Interdependence Day

(published 7/4/20, edited on 7/1/22)

by Astara

Today, on the Fourth of July, many in our country are exploding fireworks and thinking about freedom.

A few weeks ago, the black community celebrated Juneteenth, also called Emancipation Day, reflecting a powerful moment in the lives of Black people, when they were formally freed on June 19, 1865 almost three years after the Emancipation Proclamation. (Read more at my blog Othering and Belonging) President Joe Biden signed a bill on June 17, 2021, making Juneteenth a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved African Americans. It is the eleventh American federal holiday and the first to obtain legal observance as a federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was designated in 1983. (wikipedia)

Given the recent uprising of the heart across the country to bring centuries of suppression and oppression to the surface, we at Illuminating Hearts want to help create a new approach for today’s national holiday. Let us educate ourselves about the true history of how we got to where we are and the inequality that is woven into the fabric of our country. Let us evolve our awareness of freedom. Let us evolve out of a paradigm of independence into one of interdependence.

Independence as we have been taught in our culture holds a lack of connection and commitment to others. It can be a place of power struggle and competition. Independence creates dissociation from difficult feelings which blocks vulnerability and intimacy.

Instead, we at Illuminating Hearts call today Interdependence Day.

Interdependence is a state where we accept our needs and feelings and reach out for connection. Interdependence reflects our willingness to not be afraid of painful feelings, including our own and others’ needs. It is rooted in emotional intelligence and an ability to care for others. Such willingness takes capacity to hold difficulty. And capacity or capacitance brings us back to an electrical metaphor, befitting the electromagnetic field we are made of and inhabit. When we build enough circuitry inside our bodies and field to hold discomfort and paradox, we can begin to accept others in their difference. We have capability to respond without running away.

In a world that is filled to the brim with outward signs and symptoms of chaos rooted in separation and fear, it is also easy to be distracted by the idea that freedom is found outside you. That freedom is something you have to fight for, earn, or gain externally. I will be free when they act differently or they change their policy, behavior, and rules.

In my years of evolution, I have learned it is actually the opposite: freedom is fully available in each moment and it is up to each of us. I discovered the universe is interdependent and more benevolent and expansive than I had originally been taught. I now know that everything is energy, or another way to say it, everything is divine. I have discovered that my soul came here to experience every single detail in order to learn, no matter how challenging or joyful those details are. And most of all, I have learned that freedom is not something obtained outside of me.

The power lies inside of each of us to claim freedom in our lives.

The first step towards freedom is to understand that you are a creator in your life. You create with vibrational resonance. You are in vibratory accord with everything you see. Accord or “a chord” like playing a piano or guitar. Words, thoughts, and perception all have the power to claim something into manifestation. It could not be there without all of us in agreement, individually or collectively. If you call a man stupid, you have made him so. If you call a woman ugly, you have made her so. If you call certain people evil, you have made them so. When you decide something is worthy, you have made that thing worthy. It is as if your personality or “small self” holds directives every minute of every day and voila, you have a shared construct. And most of us call that reality without any question or thought otherwise. Our life is built walking around on this Earth thinking our beliefs about the world around us, and deciding what will be and what is real based on the data we have inherited unconsciously.

Your True Self sees that man you called stupid as holding intelligence you may not understand, and perceives that woman you call ugly as beautiful. Your Soulful Self sees beyond fear, and sees that the people you thought were evil hold inherent good that seeks to be realized. What I am talking about here is the realization of the Divine in all things.

The author Jack Canfield tells of his therapist that gave him an “ah hah” moment with a simple equation: E + R = O. Which means “event” plus “response” equals “outcome.” Many events happen in our lives that trigger us, shock us, sadden us, create immense whelm, and seem beyond our control. Although we can’t predict the “event” that comes our way from our small self, at a deeper level we are and have vibrationally created and aligned to that event. This is not to be hard on ourselves, but to take responsibility as a creator and decide what we want to create. If we wake up, we have the power to choose our “response.” When we realize that we can choose to respond in a way that is inclusive, authentic and loving no matter what event is unfolding, then freedom begins. When we choose to see the divinity in all things, we are set free. When we align to freedom and conscious awareness, then the outcome shifts before our very eyes. When we discover that nothing is happening to us, it is actually happening for us (to seek realization of our inherent divinity), freedom begins.

In Sanskrit there is a mantra that summarizes it well: Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu which translates as “May all beings everywhere be happy and free, and may the thoughts, words, and actions of my own life contribute in some way to that happiness and to that freedom for all.”

How do you align to freedom? How do you respond consciously instead of react unconsciously? Your permission is required. Permission to release the ideas that you have held that have operated in fear. You cannot be free if you are in fear. Period.

So first, drop your fear. Slow your breath down, get quiet, listen to the sensations of your body, put your hand on your heart to feel its rhythm, and think of something that brings you joy. The simple act of slowing down, breathing, feeling joy out of nowhere, and connecting to your body, creates coherence between your mind, heart and gut; it allows you to drop into the wisdom that lies inside you. When you inhabit your own center, you do not experience the shadow effect of the mind where duality and contrast is created. The heart is the source of the highest concentration of energy that you are (which is light), so no shadow or polarity is cast from your experience when you root there.

Next, say out loud, “I am here. I am here. I am here.” This is your True Self saying those words. When you say them, you begin to align to the truth that is always there.

Freedom is knowing our truth, power, belonging, and worthiness has been inside us all along.

Next, you align to the vibration of truth and love, and consciously claim freedom. A simple way to do this is to say out loud, “I am free. I am free. I am free.” Again, this is your True Self saying those words. Another way to align to your own divinity is to listen to beautiful music, or to sing. This is why we create our Sound Alchemy sessions, so that we can lift you in vibration to align with your Divine Self and step into freedom. (Listen to our Sound Alchemy Recording: Freedom)

We have the freedom to choose our response to the events in our lives, and this is where our true power lies. To decide no matter what happens, we will practice love and compassion from our wise center. This interdependence day, we wish for you to move into the richness of life which comes with intimacy and connection. We wish for you to remember just how free you are right now. Accept your needs and feelings. Choose your response to each event. Let it be a loving one. It will liberate your world. Take loving action on behalf of lifting all beings to freedom. Happy Interdependence Day. May all beings everywhere be happy and free.