realized that I needed to do something different in some situations.  The abundance of un-productive dramas had become too distracting and energetically draining.

The birth of purposeful communication

Purposeful communication emerged from my desire to not be used as a destination for others’ energy, emotions, and thought forms.  That’s putting it politely — some people seem comfortable using others as garbage bins for their unprocessed “stuff.”  It is very problematic on many levels — energetically, emotionally, psychologically, physically, and spiritually.

Unfortunately, many social roles and norms support this unhealthy transfer of energy.  Again, women are particularly susceptible, both in how they construct their own identity (e.g., nurturer, caregiver, healer, etc.) and the long historical precedent for conditioned abuse of the feminine.

What I propose is that you consciously create an (inner/outer) structure for your communication space with others.  An empty space can allow new expressive potential OR become a container for rubbish.  It takes discernment — and usually intentional effort — to determine how “open” your communication space should be with a particular person or in a particular situation.

This is the key question to structure your communication space: “What is your purpose?”

That is, what is your purpose in sharing this with me?  What is your purpose in asking me this?  What is your purpose in telling me this story?

The phrasing can be varied, and more subtle, but the intention is the same: to evoke consciousness as to why the person is bringing their (baggage of) ideas, emotions, issues, questions, problems, and needs to you.  With this awareness comes a conscious choice.

A conscious choice for whether or how they would like to continue.

A conscious choice for whether or how you would like to respond.  Honestly, I often do not know how to respond to someone unless I know why they are asking or saying something.  The “why” is usually the real and deep purpose of the communication, not whatever the superficial topic is about.

From my view, a truly valuable response comes from answering the “why” — not the “what.”

Benefits of purposeful communication

When you re-focus your attention on the “why” of your communication, a number of very beneficial results can occur.  First, you can stay focused on your intention in a conversation (spoken or written).  Hopefully, there’s actually a reason for your dialogue.

Second, you can see through, or move through, the debris field (mine field?) of events, details, and emotional maneuvers.  Techniques of verbal manipulation are endless.  You can effectively navigate by orienting to the core reason, motivation, or purpose of your communication with someone, rather than all of the stories, complaints, and energetic charge.

Third, you are much less likely to dissipate your time and energy when engaged in a conscious conversation or interaction.  When you lose focus and intention, it is much easier to be sucked into an unproductive exchange or recycling of patterns.

Finally, and holistically, you can create healthy boundaries to maintain your self-respect and well-being.  I note that many people feel entitled to others’ time, energy, and participation in their personal drama/agenda.  How much you participate is completely up to you, but asking (yourself) “why” — having a purpose — makes your participation a clear and conscious decision rather than an extraction or entitlement.

Going beyond the conversation

While I have emphasized “conversations” as the background for purposeful communication, you can apply this perspective to every form of communication.  It can change how you read something — what is the real purpose of the person writing this?  It can change how you listen to something — why is this being discussed, or why is this story being told?  It can change how you write and speak — why am I investing my time and energy into this exchange with the “world”?

As you expand outwards, it becomes apparent that purposeful communication is inherently connected to a purposeful life.  Becoming purposeful in all that you do brings incredible energy, power, impact, and focus to your life.  Suffice to say, the experience of a purposeful life is entirely different than an unintentional or reactive life.

One of the “benefits” of our volatile planetary situation — and I might be one of the few to call it a “benefit” — is highlighting the deficiencies of “bliss trip spirituality.”  This is the childlike fairy tale that you will at some point enlighten or ascend into a delightful and effortless life.  It IS true that there is radiant peace, joy, and expansiveness that comes with embodying inner wholeness and a direct connection to Source.  However, it is rarely an easy life path to sustain this deep and sincere journey.

The potential of clear and deep purpose is available to you in every moment.  If you choose it. If you embody it.  If you think it, feel it, write it, and speak it.

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If you are experiencing crisis — of any type or degree — I do not wish to waste your time.  Therefore, I offer my fundamental perspective right from the beginning: heart-centered expansion is the core response to create wholeness, well-being, and uplift in a time of shock, disruption, and uncertainty.

If you are excited by a different crisis model — fear-soaked scenarios, envisioning new problems, or broadcasting emotional drama — this article will not provide much.  There are plenty of others who can assist and co-create with you on those pathways.  I wonder if people even realize that they are spinning future realities from the unresolved threads of the past?  It can seem so obvious, natural, and rational to do so.

But reality does not need to be created in those ways.  You do not need to attend the disaster party!  I would like to offer three clear steps to walk a different road towards an elevated life experience — regardless of your current or past circumstances.

I was inspired to write this article to uplift the responses to the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.  However, I do not want to focus on the current, changing drama of the “virus” because there is no singular situation — every reader is in a different place with different impacts.

Furthermore, this wisdom transcends any particular event — these recommendations are relevant and potent no matter the source of crisis, be it physical, economic, spiritual, or emotional.  Over the years, I have worked with many, many planetary and personal “disasters.”  The power of these steps endure far beyond our immediate planetary context.

So, please, join me, if you feel called to create a more peaceful, clear, and uplifted future … for yourself, and those around you.

To begin, the three steps of self-empowerment during/after crisis are:

1. Choose to expand instead of contract
2. Allow grief and loss to be present while energizing renewal
3. Commit to wholeness and uplift rather than decline and distress

Each of these is a starting point, an entryway for many forms of awareness and creative inner/outer response.  The core simplicity of each “step” will launch you into constructive, healthy, elevating, and compassionate action NOW.

Step 1: The Expansion Principle

“Choose to expand instead of contract.”

Inner health and wholeness are your REAL sources of power to be resilient, patient, compassionate, and participate in a reality of your own creation.  There are so many different realities that are experienced during a large-scale crisis — some stable, some chaotic, some fearful, some peaceful.  Each personal reality fundamentally originates from basic (un)conscious choices.  That is why I am offering these three key steps — to make your choices clear and beneficial.  It is truly the smallest scale that manifests (large) experiences.

Now, might I ask for a pause here: what type of reality are you actively (or passively) creating?

Can you see your choices of how to perceive, feel, and act clearly?

Your answers provide your starting point: which aspects of your reality to elevate, which to eliminate, and which you wish to sustain.

I have no doubt that expanded awareness will lead you beyond the veil of uncertainty and chaotic energies, regardless of the particularities of your situation. But you have to actually use EXPANDED rather than fear-contracted awareness.  In a larger-scale crisis, the contracted state is usually directed by hyperbolic headlines, reactionary decisions, streams of meaningless news updates, and emotionally charged social media chatter.

It can seem that your reality is being mostly driven by “outside events,” but that only occurs if you accept and orient to the projections of others.  Many people have poor discernment regarding the information that they consume or people that they listen to for advice.  Just because someone says something, or makes a graph of something, does not mean it is an inevitable or even likely future reality. It is well-honed skill to help recapitulate disasters, and resurrect the (long forgotten) memories of other personal and planetary catastrophes into current events.

These projections do not have to be your reality unless you decide to spiral your life into the world that they are (consciously or unconsciously) promoting. I call this “swallowing reality bait.” Most have had a choice, and usually many (conscious or unconscious) choices, along the way to the outcome that they ultimately experience.  Much more on this issue in the third step!

Faced with the circumstances in your life, whatever they may be currently, you can make a conscious choice to expand rather than contract.  If contraction tends to be automatic for you, then you will need to consciously re-choose, repeatedly, to expand.  That’s ok — it gets easier once you are in the expansive flow of energy and awareness.  Sometimes the initial shift from fear/contraction is the most difficult part.  In this case, you will need to make a strong and clear choice; half-hearted effort will likely suck you down again.  Making a conscious, direct decision will launch you into freedom and new potential outside of the “personal and planetary drama engine.”

No matter the circumstances, a key component of living through, or better yet, living beyond a crisis is clear navigation.  You have to make decisions and bring supportive energies into motion for your well-being.  If you are looking “down” or “backwards,” you are not going to have the perspective to lift yourself and others “upwards.”

Orienting to fear usually results in an ever-narrowing circle of awareness and perceived options.  If you have any doubt, observe your body, thoughts, and emotions.  Creating from the state of heart-centered expansion and open awareness is very distinct from the state of fear, self-doubt, panic, and helplessness.  Generally, you embody a state of expansion by first looking within.  Sometimes stillness practices, contemplation, and meditation lead you there.  Connecting with other people oriented to expansion can pry open the doorway out of contraction.

If nothing else works to shift into expansion, just stop.  Stop.  Stop your chain of action and re-action long enough to breathe, look around (and within), and open an inner or outer doorway to allow something new to enter your awareness.  A moment of peace, a different thought, a possibility that hasn’t occurred to you before.  I call this the process of “emerging from your reality container”: you can learn more about empowered Stillness in this article.

If you embrace an expanded state of awareness for yourself, you can also assist others to go beyond fear to greater creative capacity.  The expansion then keeps expanding.  Everyone who connects benefits.

The NEXT Step: Moving from Loss to Renewal

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Step 2: Moving from loss to renewal

“Allow grief and loss to be present while energizing renewal.”

A crisis, no matter the scale, is very likely to involve some form of loss.  The loss may not even be physical — it can be a dream, expectation, world view, or cherished belief.  Sometimes we feel the loss of what doesn’t occur even more powerfully than what does occur.  This could be losing a person, a place, an activity, or fulfilling a goal.

It is incredibly important to give space to recognize, embrace, and honor loss.  Our culture tends to skip over grief and quickly fill in energetic and physical substitutes.  This often leads to inner conflict, suppressed energy/emotion, and a life cluttered with distractions.  Avoidance also leads people away from true wholeness and renewal; I discuss this more shortly.

So how to handle loss and grief, while still moving forward?

This can be complicated, and the timing and unfolding are always very individual.  My goal here is to connect the process of recognizing loss with the movement to energize renewal for the future.

Unfortunately, many people get this process backwards.  A common tendency is to energize grief, and deplete renewal pathways by (completely) focusing on the (many forms of) irresolvable loss that can arise from a disaster or crisis.  If you have a tendency to become “stuck,” depressed, or unable to respond, this is a common underlying pattern.

As a result, many extend a crisis for a long time after the initial event, still living in the shock of loss, years (and even lifetimes) after tragedy or unexpected change.  In the process, some try to revitalize a beloved past with the remaining “post-crisis pieces”, but, in the long run, the creation tends to look like a puzzle with missing chunks, aching and disconnected.  Sometimes there is an attempt to create a reality museum.

With the “reality museum,” ongoing attention is directed to the cherished past.  It takes time, effort, and energy to sustain.  Sometimes this is a useful transition or bridge.  But, eventually, maintaining the reality museum becomes an energy drain for future creations.  The present feeds the past rather than feeds the future.

Ultimately, the pathway to a (whole and elevating) future begins where many do not want to look — the very present.  Not the present of what has been lost, but the present that contains what is never destroyed by physical means.  When that can be seen and felt, then there is a place to truly begin again.  Not to recreate or recycle, as those are energetic traps, but to channel the inherent, enduring wholeness of Life into new form.  A form that has true promise, potential, and vibrance into the future.

This future often looks very different than what was before.  This is the very difficult part.

What crisis — physical or spiritual — most rocks and crumbles is identity.  Places, people, and ways of life may no longer exist, or are no longer self-sustaining, in the remade reality.  If you have been on a spiritual path for awhile, you can (usually) dismantle your identities and identifications at a much more gentle pace than when the disintegration is driven by unexpected planetary or personal events.

But however you arrive at the place of remaking your reality, you are still empowered — if you choose to recognize your own empowerment, that is.  In any moment, you are empowered to connect to the eternally life-giving core of Existence and bring forth a new life and uplifting future.

If you have not done so already, I suggest that you pause and connect right now.  Truly, it is there waiting for you to receive.  You do not “get,” “seek,” or “demand” the pure Source of All-that-Is.  Rather, you deeply choose to receive it.  If it helps to visualize, hold out your outstretched hand, palm up, with your request to receive.  I cannot describe what you will experience — this type of pure connection is recognized with inner knowing.

As long as you have awareness, and willingness, you have access to this vast potential of (new) creativity and flow.

Of course there is the grief and loss to experience, release, and eventually, vibrationally compost.  From the the perspective of spiritual wholeness, this is natural and essential.  Any form of true renewal, on any scale — brings the process of letting go.  How well you can let go of what no longer exists, or no longer serves the potential of an uplifting future, will probably impact your experience and the flow of renewal more than anything else.

As you release the state of crisis, or the results of disaster (of any size), you create space for new life to inhabit.  From this opened and expanding space, the experience of true renewal and revitalized wholeness emerge.

The NEXT STEP: Commit to Wholeness and Elevation

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Step 2: Moving from Loss to Renewal

Step 3: Crisis as catalyst to empowerment and strength

“Commit to wholeness and uplift rather than decline and distress.”

A crisis does not automatically make a person stronger.  Some individuals decline and amass distress into their physical, mental, emotional, and energetic systems.  Yet their outcomes do not need to be this way.  Have you wondered what sets people in different directions, even experiencing similar events?

When I was younger, I believed that a lot of people’s problems, responses, and creations came from their situation; events or context were the primary drivers of their actions.  Now, I see it quite the opposite.  Inner patterns create BOTH situations and responses, usually in some sort of feedback loop.

In other words, a crisis does not “create” many of people’s responses and results.  Instead, unexpected, uncertain, or intense situations tend to reveal or magnify long-standing patterns.

While I am compassionate and sympathetic to the daily challenges that so many face, I do not expect those challenges to go away (for very long) when the “outer” situation changes.  More likely than not, the same drama will be re-created in a new time, place, or with different people.

Therefore, when I say “commit to wholeness and elevation,” I am not suggesting to focus primarily upon your outer circumstances.  Rather, the imperative is to examine your (inner) patterns of response, and what brought you to this experience.  Upon reflection, there is usually a line of decisions and actions leading to “now.”

Recognizing this pathway of creation does NOT equate to self-blame.  There is no benefit to self-flagellation over self-recognition of choices.  People constantly waste precious time comparing themselves to elusive standards and cycle in issues of self-worth and self-disappointment.

Essentially, if you do not want to repeat or continue an experience, then you need to have some understanding of how it was created.  (This applies to many scales, individual to planetary.)  With this understanding, you can take effective action to become more clear, strong, and whole in your creative capacity.

Much can be said about the process of (self) responsibility; I encourage you to read this article for a deeper examination.

My key point here is that you cannot believe that events “happened to you” AND embrace a position of self-empowerment.  When you see your (unconscious) choices in the creative flow of life, you harness massive energy to (consciously) direct towards your desired outcomes.  If you identify and transform a fundamental pattern, then the “change” permeates all aspects of life, not just temporarily for a particular situation.  This is much more constructive, enduring, and genuine uplift.

Of course, in large-scale situations, when others make decisions that affect your daily life, such as the role of government quarantines and closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, you did not “create” many of the impacts.  However, it is still true that many choices lead to a particular situation for yourself when a crisis occurs.  Many “crises” are not so unpredictable if you are using expanded awareness (Step 1!) in your life all of the time.  (Our home was stocked and we were “sheltering-in-place” well before the California state government shut down the San Francisco Bay Area in March 2020.)

Of all of the steps to empowerment during and after a crisis, I have found this article the most challenging to write because I do not wish readers to feel criticized or blamed for their circumstances.  However, I would not be not offering you honest service if I did not remind you how much you can anticipate, create, and elevate by taking empowered responsibility for the unfolding of your life.

It has become harder to make these points because many would rather think or talk about self-empowerment instead of truly engaging with their own choices, and take meaningful steps to elevate their situations.  A cultural tendency to “look good, feel good” as quickly as possible has become pervasive. Superficial recommendations and short-term fixes often sidetrack people from core changes.

You have so much more potential to realize by going deeper.  That being said, it takes ongoing focus, energy, and effort to be an empowered person in a culture overflowing with blame, narcissism, and avoidance.

Volumes can be written about the many practices and pathways to inner wholeness once you make the choice to deepen the genuine creative capacity of your life.  My emphasis here is to be proactive and conscious in your commitment to become stronger and enriched, rather than diminished, by the crisis, disruption, or disaster that you have experienced.

Ultimately, neither elevation nor decline are inevitable during or after a crisis — both require choice of direction.  Returning to my initial question, different outcomes from a crisis originate from key decisions and patterns of response.  If you have not already consciously committed to take the path of elevation and wholeness, then you have a second chance.  Right now.

In all moments, your life is an evolving palette of creative potential.  Choose your next paints and brush strokes wisely.  I personally suggest seeking rainbow hues instead of blacks, browns, and greys.

Launch yourself into an uplifted future

No matter where you are right now, you can make powerful, direct choices to create a better future for yourself and those around you.  Faced with the ideas, energies, and events around you, you can lead or you can follow, in very tangible ways.

You can make a conscious choice to expand rather than contract.

You can point yourself, and others, towards renewal or a dead end.

You can embrace self-empowerment with a commitment to become more clear, whole, and filled with sovereign creative capacity.

In a time of crisis, there is compelling need for voices of calm, clarity, and thoughtful response amidst the cacophony.  You have the opportunity to offer beauty, peace, and inner stillness to those around you, to remind them of the possibility, and see the alternatives.  As you work through each of the three steps, your reality will transform.  Strength, hope, clarity, and elevated creations will come.  You can make the key choices and walk away from disaster, and towards renewal and uplift, for the benefit of all beings.

The post Expanding beyond crisis: 3 steps to launch well-being, transcend loss, and empower your future (Step 3) first appeared on A'na Sa'tara.

Why do people have different outcomes in the same or similar situations?  What causes their experiences to diverge?  What happens in the process of creating an outcome — the evolution and manifestation of a reality?

Big questions, without a single or simple answer.  All very relevant in this period of planetary transition and evolution.  As I have emphasized before, conscious choices and action matter enormously for individuals and the planetary system.

I observe and write a lot about the creation of reality.  Why?  Because you can only be empowered in your life, your world, and your future if you thoughtfully and reflectively engage with the choices around you.  You may not even realize that you are making choices, since some outcomes seem so “obvious” or “inevitable.”  In my eyes, that’s a widespread and serious problem.

If you would like to expand your awareness — and capacity to make clear, conscious, and uplifting choices, then please join me for a discussion of how reality can be “seeded” in a particular direction.  You might even be very surprised to find that the state of world affairs is NOT necessarily getting worse and worse every day.

What is “seeding a reality”?

What I call the “seeding of a reality” is an intentional, or unconscious, act to direct the flow of awareness, energy, desire, and (ultimately) action in a particular direction, and usually, towards a particular outcome.

The “seed” of an idea, expectation, desire, or need is “planted,” and then grows into a pathway of actions that people take.  It can seem “natural” or inevitable, but that’s rarely the case.  If a different seed was planted, then a different pathway would unfold, and a different outcome would occur.  Just like if you plant a tomato seed or a cucumber seed.  Very different results.

In our current planetary and cultural time-space, an incredible amount of the “reality seeding” is negative, from many sources.  I observed a shift about five years ago in the planetary energy dynamics towards emphasis upon destructive, high conflict, polarized, and discordant outcomes.  These outcomes and tendencies have always been present, but in this current planetary state, the disruptive and dysfunctional pathways have come to dominate perception (and to some degree, dominant expression).

I do not find it constructive to discuss the why and how of this large scale shift.  What is physically perceived is mostly the result or symptom of much deeper reality structures.  Suffice to say, a “negative” seed has been planted worldwide.

Is everything “bad” now?

The core problem with the “tilt” of awareness towards negative outcomes is that this perceptual “angle” elicits a positive feedback cycle.  More anger, doom-saying, unhappiness, fear, and dissatisfaction tends to be encourage more of the same.  Energy builds and people see their world, and their choices, through this lens.

In many respects, in this type of energetic and perceptual state, no matter what happens, the situation is “bad” and a sign of “things getting worse.”

For a simplified and straightforward illustration, let’s look at the prevailing perception of California weather.  Nowadays, I have observed that almost no matter what the weather is here, it is portrayed as problematic.  If it rains, it is raining too much and a sign of extreme weather events increasing.  Bad for flooding, mudslides, travel, etc.  If it doesn’t rain, then it is a sign of long-term drought, and elicits fears of a new water crisis.   Even when the state reservoirs are near capacity.

As I’m writing this, we’re in a mid-winter dry spell, and I’m amazed at the reporting of the situation (by many parties; e.g., news reporters, government agencies, and university scientists).  If storms return later in the season, this seems like it would be beneficial to alleviate the below average rainfall this year.  However, today, I saw it described that it probably means an even worse wildfire season because vegetation will grow more later in the spring.

If it rains, it is bad.  If it doesn’t rain, it is bad.  See what I am pointing at?  Regardless of the actual events, the perception and expectation of the unfolding reality is negative and destructive.

It is not that the facts, analyses, or events are fundamentally inaccurate or don’t exist, but that the interpretation — and emotional orientation — are heavily leaning in one direction.  It takes a little bit to infer negativity, and a lot to argue for beneficial possibilities.  Reality has been tilted.

No wonder people are anxious, depressed, mal-content, and looking for someone or something to blame.

The tilting of reality

Another way to view the seeding of reality is to imagine that the reality has a “tilt” to it.  If a surface is flat, then it is possible for a ball to roll in any direction — a 360 degree view of pathways.  But if the surface is tilted, then the ball will always tend to roll in a particular direction, and it takes constant energy to push it back to equilibrium or in another direction.

I do not wish to delve into the transient dramas of politics, but I can point out, that no matter what happens in the upcoming US election, about half of the country will be unhappy with the result.  Most US elections (for most major contests) are won by very small margins.  Close to half (47-49%) of the country’s preferred candidate, whomever that is, will lose.

This is nothing new.  It happens every election.  But now, in the current perceptual climate, the outcome will likely be magnified into a long-term disaster in many people’s awareness.

I am certainly not saying that all results are equal!  What I am pointing out is that a new level of intense emotional energy has been attached to a basic feature of the US political system. Consequently, people have lost perspective on the bigger picture, and skewed their interpretation of events in a particular direction.

Depending upon whom your ask, no matter the tangible differences, large portions of the country will likely have the conviction that things are bad and getting worse.  This is a symptom of a negatively “seeded” reality pathway.

Alternatively, it would be possible to recognize the historical ebbs and flows of political systems and cultures.  Dissatisfaction can give rise to action for constructive change and correction of newly revealed problems.  Rather than getting “worse and worse,” there is a potential opening towards “new and improved.”  Discontent and disharmony can give rise to deeper change and beneficial long term evolution.  I discuss this further in my article of “embracing worldwide dysfunction.”

Getting level-headed and hearted (again): choices

I hope that the ideas and examples above have provided you with some serious grounds for (re)consideration of your perception of reality.  It is easy to keep looking in a particular direction, and forget that you are free to turn your head for another view.  If you get stuck long enough, your (metaphorical) neck gets stiff.  Then, it becomes harder and harder to have a full range of (perceptual) motion.

This limitation of awareness — of potential, of possibility, of perspective, of choices — is the greatest danger that I see from a negatively seeded reality.  Not the current transient state of affairs, or some impending catastrophe, but rather, the inability to perceive and create a different state of affairs.  Losing choice and the capacity to constructively act is what constrains, compresses, and destroys planetary systems.  Very often, the loss of choice and action is passive.  In other words, people become apathetic, or go down a particular path, because they don’t perceive that they have other choices and directions of action.

Here are some questions to help you get started in reviewing your possible “reality tilt.”   I suggest that you look closely at your perspective and interpretation of present and future reality in order to determine if you need to “rebalance” your viewpoint. You can apply these inquiries to something specific, or something much larger in world.

First, do you feel that you are on “level ground” now?  Why do you perceive the world the way that you do?  Has that changed?  When?

Second, do you wish to continue looking at the world this way?  How does it serve you?  Is your approach constructive and leading to beneficial/better outcomes?

Third, if you didn’t have this belief, expectation, or interpretation (insert whatever you wish here), what would you do?  Are there any new choices that occur to you?  Why (or why not) would you make a particular choice?

It may seem somewhat obvious, however, I would like to point out that the most powerful “antidote” to a negatively-seeded reality is a “positively-seeded reality.”  You can seed the reality of your daily life any way that you wish!  That is your first and most fundamental contribution to the world.

May you choose — rather than inadvertently receive — the seeds that will grow into what you experience and share in life.  When you commit to this level of awareness and recognition of options, then you can step fully into your potential as a creator of your reality.

The post The Seeding of Reality: why the world seems tilted towards “bad and getting worse” first appeared on A'na Sa'tara.

Two years or so ago, I noted that the pervasive word in the news was “catastrophe.”  Nowadays, I am observing the proliferation of “dystopia,” that is, the antithesis of “utopia.”  That hardly appears to represent beneficial global progress, eh?  Widespread recognition of dysfunction seems to rule.

While certainly no one is commenting on a cheerful state of environmental, political, economic, and social affairs with these descriptions, I am observing a (potentially positive) shift in the state of (personal and global) reality.  In many respects, recognition of dysfunction is a “good” thing, and also in many respects, the identification of dystopia IS progressive.

Recognizing deep dysfunction is part of an evolutionary and transitional phase in the perception of reality.  For both individuals and planetary systems.

Interested in what can happen after (the idea of) utopia is lost?  Then please read on …

The perception of dysfunction

Let me begin with this perspective: I observe the widespread perception of dystopia as a starting point of evolution and potential elevation — not a planetary dead end.

The recognition of serious dysfunction is usually essential to initiate transformation.  Transformation rarely arises from contentment.  Rather, it is born from the failure of the status quo to create what was desired, hoped for, or promised.  On all scales.

That being said, the pathway of transformation is not neatly mapped or the destination assured after describing the problem(s).  Deep and lasting change is generally not stumbled upon or produced by erratic effort.  Rather, the best outcomes are envisioned, intended, and (methodically) created.  There’s no inherent large-scale guarantee of what will come from this current planetary transition.  Conscious choices and action matter, both individually and collectively.

This seems obvious, but many appear comfortable or resigned to stop at statements, social media posts, protests, complaints, and accusations.  Unfortunately, while these provide short-term emotional satisfaction, it is a creative dead end to just talk about personal and cultural dysfunction and disorder.  Bursts of blame and anger have never built a business, country, family, marriage, building, product, or anything healthy, lasting, and substantive.

Social movements can move lots of energy, but movement does not equate to creation.  In fact, movement can simply become a self-reinforcing cycle without progress.  That kind of “movement” — either personal or cultural — can lead to consumption, destruction, dissipation, and distraction.  To become productive, that energy in motion must become hitched to intention, tangible vision, concrete changes, and consistent creative effort.

In other words, expanded awareness is necessary and excellent. But only the first step.  Constructive action is essential to manifest a beneficial outcome.

I cannot think of any better motivation than this recognition.  Your life, your future, your world are dependent upon the time, energy, commitment, and consciousness that you bring to the table and meaningfully act upon.

Awakenings and transitions

Now back to the “benefits” of widely perceived dystopia, and how I see that this pervasive dissatisfaction (personal, national, planetary) can become powerful and empowering.

The perception of dystopia did not invent any of the perceived problems it evokes.  Rather, disillusionment is like removing the wrapping from a present and finding something gross rather than something beautiful, pure, beneficial, or wholesome inside.  Unwrapping a box of poop instead of finding a box of candy.

In its awakening and self-reflection, the world is in the process of unwrapping the (thinly to thickly) concealed ugliness of centuries and millennia.  The persecuted, oppressed, marginalized, and suppressed are being revealed, emboldened, and seen.  That process is messy.  People respond in different ways.  Anger, denial, shock, horror, disappointment, sense of loss, displacement, to name a few.

Part of the difficulty of encountering this process of (personal and planetary) awakening is that many expectations of the unfolding have tended to be a bit superficial or like a fairy tale  — a bit of drama, but quickly finished up with a happy ending.  The bad guys will earnestly give up power and put down their weapons, and poof, peace and good stuff will appear across the land.

Awakenings and transitions rarely unfold like a fairy tale, personally or planetarily.  We don’t get to leave the theater after two hours and just have a nice dinner.  It can take months and years for people to even agree that a change is needed or occurring.  Resistance to uncomfortable, unpleasant, difficult, and challenging circumstances is the psycho-social norm.  Most only get to clarity, acceptance, or constructive action after some significant wrestling and re-evaluation at the deepest level.  Some simply refuse to contemplate change, and instead clutch onto beliefs, traditions, and expectations (from long ago) without much reflection on the contemporary world.

I am a veteran of many awakenings and transitions, on many scales.  From the big picture of other times, places, and planetary realities, this one is proceeding much better than many others.  At least for the planetary reality manifestation in which you are currently reading this article.  Of course, our planetary evolution and state of affairs certainly could be better, no doubt about that.

The empowering side of dysfunction

I would like to return to a statement above: conscious choices and action matter.  Unfortunately, the ability to make choices seems diminished or lost when the scale of perceived dysfunction becomes larger.  It is easy to get disoriented, depressed, or feel hopeless.  There are many enticements to go down that road, and fellow commiserators to join you.

To put it bluntly, that inner orientation (and community) are pretty much an assured pathway to stagnation and/or manifesting non-elevating outcomes for your life and the world.  Of possible future realities, you will be headed for the sucky ones.  (In another article, I describe the “seeding” of self-generated realities; how to grow/create something beautiful … or awful.)

Essentially, every individual is at a very potent, and also rather simple, crossroads.  Stagnation, indifference, depression, and hopelessness are pretty much guaranteed disaster.  This direction is one available set of choices for the mind, body, heart, and soul.  You can’t deny it.  Some will take it.  But you don’t have to.

If you take the other pathway — deepening awakening, expanding awareness, cultivating inner peace, greater multi-dimensional recognition —  your creations are much more likely to be beneficial, uplifting, and empowering.  Additionally, your life is likely to involve more effort, with more day to day challenges.  Oftentimes, rewards will come to fruition in the future.  Deep and expansive endeavors are not synonymous with instant gratification.

The latter observation probably should not be new to anyone.  After all, a child is not raised in a couple weeks.  A successful business is not built in a couple months.  Most serious life endeavors unfold on the scale of decade(s).  Yet people seem to forget the long-term dedication also needed for inner work, spiritual transformation, and a meaningful life.

By extending that observation, you can also envision how long it can take for collective and cultural change to fully express itself.  If you want to be part of serious change, on any scale, it is best to be prepared and participatory for the long haul.

Unfortunately, the longevity of genuine change runs somewhat counter to the pseudo-reality generated by the lifespan of a social media post or an issue on the front page of a newspaper.  You can seem to participate by partaking in these, but you are actually largely disconnected from the tangible process of enduring social, economic, political, cultural/institutional/legal, and spiritual transformation.  I consider this is a key point when deciding how to allocate your time and energy.  In another article, I discuss how reflection upon the actual outcomes of your efforts is key to (inner and outer) evolution.

Embracing, elevating, and creating your reality

With this awareness, I hope you can orient yourself in a more focused, constructive, and emotionally balanced way to what is unfolding in your own life and world around you.  This is a BIG planetary reality shift in progress.  You wouldn’t think that your child’s life is going to be wrecked by a difficult semester of math class, or rough ride through middle school.  Likewise, each awful news story, election result, statistic, or even series of events is not a harbinger of doom.

It is possible to see deeply and widely, and still embrace life with wholehearted intentions of elevation and beneficial creation — for yourself, and for everyone around you.  As I pointed out above, the alternative orientation won’t be taking you somewhere very good.

Specifically, I suggest that a more whole and balanced view is to see the discordant events of the world (and your life) as symptoms of stress and transition, not incurable disease.  There is no healthy reason to respond to the challenges of the planet as a terminal diagnosis.  Like a doctor, you cannot personally expect to treat and cure every diseased person in the world.  You wake up each day and do your best, with your best, for whomever comes your way, within your area of skill and impact.  That’s a great day.

In this way, you can be assured that the world will transform (in real ways) within you, and around you.  Other people in other places may make different choices.  It is honorable and empowering to allow them to do so.  That being said, some of the consequences of their choices may affect you.

However, you also have considerable influence over how or whether you receive those consequences in your life by virtue of your own awareness and choices.  Once again, anger, resignation, or blame will not mitigate impacts or improve your life.  But constructive responses will mitigate and buffer your circumstances, especially when you are pro-active instead of reactive.  A lot of surprises occur when you are not paying attention or being avoidant.

The observation in the previous sentence brings us full circle.  The identification of dystopia — recognition of deep dysfunction — IS the process of paying attention.  Finally. It took awhile to get to this state of affairs, and this place of putting so much into plain view.  After you see clearly, the compelling question becomes: what will you do with that awareness?

(P.S.  A small reflection of present and future realities occurred to me … While writing this article on a Sunday afternoon, I purchased three sets of orchids on eBay.  One is blooming size and has a bud.  One is a large, hardy seedling that should flower in two years or so.  One is a group of very small, hard to grow seedlings that mature very slowly; they can take a decade to bloom.  If all goes well, the latter will be the best (and rarest) by far.  They also will require the most time, effort, and risk.  In another reality, I heard that there was a big football game today.  Didn’t notice it here.)

The post Embracing worldwide dysfunction: awakening and transition of our (personal and) planetary reality first appeared on A'na Sa'tara.

I’ll give you a heads up right at the beginning of this article.  Many of my reflections will likely initiate a degree of emotional resistance in many readers. My observations largely run counter to what is popular in contemporary culture marketing, and that includes much of widely broadcast “spiritual” advice, teachings, and practices.  That being said, my views are powerfully substantiated in practice and results.

Still interested?

I understand if not, because most people like to read and think about things that they wish to hear.  Even if it is not true.  This particular pattern explains many of the popular (social and political) movements worldwide in the past few years.  The same tendency applies to those seeking perspectives on their inner work.  Practitioners of all sorts are more likely to believe what they feel good about, regardless of whether it is accurate.

The result of this pattern has been a drift in inner work (and results) from what is core to developing ongoing spiritual maturity.  I observe a perceptual and intentional shift to living a life dedicated to daily effort to feel good and look good — rather than daily effort to embrace new mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual challenge.  The former produces excellent spiritual ideals and appearances.  The latter produces enduring spiritual maturity.

Training for the soul

The awareness of the drift in expectations and effort in inner work crystallized in my awareness when reading a book on endurance training for mountain athletes, co-written by a very experienced coach (of world champion athletes) and a renowned professional alpinist of many decades.  They began the book by laying out that there are no substitutes for consistent, long-term training for building endurance fitness.  That is, the ability to sustain your body through intense effort over the days and weeks of an expedition (in contrast to optimizing your body for a sprint).

There are plenty of trendy training programs and elaborate plans that promote shortcuts, with exquisite marketing.  The problem with all of them?  They ultimately do not deliver long-term development of an athlete. A beginner can do just about anything and see results.  However, fitness will plateau without commitment to the core physiological changes inherent to a base of aerobic capacity.

Where am I going with this analogy?

As someone interested in inner work and progressive spiritual development, you can start off with an erratic practice, occasional workshops, and any number of strategies and experience some sort of notable result.  (I can’t define how valuable that result is, however.  Many “amazing” awakenings and elevations that I observe seem fairly superficial and temporary).

As a culture, we have come to seek and expect quick gratification for our efforts.  In the development (training) of spiritual maturity, however, there isn’t an option for “same-day delivery” on Amazon for a spiritual upgrade.  Not everything can be outsourced, or acquired with a time-saving subscription.  Spiritual practice and development is one of those activities where you actually have to genuinely show up and put in effort.  (Or not.)

The disconnect between intentions, effort, and results

The last two sentences of the preceding paragraph lay the groundwork for my next rather unpopular observation.  How much effort that you put into your mental, emotional, psychological, physical, and spiritual development really matters. Simply, the more quality time that you devote, the greater the progress that you will make.

That seems somewhat obvious, doesn’t it?  But as part of our cultural movement to the appearance of results (rather than durable substance), this basic principle has been diminished or lost in many people’s expectations (about all sorts of things).  Comparably, in the fitness training model, it has been advocated to substitute increased intensity for shorter workouts “to save time.”  You will definitely improve your fitness (to a point), but will not create the sustained shifts needed for long-term improvements in your athletic performance. Very similar for developing ongoing spiritual maturity.  Shortcuts will surely lead you to a wall.

In many respects, what approach you take comes down to your intentions and goals.  Either in the world of physical fitness/endurance or the world of inner work, the same principle applies.  What level of spiritual maturity and awakening do you aspire to embody?

There’s no value judgment in the answer.  I don’t want to be a world champion cyclist, and therefore, I’m not prioritizing my life for the amount of time/effort it would take to be one.  But I’m not deluded that my moderate level of endurance training will send me to the Tour de France.

But that’s the exact type of delusion that I see regularly marketed for spiritual practice, particularly on social media.

The marketing … you can put in a few hours a week, and reach stunning levels of spiritual awareness and embodiment.  I’ve seen someone proudly advertise their practices and program after “three years of hard work” to elevate out of inner muck. Can you imagine someone aspiring to coach Olympic-level training after three (or even ten) years of athletic experience?  They would probably be ignored, and doubtfully would earn much of an income.

Yet it seems possible to use a similar level of credential and attracts thousands (even millions) of followers online.  Notably, most testimonials are based upon “immediate” results rather than demonstrating long-term, sustained transformation.  Many people attracted to inner work have lost their way — both in terms of discernment and honest appraisal of what it takes to spiritually mature (as well to lead others).

If you reflect for a moment, you can probably see the larger cultural reflections of these disconnects between personal expectations, quality experience/results, and estimation of leadership.

Effective inner work … progress, please?

Given what I illustrated above, I think it is fair and honest to disclose the amount of time and effort that I have directed towards my inner work and energetic capacity.  Just in this particular incarnation, I would estimate that I have spiritually and energetically trained about 800-1,000 hours per year for about 20 years of my adult life (in addition to completing my doctorate and earlier profession as an academic scientist).  The past decade has involved much less training per say, and much more time in direct planetary service.

These hours are comparable to the training time for a world-class athlete.  Which is the equivalent level of my aspiration for my spiritual/energetic capacity, and the energetic endurance requirement, for the magnitude of planetary work that I do.  I regularly need to be able to handle tens of thousands of souls in transition (per week), travel across vast space-times, and deal with uncharted multi-dimensional landscapes to resurrect energetic structures lost for millions of years.  When there are major planetary events occurring (not the ones in the news), I can be working in different planes of consciousness 24/7 for a week or two continuously.  This type of “performance” requirement is what endurance training — physical and spiritual — enables.

Please let me emphasize — my choice of “spiritual training” level is not meant to discourage or dissuade anyone from dedicating less time and energy to their inner work.  I share this background information as a reference point, to help put spiritual practice into perspective.  A lot of people can dress well and look good in the gym (or yoga studio et al.), but would hardly go very far placed into long-term challenging situations.  Big muscles or pristine poses do not necessarily translate into useful, holistic, and healthy capacity in real world applications.

In this respect, the least flashy, most humble, and quiet people that you know might be the most spiritually mature, powerful, and deep in their awareness.  Superficial appearances can be deceptive.  Who has really completed deep, consistent, and meaningful inner work is not necessarily the person with the title, following, charisma, or various social trappings.

This brings up an important point.  You can spend a lot of apparent time — but that does not guarantee meaningful and useful results for your spiritual maturity.  A hallmark of effective training of any sort is the actual progressive development (of whatever you are seeking to improve) in genuine practice (a.k.a. the real world).

Part of the illusion of many current programs, healings, and practices is that what counts is (somewhat) passively just showing up, not your demonstrable long-term results.  Focus on the activity, ideas, or effort — rather than the actual outcome — is what underpins the pervasive (worldwide) disconnects that this article is intended to illuminate.

Embracing a life of challenge

I offer to you that what creates lasting and meaningful long-term results — in all aspect of life — is purposefully working through challenges. Mental, emotional, psychological, spiritual, physical.   As you work through a new level of challenge in any of these areas, you become more clear, strong, whole, and capable.

If you embrace a life of ongoing challenge as fundamental, then you have shifted your orientation from satisfying appearances to genuine inner development.

Furthermore, if you do not evaluate your response to new challenges (i.e., check your progress), then you will not really know if you have been doing something beneficial and productive in your practice.  It seems simple, but it is one of those core principles from which so many people have drifted away.

Logging hours at workshops, online courses, and podcasts is inherently empty.  What ultimately counts is whether, or how, you are progressing towards your desired goal by your participation (in this context, increased energetic vibration and spiritual maturity).

For example, someone once asked my husband if he thought that she should attend the next event with a famous spiritual teacher that she followed.  He asked her how she had evolved since she received a blessing a year ago?  The conversation ended.  She was planning her next retreat without considering whether she had transformed, or applied the insights, from the last retreat.  Sound familiar to anyone you know?

Final thoughts

Thank you for your thoughtfulness and genuine interest, if you are still reading.  I do hope that the reflections in this article will support you in creating the deep, meaningful, and genuine outcomes that you desire, as well as seeing our planetary situation more clearly.  I see and honor you in taking the long, deep, and challenging road of core clearings and liberation.

One of the points made in (physical) endurance training is that “you can’t coach desire.”  Goals, visions, and intentions are hollow until you have the dedication to follow through on them: day by day, year by year.  Many aspects of spiritual growth can only be fully observed in hindsight.  I remember, in my 20s, that I had very particular ideas about what I was doing and why.  When I was in my 30s, and looked back over the past decade, I then saw what it was REALLY all about.  Now, another decade beyond, I see it again from another reference point.

The energetically elevated view shines a different light on the process, purpose, and progress of inner (soul) work.  Therefore, do not despair or feel disappointed if you do not fully see or understand what you are doing now, and why.  Even if you cannot describe it, you probably can feel it.

So many aspects of inner work are much more difficult to chart than the physical training model that I have used as parallel and metaphor in this article.  (All metaphors are only useful to a point).  No one can tell you what you want and no one can ultimately tell you how to achieve it. Or even if you have achieved your goal. Always return to and trust your inner knowing above all else.

Best wishes for your  journey!

The post Deep and enduring inner work: what really works for ongoing growth and evolution first appeared on A'na Sa'tara.