“Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes, turn to face the strange.” – David Bowie, Changes
by Astara
Our world seems to be on fire. From California to the Amazon to Australia we have seen much destruction in just a year; global destruction of land, resources and species we cannot fathom with our minds. From a wall-building leader on the brink of impeachment to the chaos of impending war, we have political turmoil that doesn’t seem to quit. You don’t need to understand all of the intensity to be influenced by the energies. We are saturated with intense events as catalysts of a re-volution that is more necessary than we can perceive with the limit of our minds. We are in expanding and accelerating times of change and growth.
This post outlines five simple steps to support you during these once-in-a-lifetime moments all squished together in a tight span of a few years. But first, let’s set the stage.
An Old Worldview: The Strange
Given the recent political climate, as well as the intensity of the environmental climate–both in our country and our world–you may feel like you are just barely hanging on to sanity in all arenas of your life. You may want to run to your room with the curtains drawn, or hide behind a substance, your work, your relationship, or your family.
It may not seem like consciousness is evolving given the recent news: record breaking heat waves and explosive climate events, hate crimes and shootings, polarizing politics and fear-mongering as a marketing tool. With madness being reported to us at great speed, combined with dismal responses from much of our leadership, we have the obvious equation for any one of us, even the most conscious, to inhabit stress, dis-ease, old triggers, fear, despair and anger more than ever before.
Borrowing from David Bowie, let’s call this old worldview of separation we are watching deconstruct: the strange. To create a new world, we have to face the strange rooted inside of us and surrender its hold. When we lean into the gritty aspects of ourselves that are divisive and fearful (reflected in the world) and love them to a new place, we open up to the dark nights (and days) of the ego screaming for its old footing in our lives. It is painful and messy work, but necessary. And oh so worth it.
The important thing is to remember we always have a choice–not only in how we respond–but also in how we vision or create our lives moving forward. Below the surface of the strange, there is something quite beautiful and astonishing going on. A rise — dare I say leap — in consciousness is actually happening right under our noses (and has been for a long while). We have way more power than we know. That is where you, I, and all of us come in.
Into the current anxiety producing global theater we have all created together out of our old worldview of separation, the plot turns towards a wild new stage of amplification. No matter what astrological or spiritual leader viewpoint, there seems to be a consensus: the energies are going to keep intensifying and continuing from here on out. The powerhouse energies on the planet now serve as a magnifying glass to help us see the shadows we have built our destructive and broken systems upon. These energies both support our new world plot, even as they insist we undergo our conscious heart-centered evolution and drop the myth of separation. So that we can wake up and build something new. To build something new out of abundance, honesty, love and connection. We all came here to actualize more of our authenticity in the world, and the universe delicately arranged all this to say now is time to step up our game and into our new connected loving world. Now is the time to face the strange and begin your inner work.
A New Worldview: Connection
Although the mainstream news sources will not be reporting the depth of the current evolving global consciousness to you any time soon, it is happening. Our human evolution is like a series of software upgrades. Imagine your being–your body, your energy field, even your DNA–is right now receiving (and has for a while) amazing downloads of energy. Yes, you are made of energy. Moby sang the song about how we are made of star dust, and he is right. Research shows we are biophotonic. You are made of the energy of the cosmos, you are truly cosmic. The influx of you, of light coming from the sun and the galaxy right now, is in a greater quantity than we have experienced. This universal upgrade is being felt in you and me and around the world. In order to receive more of the high-frequency energy we are, we have to turn toward the strange, face it, build circuits to capacitate our cosmic energy more consciously.
The intense strange times we find ourselves in reflects a dying worldview struggling with all its might to stay in power. What is dying is an outdated view of a universe that is punitive, exclusive, divisive, competitive, judgemental, full of scarcity and ego distortion that we have for too long called reality (also simply known as separation).
All the destruction around us is preparing for an emerging consciousness of a benevolent universe, where we begin to remember just how unconditionally loving, abundant, collaborative and playful our universe is. In this new worldview we are being invited to move beyond the three-dimensional duality paradigm we have all been taught. We are moving beyond the four-dimensional paradigm of time and space which is also being deconstructed (especially with the help of quantum physics). We are remembering a multi-dimensional paradigm where we have more than enough for all of us because we live simpler. A new world where love, integrity, and cooperation reigns, and always has and now we suddenly can see it (i.e. oneness, unity, and Christ or Buddha Consciousness).
In the meanwhile, we can blink and clear our eyes of the cobwebs to see the beauty that IS, hinting at the promise ahead. Today, on Martin Luther King Jr. day we honor the powerful shoulders we stand on that have helped us wake up the world to civil rights. Thanks to Martin Luther King Jr., Ghandi, Rosa Parks, Harvey Milk, and so many other incredible humans, we have evolved to where we are today. We know we have a ways to go to see mass change of tolerance and inclusivity, but we have come quite far indeed. We bow to the bravery of the younger generation of earth warriors like Greta Thurnberg who leave school to honestly school their elders about climate change. We cheer on young upcoming politicians indicating hope ahead like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the U.S. House of Representatives for New York’s 14th disctrict. And we applaud the accomplishments of and empathic leaders like the prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern as well as the all female government in Iceland. Change is underway folks.
In our wild new connected world, Rupert Sheldrake’s morphogenetic field, Paul Stamets’ teachings of magnificent mycelium, quantum physics discovery of the holographic universe, and other recent scientific breakthroughs (i.e. remembering) remind us of how we are part of and interconnected to a sentient and deeply intelligent natural world and cosmos. Watch the film by Nassim Haramein called The Connected Universe to learn more.
“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.” – The Beatles, John Lennon & Paul McCartney, I Am the Walrus
Our emerging worldview teaches us that the future is relational and our deepest wisdom and intelligence is centered in the heart. The heart has more electromagnetic activity than the mind, one hundred times more. Rollin McCraty’s research at the Heart Math Institute has demonstrated that the heart knows what will unfold way before the brain knows. The order of command in our body is first heart then mind. We are learning that acting from the deep wisdom of our heart brings us better outcomes than all the dualistic, left brain, right brain, competing, black or white, this or that, us or them, thoughts in our head. Speaking from our hearts is what Brene Brown calls “ordinary courage”.
“Courage is a heart word. The root of the word courage is cor – the Latin word for heart. In one of its earliest forms, the word courage meant ‘To speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.'” – Brene Brown
Our hearts are the portal to multiple dimensions. Your heart can be present, humble, strong, grieving, learning, caring, and empowered all at once! In our hearts we can hold more than one seemingly conflicting perspective at the same time; our minds may get stuck in the cognitive dissonance of so many dimensions of feeling, but our hearts offer the antidote: Compassion. Watch the movie Power of the Heart to learn more.
The headlines in your social media feed are on fire, but you can create new ones. You can harness the good old fashioned oral tradition and talk about possibility, dreams and vision at your dinner table or local cafe. Amidst the rubble of a dying Patriarchal world, breakthroughs, milestones and epiphanies are often happening quietly inside your heart or behind closed doors. Even though sharing soul-ution focused, dogma-busting news can be met with great resistance from the current world order, the stories of a new worldview are finding their way to all of us nonetheless, and faster than before.
What You Can Do: Five Simple Steps to Connection
Amidst this very chaotic paradigm shift, the question is then how do we, as David Bowie sang, turn to face The Strange that we find ourselves living through on our way to fully embracing our new wild world of connection? There are some very simple actions that all of us can take.
This is an opening that we will ALL enter, whether we want to or not. If you are reading this, than you have already begun in some fashion, and are now ready to prepare even more.
Do not lose heart. We were made for these times. – Clarissa Pinkola Estes
In the wise words of Dr. Estes, the first step is to realize not only are you the one you have been waiting for, but you were made for these times.
We have five recommended core practices during this time to build capacity and loving resiliency:
- Wordlessness: Slow down and enter the Oneness
- Go With the Flow
- Absorb Only Nourishment
- Forgive
- Become Visionary
#1 Wordlessness
Slow Down
To step up our ability to capacitate all the big energy in the world now and on the horizon, we have to reconnect to what is true in us. When we slow down, we have a chance to re-meet ourselves deeply and truly. This can include unresolved pain and overwhelming joy. Which is why most of us stay so busy!
When you slow down and get quiet, you find that wordless place inside. It is true that unresolved emotions can run in to the quiet. When we lean in and gather our tools and support team, we find all the benefits. Time stops. Words drop away. This is where the magic resides. Suddenly the world shifts around you. Possibilities are revealed. Healing happens. This is the zone of miracles.
If you don’t slow down and rest, the universe will find a way to slow you down through other not so enjoyable methods. So slow down, rest, and get wordless.
Play
One of the best ways to get wordless and slow down is to play! We do not play enough in our lives. You know that feeling, when you are so immersed in something that time doesn’t exist. That sensation of pure joy from your head to your toes. A sense of humor is within reach suddenly. The world becomes a walking or running meditation.
In our over-achieving world of go go go, play is discouraged. Even our children are more overscheduled than ever before. We invite you to take 5 minutes or an hour. Possibly a day or a week. PLAY. Music, art, writing, puzzles, frisbee, dance, patty cake or freeze tag. This game of life is for all ages. Welcome to the worldless zone!
Slo-Mo Extra Credit: Vertical Time
What if you took it further and slowed down enough that time became irrelevant? Yes you can still make your appointments and fill your calendar as needed. But what if you accepted that each moment is just right now? Only now? Eternally now? In the book Navigating the Collapse of Time by David Ian Cowan, he talks about how we have viewed time as traveling along a horizontal axis moving left-to-right from past-to-present-to-future. Draw a circle in your mind and imagine a cross in it. The horizontal line represents the progression of chronological time. The vertical line represents the eternal now. If you look at a peace sign symbol, you can see the beginning of this collapse of our concept of past and future towards the present. It is a whole new way to look at that beloved symbol! And it is another entry point into vertical orientation.
What if time didn’t really exist? (It doesn’t) What if I let go of worries of the past, and fear of the future? What if I stepped into vertical time? Now, that is freedom.
Silence & Meditation
Step into silence. It is in our silence that we can really meet ourselves and do the soul processing we are here to do. We recommend finding a meditation practice that works for you, using breath to help get you there. The stillness of the meditation helps you tone your vagus nerve, bringing balance to your parasympathetic nervous system. The deep breathing helps bring oxygen into your body, which helps everything. Silence helps us slow down and meditation helps us drop into that silence deeply. Find a meditation class at a local yoga studio or mindfulness center (for those in Omaha, check out the Mindfulness Outreach Initiative). At a minimum, I recommend a short meditation that will bring you back to your center, quiet the mind, and help you welcome more intimacy with your own heart. Here is a simple five minute breath meditation that you can do anywhere, even sitting at a desk. When you drop into this wordless heart-centered place, you can’t help but drop into oneness. If you have time, meditate longer. It is helpful if you can slowly scan your body and relax it from head to foot as you breathe. For those that are more drawn to moving meditation, find a way to bring inner stillness to your movements. Whether it is yoga, dance, walking, running, swimming or another form of movement you love, follow your breath and find the still point within the movement. It is in the stillness that we are able to truly digest and metabolize the intergalactic planetary celestial events and downloads of light (receiving you) we experience daily.
Drop the pebble of the mind into the pond of the heart. – illuminating hearts
#2 – Go With the Flow
A great way to begin to flow better is to literally drink more water. All vital bodily functions happen as a result of electrical signals being sent between your heart, your mind, and your body. Remember, you are energy, and your body is essentially a battery. For your body to operate in full health, electrolytes dissolved in the water of your bloodstream help conduct the electrical signals — and the most common electrolyte in your body is salt. Your body is about 70% water depending on your age but really 99% water by molecule. About two-thirds of the water resides inside your cells — intracellular fluid — and about one-third resides outside of your cells — extra cellular fluid. Your body works constantly to make sure that the intracellular fluid and extra cellular fluid have the same amount of electrolyte concentration – this is a very important component of your body’s homeostasis or inner balance. So in addition to water’s role in maintaining cell life, body temperature regulation, chemical and metabolic functions, transport of nutrients, and removal of waste — water assists our miraculous bodies in receiving the energy upgrades leading us to a new now.
Without enough water, we just can’t capacitate all of who we are. We cannot capacitate all the energy we are. So drink up!
Even more powerful is the idea of mimicking water’s wisdom, and letting everything flow. Receive the transformation that is underway. Imagine all changes difficult and smooth as friends leading you towards a more authentic world. Wade on in the water, even if the universe troubles the water, it will flow you where you need to go.
#3 – Absorb Only Nourishment
The old adage still applies: You are what you eat. Medical research is revealing the connection between our health and what we think, what we eat. Pledge to no longer absorb toxicity in any form. Give all of your minds (head, heart, and gut) a rest, and feed yourself only loving nourishing foods, thoughts, situations, people.
Move away from people, places, and activities that feel like poison, go toward what is nourishing. If you have a relationship that is worth keeping, do the work, have the difficult conversations with love and pave a new way to loving connection together. Notice the difference between nourishing or toxic thoughts in your body and energy levels. “Spit out” poison thoughts, stop believing them.
We can support and fuel our way to a new world through mindful awareness. Listen to your own body wisdom and find the food path that is right for you.
Consider, at a minimum, taking a break from processed foods for at least three weeks to give your body a rest and help it RE-fresh itself. Eat simply, with few ingredients. Consider waving goodbye to simple carbs and sugar, unless you are a marathon runner or Olympic athlete. Eat fresh organic local seasonal non-GMO foods. The existence of pesticides in our world is real, why put them into your already post-industry pollution impacted body? Expand beyond this criteria if you are feeling frisky. You can try cutting out dairy, wheat, corn, soy and sugar for a while (a long while!). Eat attentively with intention to know what feels good (or not). This will work wonders for your body and energy levels. You will feel a world of difference.
Absorbing only nourishment in all ways will help you not only lighten up from a weight perspective, it will also help you “lighten up” from an emotional and spiritual perspective! You will glow.
#4 – Forgive
I cannot emphasize enough just how powerful forgiveness is. Paradoxically, in the truth of vertical orientation of a connected worldview of love, forgiveness is not necessary. All is perfect since we are here as souls to learn, and there is only one of us here anyway. We have such difficulty in The Strange embracing the perfection of the process. Forgiveness is the way to free ourselves from the ego judgements and distortions that limit us, bind us, and hold us hostage to our choices. At a personal scale, if blame, guilt, shame, and hate is held too long in our field and body, then the illusion of separation can create mental and physical dis-ease expressed as self-rejection and self-punishment. In the extreme, such energy can express itself out in the world violently. In society, these distortions of separation and self-hate can scale up to the culture, and lead to bias, prejudice, and ultimately hate crimes and war.
Ho’oponopono is an ancient Hawaiian healing tool that is based on the power of healing through forgiveness, through loving oneself. Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len has a wonderful success story of forgiveness, that stemmed from his knowledge of the Ho’oponopono teachings of Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona. Dr. Len set up an office within the criminally insane ward of a Hawaii`i State Hospital. Sitting in his office, as he reviewed his patients’ files, and without ever seeing a single patient, he worked on himself using Ho’oponopono. Dr. Len repeated the words “I love you” and “I am sorry” over and over again while reviewing each file individually. After a few months, the patients who were isolated and contained were allowed to freely move about, some patients were taken off medications, and even the most intense patients were eventually released back into society. The staff that avoided work through sick leave and resignation, came back. Over four years, it is reported the patients all healed.
“When you do Ho’oponopono, what happens is that the Divinity takes the painful thought and neutralizes or purifies it. You don’t purify the person, place, or thing. You neutralize the energy you associate with that person, place, or thing. So the first stage is the purification of that energy. Not only does that energy get neutralized; it also gets released, so there’s a brand-new slate (Zero). Buddhists call it the Void. The final step is that you allow the Divinity or Infinite to fill the void with light. To do Ho’oponopono, you don’t have to know what the problem or error is. All you have to do is notice any problem you are experiencing physically, mentally, or emotionally. Once you notice, your responsibility is to immediately to begin to clean, to say, ‘I’m sorry, Please forgive me, or Thank You, I Love you.'” -Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len
When you forgive yourself and anyone you hold grievance against, no matter what, you set you free. It is a crucial ingredient in opening your consciousness to Worldview 5.0 and in being able to capacitate higher-frequency energy.
The ho’oponopono steps are simple, just state out loud: “I’m sorry. Please Forgive Me. Thank you. I Love you.”
According to Dr. Len, because forgiveness is not really needed in divine truth, you can eventually just say “Thank you. I Love You.” What are you waiting for? Start today. The key is to forgive yourself, anyone, no matter what harm you believe they have done. Start with you first, since there is only one of us here anyway. You can go through a list of all the grievances you hold in your life with Ho’oponopono. Take all the time you need. And be sure to remember the ones in outer society you also need to forgive including: a president, the perpetrator of a crime, anyone. Forgiving now means freedom now.
“The process is essentially about freedom, complete freedom from the past.” – Morrnah Nalamaku Simeona
#5 – Become Visionary
The new connected worldview reminds us the guru, the healer, and the wisdom you most need is inside you. It is not outside you. Yes, we have our teachers, friends, loved ones, channels, intuitives, and surprising angels in our lives to guide us as we need. You know that wonderful feeling when you have an epiphany, and it feels like a remembering, rather than completely new information? The truth is, it is always remembering. Life could be called the school of remembering, to quote Drunvalo Melchizedek. The other truth is, we are all intuitives. Every. Single. One. Of. Us. We are all gifted with intuition and heart wisdom. If you want to learn more about human intuition, see the film InnSaei (“intuition” in Icelandic) or read my poem InnSaei.
Life asks you – do you want to see the world as if life is happening TO you (observer)? Or would you rather see you are responsible for your life (visionary)? As a visionary you have the power to meet life circumstances as an opportunity to own and take action on your deepest dreams. Allow the spectrum of experience from smooth and flowing to challenging and difficult, for it is all part of your learning. In truth we are co-creating with All That Is in order to support our soul’s learning and evolution. The ultimate form of taking responsibility is to own you are creating it all. Even the dark icky sticky stuff, which is helping you wake up and become more loving.
As a visionary, you make the subtle yet important distinction clear. You are not just working with the energy in your body and the world, you are that energy.
This is called stepping into vertical orientation. When you get wordless, you get vertical. You discover the oneness. And if you vision from that space, you can create the most beautiful everything.
Without this awareness, it is easy to stay in the victim mindset of something happening “to” you rather than “for” you or “as” you. In the horizontal orientation mindset of the victim, you remain a dis-empowered separated seeker, and what you need is always outside you and just out of reach. Which by the way makes you an awesome consumer! And a lousy creator and visionary.
In vertical orientation, you become empowered to the energy you are. Suddenly then the wisdom is inside you, moving in, as and through you, and you are listening to it. Connected to the oneness of the presence of all that is, and empowered, it is impossible to stay a victim.
You have the choice to be an observer/victim or a visionary/creator. We hope you will choose being a visionary allowing more of your beingness in. The world needs you.
All of creation is asking you (begging you) now to go vertical and embody as a visionary. Bring whole new meaning to Mahatma Ghandi’s invitation to be the change you wish to see in the world.
