Elevate Your Consciousness to Elevate Your Self and Others
I truly think that the world is experiencing a unique opportunity to collectively raise our consciousness right now.
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many of us into solitude and is giving us all the opportunity to look inward at ourselves, our beliefs, and the things that are most important to us.
The world-wide protesting of police violence against Black people is also an opportunity for non-black people to raise their own awareness about some hard truths about the experience of being Black.
All human beings are being given a powerful nudge to raise their consciousness at this moment in time. What does this mean? Expanding your consciousness is about having an open heart and an open mind towards yourself and the world around you. Conscious living then takes into consideration this consciousness and requires exercising critical thinking. The only way to grow and productively move forward is to work through things (especially uncomfortable things). Avoidance, numbing, bypassing will never create growth. Listen, learn, look inward… and ask yourself “why?” until you get to the root cause of the thought.
Exploring why we think things, why we want things, why we do things is essential for consciousness and growth. It’s not easy, but it will always be productive if we take the time to ask ourselves and learn why we live our lives the way we do. Children are experts at asking, “why?”…. they are inherently curious and try to discover the root. Many adults find this common childhood characteristic annoying and I think this is because they’ve forgotten how to ask the question themselves. If more adults were in the habit of asking themselves, “why?”, the world would be a different place. So many people are resistant and defensive when questioned and they’ll do everything they can to avoid discomfort. Right now, the challenge is to see and lean into your discomfort because there is no other productive way through it.
When you notice you’re uncomfortable, it’s essential to ask yourself why until you get to root or heart of the matter. When we see the root truth/heart truth we can honor it with love and compassion. Then we understand that love and compassion is the only way forward.
It takes many different types of action to create social change. For some it’s marching in the streets, for others it’s petitions, contacting elected officials, donating time or money, raising conscious children, supporting Black businesses, making conscious purchases, VOTING, speaking up and having difficult conversations. We can all choose the type of action we take, the important element is that we do choose action over inaction. Listening, learning, and taking conscious action are never finished, they are life-long. The only way forward is through… we cannot avoid the challenges our country is facing, we must all take conscious action for social change and justice.
Well wishes,
Sara