Covid-19 Resources

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EVOLUTIONARY RESOURCES ON THE CORONAVIRUS

 
 

Ervin LazloPandemic as Opportunity

A global pandemic is an opportunity for global change—for rapid and effective change to a better world.

Even if some people are depressed and do not see the light at the end of the tunnel, the pandemic we are experiencing is temporary; it will pass into history as all the previous pandemics did. But the change it brings may be lasting. It can be change for the better, or change for the worst. Making it a change for the better is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss.

We are in the midst of a “bifurcation”—the process scientists call a sudden forking in the evolutionary trajectory of a complex dynamic system. We are living the global systems-shift we have discussed and anticipated for years. We have learned a few things about such a shift. It is one-way, it cannot be reversed. But it is not predetermined—it allows choice. In a bifurcation, we can choose the way we go.

For the first time in history, we can consciously and purposefully choose our destiny.This could be a bright destiny; the dawn of a new era of sanity and flourishing. But whether it will be that is not determined. It is up to us.

Bifurcation creates crisis, and crisis, as we know, is both danger and opportunity. Either way, it is a prelude to change. The challenge is to choose the change that leads to a sane and flourishing world. This is a real but non-recurring opportunity. Failing to seize it means returning to where we have been: facing the prospect of our collective demise. Because for the past several decades we have been exposed to a plethora of crises, and these are likely to be as global as the pandemic, but not necessarily as temporary. They include conditions as bad or worse than a pandemic. For instance: millions dying of starvation and penury—and through epidemics and violence taking further millions with them. Hordes of displaced refugees tearing apart the fabric of more and more societies. Droughts turning fertile verdant land into arid, lifeless plains. Rising sea levels flooding a third of the human habitations on the planet. Violent storms destroying the homes of rich and poor alike. And local conflicts escalating into regional wars and turning into a global nuclear confrontation. The list could be extended, but the conclusion is clear. The unsustainable processes we have created could reach fateful tipping points— points of irreversibility. We either learn to live sanely and sustainably, or we leave the stage of history. This is a lesson we have learned on the level of theory. Now we are facing it in practice.

Returning to business as usual, to the norms and practices and the values and assumptions of the past, would be suicidal. Fortunately, it is not possible. This is just as well: another way is now open for us. The social, economic, political, and cultural systems that have been framing our life have been shaken to their roots. Disruptive change happened, and it is a prelude to fundamental change, whether construtive or destructive.

In a way, the pandemic is a blessing in disguise. It made us realize that we are a single global family: an interdependent and either co-evolving or co-devolving living system. If we fail to make good use of the opportunity this gifts us, we expose ourselves to a plethora of crises. But if we make good use of it, we can create a better world.

There is an important lesson to learn here. In his Inaugural Address, president Franklin D. Roosevelt told us that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Applied to the condition of the world today, this conveys a relevant and true message. We can build a better world if we stop being fearful. A better world is available to us; it is waiting to be built. There is nothing to fear but fear itself.

What is it then, that we need to do? It is clear that we need to think constructively—dare to hope, and dare to act to realize our hope. But we also need to act differently; act as if we were part of the web of life on the planet. Because we are that, even if most of us neither realize nor act like it. We have been harming the planet, and so harming ourselves.We have ignored the interdependence and ultimate oneness of life. We need to adopt better goals. It is not “our people, our nation first”—not even all of humanity first. It is the web of life first, as it exists and evolves on Earth. When that web is safe and sound, we are safe and sound. Then we can flourish, instead of having to fight crisis after crisis.

Our body is healthy when it is whole, and the body of humanity is healthy when it is whole—when it embraces and values all the beings that walk the Earth. We know this, and we have always known it. But in the modern world we have suppressed this knowledge, buried it in our desperate scramble for money and power. We have used the fabulous fruits of the human genius maibly to achieve short-term mercenary ends. We have developed amazing energy and information technologies, and are using them single-mindedly, to achieve our ends without regard for the consequences. As a result our technologies respond to our short-term wants, but are indifferent to our long-term needs.

Some of our technologies have developed a life of their own. They are shaping human life and the human world. This is a dangerous development: it could lead to a variety of “corollary damages”— even to the creation of quasi-living organisms such as malignant viruses.

We must ensure that our technologies are safe, and that they serve our needs. This means achieving a healthy balance that allows all life on Earth to flourish in harmony. It is a monumental task, but in tackling it we need not rely only on the limited wisdom of our authorities and institutions. Our real guidance does not come from above and beyond—it comes from within and below. It is the guidance deriving from our sense of who we are, and how we relate to each other and to nature. The authority we can and should follow is deep and wise. It is our own deep self. Being a part of the web of life, whatever force or impetus forms and informs that web is “in” us—it is in our conscious and in our subconscious mind. And so, instinctively and intuitively we know that life is not just a jungle where the strongest survive, but a system of mutual harmonization, guided by empathy, a sense of belonging, and ultimately by unconditional love. This is not just what religious prophets and spiritual masters are telling us today; it is what down-to-earth quantum physicists, quantum biologists, and transpersonal psychologists are saying.

The guidance of our inner self is healthy, far more healthy than the relentless pursuit of riches and power. We are social beings, and we can live like such beings. Living like that is good for us, and good for the world. Living in harmony with others and with nature is healthier, happier, and more rewarding than chasing after self-centered short-term satisfactions.

When it comes to deciding the ways of our life and the path to our destiny, there is a new bottomline. We can take our life and our destiny into our own hands. We can be the change we wish to see in the world. In a global bifurcation, we are masters of our destiny. This we must realize, and this we must put into practice. Our health, our wellbeing, and our very survival depends on it.

We can thank the pandemic for opening the way to a global transformation. Now the way is open to creating a better world, a world that lives up to the power and the potential of the human spirit. When the pandemic subsides and passes into history, creating a better world will be our epochal task. There has never been a more exciting or more important task in the history of humankind.
Ervin Laszlo is Founder and president of the Club of Budapest; Founder and director of the Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research; author of Reconnecting to the Source (St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2020).
 

Guided Meditation: Welcome & Liberate Fear with Loch Kelly

Loch Kelly created this brief but powerful guided meditation. He sent it to a friend who is a doctor at Mt Sinai Hospital in New York City and she sent it to all the hospital staff. 

 
 

Powered by Love – An Emerging Qualitative Worldview

By James O'Dea


There is a worldview that has come to dominate every aspect of global reality affecting human civilization, the natural world and planetary climate conditions. It can be summarized as the quantitative worldview. The quantitative worldview is in a crisis so deep it is leading, in an interconnected and interdependent world, to deep systemic disruptions, chaotic conditions and signs of complete failure.  If this worldview were a patient receiving care it would be in intensive care on life support.

There is another emerging worldview that is, from a whole world-whole systems perspective, in the natal unit being born into the world exactly as the quantitative worldview is on life support: this worldview, constituting a universal paradigm shift, can be summarized as the qualitative worldview.

To be clear it is not a case of quantity versus quality or quality versus quantity. What it is now evident is that when number dominates outcomes in every aspect of life people become deeply conditioned by it-- being led to believe that it is through quantity that quality is delivered. In the qualitative worldview number must be governed by values and qualities which express and embody health, wellbeing, social harmony and ecological sustainability. By placing quality under the governance of number we are discovering we are now trapped in conditions in which ‘more is always better’ and so the goal is always to have more, get more and do more.

It turns out one must stay on top of the numbers game or get pushed to the bottom whether you are an individual, a community or a nation state. From this perspective to attain a quality life you have to compete for resources in order to get ahead and not fall behind. When scaled up this quantitative approach leads to massive disparities between the haves and have nots; massive overconsumption; massive ecological devastation. 

Adding to the intensity of this unsustainable quantified reality is that it brings with it acceleration and time compression to meet numeric goals and we begin to experience the consequences of living at hyper-speed.  In a matter of seconds stock market transactions can affect millions of lives. Even doctors, teachers and others find themselves increasingly time-squeezed by the quantifiable when their goal is qualitative change.  We don’t have time to deal with causes and in all kinds of settings we try to grab a hold of whatever will have the speediest effects—even when those effects become patchwork remedies with their own pernicious side-effects.

Then along comes something like the Covid19 virus in the form of a pandemic giving us master lessons on several fronts. It demonstrates how, in an interconnected world, the quantitative approach becomes a global house of cards: a virus  that started in China not only kills tens of thousands of people in dozens of countries it kicks tens of millions across the world out of work tanking whole economies. But it also reveals important facets of the qualitative worldview in an interdependent world: we learn in graphic ways how the choices we make can mean life or death for others; we learn how science and compassion can synergize to not only save lives but deepen our social bonds.

Because the qualitative approach develops emotional intelligence it enhances our perception of what really matters. When the British Prime Minister (not hitherto known for his emotional quotient) was leaving hospital after having been in intensive care with the virus he said he saw and experienced firsthand how the National Health Service was really “powered by love.”

For some time now the qualitative worldview has been quietly gestating around what is referred to as an integral approach, that is, an approach that honors subjective experience as well as objective facts; that cultivates inner development as well as outer function and purpose in the world; that nurtures inner peace as well as peace in the world; that promotes holism in theory and practice and seeks to make choices that are informed by whole systems perspectives and a cosmology of depth consciousness

The qualitative worldview is more interested in dialogue than in ideological dominance because dialogue offers pathways to understanding and appreciation of both uniqueness and diversity. This qualitative approach is more psychological than moralistic: it moves from who is right v. who is wrong to who is hurt and how can they heal or how can they be less divisive and more relationally skillful.

The qualitative worldview brings a new alignment between science and a non-dogmatic spirituality and a critical alignment between economy and ecology.

 Any major shift in worldview has been seen initially as peripheral and has been met with resistance by the vested interests of the dominant paradigm.  While the emerging new center of reality is fecund with stunning levels of creativity and insight it is often ridiculed and even persecuted. Courage is needed to live and act from inside the emerging paradigm and to embody its memes and values rather than exhausting energy by fighting the dying worldview---which, in any case, really needs to be respectfully hospiced.

 We who believe that love, compassion, empathy and altruism are the real infinitely renewable resources available to each and every being must become incarnational source points of that reality. We must come out of hiding. Yes we will have to make sacrifices of time, money, stuff, even reputation. We will have to stop organizing our lives and our civilization around number, for it is really ego which conceals itself in how big and how small, in never enough and in the compulsions of unbridled growth

Many of us sense in the time of this current pandemic a great opportunity: it is as if we have collectively been sent indoors to do our essential human homework, to hit the pause button on our hyper-accelerating lives and reflect on what is really of value. It is to get into our hearts; to discover that being human is a magnificent thing; that each human being is a uniquely formed stream of creativity so perfectly designed to flow into communal rivers of renewal and into a great tidal shift that moves us in the years ahead to declare, “Powered by love? Indeed the whole thing is powered by love:  every forest, every lake, every creature, every human, every galaxy is powered by love---by a love as potent and creative as we allow it to be.”
 

COVID-19 QUESTion Project for Students

By Gerard Senehi

 

As a social emotional learning nonprofit that empowers students to shape their life and future with meaning and purpose, we felt the urgency to support students in this significant transition and are offering a COVID-19 QUESTion Project for any teacher, guidance counselor, or parent to use at no cost.
 
In light of these trying times, the COVID-19 QUESTion Project is designed to give an outlet for students’ humanity, and to support them with the new level of self-reliance they will need, the challenges to being motivated and purposeful, and the critical need for connectedness in this time of isolation.
This program is ready for any teacher, parent, or educator who would like to implement it, partially or in its entirety. The content is designed to be flexible for online use through multiple platforms or modalities.


We are grateful for any help you can give to bring this broadly to students, whether by forwarding to School Leaders, Teachers or Guidance Counselors…Thank you!


COVID-19 QUESTion Project


Everyone can access the full content with supporting materials for free here: https://openfutureinstitute.org/covid-19-question-project. We are grateful to the Fetzer Institute for the generous support that has made this possible.
 
Gerard Senehi, M.Ed.
Founder, Open Future Institute
gerard@openfutureinstitute.org
www.openfutureinstitute.org
 

The Promise of Regenerative Healing: A Systems Change Perspective


By Shamini Jain


As we face the COVID-19 crisis across the globe, a groundbreaking new report offers hope for helping to heal one another.


Regeneration and healing: How far can we go?

As the global human family finds ourselves squarely in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, we’ve noticed how regenerative our Earth really is.  Greenhouse gas emissions are plummeting and air quality has drastically improved, bringing blue skies to places like Los Angeles. Waterways like the Ganga (Ganges River), generally fraught with industrial pollution, are now clearing, with the water becoming drinkable. This “Great Pause” as some have called it, is a time where we can reflect on how we wish to evolve the systems we humans have created, for a healthy, thriving life in Right Relationship with the Earth and with each other. There’s never been a better time for us to envision new possibilities for a regenerative, peaceful world — and begin to bring that world into fruition.

Today’s turbulent times are causing all of us to examine what’s working and not working in our systems — whether the ecological system, healthcare system, the scientific system, the economic system, or even the family system. 

Key to our next steps in improving our human systems, is knowing what is possible. How can we be empowered in healing ourselves, and how can we use our power to support others? What role does consciousness have, and how far does it reach, in fostering healing?

The need for healing solutions

These are just some of the questions that many research scientists, healing practitioners, and university educators are asking right now, and for good reason. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic began, we were already suffering from a massive global health crisis. According to the World Health Organization, non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and respiratory disease kill 41 million people every year. In the U.S., drug overdoses are the leading killer of Americans under 50.  An estimated 300 million people globally are affected by depression, and that doesn’t account for the other 100+ million that suffer from other mental disorders including anxiety, PTSD and more. Suicide rates have jumped 35% in the past two decades, reflecting a jarring trend in human despair and hopelessness. This is costing us in lives as well as dollars: monetary costs for the current opioid crises alone are estimated at $100 TRILLION since 2001, with a projected cost of an additional $500 billion by 2020.
Our suffering is not only physical — it is profoundly mental/emotional/spiritual as well.

This health crisis points to the urgent need for us to examine personally and scientifically, the ways we can empower ourselves to heal our human suffering, instead of feeling powerless and then numbing our pain.  As we emerge from these models of disconnection and isolation that pervade our society and explore how to best support and expand our medical models of care, we begin to notice the quiet emergence of new scientific discoveries – ones that suggest that as a human species, we have a profound capacity to heal ourselves and each other. These studies suggest that human bodies and minds are beyond the simplistic “lock and key” biochemical and receptor interactions that are currently thought to drive behavior. We are not complex machines. We are bioenergetic organisms that are completely intertwined with our environments.

To this end, our group of scientists, healthcare practitioners, educators and innovators have been exploring these questions in depth in an area we call Biofield Science and Healing.  Biofield science researchers study fields of energy and information as they relate to our health.  Some fields we study are electromagnetic in nature, and some are more difficult to measure directly with current instrumentation, yet seem to affect our healing in positive ways.
Biofield science and its relevance to healing

Biofield science is not necessarily mysterious. The study of biofields includes examining electromagnetic emanations from our bodies that tell us about our state of health. Tried and true examples of biofields in medicine today are electrocardiograms (EKGs) and electroencephalograms (EEGs): electromagnetic readouts of the heart and brain that reveal clinically important information about our state of health. Biofield science also includes examining what happens to our bodies when we apply certain types of energy to our bodies. For example, researchers are exploring how biofield devices that use light, sound, and low-level electromagnetic stimulation on the body, might help clinical issues such as pain, wound healing, depression, and most recently, Alzheimer’s disease. Although our understanding of all the physiological pathways by which bioelectromagnetic devices affect our healing is far from complete, biofield devices’ clinical effects help us to understand that we are bioelectromagnetic beings that are sensitive to energetic fields, as well as to chemical drugs. In several cases the energetic fields themselves, even without drugs, can stimulate our healing.

Less understood are other aspects of biofield science, including non-physical, “subtle energy” fieldsthat have been described in ancient philosophies of medicine as key to the healing process.  These include Ayurvedic, Chinese, Tibetan, African, Native American and other indigenous medicine descriptions of subtle, non-physical vital energy, such as prana, chi, rlung, and ki, which is viewed as a core component of health and healing. Naturopathic medicine calls this the vis medicatrix naturae. Current “mind-body” and spiritual approaches such as yoga, meditation, qigong, acupuncture and others are based on healing through understanding and shifting subtle energy dynamics to promote mental, physical, emotional and spiritual healing. These descriptions of using subtle energy to foster regenerative healing are thousands of years old. Healing practitioners, such as those who practice Healing Touch, Reiki, Laying-on-of-Hands, external Qi Gong, and many more, report that they sense and work with subtle energy to foster healing in another. Sometimes, this “biofield healing” is called “energy healing” or “subtle energy healing.”

Isn’t energy healing just woo or placebo?  Is there actual scientific evidence that healing works?

One of the things we’ve noticed about the field is just how polarized the thinking is around it. Enthusiasts or “hardcore believers” of energy healing might claim that energy can heal just about anything. Skeptics or “hardcore nonbelievers” will discount published scientific evidence saying that the whole idea of energy healing is preposterous. Beyond all the polarized thinking, what does the actual evidence say about healing?

Our group at the nonprofit Consciousness and Healing Initiative has conducted a year-long deep-dive to help get a sense on the state of evidence for biofield healing practices. In order to understand this type of healing more, we’ve also interviewed and shared what healing practitioners and patients are saying about how healing works. We’ve just published our findings in a free comprehensive report for the public, complete with infographics, databases and other resources to dig into.   

Here are some things we’ve learned:
  • There are more published studies than we thought. We found over 6,000 publications in biofield science, and made them publically available in a referencing library so anyone can search them.
  • Studies show promise for pain and other ailments, but not all studies are positive. A systematic review that compiled data from over 60 clinical studies of biofield therapies found strong evidence suggesting that these therapies are beneficial for treating pain in many different types of patients.  Other independent systematic reviews have reported similar effects of biofield therapies on reducing pain beyond placebo.  There is also evidence to suggest that they are helpful for behavioral symptoms of dementia, as well as anxiety in hospitalized patients.  Another systematic review of 18 randomized controlled trials suggested that effects of healing are not dependent on touch.   However, these more comprehensive reviews are around 10 years old, which means new studies aren’t included in the analysis of evidence. And more recent systematic reviews that just looked at one type of healing (for example, three studies of Reiki for depression and anxiety) reported no positive effects.
  • Several human and animal studies suggest human biofield healing affects us down to the cellular level — but we have yet to fully understand the “mechanisms.”  A randomized controlled trial RCT from researchers at the University of Iowa found that healing touch, compared to relaxation and treatment as usual, reduced depression and maintained natural killer cell activity in cervical cancer patients undergoing chemoradiation.  Another randomized, placebo-controlled trial at UC San Diego investigated hands-on-healing for breast cancer survivors and found improvements in cortisol rhythms for cancer survivors getting actual healing, but not those getting mock healing or getting nothing at all. More recent placebo-controlled studies with animals and cells at the University of Arizona, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, and University of Connecticut have reported effects of human biofield healing on tumor metastasis and immune responses, tumor growth and related cytokines, and microvascular leakage in response to stress.  These are just a handful of studies — there is much more to explored to better understand how healing might “get under the skin”.
These studies, and many more, are detailed in our report.
Healing and systems change: key discoveries

We undertook this project because we’re passionate about fostering a system of healthcare that puts evidence-based subtle energy and biofield healing approaches alongside conventional care in medicine. By integrating holistic approaches that care for spiritual, mental-emotional and energetic needs alongside physical ones, we stand to finally create a system of whole-person medicine. 

To aid us in a big-picture view, our group took a systems-change approach — “an intentional process designed to alter the status quo by shifting and realigning the form and function of a targeted system.” The report brings together in one place for the first time the latest research, practice perspectives, technology assessment and stakeholder input to explore how to best foster systems change in the area of biofield science and healing. It also identifies assets, opportunities, challenges, and levers for change in the system, and provides guidance for making our system more coherent, connected, and impactful.

Through our year-long deep-dive into systems change, we learned a considerable amount about key barriers, opportunities, and communities forwarding the science and practice of healing. Our Subtle Energy and Biofield Healing: Evidence, Practice and Future Directions report reveals many key discoveries, including the following:
  • There is an estimated subtle energy healing market of $2 billion in revenue which involves millions of practitioners and patients.
  • There are more than 250 subtle energy technologies currently being marketed despite little evidence behind them.
  • There are over 400 biofield researchers worldwide, and over 350 organizations worldwide leading the charge in the science and practice of healing.
Getting resourced for healing

We’re excited to share these discoveries with the community. Beyond our comprehensive report, we share resources, databases and maps to help us all understand the bigger picture of healing, including:
  • A 15-page Executive Summary of the full report.
  • A publically available Publications Library with over 6000 peer review published articles in biofield science
  • A web page of over 280 identified and indexed subtle energy and biofield-based technologies currently in the marketplace for diagnostic (measuring biofield activity) and therapeutic (modifying biofield activity) uses.
  • A WorldWide Network Map that begins to share the number of organizations involved in healing research and practice
  • Infographics that lay out the number of clinical studies as well as a systematic review of non-touch biofield therapies 
  • A Systems Change Map based on our learnings from stakeholders, that outlines key steps to take to bring healing most effectively to healthcare and the public.
Now more than ever, it’s time to take in what’s working and explore the realm of possibilities for fostering regenerative healing.  That includes how we look at ourselves and our capabilities for fostering healing in ourselves and others.  Our collective community’s work in exploring the science, practice and impact of healing has never been more needed. We created this report because we’re passionate about scaling healing for humanity and see the promise in exploring the potential of human consciousness to help foster needed regeneration for ourselves and the planet‚ from the inside out. We invite you to check out and share this report and resources, as you see fit. Let us continue on the road to healing, together.

With love and gratitude, and on behalf of the entire Biofield Systems Mapping team (Meredith Sprengel, Dr. Cassandra Vieten, Dr. David Muehsam, Jason Cox, Jeff Walker, Jason Yotopoulos, Tom Dingledine, Dan Spinner, and myself), Dr. Shamini Jain.
 
 

Global Collective Trauma Prevention

With Thomas Hübl

Process Facilitation & Support Systems for Stress, Fear and Trauma Prevention
initiated by Pocket Project

The Pocket Project has created a space for free group support for anybody who wants to participate in a facilitated group to look at, presence, share and potentially integrate stress, fear and strong inner processes triggered by the current global crisis.

It is a warm and safe space for individuals to participate in a group learning process since we can be witnesses to each other’s inner process as well as provide listening and presence to each other. Since we share similar disturbances and issues everybody’s vulnerable sharing is a contribution to the collective learning. Trained facilitators will provide group guidance, share tools and offer ways to engage in an intelligent network of support."

Guided Group Spaces for integrating fear, stress and important questions in a crisis time

The world is facing a global crisis that brings about a re-awakening of individual and collective trauma layers in the form of higher stress levels, fear, panic, detachment, numbness and isolation. We want to help prevent a dangerous downward spiral of rising collective fear and panic in society. Trauma often creates new trauma.

The Pocket Project is committed to the integration and healing of collective trauma as well as its prevention. Its founders Thomas Hübl and Yehudit Sasportas started the initiative based on voluntary engagement to support the society. In the current situation many of the Pocket Project team members, as well as closely affiliated therapists, coaches and facilitators will offer public support as well as support specifically for healthcare systems. The core team of this project studied Inner Science, Transparent Communication and Collective Trauma Integration in the Academy of Inner Science, founded by Thomas Hübl.

We offer free zoom calls for integrating heightened stress, fear, and important processes that arise from the massive changes in our lives. Some of these calls will have special topics (e.g. families, economic stress, dealing with isolation, etc.). We invite everyone who is willing to share and participate with an open heart to contribute and also to be a witness to other people’s processes.

There is also a special track for health care professionals.

"Sharing our inner vulnerabilities within a safe, trustworthy and professional group setting is a key element of a very powerful support for the individual, as well as the collective to cope with and integrate potentially traumatizing situations." – Thomas Hübl

https://corona.pocketproject.org

Thomas offered this live event to explore what this challenging time might reveal to us. Our habitual ways of living are being disrupted, which triggers a lot of stress and fear. On the other hand, it opens up a space for inquiry that is not possible when we are embedded in our usual daily habits. Could we approach the current pandemic crisis as an evolutionary opportunity for humanity? Crisis and revelation are often very close to each other. As Leonard Cohen sings: There is a crack in everything -– that's how the light gets in.
 


Announcing the Karuna Games (Karuna Means Compassion)

By Jon Ramer and Sommer Joy Ramer

 

A Challenge Like No Other


Welcome to a special edition of the Compassion Games: Survival of the Kindest. Sign up to play the “2020 Karuna Games: Advance of the Loving BE’s.”  "Karuna" is Sanskrit for Compassion.

Advance of the Loving BE’s is about moving all of us forward in a purposeful way toward a better future for everyone. In this game, we will harness and synergize our collective power with the power of social media, mainstream media, and video-conferencing. Be Healthy. Be Kind. Be Better.

Sign up to play the game. Join the International Kindness Team and receive your first mission.

Let’s Make Synergy!  Let’s Make Waves! 


One way we play is by "making waves." This is done by sharing content on SINE Members Facebook pages so it can reach a much bigger audience! 

Wow, how does that work? Using technology the SINE Network, (built on “trusted-sharing”) will spread and cross-pollinate strategies and stories about inspiring, creative, and empowering solutions to address our collective challenges. Each post will be connected with the UN Global Goals #SDG.

SINE and Karuna Games will host online programs and "public assemblies" to connect, discover, synergize and broadcast stories with social-innovators and the general public so that we can all  come back better!
 

How do you play the Karuna Games?
Be Healthy. Be Kind. Be Better.


You can play the Karuna Games as an individual or you can form a team. The way you play is by discovering and sharing the most inspiring and empowering actions and behaviors and post them on http://facebook.com/compassiongames. If you signed up, you will receive missions. We organize and meet on the “plains of Zoom” to synergize with other players and teams. 

The Mayors Karuna Challenge


Greg Fischer is the Mayor of Louisville, Kentucky, the self-proclaimed "Most Compassionate City in the World." Mayor Fischer challenges Mayors and all of us to unite our cities and towns to advance moving forward in service to a better future for everyone and coming back better. Let’s Make Waves!  Watch Mayor Fischer put out the Call to Play! 

Examples of Ways to Play

  • #MyMaskisForYou – A global campaign looking to create a cultural shift around how we view the use of face masks during this pandemic. Deborah Greene and Pathways to Peace are coordinating this campaign. 
  • Peace on Earth by 2030 – We have ignited a global fire that empowers humanity to fulfill its deepest dream and prophetic mission. Join David Gershon in playing this game to change the world.  
  • Four Worlds Digital Talking Circle Leadership Program – Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr. offers 50 years of Indigenous Wisdom now available online. Learning is healing and we can choose to be better by training ourselves to lead Talking Circles. Learn more here. 
  • BELLA GAIA shows you how humans and nature are connected, and how art and science are connected. Itʼs an exploration of the relationship between human civilization and our ecosystem through time and space. Experience a special virtual premiere on Earth Day.
 
 

Mother Earth and Humans, Reflections in Corona Time 

By Fred Matser

We live with each other, next to each other and not against each other, on a round earth.

When we look at the earth from a distance, if we are going to play astronaut, we can see each other very well. This factual observation can provide us insights regarding our, actually very strange attitude of life: we, people, have put ourselves above creation and act competitive. We exclude many others and then I'm not even talking about nature, including the animals. The consequences of this realization are great when it comes to our behavior in everyday life. All real life, whether it's the humans, the animals, the trees or the plants, all those expressions of life, live alongside and with each other. This ancillary life is determined by the cyclical evolutionary laws of creation, in other words, the laws of nature.

We people have made our own laws and hardly take into account nature. That's also the case with people, whether you know them or not. For example, think of the family member that it doesn't work with or the refugees.

No, we, especially Western man, have placed ourselves above creation, too little realizing that in our actions everything is connected and communicates with each other, even without words.

From our anthropocentric, near-sighted attitude we exclude others with hard competition that causes a lot of fear, poverty and stress. Examples of consequences: humans and animal suffering as well as exhaustion of raw materials and climate problems.

Although nature, including the animals as well as trees and fungi with each other and other life forms, do not communicate in words and numbers. In all those relationships of life forms, it is indeed communication in this beautiful integral 'system' that I call the biosphere, making it maintain itself in dynamic.

So if we make choices, let's do this out of respect for all, not only life in us, but also life next to us, now and after us.
Earth Day by Aldina Arifovi
I sometimes say: "Let's not compete, but let's compare with care in order to share with care; don't exclude but involve."

Now in the Corona time, although there is a lot of suffering, there is also time for reflection––an opportunity to change our attitude individually but also collectively. Fortunately, a lot of beautiful things are happening now, where we are going to help each other more and more.

Almost 40 years ago I read in a book from Dr. Jerry Jampolsky this sentence: "Love is letting go of fear, where there is fear there is no love, where there is love, there is no fear." Millions of copies have been sold. It hit me deeply. Many times a day I think about it.

I'm trying to live by it., something I can't always do for a long time. The art is then to forgive myself and others.

It makes me free to be thankful. And... so I am.

Let's all make it something beautiful.
April 22, 2020 (Earth Day)
NOTE: see the original in Dutch here:
 

Corona as a Collective Initiation:
Developing Our Own Rite-of-Passage in This Time of the 'Great Pause’

With Lynnaea Lumbard
 

NewStories Teaching and Dialogue


This experiential seminar will explore where we are in our own rite-of-passage, what our challenges are and how we might listen for our own deep responses for meeting them. 


An initiation is always a challenge and an opportunity. That’s the point of it. The task is to face the challenge, be open to an unknown that hasn’t yet arisen and dig deep within our own souls to find resources we didn’t know we had to create new opportunities and responses. While we are in this enforced liminal time, it behooves us to use it well as a time of reflecting, reassessing, and rebooting what we want to do with the rest of our "one wild and precious life." Before we are asked to return to an old normal that will never be, let’s sense into what has changed that we have wanted to change and reask the question: "Where does my great love meet the world’s great need?"

For more information visit:

https://newstories.org/corona-as-collective-initiation/

We will hold two sessions on this same teaching. Note that these sessions are each two hours in duration. Session cost is by donation.

April 29, 2020 09:00 AM Pacific Time – Please Register Here:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJcufuisqTwoHd20MU97gVGNeqEdac-x9AcF
May 2, 2020 04:00 PM Pacific Time – Please Register Here:
https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJArceGhqTMiH9UoHUeAuGA4qaNKIbRBN2to
 

Love, Fear, and the Coronavirus

By Gary Zukav

A new consciousness is being born, and an old consciousness is dying. The new consciousness shows us ourselves, the world, and the Universe in new ways. The old consciousness does not. Both coexist in us at this time.

For example, from the perspective of the old consciousness, the internet connects us. From the perspective of the new consciousness, the internet is a reflection in the physical world of our growing awareness of our connection. From the perspective of the old consciousness, the coronavirus is creating our fear. From the perspective of the new consciousness, our fear is creating the coronavirus! How can that happen? What does that mean?

Your consciousness contains fear when you experience anger, jealousy, overwhelm, or anxiety; when you feel superior and entitled or inferior and need to please; and when you are obsessed (winning, making a profit, or romantic love), compulsive (workaholism or perfectionism), or addicted (food, sex, drugs, alcohol). All these are experiences of fear. Your consciousness contains love when you feel gratitude, patience, contentment, or awe of the Universe. These are experiences of love.

In other words, from the perspective of the new consciousness the coronavirus is an enormous and dramatic reflection of the enormous fear in our collective consciousness. Where, then, is its counterpart – the equally enormous and dramatic reflection of the enormous love in our collective consciousness? You experience that counterpart – the enormous love in our collective consciousness – each time you reach toward another with love and open yourself to her or his love. Billions of us experience it in our loving, self-imposed isolations each time we find or devise new ways to connect with others – including others we do not know – with love instead of fear, to join them instead of separate ourselves from them, to explore our goodness, softness, and tenderness, and to experience the goodness, softness, and tenderness in them.

We all experience that enormous love each time we wash our hands with the intention to protect others from the virus as well as to protect ourselves from it. We all experience that love in a big way each time we care for the well-being of others as much as we care for our own. We all experience it every time we perform an action – any action – consciously with love instead of unconsciously with fear.

We do not need the coronavirus to show us this, but this what it is designed to show us.

Love, Gary                                                            https://seatofthesoul.com
 

A New Call to Arms

Jean Houston and Constance Buffalo


I recently read an article about the current run on guns across the country that began as soon as the stay-at-home orders started going into effect.
 
And while I certainly understand the desire to feel like you want protect yourself and your family when change comes so suddenly, I actually believe it’s time for a “Call to Arms” of quite a different kind. 
 
The impulse for survival drives the purchase of weapons that can take life. I suggest we arm ourselves instead with capacities that are connective, life giving, and regenerative.  
 
The love that is showing up in generous acts around the globe is testament to the power of empathy and the breadth and depth of our humanity.

The interwoven human family

Each day when the growing numbers of those who lost their battle against the virus are announced, we grieve as though a member of our family has been lost, and our prayers each night go out to the hospital workers, emergency response teams, the clerks stocking the grocery shelves, the mail carriers, the internet technicians, and everyone who willingly puts their lives on the line day after day so that we can remain cared for, fed and connected.

A Time of Grace
 
Your prayers and thoughts of gratitude create a powerful field of energy that engenders hope, faith and love. It lends strength to those who need it most and through your humble words, you connect to the soul of the world.
 
My friend, it occurs to me that we are living not only through a time of threat, but a time of grace. Never before in my lifetime have I seen people from across the globe stop every night to applaud the healthcare and emergency response workers in their part of the world and across the globe.
Here’s A Request for You.
 
As you continue to allow the needs of those around you to expand your heart, I’d like to ask you to do something. Every time you feel a sense of love and compassion for another, give that same love and compassion to yourself as well.
 
When you consider writing to a prisoner or another in need, by all means find those who could use a kind word; perhaps share a poem or a note of caring. Then also take time to journal about the flow of goodness that is rising in you now. Reflect on how your natural instincts for bonding with those in need are now expanding your relationship to family, friends and strangers alike. Think about how you will continue to sustain your open and willing heart long after this current threat has passed.
 
When you think about sharing your food with the homeless or someone else in need, of course, be generous with your words, actions and resources. Also though, be aware of what thoughts you are feeding yourself. Are they thoughts of fear or are they thoughts of gratitude, faith, and even joy at what you do have. Remember, what you feed your mind and thoughts, you will become.

A new beginning every day.

When you see others experiencing financial uncertainty and loss, or if you are experiencing financial disruption yourself, offer proactive alternatives in whatever ways you can. But also, find a quiet space and make time to listen to the guidance and wisdom that is always available to you.
Fill your spiritual coffers with the knowledge that you are supported even when situations are the most challenging. Your resilient faith is bound to the Spirit of Life who is there to love you, inspire you and fill your soul.

Hold to the intention that you will receive exactly what you need. Fuel it with your faith and positive thoughts and then let your creativity and actions carry you towards it. Become the emotional spark of hope and joy that spreads like the morning light into the darkness.

How will history remember you?

We are in the midst of a global crisis that is so profound that it demands the very best we have to offer. Our responses will not only determine how we will endure, but our connection through practical goodness and caring — both with ourselves and those around us — can create the quantum shift from the singular focus on personal well-being to a collective well-being that will continue to resonate long after the virus has been vanquished.

We are making history, let there be no doubt about that. Let us demonstrate to the future what it looked like when divisions were dissolved, when generosity became the coin of the realm, when empathy joined us together, and when the nobility of our spirits ruled the land.
 
Bless you dear one. You are cherished now and always.
 
Jean Houston and Constance Buffalo
Business partners in The Renaissance Project, Intl.
 

RESET 2020: Science, Inspiration & Practice

A 60-Minute Conversation with Gregg Braden, Anita Moorjani, Dr Joe Dispenza, Lynne McTaggart, and Dr. Todd Ovokaitys


 To read more and join these speakers for an extraordinary, empowering and supportive
eight days of the live streaming, see
Science & Spirituality Worldwide Conference – June 12-19, 2020. Click here.
 
 

The Eagle and Condor Prophecy and the Virus

By John Perkins 

 
The Prophecy of the Eagle and Condor probably began more than two thousand years ago. It says: “Back in the mists of history, human societies took two routes. The Eagle peoples flew the path of the mind, of science, technology, and industry. The Condor peoples flew the path of the heart, of passion, intuition, and spiritual connections with nature.” It goes on to explain that for centuries they would never meet. Then in the Fourth Pachacuti (in Quichua, the language of the Andes, a five hundred– year interval), which began in about 1500 AD on our calendar, their paths would cross; the Eagle would nearly drive the Condor into extinction. But not quite. The prophecy says that five hundred years later, at the beginning of the Fifth Pachacuti—now—the opportunity arises for the Eagle and the Condor to fly together, to mate, and to produce a new offspring, higher consciousness. 

History confirms the first prophecy. Columbus, 1492. The Eagle swept into Condor territory and almost wiped out the Indigenous peoples. But not quite. 

Now, five hundred years later the prophecy is being fulfilled again. The Eagle and Condor are coming together to create higher consciousness. It is happening! Indigenous teachers have invited us to learn their ways. There is a deep interest in traditional nature-based wisdom and shamanism among industrialized people around the world.
– Touching the Jaguar, John Perkins, p.99

The coronavirus is giving us a new perspective and a new opportunity to fulfill the Prophecy of the Eagle and Condor. Many Eagle people, including scientists, politicians, and business leaders emphasize that medical technology will prevail; we will find a vaccine to prevent future outbreaks; human ingenuity will dominate nature; and we will return to “business as usual.” Many Condor people maintain that Pachamama is sending a strong message that we must make radical changes in the ways we live, govern ourselves, and conduct business; we are being shown that “business as usual” is ultimately self-destructive; and we must move into a “new normal.”

The good news is that more and more of us who have spent most of our lives predominantly either as Eagles or as Condors are now spreading our wings to soar together. As I talk to people – virtually – and participate in on-line events, I hear over and over that this virus is telling us to reexamine who we are as individuals and as a species. The message that the hurricanes, earthquakes, fires, and other “once in one hundred years” events that now happen every year or so failed to convey is now being heard around the globe – because of the coronavirus. 

We once took satisfaction in knowing that if we survived the hurricane, earthquake or other catastrophe, within a week or two help would arrive from the “outside” world: bottled water, food, medical help. Now we know: There is no “outside” world.

On a recent webinar call, an MD participant said, “We undoubtedly will come up with a coronavirus vaccine and yet we must now admit that we can expect the unexpected to strike again in the future – unless we are mindful of the lessons we are learning, and we change our priorities.” She went on to explain something that I hear these days from many people in both the Eagle and Condor communities. People everywhere have come to understand that our future survival as a species – at least in a world we would recognize – depends on combining the rationality of the mind with the intuition of the heart. They recognize that science only has some of the answers and that our willingness to listen to the messages of nature takes us to the other answers. Both are essential. Our successful navigation into the future depends on balance; we simply must honor both, our Eagle and our Condor aspects.

We humans may see ourselves as belonging to one nation or another, but in the final analysis we are all citizens of this Living Earth. This fact was recently expressed by United Nations Secretary General António Guterres: “The fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war,” he said on March 23, 2020. “That is why today, I am calling for an immediate global ceasefire in all corners of the world. It is time to put armed conflict on lockdown and focus together on the true fight of our lives.” 

This virus is telling us that it is time for Eagle and Condor, mind and heart, to soar together, to mate, and to produce a new offspring: higher consciousness. 
 
To learn about the Eagle and Condor, other prophecies, and so much more:

Touching the Jaguar
Transforming Fear into Action
To Change Your Life and the World
by John Perkins

The dramatic story of how John's life was saved by a shaman who taught him to “touch the jaguar” – to transform fear into action. Click here to preorder.
 

The Exponential Explosion

By Peter Russell

In October of 2019 I gave a keynote at the Science and NonDuality Conference in San Jose looking at some of the overlooked consequences of accelerating change, and the crises to which they might lead. Little did any of us realize that only a few months later we would be in the midst of one such crisis.

I started by showing how human progress follows an exponential curve.  By the middle of this century, the pace of change will be far faster than today. By the end of the century, many times faster still. This implies we need to radically change our notions about the future. We are spiraling ever faster into something completely different.

Futurists who look to the impact of accelerating development tend to be awed by how rapidly new technological breakthroughs will become mainstream. They seldom ask whether such unbridled rates of growth are sustainable. They overlook the stress that exponential change places on the underlying systems -- personal, social, economic, political systems, and the planetary ecosystem.

The stress of ever-increasing change will eventually lead these systems to break down—with potentially disastrous consequences, as the impending climate catastrophe reveals. And there are many other crises waiting in the wings.

How can we prepare ourselves for such futures? Now more than ever we need our spiritual practice to help us stay cool, calm, and collected in the coming storm of change.

Here's a video of the presentation.
 
There is also a longer essay on the subject at What If There Were No Future? 

I hesitate to say, I hope you enjoy them. This is thought-provoking material, that challenges some of our deeply held assumptions about the future.
 

Personal and Planetary Frequency Raising Class

With David Gershon

Based on the extraordinary response to  David Gershon's Planetary Frequency Raising meditation viewed by 11,000 people, he committed to leading a free 7-week frequency raising class to help people deepen this practice. See below for recordings of three previous classes on love, service and blessing. 

Upcoming classes are April 29, May 6, May 13 and May 20 from 5 to 6:30 pm PT, 8 to 9:30 pm ET. To participate directly in the class: Click here to register. It will also be broadcast live via Facebook at: http://rtp.earth/facebook.
 
Its purpose is to help you raise your frequency which in turn will vitalize your immune system, improve your emotional, mental and spiritual well-being and spread hope and goodness across the planet. Each class focuses on one of the meditation’s seven frequency raising qualities: love, service, blessing, prayer, faith, gratitude, and community . David also offers empowerment tools to seize this once in a lifetime opportunity to begin our world anew.
 Please join us and share this invitation widely. Now more than ever, we need to help one another thrive and create a better world.

Class 1 – Love: Facebook Live recording divided into two parts: 
https://www.facebook.com/110445357263169/videos/233817581154355/
https://www.facebook.com/110445357263169/videos/1847496335384310/
 
Class 2 – Service: Facebook Live recording:  
https://www.facebook.com/109270017132853/videos/836375563514835/

Class 3 - Blessing: Facebook Live recording:
https://www.facebook.com/unify/videos/1128865334115678/

To learn more visit:  https://reinventing.earth/planetary-frequency/
 
 

The Role of Religion During Covid-19

With Sister Jenna and Audrey Kitagawa

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of social distancing requirements, many religious institutions throughout the world have transitioned to offering religious services online. In some instances, whether religious services should be considered “essential” and therefore, exempt from social distancing has been a point of debate. We also witnessed many Holy Week services being held online. At a time when many are asking where is God in all this, what does this mean for our religious institutions, for us and for the way religions will serve as we move forward? Sister Jenna and Audrey Kitagawa discuss this important topic.

Sister Jenna is a trusted spiritual mentor committed to bridging divides in societies and building relationships between global influencers. She has impacted lives around the globe, inspiring change and finding solutions to current day crises as the founder and director of the Brahma Kumaris Meditation Museums in the metropolitan Washington D.C. area. She is the host of America Meditating Radio. 

Audrey E. Kitagawa, JD, is Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Parliament of the World’s Religions. She is the President/Founder of the International Academy for Transcultural Cooperation, the President of the Light of Awareness International Spiritual Family, the former Advisor to the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict at the United Nations. She is the current Chair of the UN Task Force and the Programmatic Areas Standing Committee of the Parliament of the World’s Religions.
 


Global Silent Five Minutes

By Olivia Hansen


Join us DAILY for Five Minutes of Silence to Heal Our World, Collectively:
at 2 pm GMT / 7 am Los Angeles, 10 am New York / 3 pm London / 7:30 pm Delhi,
Or whenever you can each day.
Dear Friends,

Humanity is living through an extremely challenging period now as we all know, with crises in many areas of life because of the coronavirus pandemic. Our hearts go out to all the people suffering in our world, and we pray and meditate for their healing and well-being. The power of our prayers and meditations can be greatly increased when we all come together for the well-being of everyone on our planet.

Recently we launched a DAILY Global 5 Minutes of Silent Meditation to Heal Our World.  And now, we are inviting people around the world to come together Daily in prayer, meditation and silence in whatever way we choose.

We heard speakers bringing inspiring words from the Vatican and Pope Francis, uplifting words from the Dalai Lama, and encouraging words from leaders around the world from many continents and a wide range of religions and organizations of consciousness. This was a global outreach to many hearts within our One Human Family. Please join us daily in 5 minutes of Silent Meditation -- and we invite you to watch the Video for some inspiration and encouragement.

~ Please add your good energies through prayer, meditation and silence. ~
Together as One Human Family, we can bring Healing and Improvement
to our World. 

CLICK the Video Recording to Watch when you want some Inspiration 

You can enjoy the inspiring original webcast here,
with special guest speakers from around the world:
 


Introducing EarthMoment

By David Nicol & Kate Naga, EarthRising 

Take a Moment for the Earth! You are invited to join EarthMoment -- a free daily synchronized meditation practice to strengthen our loving connection to the Earth and each other. EarthMoment takes place daily (except for Sunday) at 12noon US Pacific, for three minutes.

Sign up at https://one.mobilize.io/registrations/groups/39361 to get a daily email reminder with a link to the EarthMoment video -- a 3-minute meditation video of the Earth slowly rotating and the New Earth Tone soundtrack. 

Please join us.
 
Prayer for A Love Pandemic
A Wave of Love Spreads Around the World
By Rev. Christian Sorensen
 
During this quickening,
a New Story for good emerges.
The power of Love spreads like wildfire throughout the world,
Wiping out hatred and fear from the human mind.
The Divine Nature of all things is now revealed:
God is Love and Omnipresent,
Its expression is perfect, and this is my expression now.

In this unprecedented and fertile era
The tautological God seeds are blossoming all around.
Being clear, calm, caring and compassionate,
I emanate a balanced heart and head in my seeing.
While honoring other people’s choices,
I courageously choose a new perspective for the emergence of Spirit in my life.
Respectfully, I assist the vulnerable and those who are suffering.
I honor the Lost, offering love and compassion to their families.

In this great collective pause, I breathe in Love and light
realizing there is nothing to fix because there is no going back.
The psychic configuration of the past is now severed
from busyness with its addiction to fatigue.
The supersonic speed of today, the cacophony of division,
and patterns of disconnection are all being disrupted.

Free from fear, I no longer make what fear brought to my awareness wrong.
The internal battle is gone. The Higher View of Love brings me
to a hearing and understanding of what is unfolding from a peaceful heart.
I am comfortable in the unknown as I realize what’s is transpiring
Is the deepest parts of the human shadow being transmuted.
I create space in my field of awareness to see the revelation of a new dawn.
Not caught in the frightful broadcasted headlines
and conversations of impending fear and doom,
I surrender my anxious mind to the Greatness of God.
Boldly I step into the spiritual leadership I am called to serve.
I awaken alert and clear from the collective slumber.
I am aware of my oneness with the Universal Presence which creates all things,
Reverberating through me is the manifesting magnificence of Spiritual Love.

Not waiting for others to light their candles, audaciously I lift my light,
declaring through right action, my own connection with sisters and brothers around the globe.
Breaking out in this present moment is a safe sense of our togetherness
on this planet of one diverse human family.
As I breathe freely, love surfaces in the interconnected network of humanity.
Knowing there is no longer an option,
the re-design, of societal impact on earth
moves us away from exploitation to regeneration and collaboration.

Together we heal, together we breathe love and together a New Wisdom appears that works for all.
Gratefully, I am daily renewed by the renewing of my mind
through the inexhaustible wellspring of love.
In letting go of my struggle, I am released to the healing power of grace.
I live by a higher faith that is greater than any worldwide paralysis to fear.
I move in greater peace, trusting the Intelligence that created all things
to guide me through this Divine quickening.
I have my being in this ever-spreading wave of Love throughout the world. And So It is! 
 

Liberating in Lockdown

By Llyn Cedar Roberts


Just as so many of us set our intentions when the new year approaches, a 5-day period of reflection precedes the Maya New Year. This time of solitude and purification is called Wayeb’ by the Yucatec Maya and it is known as Tz’apil in the Maya K’iche language.
 
Mayan spiritual guide Lina Barrios describes that: “Tz’apil means closing a door, for it is closing the door to the old year and receiving the new one cleansed on all levels to achieve happiness.”
 
I have certainly felt a door close behind me these last two months. I know I’m not alone. This is true for us all and especially for those who are sick, separated from family, have family members who have died, those who have been on the front lines and in the hot spots through this pandemic, and all of us struggling with difficult feelings and finances.
 
The life we knew is gone. We stumble together through tragedy and uncertainty.
 
As our reality door shuts, we are brought to our knees. Can we reframe the human experience during this time of collective solitude, to find greater happiness?
 
This is one of the opportunities.
 
Meanwhile, how do we hold it all in our hearts and bodies?
 
On March 1st I traveled to Guatemala to facilitate my twelfth journey to work with Maya wisdom keepers and spiritual guides. The novel corona virus was just breaking into the United States.
 
I, like many, thought of the SARS panic in 2003 and how people succumb to flus each year. Mostly concerned for the frail and the elderly, I thought the scare would pass quickly. Flying from Seattle through Houston and then into Central America, the only sign of what was to come was that before entering customs at Guatemala City’s La Aurora International Airport, men wearing white masks scanned our temperatures. I felt fine and passed through easily. I committed to staying healthy and resilient.
 
Then, I forgot about novel corona.
 
Mostly unplugged from life at home throughout the trip, this year's journey working intimately with Mayan people ran deep. We were steeped in age-old ceremonies, living with the wisdom keepers amidst their ancient volcanoes and sacred waters, on vortex lands where spirits were palpable and multi-dimensional portals, wide open. Time stretched and yawned. Twelve days felt like two months.
 
The immersion was life changing for everyone.
 
Reorienting to the outside world the last forty-eight hours of the journey was jarring.
 
We were not returning to the same reality.
 
The world was amok.
 
I worried about how my trip participants would handle this. How are their families? How do they feel about returning to chaos? Will it be difficult for them to get home?
 
I was moved that everyone was strong and clear. Steeped in the energies of the sacred fires, the teachings and deep care of the Mayan people, every person was grateful. They walked with power and felt ready for whatever we stepped into back home.
 
We settled into the beautiful town of Antigua for a final dinner together. Most folks flew out the next day without a hitch. My friend and trip colleague, Lis Traphagen, and I would leave the country on Monday.
 
Back at our room, Lis checked her flights; she was good to go. I checked mine.
 
Not only had United had canceled my whole itinerary, they had no other flights posted.
 
My heart was beating in my throat. Lis tried to reassure me. I quickly booked the soonest return – Wednesday on Delta. Wednesday.
 
I told myself there was a reason for the extra days. I’ve stayed on alone many times; everything would be fine. Extended time in Guatemala is always a gift. 
 
Yet, I couldn’t sleep.
 
I said goodbye to Lis in the morning then checked my emails. I found a message from our tour operator, Alfonso, that made my stomach lurch.
 
Guatemala is closing all in and out traffic for two weeks. This goes into effect at midnight tonight. The airport will be closing. 9-hours notice. No word from Delta. Nothing on the internet.
 
I had a hard time breathing when I spoke with my family. They urged me to go to the airport right away to get on any plane out of the country that I could. If I didn’t leave soon, I might be caught here indefinitely. That made me more anxious. I said I’d call them back. I got off the phone and lay down on the bed.
 
I closed my eyes and tried to take deep breaths. My body shuddered with the first attempts. Though delirious with the news and lack of sleep, after some moments I relaxed enough to tune in.
 
What I should do? What should I do?!
 
The message was simple, “Drop inside. Trust your feelings.”
 
This was surprisingly easy.
 
When I thought about going to the airport my mind raced, my chest tightened, and my body trembled. When I thought about staying and trusting that I would figure things out, a warmth came over me, I felt peaceful.
 
It was in those calmer moments that I saw it with my inner vision – A path of light spanning a great distance before me.
 
The pathway of light was straight and luminous.
 
An inner voice said: There is a pathway through this. Feel your feet upon the path.
 
I remembered when Quechua shamans from the high Andes of Ecuador visited my family in the United States many years ago and we performed a fire ceremony on a beach in Rye, New Hampshire. The moon was full that night and Don Esteban had all 90 of us stand in a line to face the ocean.
 
Salty breezes stung our nostrils and lips. Waves crashed upon the shore and a chilled mist wetted our cheeks. The moon loomed luminous over the expanse of water. A broad, brilliant path of light extended from the moon at the water’s horizon all the way to the shore, just ahead of us.
 
With great feeling, Don Esteban spoke in an indigenous dialect. Translated from Quechua, to Spanish, to English, this is what he shared with us:
 
“The shaman’s path is a path of light, with darkness on either side. The shaman must walk this path of light - and help others walk upon it. I have always seen the shaman’s path with my inner vision. This is the first time in my life that I have seen it with my physical eyes.”
 
The shaman's path of light.
 
I called my family to tell them I was staying at the hotel another night. I would rest, then figure things out.
 
Later, I heard from others that the airport was packed that day and people were frenzied. Folks stayed for hours trying to get on flights out of the country, with no luck.
 
After a nap, in passing through the lobby I met others who were stranded: two women from Texas who’d come to hike, a man from New Jersey who’d flown in with nine family members for a wedding, and a tall shapely woman with cropped silver hair who stood at the front desk wrapped only in a jacuzzi towel. The latter smiled at me; she was fine. The others were not fine. One of the Texas women cried. I told them how lovely Antigua was, and that they would get home. I took their numbers. It felt good to support these folks who were in Guatemala for the first time.
 
I left the hotel, following a lead to an inexpensive guest house a ten-minute walk away.
 
Stepping carefully on the cobblestoned street, I put on my sunglasses. It was the first business day of the week and the sun was high in the sky; the city should have been humming with activity. Yet, the streets were vacant. The shops were closed. The chicken busses weren’t even running. How would those in the outlying pueblos survive without bussing into Antigua to sell their food and ware?
 
All was quiet except for an occasional motorbike that whizzed by, operated by a masked driver. The bustling center of Antigua had become a ghost town, literally overnight.
 
My knees felt weak as I walked.
 
I remembered the pathway of light. I sensed it straight before me with my feet firmly upon it.
 
Walk with strength.
 
I bolstered myself, stepped up onto a curb and knocked on the broad wooden door of the guest house. It was set into a stucco wall that seemed to span the whole block. A little door opened in the upper right-hand corner and a man’s face popped into it.
 
My voice sounded like a stranger’s.
 
“Ah, yes, hello. I’m looking for Blake, please?” I asked. Without a word, the little door shut, then the large door creaked open. Not knowing what to expect, I stepped in through a dark entryway and out onto a sun-bathed patio. I heard the man close the heavy door behind me.
 
A spry, thin man with half-shaved blonde hair and kind blue eyes rushed over to greet me. I told him my plight. I followed Blake, a ceramic artist and the guest house host, through the courtyard that spread out in the center space of the old colonial home.
 
The sun dappled the trunks of ancient trees. There was an herb and a vegetable garden, flowers, birdsong and butterflies. The surrounding hillsides were visible against the expanse of blue sky above the enclosure. I had left the twilight zone and stumbled into paradise.
 
There was one room available. It was beautiful, with a private bath. I took it.
 
Blake asked what brought me to Guatemala. I told him about my work with Maya spiritual guides. “Oh,” he grinned, “That’s a sign, as Carlos Barrios is staying here.”
 
I had visited Guatemala for the first time with Gerardo Barrios, who was Carlos’ brother. I’d known of Carlos for years yet, we had never met. The Barrios brothers were legendary experts on the Mayan Calendar and Carlos’ seminal work The Book of Destiny was widely known.
 
I took a full, deep breath that felt so good. I was in the right place. The pathway of light sparkled, as if saying I told you so.
 
On my walk back to the hotel, I saw the tall shapely woman with silver hair briskly walking the other way, across the street. Her short and fitted sleeveless dress was splashed with a bold flower print. The woman smiled and waved exuberantly.
 
“I found a really nice, less expensive hotel!” she shouted. “Great!!” I waved back. I had no worries about her. I took a jacuzzi that night and slept soundly.
 
The vulnerability crept back when I was toting a backpack and rolling my suitcase over the antiquated stones, on my way back to the guest house. I took a steady breath in and felt my feet firmly on the path.
 
From that time on, whenever I felt anxious or uncertain, I would envision the path of light. The more I connected, the more real it became.
 
Upon seeing the Mayan Priest, Carlos Barrios, that first night, we both knew we were meant to meet.
 
The rooms off the gardens that encircled the courtyard of the old colonial guest home were rented by other stranded foreigners: two lovely men from France who left on a French Embassy flight the day after I arrived; a bright young photographer from LA, named Ben; Ollie, a happy and inquisitive theology student from Singapore; and Carol, a caring and savvy admin director at Harvard Law School.
 
Most of these folks wanted to go home. Carol had a teenager and a six-year-old daughter waiting for her.
 
Some were considering staying until things got calmer in the states. Yet, Guatemala lacked the infrastructure to handle a massive infectious outbreak. If things got bad, foreigners would be a burden to the Guatemalan people, and they might also be caught here for months.
 
The world had changed overnight, and no one could predict where this was going.
 
There was an option of hiring a driver to travel overland to walk through the Mexican border, which many were successfully doing.
 
I checked emails, news and border issues, and texted my family as well as the other stranded people I’d met, every day, just like everyone else. I also took many breaks - to not get sick with worry, staying focused on the beautiful nature there, the uplifting company of Blake and Carlos, and the path of light.
 
There was a pathway through this.
 
Carlos did Maya readings for some of us and he led a fire ceremony. It was beautiful to see the strength come into people as they immersed in the traditions of these lands and the sacred fire. How auspicious to be ‘stranded’ in a beautiful setting with a Mayan Priest. There were no accidents.
 
On one of the days, Carlos filmed a talk. In it, he spoke of our imposed isolation and of being locked down now as its own Wayeb’.
 
This, Carlos said, was a time to: "reflect on our level of harmony with the earth, cosmos and creation and go deeply inside to develop our abilities to create reality.”
 
To meet the upcoming year with good energy, traditional Maya cleanse their bodies and tidy and paint their homes. They also look carefully at how they can live in ways that fulfill their purpose.
 
As spiritual folks, there are many simple ways that we can make the most of this time of incubation.
 
We can look carefully at who we are, meditate and tap our inner dreaming powers; we can organize our lives and our homes and do blessing rituals to uplift our environments; we might eat more cleanly, exercise and do energy and body disciplines to be strong and resilient; many of us can spend time in nature.
 
Of course, it’s a lot easier to do a retreat when everything is taken care of for us and we aren’t dealing with a pandemic. Yet, in these extremely trying circumstances our efforts are all the more meaningful.
 
The return pathway appeared one week after lockdown. Carol and I were booked from Guatemala City to Miami on the first humanitarian relief flight for US citizens, operated by Eastern Airlines. The cost was exorbitant, but it would get us on our way home. Carol took this photo of all of us – she in the foreground then Ben, me, Carlos, with Blake and Ollie behind us - just before Carol and I left for the airport.
 It was a twenty-eight-hour journey to get home to the Olympic Peninsula. This gave me time to prepare, as I knew things would feel harder upon return.
 
The first week, I was euphoric to be with my family. The second week, I was traumatized. People were suffering and afraid. People were dying in shocking numbers. Finances were terrifying. Everything was upside down. In Guatemala, there were not enough resources, no welfare or government assistance. The continued curfew meant people would starve.
 
I became exhausted. My heart and nervous system were overwhelmed. I withdrew. I slept.
 
There are no easy answers at times like this. And, there were forewarnings. Many of us who are sensitive felt the shockwave of this death to rebirth passage months before it hit. Vertigo, grief bubbling up for no reason and, a sense of not being able to see the future, were what I heard the most. These were harbingers, we were the canaries in the coal mine.
 
Astrologers were telling us something big was coming. What was it? World War 3?
 
When John Perkins and I met with the Hopi twenty years ago, many elders weren’t traveling anymore. They knew great changes would come, and with them, travel limits. They didn’t want to be separated from their lands and community.
 
Great changes during these times have been predicted by many indigenous groups.
 
The old reality door has closed. We cannot turn around and walk back through that door. The self and world we knew, has dissolved. We must keep moving toward the light; feel our feet on the path even when we can’t see it.
 
Now is a most tender and open time. We are learning so many things personally and collectively – about our gifts and strengths, and our weaknesses and vulnerabilities. We are purifying, just as nature is cleansing.
 
Reality shifts before our eyes. This is scary and has a lot of heart-wrenching consequences. It also means that our personal and societal realities are malleable, now more than ever. The opportunity, the calling of these times is to shapeshift how we humans create our life experience on Planet Earth.
 
My friend, Alejandro, expressed it well: “Perhaps this is the Great Turning that brings us to our knees and changes things, forever. Amazing opportunities and changes can come out of chaos.”
 
This is the time to dream new and remarkable stories.
 
It’s the time to honor death as we also nurture life and rebirth.
 
It is the time to manifest our most heartfelt dreams, many we had forgotten, as we remember we are the dreamers – who are dreaming ourselves back to what truly nourishes all life on this planet and reconnects us with cosmic grace.
 
There is a pathway through this. Feel your feet upon the path.
 
Find out about our work to encourage a sacred and responsible relationship with the Earth and to preserve ancient indigenous wisdom at: eomec.org
 
 
 

Dealing with the Coronavirus

Deepak Chopra on Facebook Live


Deepak Chopra discusses good principles for staying healthy and more.

"Let us see this adversity as a time of reflection and a time to come together to help each other and to be there for each other."

We don't respect the ecosystem of existence, which includes all living beings. Life depends on the balanced food chain, which humanity has ruined. So watch your diet, and watch your daily rituals of good sleep, stress management and movement. This is an opportunity for us to create a completely healthy lifestyle.
 
"We must respect life. If we think of life as sacred, if we think of life as divine, then this challenge will only make us stronger."
See Deepak Chopra's Facebook page for his series of videos on the coronavirus.
 

Virus as Opportunity

By Joan Borysenko, Ph.D.


Virus as opportunity. Rush, worry and stress are the pandemic that will persist long after the virus recedes. So instead of getting panicky and stocking up on a month's worth of toilet paper and margarita mix, remember to invest in rewiring your brain and nervous system for calm, healing, and yes- optimizing your immune system.

How to do that? Take a deep breath and relax. Maybe meditate for 20 minutes. Do some yoga or chi gong. Listen to music- really listen. Lift your eyes to the sky and watch the clouds. Whatever you do, do it with mindful attention. Savor the hot shower. Enjoy raking the yard- feeling how your muscles move, listening to the sounds, enjoying the swelling buds. And above all, don't waste that rare and precious cookie by thinking about something else when you eat it.

Mindful activities elicit the relaxation response, the body's counterbalance to the stress response. The fight or flight response won't help you out run the virus. But when you relax, the parasympathetic nervous system comes online. It creates a "rest and digest" response, which invites the body's self-healing systems to ramp up. This helps to create resilience to the virus.

Remember that 80-90% of illness is caused or worsened by stress. You might recall that I'm a medical scientist, with a doctorate from Harvard Medical School. I was one of the pioneers in the field of psychoneuroimmunology – how the mind affects immunity.

So, take the opportunity the virus is providing to be curious about how you could rush less and be more present in your life. You can help your body resist infection, and enjoy life more in the process!

Nurture yourself with regular sleep (go to bed and wake up on a schedule), eat organic whole foods, surrender yourself to music, meditate, and take advantage of life's goodness with more ease and grace.

Did you know that the human brain is hard-wired for negativity? It's a survival thing. My friend, psychologist Rick Hanson says that good stuff is like teflon and bad stuff is like velcro. Every time you savor something good, you actually begin to rewire your brain for happiness and resilience. So let's foil that famous negativity bias!!

Please join me and Gilah to learn about the tools that will put you in the best shape to shake off viruses, welcome spring, and enjoy the feast of life. https://gracefull360.com

Or join me and Dr. Gilah for Self-Healing in Santa Fe, May 6-10. Go to http://joanborysenko.com for info about both programs. Meanwhile, enjoy the photo of the sunset reflected in clouds at our house in magical Santa Fe, NM.

HOW TO TAKE THE FEAR OUT OF THE CORONAVIRUS - March 6, 2020

Let’s talk about the coronavirus and how best to approach it realistically while improving overall health, peace of mind, and enjoyment of life. In my 8-min video above, you’ll find some valuable tips about how to reduce stress, stay optimistic and maintain wellbeing.
 

Coronavirus: Do Not Fear the Bogeyman

By Dr. Bruce H. Lipton, PhD, March 10, 2020

 
Dear Family of Love and Seekers Everywhere,

The world is currently gripped in fear of the scary coronavirus.  Let’s first get one fact clear: If you have ever had a cold or flu in your life, odds are that it was the result of a coronavirus infection. Yes, coronaviruses cause colds.
 
But, we are being programmed with the belief that this particular cold virus is “deadly.” This fear has shut down concerts, conferences, and major public events all over the world. The fear has led to quarantines and closing down of international travel. It has even led to a major scarcity of toilet paper in Australia, where concerned citizens emptied the shelves of this commodity in anticipation that they will be walled up in their homes with this infection.
 
First, how deadly is this version of the virus? Yes, there have been corona-related deaths reported with the statistics suggesting that ~2% of the infected population dies. Wow! That number is almost 1% more deaths than are attributed to any conventional flu the world experiences.  What is misleading is the fear that everyone who carries this virus may die from their cold. This is simply untrue! The health of almost all the victims of this coronavirus was already compromised before they were infected.
 
For example, the following information was provided by the news in regard to the 6 patients that died of the virus in the state of Washington last week (I added the bold print):

Washington State

Six people have died in Washington and health officials have identified 18 cases.

Four of the cases in King County were linked to the Life Care nursing facility in Kirkland. More than 50 residents and staff at the facility are being tested.

The deaths announced Monday, according to health officials, included:
- A male in his 70s, who lived at LifeCare. He had underlying health conditions and died Sunday.
- A female resident of LifeCare in her 70s. She also had underlying health conditions and died Sunday.
- A woman in her 80s, who was already reported as in critical condition at EvergreenHealth, died Sunday.
- A Snohomish County resident at EvergreenHealth also died but details of that patient have not been given.

Two previously reported deaths included a man in his 70s who had underlying health conditions and had been a resident of LifeCare. He died at EvergreenHealth on Feb. 29. The other was a man in his 50s with underlying health conditions. He was admitted with serious respiratory issues and tested positive for the virus. He died at EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland.

As emphasized in this report, the health of all those that died with the coronavirus was already compromised. Healthy people get cold and flu symptoms, while those already sick and near death’s door may experience the “Grim Reaper” when infected by the virus. True, sick people are more vulnerable to the virus; healthy people really have nothing to fear.
 
As presented in The Biology of Belief, stress is responsible for up to 90% of illness, including heart disease, cancer and diabetes. When an individual is in stress, the release of stress hormones (e.g., cortisol) shuts down the immune system to conserve the body’s energy for running away from the perceived stressor, that proverbial “saber-toothed tiger.” Stress hormones are so effective at compromising the immune system, that physicians therapeutically provide recipients of organ transplants with stress hormones to prevent their immune system from rejecting the foreign implant.
 
The conclusion is clear: The fear of the coronavirus is more deadly than the virus itself!
 
The media (perhaps in conjunction with the pharmaceutical industry) is compromising people’s health using the fear card! This is the result of negative thinking (the nocebo effect) which is the complete opposite of the placebo effect manifest through positive thinking! If you make efforts to stay healthy, with good nutrition, exercise, taking vitamins and supplements, and more importantly, avoiding stress (e.g., the “fear” of the virus), even if you do get infected with the virus, you will likely only end up with a cold and/or slight fever.
 
If you are someone with a compromised immune system, it is supportive to surround yourself with loving family and friends, nature, and positive thoughts as well as any other nutrition and vitamins that you may already be taking for your health and wellbeing. Following your intuition about what is best for you is key! The point here is that no matter who you are and what your state of health, you will only benefit from steering clear of the fear and supporting yourself in whatever way feels best to you. 
 
Please remember the truth of quantum physics, the most valid of all sciences on the planet: Consciousness is creating your life experiences! Are you being conscious of disease … or of health? Wishing you all Health, Happiness and Harmony.
 

Coronovirus Information Board

Courtesy of Jon Ramer

 
 

A Message from the Coronavirus

Jeff Vander Clute, 8 March 2020

Photo by Фтещт Нфтлщмнш (License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International)
 
There has been a lot of talk about the Coronavirus. When I connected with this novel life form and asked it to tell me about itself, what came through was a list of its top gifts, followed by a message for humanity. I was somewhat surprised, and also comforted, by the information. My hope is that these words will help people to relax and trust that life is acting with benevolent wisdom.

The gifts of the virus:
  1. Slowing down humanity’s frenetic activities
  2. Activating networks of cooperation
  3. Spreading helpful DNA
  4. Upgrading humanity’s immune system
  5. Creating the conditions for peace and well-being
  6. Saving lives, especially over the long term, by strengthening the web of life
Here is the message that the Coronavirus had to share:

My friends, it is true that I am here to bring closure to the inharmonious ways of being that are causing harm to humans and the whole web of life. All the same, I am not a vengeful being or anything that is intended to be destructive. I am simply the rebalancing agent in the overall equation of life’s evolutionary process. By fighting me with fear in your hearts, you oppose the larger natural systems and cause me to take other forms.

What I am, and my fundamental purpose, will not be deterred, for I am life itself acting through the available forms of distribution. The virus that you see me as is one of an endless series of permutations. This kind of process is one of the ways I innovate life forms and deliver new DNA sequences that will eventually be shown to be helpful. The back and forth between humanity’s collective immune system and the virus is raising consciousness as humans examine their interactions, and it is literally increasing the intelligence of the superorganism that is the species as a whole.

These tests are normal. I repeat: These tests are normal. For those who can hear this message and embrace me easily, you already know that fear is a much more lethal poison. For those who will not be comforted by these words, one day you will know that I come as an act of love. When you can open to the love that is at the very heart of this situation, the crisis that your media and governments decry will transform into a flower of life, spreading new consciousness and multiplying circles of cooperation. Pay attention to your thoughts and see if you can identify the benefits of redirecting humanity’s attention from incessant wars and violence to the common “enemy” that I am willing to be perceived as.

Love will go this far, and farther, to bring healing to the mind of a young species that is still in the process of remembering itself as a divine incarnation. Yes, you are a divine incarnation capable of fabricating realities based on goodness and beauty and compassionate understandings, actions, and beliefs. Believe me when I say that I, too, am here as an act of compassion. Accepting me in this way will lighten your heavy burden for the divine sends only love your way. Sometimes this love takes curious forms in order to circumvent your intricate defenses against waking up to your own glory. I can assure you that the most functional strategy will be to embrace me as a friend of the human family.
 

From James O'Dea


Could this virus actually help restructure the world economy, help us build community, reinforce the role of good science and force us to stop flying around so much/ show us we can save the environment by e-commuting more and be less frenetically busy.

Will we take the opportunity to step back and heed the message?
 

Beating the Coronavirus: as Simple as A, B, C

By Lynne McTaggart


Last weekend, we held our Get Well Health Expo at Olympia. Thousands came to meet the many dozens of pioneering doctors and therapists of all varieties that we had carefully selected to offer alternative solutions proven to work.

Of nearly 50 brilliant talks and demonstrations, two delivered by Dr. Damien Downing, a pioneer in ecological medicine and president of the British Society of Allergy and Environmental Medicine, and Dr. Thomas Levy, a cardiologist and one of the world’s experts on vitamin C, offered the same message: there is a simple solution to the coronavirus, which has gripped the world in fear.

Dr Downing was one of a team of orthomolecular doctors (who offer therapeutic nutrition based on biochemical individuality) to put together an effective plan of attack for the coronavirus. 
 

Spiritual Leadership to Help Humanity Address the Coronavirus and Beyond...

By David Gershon


Humanity needs our spiritual leadership as it encounters this latest manifestation of our collective consciousness called the coronavirus.

We need to directly help those in our spheres of influence and all of humanity raise their frequency from fear to love and compassion. This will not only protect them from contracting the virus by strengthening their immune system, but also help them them start a positive contagion to transmute the virus. A blessed opportunity for all of us to do good!

Ultimately this virus is a fear epidemic not an actual health emergency, as 98% of the people who contract it experience flu type symptoms, get over it, and build up healthy antibodies. Those who suffer more or leave their body were already preparing to leave and are primarily the elderly.

There will be more experiences coming over the next few years, like this one, that will test our fear transformation capacity and provide opportunities to awaken humanity from its slumber into spiritual growth and service. A key element of our reinventing the planet work is transmuting fear at the deepest level of our psyche about our viability as a species into hope about our future based on game changing personal action. This can and will transmute whatever fear comes our way. 
 
 

Pandemic Preparation and Positive Steps To Take

By Stephen Dinan


Excerpted from Stephen's blog at 
https://medium.com/@stephenOKdinan/pandemic-preparation-938361649386.

I believe crises carry the seeds of opportunity if we approach them in the right way, which means clearly understanding the facts and strategizing a response that helps us emerge stronger and wiser on the other side. [...]

The best case scenario is ultimately for us to approach this global pandemic as something that calls us into a higher level of collaboration, creativity, and conscious living. We can emerge living more sustainably, peacefully, and enjoyably with our local communities. We can develop more skills for independent lifestyles. We can cultivate a higher-quality, less expensive lifestyle with less stuff.

We can remember who we are and our true purpose, which is to ultimately to leave our planet better for the next generation. Sometimes is takes an apparent tragedy to wake us up. The coronavirus pandemic can be a wake up call if we face the facts soberly and move into immediate right action to mitigate the damage and optimize the upside.

Let’s write the story of 2020 as a year not solely as a global tragedy but as a difficult birth of a new way of being. Just as the toughest life experiences can catalyze our greatest personal growth, so can this planetary emergency lead to a real evolution of our species.

See Stephen's blog for:
 

A Flow-Based Perspective on the Coronavirus:
How to Thrive in the Midst of the Collective Chaos

By Justin Faerman

I’m re-sharing this Facebook video I made recently, given all the chaos going on in the world with the coronavirus and other similar situations these days.

If you are looking for some sound advice on staying safe, sane, healthy and in a high level of flow in the midst of all the upheaval and fear, have a watch as I go over some incredible research that will help you thrive in the midst of these turbulent times.
 

Phase Shift Has Arrived - Hold on to Your Hats!

By Daniel Christian Wahl


Let's make this the catalyst for the re-design and regeneration of the human impact on Earth - we can heal the Earth and her people, regenerate ecosystems everywhere, regenerate our cooperative nature and build renewed social cohesion through community solidarity ...

This is the time to accept that change is no longer an option but now forced on us at a scale that the current economic system will AND SHOULD NOT recover from! ... the time to (re)create vibrant bioregional economies that incentivise ecosystems regeneration and a reregionalisation of production and consumption is here.

Time to switch to Gameb - a globally cooperative humanity worth its name ... united in the commitment to create conditions conducive to life and redesign the human impact on the planet from exploitative and degenerative to healing and regenerative.

Yes, this pandemic is upon us and the stock markets are collapsing, production, air travel, air pollution, ... are dropping ... recent predictions based on a model by researchers of the Universities of Based and Stockholm suggest that even with a summer dip in the rate of increase the COVID-19 virus could infect 100 million people (at a time) by Winter 2020/21.
Let's not plan for return to business as usual after this - the climate emergency and obscene levels of in equality within and between countries clearly indicate that BAU was not working and heading for imminent collapse and synchronous failure anyway.

We are now pushed to a global mobilisation of resources and civic participation that the planet has not seen before. Let us not waste time by pretending that what we had before was working or is worth returning to.
What are some of the measures that communities, cities and regions will have to have to begin to explore anyway?

How do we feed our population at the bioregional scale from food grown mainly regionally?

How to we provide energy from regional renewable resources as oil production and oil prices force us out of fossil fuels (for good)?

How to we switch to regional transport systems that are not dependent on expensive imports of fuel?

In short, we need to redesign for community and regional resilience to a turbulent economic future while increasing food, water energy sovereignty at those scales.

This kind of resilience building was needed in any case as a global preparation for a worsening climate crisis and to avoid cataclysmic runaway climate change.

The scale of collaboration needed for the response to climate change seemed impossible to catalyse in the time we had left.
Now COVID 19 is forcing us to mobilise in unprecedented ways and we are doing so as one global species facing a calamity that we can only solve collaboratively and together - for all equally - or we will not solve it at all! ... sounds familiar?

COVID 19 might become the catalyst for the transformation of the human presence and impact on Earth that climate change should have been but was to diffuse of a thread for our species to come together around in an effective way.

Now that we are and have to achieve this, let us make the most of the effort and resources spent!
The world will never be the same. ... and that can be a good thing too!

Already the lives saved by dropping air pollution in China alone might soon begin to out-number the tragic and catastrophic loss of lives that the viral pandemic is and will continue to cause.

With suffering and loss at that scale it is inappropriate to draw comparisons and comparing numbers does not reduce the suffering for those affected.

Even if the viral death tall ends up being much larger than currently estimated it will remain a fraction of the death toll caused by the systemic dysfunctionalities of our current system and expected to be caused by the kind of climate change and ecosystems collapse scenarios we were heading for in the short to mid-term in any case.

Phase shift is here! We will surprise ourselves with our capacity to collaborate across boards as one global species!

Let's make our efforts count and design for human and planetary health as we build a new future together based on diverse regenerative cultures everywhere.

Diverse bioregional economies supporting cultures that heal their local rivers, regenerate forests, grasslands, soils, wetlands and oceans.

Cultures that are elegantly adapted to the bicultural uniqueness of the bioregions we now have the opportunity to re-inhabit has healers and in a globally collaborative way!

reGeneration Rising! Trim-Tabs Unite!
... or as my friend Joe Brewer likes to say: "Onwards fellow humans!"
 

The Chinese Medicine/Macrobiotic Approach to Protecting Yourself From the Coronavirus

By Dr. Michael Wayne, Ph.D., L.Ac.


As a long time practitioner of Chinese medicine and long time proponent of eating a macrobiotic diet, I often think of the opening passage of the seminal book of Chinese Medicine, “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Internal Medicine,” also know as the Nei Jing. In the beginning of this 2,200 year old book, the Yellow Emperor asks his personal physician, Qibo, why people aren’t as healthy or live as long as people once did, to which Qibo replies that people have gotten out of balance with the natural order of things and have lost the Way (the Way meaning the Tao), and that because of this, their poor dietary and lifestyle choices were leading them to serious health issues.

That’s an interesting observation from Qibo, especially since his observation came 2,200 years ago, in an epoch that was much simpler than our current times. If Qibo and the Yellow Emperor thought people had lost the Way back then, imagine what they would think now.

In our era, people have surely lost the Way, what with the level of serious health issues that abound. And as we currently see with the threat of the coronavirus, nature is on a trajectory of self-regulation to help reestablish the natural order of things - as nature will do - since people have lost the Way. Yet, as the virus, or the threat of the virus, wreaks havoc on routines and lives, this can be seen as a learning opportunity - just as the Chinese word for crisis, 危机, is composed of the words danger and opportunity. The opportunity is there, if we so choose to see it.

A virus, including the coronavirus, is a biological agent that reproduces inside the cells of a living host; once the host cell is infected by the virus, it’s forced to produce thousands of identical copies of the original virus at an extraordinary rate. Viruses are not malicious; instead they are intelligent, full of information, and always on the lookout for a susceptible host. And when humans lose the Way, that’s when they become a susceptible host.

To date, 5,000 species of viruses have been discovered; each time a new virus is mapped out, it’s considered a novel strain - that’s why the coronavirus is considered novel, because it’s a new strain. And because it’s a novel strain and there’s no known way to stop its trajectory right now - outside of the public health measures that are being advocated in order to “flatten the curve” - it’s creating a certain level of heightened anxiety and panic.

But if we come back to the Way, to the Tao, we can help arrest the growth of the virus and at the same time, not be susceptible hosts. According to the Tao Te Ching, we should never destroy that which may appear to be our enemy; instead, we must seek to achieve the harmony of opposites. This is the teaching of the Way. Within our body are trillions of microbes; when we are in proper balance, these microbes are beneficial and help maintain good health. Viruses are also microbes, but they only proliferate in the body when we are not in proper balance.

As I said above, viruses are intelligent and full of information; there is much complexity within the makeup of a virus. The best way to overcome a virus and achieve the harmony of opposites is to introduce complexity into the body, which then overwhelms the virus. That is why the treatment of human immunodeficiency virus - HIV - turned the tide when drug cocktails were introduced: instead of just one drug used to stop HIV, a multitude of drugs were used, and in the process, created much complexity within the body, thus overwhelming and neutralizing the virus.

Chinese medicine has intuitively understood this need for complexity in its long and storied history. Over hundreds and thousands of years, China has had to withstand epidemic diseases, and over time, the wisdom of the ancient Chinese doctors realized that the best approach to dealing with viral epidemics was complexity, in the form not of drug cocktails but of herbal formulas, which is a cocktail of usually four to 20 different herbs. Famous herbs used in these formulas, and still used today, include Qing Hao, or Wormwood; Huang Lian, or Coptis; Chuan Xin Lian, or Andrographis; Yin Chen Hao, or Artemisia capillaris; and Sheng di Huang, or Rehmannia root. All of these herbs are readily available today and can be used as part of a formula to help overcome any virus situation.

Most importantly, you can restore balance, create complexity in your body, and bring yourself back into alignment with the Way/Tao through diet. This is where the wisdom of macrobiotics comes into play, as the macrobiotic approach to eating has always understood the healing power and Way of food. Before a whole foods, plant-based diet was a popular conception, there was macrobiotics, pointing to the wisdom of eating a grain based, primarily plant based diet. Macrobiotics is based on the traditional Japanese approach to eating, with an emphasis on whole grains, various vegetables, and legumes, including tofu and tempeh; included in this are certain high quality, medicinal foods that nowadays some would call superfoods: foods such as miso; tamari; seaweeds; umeboshi plums and paste; mochi; tekka; root vegetables such as daikon, burdock, lotus root, jinenjo, and taro potato; seitan; pickled foods; kuzu; kanten; natto; shitake mushrooms; and others.

All these macrobiotic foods are capable of creating complexity in the body by mobilizing the trillions of microbes in your body to be activated, energized, and invigorated, which then catalyzes the microbes to immobilize microbial life that is seen as detrimental to the body, such as viruses; in addition, it makes sure the body is not capable of being a susceptible host to any sort of virus that is looking to invade the cells of your body and infect it.

While using Chinese Medicine and eating a macrobiotic diet doesn’t supplant or negate the commonsense public health advice being advocated right now to stop the spread of the coronavirus, at the same time, the Chinese Medicine/ macrobiotic approach can help protect you from the coronavirus by guiding you back to the Way, allowing you to live a more balanced life, and eliminate the opportunity for you to be a susceptible host.

As this is just a short overview of the Chinese Medicine and macrobiotic approach, I’d be happy to answer any questions. You can email me at drmichaelwayne@me.com. My website is www.drmichaelwayne.com.
 

We Need to Seek a Higher Faith Rather Than a Worldwide Fear

By Drs. J.J. and Desiree Hurtak


Much of the world media is pushing humanity into a psychology of fear rather than an understanding how we are to use our greater powers of higher consciousness to overcome negative realities. This is what a Living Faith is all about! The bottom line: Be practical and cautious, but most importantly, be daily renewed through the indwelling power of your Higher Self. In daily practice, we are to be both cautious and co-creative in the way we can share the daily bread, without caving in to a life style of fear that would diminish the opportunity to fully use our gifts of positive psychology and sociology, even in the face of danger!

HOWEVER DARK THE HORIZONS,
THIS IS THE GREATEST TIME FOR US TO USE
THE OUTPOURING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.

Those of you who have traveled to India, Africa or even parts of South America, know that 1/4 of the population in those areas live with some type of illness and are on the front lines of near-starvation, intensified by environmental changes and lack of non-renewable resources, including fresh water. Also be aware that this is only the first of the new challenges we will be facing in the coming years.

By understanding and using the limitless energies from a higher spectrum of Life, connected directly with the Shekinah Glory, the Language of Light and the Sacred Scriptures, we can be as Mother Teresa, who had no fear of going into the places of India that had leprosy, cholera and other deadly diseases.

Of course, we need to be vigilant, but instead of focusing on just the virus, see the “Corona discharge” – the paraphysical term for the ‘bio-photonic discharge of light’ energy that naturally comes off your body (according to Dr. Marcel Vogel and Dr. Richard Gerber, who had both studied The Keys of Enoch®). We are really light beings and when you let the Divine Energy flow into your body and mind, you are fused with the Holy Spirit in bringing forth a renewing power of the Divine. You are also protected. If you feel the need, call upon Michael, the Christ or any power of the Divine your directly wish to connect to — stay centered in the Light.

Let us make a commitment to be fused with ‘the Light’ that comes by the use of Prayer and the Divine Names of the Christ and the Holy Spirit (Heb.: Ruach Ha Kodesh). Indeed, let us bring comfort, hope, understanding and protection into our communities with the power of Prayer, to transform those who are living in fear and darkness.

Let us say together: Ruach Ha Kodesh Christou.
 
At this moment let us be one with the Holy Spirit, who is totally aware of all that is unfolding within and around us. Only Higher Divine Guidance can truly help each of us with the problems we have, and will be, facing with planetary changes. This is the opportunity to awaken our inner Faith and Strength. Planetary changes include viruses and other plagues, as mentioned in the Bible, which will continue to be felt, but remember, the people of Faith lived through them all.

Now is the time to activate your Living Faith that provides you insights and, ultimately, provides you with Eternal Life and the joy of using the “Gifts” from on High, rather than a life of fear of the shadows of Death. Let us be the Light, the Love and share the Power of our Faith, understanding the Power of the Divine. Psalm 51 reminds us to ask for Divine help as it says: “... Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me....”

Be as Mother Teresa and do not deny the OUTPOURING of the Power and Gifts of the Holy Spirit in your life!
Be Blessed and be Strong in the power of God’s Word speaking within you,
 
Pax Vobiscum: Peace be with you!
 

Natural Remedies for Covid 19 & Rational, Solution-Based Thinking & Results

By Mitchell J. Rabin, M.A., L.AC.


We’re all in ‘the grip” (no pun intended) of the media hysteria, it’s become embedded in the field. Unhealthy.  Some good facts come through. More fear but some facts. Beyond both:
 
What to do about the Coronavirus? THINK!!! And take a look at how the mind influences our immune system and same with Vitamin C. Let's focus not on fear and emptying stadiums but on rational thinking, science and solutions....

Below is an excerpt from Mitchell's page. See all of his suggestions here: 
http://abetterworld.tv/natural-remedies-for-coronavirus-rational-solution-based-thinking/ 

* * *
At the end of the day, a lot of our health is in our own hands. That largely means that we keep our immune system well fortified. Through lifestyle choices we make regarding attitude, emotional wellness, stress management, centering, diet, exercise, sleep, steering clear of toxic foods, water, air and environments, enjoy plenty of laughing and loving, cultural/artistic self-expression and enjoyment of others, healthy relationships, healthy sexual expression, a daily diet of love, appreciation and gratitude, dwelling on healthy thoughts, listening to beautiful music, Chi-Kung, meditation, essential oils, living with purpose and serving what is higher and larger than ourselves like all sentient life, all aggregate to strengthen our immune system and resolve, to inform our commitment to health and well-being. Laugh all you want and like the famous Norman Cousens, you may just laugh yourself to health.   

Do you think that these assertions in the face of this serious pandemic are silly? You may, but the science supports these assertions. We know factually what the experience and perception of stress does to the immune system. It is measurable and has been measured for decades. We know about adrenaline and cortisol release into the blood. We know what happens then when we are in cerebral and heart incoherence or its opposite, coherence and the effects these have on our physiology. 

We also know the effect of the perception of, experience of love, gratitude and laughter are on the immune system, cell production, I do not think that we should be relying on these alone to neutralize the effects of any illness when we also know that additionally, there are potent immune-builders as Vit. C, D and a host of many vitamins and herbs (list below in detail in an article by Richard Gale and Gary Null). Combined, we have a scientifically-based, rational solution which will also lift our spirit as well as strengthen our body. It’s time that we truly honor the entirety of science, not just those areas we may prefer. Psychoneuroimmunology is the medical specialty that has re-integrated the mind and body systems into a coherent whole. The research done here, in neuroscience and endocrinology is extraordinary and at times considered to be particularly stressful, trotted out for all to see. 

It is good to remember at times like we’re currently facing that what kept many Jews and others alive in the Concentration Camps when daily life was as horrific and bleak as it gets, was there ability to self-express at night through music, comedy, song, story and theater and connect with others.

No drug or vaccine can accomplish these. The closest would be shamanically - and recently-scientifically - sanctioned plant medicines. Regarding strengthening the immune system and mind, below are two articles which educate us about very useful choices. Good to remember that fear shuts down the immune system as well as puts it on alert through adrenaline and cortisol release. While necessary for survival in some instances while that saber-toothed tiger is tearing after you down Madison Avenue, they are also strong toxins to our system. Hope, faith, love, compassion and gratitude, the positive emotions, have been proven to build the immune system. So while not everything is up to us, it is wise and prudent to engage and use what is. 

Below is an article from GreenMedInfo describing hospital discharges in Shanghai of patients with coronavirus who healed through mega-doses of Vitamin C. Linus Pauling, who performed the ground-breaking research showing the extraordinary effects of Vit. C was the only person in history to be awarded two Nobel Prizes for his work on Vitamin C. The power of his and subsequent research has not gotten the recognition it deserves.

One can speculate about why but for those of us who have been looking at this and related subjects for decades have a pretty good idea: There isn’t much money in it and widespread public knowledge of its efficacy (and Vitamin D, etc.) would greatly dent the medical industry’s control and market share. Whatever empowers people to take care of their own health means less or no dependence on the medical industry and is downplayed, sad as this may be.
 

COLLAPSE AND REGENERATION: Walking the Line Between Denial and Despair

By Lynnaea Lumbard for NewStories, March 14, 2020


A couple of months ago, I received an email from Jenn Meilleur, our soon to be new Executive Director at NewStories. She was curious about an article she had received on Deep Adaptation or “adapting to likely collapse."

Her question galvanized an outpouring of my thoughts that have been percolating for months on Collapse and Regeneration, which has become the emergent theme of NewStories work. For years now, NewStories has utilized the Two Loops map of a world in transition. The first loop represents the rise and fall trajectory of our current civilization, based on a set of worldviews and values which emerged in the Scientific Revolution of the late 1700’s. We talk about this loop as having peaked and being in decline. 
The second loop shows the birth cycle of a new emerging civilization based on a different set of beliefs and values which offer a more integral model for our relationships to Earth and to other humans. Initially it too seems to decline before the new ideas and values systems begin to gain strength and become a new blueprint, a new possibility, a new kind of civilization for Humanity. This pattern parallels the metaphor of imaginal cells emerging in a cocoon initially being killed by the old cells before they get strong enough to coalesce into a butterfly. 

The Berkana Institute, NewStories and others started developing this map almost 20 years ago. Quickly, a new element was added to the map beyond the two loops – a bridge where it might be possible for people to cross over to the regenerative curve of the second loop without needing to fall all the way into collapse or to have been part of the early experimenter work. 

For most of its lifetime, NewStories has worked to strengthen the upward curve of the second loop and to build the bridge from one paradigm to another through story and on-the-ground community building. Our work has both emphasized support for those working in existing institutions on the first loop who are developing new approaches and those starting or continuing on the second loop. Both pieces are essential – keeping things working even as they fall apart and building the new.

Now we are rapidly becoming aware that none of us are going to be left out of the collapse of of multiple systems in which we live. Wars may be happening elsewhere, but fires, floods, hurricanes, bomb cyclones, tsunamis, crop failures, earthquakes and now pandemics are all around us. There is no way out of the experience of the collapse. We are already in it. Even those who may have bought their million-dollar apartments in underground bunkers in the desert are not going to be able to avoid the impact. No matter what your privilege, we are still all interconnected and when the food supply runs out, the grid goes down, communications stop, water runs out, and millions have a virus, we will all feel it. It’s essential that we learn how to hospice the passing of the old so it spews as little destruction and death as possible while we also midwife newly emerging patterns of compassionate caring and interconnectedness.

Nowhere is this more evident than in our current crisis of COVID-19. The collapse is screaming from the headlines. And simultaneously the regeneration is flooding my email box. Everywhere people are coming up with new ways to connect and communicate, creatively adapting to being together in new ways.

Our work over the next few months and years is to walk the line between denial and despair in ourselves and in our communities. Neither are an option. We must face the truth of the collapse that is unfolding and do our best to meet the challenges of rapid change without falling into despair. We need to feel our grief and also find our joy in celebration. I believe that holding the tensions between these opposites will eventually engender the transcendent function that will take us to a new, never before experienced consciousness. We must be brave and steadfast and take care of our ourselves and others. We each have choices to make, and the choices we make today determine tomorrow. May we continue to co-create the future we want to live in together.
 

Coronavirus Crisis: Touching, Not Touching, Not Separate

Terry Patten Interviews Thomas Hübl, March 14, 2020

I’m honored to release our new podcast conversation with the remarkable Austrian mystic, Thomas Hübl, speaking, healthy, but in mandatory quarantine in his home in Tel Aviv. We are calling the episode “Touching, Not Touching, Not Separate.”

We presenced what is in the field — a lot of confusion, and the very human fears so many people are feeling about physical disease (to themselves and to loved ones) as well as fears about financial setbacks and sustaining their lifestyles.

Among many tender observations and striking insights that emerged in this wide-ranging conversation, I want to call your attention to our conversation about “the system.”

In a previous conversation, Thomas and I discussed I observed the paradox, that even though our system is completely unsustainable, we depend on it for our well-being. So we need to help it become healthier and more coherent, even as we work to help it become more sustainable.

Thomas pointed out something crucial then about the ways people commonly relate to “the system.” Many of us commonly speak negatively or at least critically, about “the system” of human society, economy and civilization. (For good reasons. There is much that is unhealthy and needs to change.)

However, Thomas observes that we are not truly separate from the system. What do we even mean when we say “the system”? And he suggests that even though we rightly intend for it to improve and transform unsustainable habits — we first may need to learn to love the system.

I think this insight can help us practice in a more integrated way. And I find myself contemplating the organic transformation of our stance, our worldview, and our very ways of being — and how that can evolve how we relate to the fear in ourselves and in others — as well as the larger systemic turbulence, and even sometimes scary breakdowns.

Listen to the episode “Thomas Hübl on Coronavirus Crisis: Touching, Not Touching, Not Separate” now on State of Emergence on any podcast player (Apple, Google, Stitcher, Spotify, TuneIn) or at stateofemergence.org.
 

Prophecied Impact of Incurable Diseases on Global Economy and Beyond, March 1995, UN Headquarters, New York

By Chief Phil Lane, Jr.

 

Beloved Friends and Relatives,

It is my prayer that each of you and all of our Beloved Relatives of our Human Family are moving forward in the most graceful, healthy, compassionate and unified manner, possible.

In March 1995, I was invited to make a presentation to UN Secretary-General, Javier Pérez de Cuellar and the World Commission on Culture and Development at UN Headquarters, New York, NY.

My presentation, PROPHECIES, REALITIES AND GUIDING PRINCIPLES FOR THE FUTURE, included a Seven Point Summary of the Prophecied Global Challenges facing our Human Family, that I had experienced and that had been shared with me, by Indigenous elders, spiritual mentors, and teachings, over the years.

As well, I shared the Sixteen Guiding Principles for Building a Sustainable and Harmonious World, publically, for the first time. These Sixteen Guiding Principles emerged from a 12-year process of reflection, consultation and action within Indigenous communities across Turtle Island.

Since elder guided consultation began on these Guiding Principles in 1982, these Guiding Principles have been shared widely across the Americas and beyond. They are rooted in the concerns and wisdom of 1000’s of Indigenous elders, leaders, and community members, as well as, in the best thinking of many non-Indigenous scholars, researchers and human and community development practitioners.
After sharing the Summary of the Prophesied Global Challenges, I shared that:
“Not only is each one of these seven challenges monumental in themselves, but it is obvious to see that we are approaching a global catastrophe, as the crossroads at which they all meet is coming rapidly into view. It will take bold, courageous, unified and selfless action to avert such destruction; the choice to do so is ours, and that decision is ultimately a spiritual one.”

Twenty-five years have now passed and we are now clearly seeing the beginning of the global impact of these seven monumental challenges intersecting, with growing global impact. The potential global catastrophe we are now facing, as prophecied, has the potential to be immense.

At the same time, I understand that all that has, is and will happen, is far, far beyond my understanding and perspective. From my experience, only through consultation, compassion, unity, and, principle-centered, unprecedented, unified action, between all concerned, will we have the capacity to manifest Peace on Earth, as prophecied, sooner than later.

After 75 winters, I am beginning to more deeply understand my father’s counsel since I was young, “Son, there is a sacred rhythm of life, an ebb, and flow, expansion, and contraction, and times to expand and times to consolidate.”

More than ever before we, as a Human Family, need to forge together, a respectful, principle-centered Way Forward to a just and prosperous future for us. It appears we have been given a very important time of consolidation, integration, unification, and reflection, on the concrete, principle-centered actions needed to co-create the clear beginnings of Peace on Earth by 2030.

Toward the Way Forward, sister Sommer Joy Ramer, brother Jon Ramer, myself and SINE (Synergized Impact Network), would like to warmly invite you to join us on a series of ZOOM Calls and SINE Waves on Facebook, during this time of consolidation and reflection, on the concrete, principle-centered actions needed to co-create the clear beginnings of Peace on Earth by 2030.

These calls will begin with large and small groups, integrated into a consultation process on the Seven Challenges and the Way Forward.

Thank you for taking the time to read and reflect. It is deeply appreciated!
 

For Once I Have to Write About the News

By Sarah McCrum

 
There’s been a change in the way the news media is working. I’ve noticed it especially in the last 12 months.  It started to grow last year with the focus on climate change at every opportunity. It became much stronger with the bushfires in Australia and it’s become even more obvious with the coronavirus.

During 2019 we reached a point where I sensed that the reporting of climate change was beginning to make the challenges worse than they actually were. I don’t mean that the reporting was making it sound worse than the reality. That’s normal and to be expected. I mean that the level of focus and fear-mongering was manifesting and speeding up the disruption to our climate.On the principles of manifestation that I’ve studied for years, this makes sense. What we pay attention to grows. What we’re afraid of expands. And with the focus of the world’s media on the same topic every day, that’s a lot of people’s attention and a lot of fear.

When they first started reporting the bushfires it seemed to me like regular reporting at a quiet time over the holiday and new year period. But at a certain point the energy changed. We were told that “Australia is on fire”. 

However disturbing and distressing the situation for the affected communities, Australia, which is a vast country, was not on fire. But at that point, it seemed that the intensity of the reporting started to fan the flames of the fires and was literally making them worse. 

And now we have corona. I’m not an avid news follower and I try to avoid mainstream media because it’s clear to me that the choice of what constitutes news has little to do with what’s significant or meaningful. But I am absolutely shocked at what’s going on. 

As I flew to Singapore two weeks ago in a plane that was three-quarters empty, I felt that I could pick up a fever psychosomatically. The fear was tangible and I’m wondering at what point we’ll discover you can catch a virus by watching too much news.

It might sound disrespectful. I understand that a new virus spreading across the world is a scary prospect, but the energy of this situation is bizarre. The fear that has been manufactured, and the extraordinary images of people in full protective gear, gas masks etc, are creating an energy that is more potent than the virus itself. 

It would make sense to me that in a wise, mature society, the media would play a role in helping people to keep calm, focus on being healthy and protecting the vulnerable. 
There’s an interesting side to this that I keep thinking about. It started with the bushfires. There was a global response and the consciousness community got busy organising a global online meditation to bring rain. I even know an 11-year-old girl who organised a rain dance with her friends. I’m sure there were many others.  

At first it seemed as if nothing happened. A few drops of rain and the fires continued to rage. But a couple of weeks later it started to rain. And it rained and rained and rained.
Here in Queensland, we’ve had the wettest summer imaginable. In February only a handful of days were sunny and the all day downpours have continued into March. There’s been major flooding and we’re no longer hearing the story of the bushfires because they’ve stopped. 

Now, this might be a sign of the new normal – just another extreme weather event, but there are two points that stick in my mind. The first that I remember vividly is an Australian bushfire expert on television predicting that those fires were just the beginning. The long-range forecast back then was for a long, hot, dry summer. What happened?
The other thing I remember was that when the fires were at their peak I received many emails asking if my husband and I were ok. One woman said she was praying for rain to fall all the way across Australia. 

At the time it seemed odd. Most of this country is desert. It was very unlikely that it would rain everywhere. But every day now when I get up to another day of pouring rain, grey clouds and intense humidity I think of all those people who prayed for rain and wonder if there’s a connection.

As these scenarios play out, I get the feeling that we’re witnessing a wonderful phenomenon – the rising of global consciousness and the ability of an aligned crowd using subtle technologies (such as meditation and prayer) to influence world events. 

Lynne McTaggart has shown time and time again how this works, through her books, “The Field,” “ The Intention Experiment,” and “The Power of Eight” and her massive group intention experiments. For a group to come together through the power of social media, and have this effect, is very encouraging for the future.

It’s important to point out that we can never be sure of these outcomes. I am not claiming that the global meditation caused the rain. Lynne McTaggart doesn’t claim that the global experiments cause the outcomes. However, I’ve seen these apparently coincidental occurrences so often and in so many ways that I have no doubt there is something significant enough going on to merit a lot of attention. 

When I see the irrationality and craziness of the world’s media, as it increasingly focuses on a single topic and whips us into a fervour of fear, I feel that I’m witnessing the dying screams of an old way of doing things as a new way emerges into the light of day.

Can you imagine the power of well-designed group meditations and prayers for climate stability? Or powerful group meditations for cleaning pollution? Or global healing for the corona virus itself, so the drama simply quietens down and the disease is allowed to disappear as quickly as it emerged? 

Anyone who’s bored with the news would do well to spend their time learning how to meditate effectively, how to pray in a way that works and how to manifest more of what you want to experience in the world and less of what you don’t want. You may or may not be successful in your desired outcome, but you will learn so much along the way that you will be very grateful for having put time into it. 

It seems to me that our challenge now is to learn how to put out fires without causing floods, how to influence the climate without adding to instability; how to clean pollution without inciting more damage; how to heal viruses and other common diseases so we can all enjoy a better quality of life. 

Now that’s worthy of our attention and it will help to keep us healthier at the same time. 
If you want to participate in being part of the solution, please join me in a live online collective healing event on March 16/17. I will share with you a powerful way to face fear and we’ll relax together as a group to activate collective healing of the corona virus.

Join the Activation for Collective Healing.
 

2020, Vision, and "Head and Heart" Energies 

By Jarrad Hewett

 
2020 is an extraordinary year, in so many ways. We started off with a rocket-ship of energy, and the planet has been increasing in speed and frequency, ever since.  
 
This year is very much focused on vision: who are we, we have we been, and who do we wish to become.  
 
In so many ways, everything coming to a head, right now, in the world, is representative of this immense energy and the structural changes we are all collectively and individually experiencing.  
 
So, I wanted to simply share a bit about my perspective - an energetic perspective - on what the coronavirus represents.   
I was asked a question last Sunday, and I wanted to share the answer, and add a bit to it, as well as include a very strong energetic claim at the end, to help you center, whole, heal, and ground. The topic was specifically coronavirus, and how to create in a way that wasn't re-active or driven by panic. Here is my answer:
 
A lot of what's been happening in the world, is all about the head and the heart coming together - and how that looks in this space of vision... who we have been, who we are, and who we are becoming, in this moment of now, which is all there ever is.
 
There's a larger psychological lesson to this which reflects the energetic, and it's about choice and balance, about bringing the head and heart together, and from that space, utilizing facts and science and information - which requires us to trust what we've created at larger levels - And if we don't trust those, than we need to change them, or create spaces wherein we do.
 
There's a space where people would like to return to simplicity and trust (which is heart), and where we want facts to BE facts (head). We want and desire honesty, and at a wider level, there's such a fear and a "me-me, mine-mine" energy, that these manifestations are inevitable until we, as a whole, can begin to fully love everyone - and what I mean by that is not just a lip service kind of love - which we sometimes give ourselves, as well - but an actually showing and being of love.
 
Right now, we have an unprecedented opportunity to balance the head and heart. 
   
We've had Atlantis where it was all head, and we've had Lemuria, where it was all heart... and, right now, on earth, we are very much working our way through the screaming inner child who wants that toy NOW and DOES NOT want to share!  
 
This is a major balancing - or opportunity and calling forth - for that masculine, feminine, and child and for an emergence and merging or marriage of heart and head, working as one (mirrored in our pituitary and pineal glands, as well, which create how we see ourself and create our world), wherein we know, as the child, as well, we are safe and taken care of, and can therefore "see with our eyes," "hear with our ears" and accept, love, and create what we desire, based on a new dynamic of balance, inside and out.
 
In these moments, our job, is to unite as THE I AM THAT I AM, bringing all of us on board: head, heart, and our playful, joyful selves, and find the knowing, love, and leadership inside of us - which is how the return to centered, balanced, emotion, feeling, and facts all come into play... head and heart... head and heart...  
 
So, with that in mind,  here is our Intention and Claim:
I choose and know that I am One with the True Light of Creation, the Love of All, the Light of All, and I allow all wounds to be healed, all loops to be closed and transmuted, and I direct, choose, and allow that the Light of Truth be shone upon All, knowing the Truth to be Love and Joy, Ease, Empowerment, and Peace.
 
I take full responsibility for the creation of all that I AM, and I release and direct into the light of Source for healing any and all fear and limitation, as well as Genetic Templates and patterns, cords, obligations, contracts or agreements known or unknown, in all time and space, known or unknown.  
 
I DIRECT THAT I AM COMPLETE AND WHOLE IN EVERY MOMENT.  
I CHOOSE THAT I AM COMPLETE AND WHOLE IN EVERY MOMENT.  
I ALLOW THAT I AM COMPLETE AND WHOLE IN EVERY MOMENT. 
 
And I am enough!  
I AM WORTHY!  
I LOVE AND RESPECT MYSELF.
 
I recognize, claim, and affirm that I AM the creation of me. I acknowledge, affirm, claim, direct, and choose to know that I am the creation of me, and I choose to create myself with the Authority of the Divine, with Love, and Joy and Power in Divine Love, Peace, simplicity, and Pure Divine Inspiration and flow.
 
I choose to stand firm in the knowing that I AM THAT I AM and that any energy I may have been carrying, creating, or giving my power away to - including but not limited to the energies of sabotage or anger or rage or destruction or any lower vibration or energy in any shape or form is released and transmuted, and I choose a new.  
 
I choose LOVE and GNOST.
I CHOOSE KNOWING.  
 
I direct the dissolution of all bonds between any and all frequencies which may be holding me in duality, polarity, or from committing 100 percent to the creation of that which I truly desire. I know that I desire total freedom, and I direct the dissolution of all bonds between any frequencies holding limitations around freedom, love, and my ascension and creation, as well as truly knowing myself as creation and I AM THAT I AM through love and pure joy made manifest.
 
AND SO IT IS.

Trust in the Time of Global Disruption with
Sister Jenna and Kanu Kogod

Trust is the social glue that holds families, communities, organizations and countries together. When trust breaks down, fear takes over and that fear can lead to the spreading of misinformation, hoarding and even looking to guns for protection. Codes of civility break down when promises and commitments based on trust are laced with betrayal. On the other hand, when we trust each other and our social systems, we want to cooperate and because we can see our interconnectedness, we build collective trust.   

In this session, Sister Jenna, the director of the Meditation Museums and host of America Meditating Radio and Kanu Kogod, an anthropologist, organizational development consultant and master certified coach, talk about the language of trust, our social radar for trust and the spiritual qualities for cultivating collective trust.
 

The Heart's Guidance
5-Minute Meditation with Dr. Shamini Jain

Open your heart, your lungs, and your connection with Guidance with this brief meditation. Feel free to close your eyes, or enjoy the views of nature while you engage and enjoy!
 

 

 

A Breath of Fresh Air -- Is the Pandemic a Miracle?

By Derek Rydall


The pain and loss the virus is causing is tragic. The economic downturn for many will be disastrous, at least short-term. No doubt many lives have been negatively impacted by this, and will continue to be.

But there’s another, potentially miraculous, story emerging. While there will be losses, there may be many big gains as well.
Here are some to consider:

LESS POLLUTION
With a majority of flights, cars, and factories no longer running, hundreds of millions -- potentially billions -- of metric tons of carbon dioxide and other pollutions are not being released into the air, lakes, streams, and oceans.

The average number of "good quality air days" in China alone increased 21.5% in February, and is spreading around the world. Satellite photos are seeing things they’ve never seen in modern history – clear skies and images of earth.

What will be the impact on animals and the planet?

Over 1 million sea birds and 100,000 sea mammals die each year from pollution. Around 40% of the lakes in America are too polluted for fishing, aquatic life, or swimming.

With this breath of fresh air Earth is now getting, natural habitats will start to return and potentially millions of animals’ lives will be spared.

Millions of people are sickened by pollution. People in areas with high levels of air pollution have a 20% higher risk of death from lung cancer than people who live in less-polluted areas.

More than 3 million children die annually from environmental factors.

With this breath of fresh air, potentially millions of lives will be saved, spared disease, or at least live a little longer and healthier.

LESS CAR ACCIDENTS
1.35 million people typically die in car accidents every year, and many millions more are badly hurt and suffer terrible consequences.
With much fewer people on the road, potentially tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of lives will be saved and spared tremendous pain and suffering -- not to mention the economic savings from auto repair, medical bills, insurance premiums rising, and lawsuits.

LESS DEATHS BY MEDICAL ERRORS
Stay with me on this one…

Anywhere from 210,000 to 440,000 people die every year from medical errors. In fact, before the corona virus, this was considered the third-leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer.

With the coronavirus, many surgeries and normal procedures will be postponed. A lot of people who would otherwise be in hospitals, won’t be. Yes, some people will lose their lives, and medical error will still occur -- especially with overcrowded hospitals full of Covid-19 patients -- but many people who would have died, won’t.

This doesn’t diminish the lives lost, but it’s about perspective. If we’re going to look at the numbers, we have to look at all of them, not just the ones the media gives us.

LESS DEATHS BY ALL CONTAGIOUS DISEASE
Millions of people die every year from the spread of other diseases. How may of those lives won't get sick or die because of this quarantine?

LESS VIOLENT CRIMES
With college campuses, bars, schools, businesses, and streets empty, how many murders, rapes, abductions, kidnappings, sex trafficking, major drug deals, workplace accidents, and other violent crimes won’t happen?

ECONOMIC BENEFITS
While the economic downturn will certainly have a cascading effect that hurts many people and businesses in the short-term, what about all the savings or new profits that will emerge as a result?

American citizens alone spend trillions of dollars on sports, entertainment, and shopping in bricks and mortar stores.

While the lack of spending will hurt many companies, the people who work for them, and the cascading effects on the economy -- the savings from this spending will also accrue back to consumers, and eventually be put back into the economy.

For some, it will become a new normal that allows them to save more in the future – which could then be invested in ways that return even more to their lives and the economy.

Again, it’s all about the balance sheet. If we only look at losses, we aren’t addressing the real bottom line.

INNOVATION AND PROGRESS
The most successful, creative people in history are often those who take time to think, self-reflect, and access inspiration and innovative ideas. This has led to many of our biggest breakthroughs in virtually every area of life.

During our most difficult times, some of our greatest inventions or solutions have emerged – things that caused a leap forward and led to more profitable businesses, more efficiencies, and better ways of doing things.

During this quarantine, how many new insights will come forth that lead to a greater quality of life for millions – or billions? How many new businesses will be born that add billions – or trillions – into the economy and lift more people out of poverty?

HUMAN EVOLUTION AND HEALING
During this time where we have less distractions and more limitations on our movement, our focus is turning to family and friends.
While there will certainly be challenges living in close quarters with our loved ones, and some psychological issues around loneliness…
• How many more relationships will deepen and heal?
• How many more real conversations will we have that lead to lifelong healing?
• How many people will make a deeper connection to their heart and soul?
• What will all these healings and deepened connections to ourselves and each other produce in our lives, communities, businesses, and the world?

A NEW BIRTH
Yes, this is a scary and difficult time. But isn’t almost all progress hard? Hasn’t nearly every evolutionary leap we’ve made been preceded by pain and loss?

Aren’t most births messy?

In nature, many of the most important activities that lead to growth and sustainability are violent. If we could prevent these critical conditions from happening – fires, storms, and the circle of life – nature would eventually collapse…...and all of humanity with Her.

A NEW BOTTOM LINE
We have become a world that largely values profits over people and planet. Most of our focus has become on matter instead of ‘what matters.’

As the structures we’ve leaned on begin to crumble, we begin to lean on new and often deeper things. In times of crisis, we often get closer and think deeper.

We realize we have gotten lost…and begin to find our way home again.

When we lose something, especially control, we have no choice but to find our ground in a place that is more solid, a place that the world can’t touch or take away from us.

Out of these moments of chaos, a new order always emerges, with higher values and aspirations.

What matters to us changes.

These changes influence governments and businesses, forcing them to add new line items to their bottom line -- whether they like it or not.

Countries that were enemies become allies. Places of poverty become centers of industry. People of color and women get the vote. People on the outside get included.

This has always been the case.

So what new bottom line will emerge from this bottoming out?

Is this pandemic a tragedy…or a miracle?

Is it a step backwards or the beginning of forward progress?

Is it the end of the world or the evolution of it?

This isn't lights out, it's a 'time out.'

Mother Nature has sent us all to our room...to think about what we've done and how we're going to change our behavior.
So take a breath of fresh air and think about it.

Do the math yourself.
*****
Take good care of yourself and each other. Now, more than ever we need love.
Even if the doors of our homes and businesses are closed, we must always keep open the doors of our hearts.
I love and appreciate you,

#ProphetForRealProfit
 
 

Positive Updates About COVID-19

By Jack Canfield


If you’re like me, you’ve probably been spending a lot of time watching the news these days.

And some of that news is pretty scary.

But it’s not ALL scary.

I want you to realize that.

As we collectively wrap our heads around the enormity of the situation we’ll be facing for the next few weeks or months, it’s vitally important for us to remember that:

There’s a lot of good news out there, too.

Communities are coming together like never before. Neighbors are helping each other and making sure the vulnerable individuals in their midst are being well taken care of. People are sharing moments of profound gratitude and connectedness.
It’s a beautiful thing to see.

So if you find yourself being overwhelmed by all of the negative news, look for the good!

There have been many positive developments in the past week that offer hope and proof that we will survive this experience and come through it stronger than ever.

Here are just a few of the stories I’ve seen lately: … These are just some of the “good news” stories that are coming out every day.
That’s what we need to remember!

All over the country and the world, people are stepping up to meet this challenge.
We have the smartest people in the world working on this and there are amazing developments happening every day.

Together we WILL get through this and be stronger and more resilient than ever before.
To your health and prosperity,
Jack Canfield
CEO, The Canfield Training Group
 

Coronavirus as an Evolutionary Catalyst

By Anodea Judith


While panic grips the global population over the spread of the coronavirus, there is a deeper power here that is an evolutionary game-changer. I am not calloused to the tremendous suffering this is causing, but there is a great teaching to this crisis.

Systems theory tells us that a system needs disruption to evolve to the next level, that a stable system doesn’t change very much. This microscopically small virus is creating the perfect global disruption that is pushing humanity in the direction we need to go—faster than we were able to get there ourselves.
 
Here’s what I’m basing this on:
 
1. It is showing us that we are all globally connected. As the virus has rapidly spread from a single location in China to nearly every country in the world in just a few short weeks, the interconnected nature of all life on earth becomes blatantly clear. What happens in one part of the world effects us all.

2. It is combatting climate change. In the first two weeks of China’s outbreak, restricted air travel and reduced driving lowered China’s carbon footprint by 25%. In two weeks! Here’s before and after pictures of the air in Beijing.

Now that most of Europe, all of Canada, and now parts of the US are locking down, we are finally doing, and with great haste, what the planet needs us to do to avert even more severe crises from climate change in the future. This will not last of course, but it is at least proving that we can do it and survive. It is showing us how.

3. It is reorganizing how we work. The past few years have brought us a plethora of video conferencing platforms, telecommuting options, and online courses. These are all enabling at least some aspects of work life to continue, without the usual driving and flying. Even more apps are being created to meet this new demand. Much of it will probably stick, long after the virus is gone.

4. It is demonstrating the need for universal health care. While certainly not a given legislatively, the idea that anyone left untested or untreated could infect others shows us that no one can be left behind medically in the treatment of this virus. We are all in this together.

5. It’s an economic game-changer. This is a big one with several components. First, the stock market crash is taking buckets of money away from the ultra wealthy. Second, lowering interest rates lowers the burden of debt for students, first time home buyers, and more. Third, there is at least flirtation with the idea of universal basic income, as we give people paid sick leave, increase unemployment benefits, due to business shutdowns, or Mitt Romney’s recent proposal to give every American $1000, no questions asked. If lockdowns proceed for a longer period of time, as is likely, the whole economy will need to be restructured.

6. It is a forcing a much-needed spiritual retreat for nearly everyone.

As people all over the world face lockdown, we are forced to withdraw from our frenetic activity and stay home, spend time alone or with family, and reflect, maybe finish some of those books piling up on the bedside table. 

While it’s a financial hardship for countless businesses, it is also giving people a much needed sta-cation (vacation at home). It’s interesting that this has taken place during Lent, the period before Easter when Christians voluntarily make sacrifices for a spiritual deepening.

I find myself doing more yoga than at the gym, cleaning my closets, working in the garden, baking, and taking care of home projects long neglected. Wow, I’ve needed this for years!

I’ve written much about how our current times in general are the catalysts of initiation for humanity’s rite of passage from the love of power to the power of love, the coronavirus is giving us the “confinement” part of the initiation process. This is where an initiate is separated from life as usual, confined to a small space (often blindfolded or tied up) in order to drive the consciousness inward, by not allowing it go outward for a period of time.

7. It is forcing global cooperation over a common enemy and focusing the world’s attention.  Throughout history, a common enemy has always united a people, for better or worse. But this time the enemy is not another population to be killed, but a virus that cuts across race, gender, locations, and socioeconomic status (though unfortunately, as always, the less privileged are more deeply effected).

Because this effects the whole world, we’re all talking about it at the same time and must be united against it. And while this may have a shadow side of neglecting other important news, it is the main topic of the global conversation right now, and focusing attention as a global community.

8. It shows us that Nature is self-regulating. This is both encouraging and discouraging. What it basically means is that if we don’t respect Nature, She will fight back. If we use this as a teaching and change our ways, we benefit. If we don’t, the next virus will be even worse.

What about the down sides? They are many as well. People are dying, without being able to say goodbye to their loved ones. Healthcare workers are overworked and over exposed, with too little supplies for their job. Businesses are failing because they can’t afford to close down or lose clientele. Millions of people who live one paycheck away from disaster are losing wages as their jobs close down. Market shelves are empty as people binge buy food and toilet paper.

These are tragic indeed, but they are also opening people’s hearts to work together.
And many of these things will inevitably happen anyway, if we don’t disrupt climate change.
 
I’m certainly not out in the streets jumping for joy over the coronavirus. But to offset the panic and despair, it is always helpful to look at the bigger picture. This is nature’s course correction, Gaia’s self-regulation, a system-wide upheaval for a higher, more efficient and ecological reorganization.

The sooner we get on board with how the game needs to change, the less we need the suffering side of this kind of game-changer.
 



#GlobalShutdownfor30Days to Suppress the Coronavirus

By Stephen Dinan


We need an unprecedented collaboration between the people of the world to suppress the coronavirus pandemic in time. 

Rapid, unified action will be most effective in protecting lives, communities, and the global economy in the long-term.  

We therefore call for a month-long planetary pause of all non-essential work and activities, starting April 1st, to buy time, save lives, and treat those already infected, as well as rapidly scale up testing and production of medical supplies.

We ask the governments of the world to enact this shutdown and minimize financial disruptions as well as ensure adequate money, food, and care for those most at risk.   

I encourage you to focus on the beautiful ways that this collective threat is calling forth our deepest humanity, from balcony serenading in Italy to stories from Wuhan to stories of local resilience and aid. 

Crises can draw forth both the best and the worst in humanity so let’s amplify and model the best!
 
If you have skills that could help activate this campaign in a bigger way, and/or connections to high-profile people who would sign on their support, please share your specific skills and contacts via email at coronavirus@theshiftnetwork.com.

Here is Stephen's blog article again on
“Pandemic Preparation and Positive Steps to Take.”
 

Truth & Fiction Coronavirus by Gregg Braden

"We're living a new reality--a new and evolving normal that has been triggered by the world-wide pandemic of 2020. I've built this brief and concise presentation for you, to help you understand the catalyst for this global event: what it is; what it means for you and your family; why you are "wired" for times like these; and what you can expect in the weeks to come."

Disclaimer: Gregg Braden is not a doctor and is in no way providing medical advice or suggestions of any kind whatsoever. Please contact your heath care provider regarding adding any supplements or changes to your diet, exercises or life choices.
 

From Shilpa Jain


I have been thinking of the word 'chrysalis' when I've been thinking of the word 'crisis' -- the cocoon that the caterpillar builds and goes into, and then inside, it dissolves into the goo of imaginal cells, losing its original form, and has to totally re-imagine itself and re-constitute itself... then, even after all of that, it has to flap its new wings really hard to break out of the cocoon and emerge to become the beautiful butterfly it was always meant to be.

We're deep in the goo now, and it's dark and scary, and so so hard for so so many, and yet, maybe, after some time of dissolution and reimagining and reconstituting, we're going to emerge the beautiful beings we were always meant to be.
 

ServiceSpace Launches karunavirus.org

By Nipun Mehta



Coronavirus has uprooted the fabric of our lives. How does a heart of service respond to an unknown cause, how do we build resilience when we can't be physically together, and how do we amplify lotus in the mud? With the backdrop of 20 years of holding such inquiries, ServiceSpace volunteers globally have sprung to action.

As one response, we've just launched: karunavirus.org Karuna is a Sanskrit word for compassion, and the website intends to amplify the voice of our collective compassion -- by featuring news articles of everyday people choosing love over fear. Read below for a recent roundup of stories that simply renew our faith in life.

Uncertain times raise significant questions that can architect the arc of our future. Carbon emissions have dropped dramatically, but xenophobia is rising. Government surveillance is increasing, while global cooperation is going up. Shopping malls are empty, but family meals are on the rise. Awakening of compassion is pervasive, but the inequality of human suffering is evident. In a context of "social distancing", neighbors lean out of their windows to sing songs together. Borders are still present, but the boundaries of our shared humanity are getting blurry. Yes, undercurrents of fear are everywhere, but so are prayers. Jack Kornfield recently shared, "The virus isn't happening to us; it's happening for us." May we step into our highest aspirations to serve this inflection point in history.


#BrightIdea: Restaurants Staying Open By Feeding Health Workers
Novelists Ayelet Waldman and Michael Chabon took to social media to report that the Berkeley couple has vowed to buy 25 meals a week from various East Bay restaurants to feed the Emergency Room staff at Oaklands Highland Hospital for as long as this thing lasts.

To that end, ServiceSpace offers many virtual ways to engage, and we've initiated many creative experiments to serve the needs of the hour. Here's some of them:

  • Be inspired: DailyGood, KarmaTube, Awakin Calls and more continue with gusto. Subscribe.
  • Engage: join one of numerous circles, from virtual Awakins to 21-day challenges to even dance. View Virtual Circles.
  • Brainstorm: as a follow-up to our "physical distance, social solidarity" dialogue, we're hosting a global one on March 31st: what would love do? RSVP here.

In a recent interview, Terry Tempest Williams offered a courageous reflection: "A good friend of mine said, 'You are married to sorrow.' And I looked to him and I said, 'I am not married to sorrow. I just choose not to look away.' I think there is deep beauty in not averting our gaze, no matter how hard it is, no matter how heartbreaking it can be. It is about presence, bearing witness. I used to think bearing witness was a passive act, but I don't believe that anymore. When we are present, when we do not divert our gaze, something is revealed. The very marrow of life. We change. A transformation occurs. A consciousness shift."

Perhaps we're in the middle of living into that new story. Imagine Italian airforce using Pavarotti, Spanish military doing acts of service, and street police playing guitars -- to *inspire*. Corporations giving unexpected wage hikes. Canadians starting "Kindness Mongering." Six year old in Australia adorably gifting her tooth fairy money, an 8th grader in Japan making 612 masks, and college kids everywhere buying groceries for elders. Cuba sending an army in "white robes" (doctors) to help Italy. A landlord allowing tenants to stay without rent, an Irish priest's poem going viral, disabled activists producing hand sanitizer. Imagine. Sometimes a crisis mirrors our deepest impulse -- that we can always respond with compassion.

Lastly, a headline that made me smile: An aquarium closes, but penguins can now roam free. As one door closes, another surely opens up.

In service,
Nipun and the ServiceSpace Crew
Change Yourself, Change the World

 

Coronavirus Tips: Ocean Robbins on How To Stay Healthy And Safe In The Time Of COVID-19

The mainstream media tells us that there’s not much more we can do than wash our hands often and keep to ourselves. Alternative health sites tout unproven and sometimes dangerous regimens, from drinking water every 15 minutes to consuming chlorine bleach. What’s missing from the discussion is the massive body of evidence that our diet and lifestyle choices can influence how our bodies respond to illness. Here Food Revolution Network CEO Ocean Robbins shares his take on what’s going on with the COVID-19 pandemic, and most importantly, how you can best respond. Plus you’ll find useful information, tips, and resources to support your health and safety.

To get the full transcript plus extra resources, click here to read the full article: https://foodrevolution.org/blog/coronavirus-tips-how-to-stay-healthy-and-safe-in-the-time-of-covid-19/
 
 

A Message of Upliftment Through the Higher Mind

Alan Steinfeld Interviews Drs. J.J. and Desiree Hurtak

Drs. JJ. and Desiree Hurtak speak with Alan Steinfeld on spiritual strategies for dealing with the current crisis. We need to use our spiritual energies to strengthen ourselves and project that to others who can not only be helped but also to assist those who are trying to solve the issues we are facing.

New Realities makes known the unknown For the last 20 years, Alan Steinfeld has traveled the globe looking for the most important contributions to the field of consciousness.
 
 

Perspectives: Stakeholder Capitalism and COVID-19

By Rinaldo S. Brutoco


Companies have begun to slash their services in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Airlines have cut 20 percent of their flights and placed a freeze on new hiring.Hotels are more than half empty in a setback the tourism industry characterizes as worse than what accompanied the 9/11 tourist attacks. Sports arenas are shuttered; schools are closed; public gatherings are increasingly being halted.

Reductions in service workers’ hours and employee layoffs can’t be that far behind. At least that’s true if businesses follow the traditional approach to an upcoming business downturn, or to one they’re already experiencing by laying off employees.

The problem with this approach is that it results in having the people who can least afford to lose their jobs, the folks living paycheck to paycheck, be the first to lose their jobs. These include employees such as hourly food service personnel, airline staff, hotel housekeeping staff, and kitchen workers.
Because individuals in low-paying jobs spend most of their earnings on housing, food, and other necessities, their loss of employment will hasten the onset of recession and cause the economic downturn to be more severe as consumption dries up. In addition, these layoffs will cause the downturn to last longer and perhaps lead into an economic depression due to the ripple effect of reduced demand prompting other companies to cut back as consumer consumption declines, and in turn a downward spiral – in short, to create what Wall Street fears most.

Whether this downward cascade of events triggered by coronavirus happens depends on whether businesses respond in the traditional approach, or alternatively see the opportunity in this economic downturn – like never before – as the way to show that stakeholder capitalism produces a far different result.

Stakeholder capitalism means that a company is required to balance the interests of all their stakeholders, not just their shareholders. The stakeholders include employees, vendors, customers, the communities being served, and, yes, the shareholders in proper perspective.

An example for how stakeholder capitalism works happened last week at Costco. Founded in 1976, Costco became the first company ever to grow from zero to over $3 billion in sales in less than 6 years. Today, the company has over 240,000 full-and part-time employees worldwide, and serves over 100 million members in 785 locations in 12 countries, producing total sales in excess of $150 billion annually.

On March 6, 2020, Costco announced, effective immediately, that it was suspending food sampling at all of its stores nationwide over concerns with the spread of coronavirus. However, where most employers fired low paid workers in an effort to cut costs and protect the bottom-line, Costco instead announced that it wouldn’t lay off anyone! Rather, seeing its employees and the communities where they lived. Instead, it reassigned all of those employees work in its warehouse stores, implementing an unprecedented program of ongoing sterilization.

When the new policy was announced, USA Today reported that “consumers mourned the smorgasbord of free snacks on social media,” but members also praised Costco’s concern for the well-being of its members and the protection of its employees.

Surely the company’s approach will result in higher costs in the short-term by virtue of converting revenue-producing staff to non-revenue producing overhead. But reducing the burden on strained household budgets and government assistance, I’m confident Costco will more than make up the lost profit through higher sales from wildly supportive employees and customers who appreciate when a company does something so appropriate.

Beyond the personal and societal costs associated with such an alternative, Costco would have exchanged goodwill for short-term and short-sighted gains. This stakeholder capitalism approach in response to the novel coronavirus will reduce the severity of the economic downturn which will also help Costco in the long run.

And, since we began drafting this column, Uber and Lyft have announced they will provide all their “gig worker” contract drivers with up to 14 days of paid leave if they can’t work because of the virus. The billionaire owner of the Mavericks, Mark Cuban, announced this morning that he would hire the arena’s workers even though there would be no fans to clean up after. Good on you, Mark! Alphabet (the parent of Google) announced a major fund to provide paid sick leave and medical financial support for all employees and contractors. Way to go, Alphabet.

All of these steps taken together, which I call “Enlightened Self-Interest,” will reduce the severity of the coming recession and improve the lives of everyone. When you take care of all your stakeholders its actually best for the company.
 
(Published in Montecito Journal 3.19.20 edition)
 

Apocalypse or Rebirth of Civilization?

By Jackie Knechtel


Scrolling through my [Facebook] timeline it is easy to find evidence for either reality. While we can’t control our external circumstances, we can always choose a more empowering perspective.

You may have heard the saying, “Where attention goes, energy flows?” How you choose to view the events that are happening gives way to your emotional response. Choosing to see this as ‘the end of days’, will leave you riddled with panic and fear.

Try shifting your perspective, asking how everything could be happening FOR you rather than TO you and see what happens to your internal state.

What if C19 serves as a powerful evolutionary change agent and this is all part of an intelligent design?

I’m not asking you to agree with me on this, it may be hard to see the forest for the trees at this moment, but perhaps try it on and see how it feels to stand in the possibility.

From an eagle eye perspective...

We are in the Spring Equinox, the return of the light after a long period of darkness, symbolic of rebirth and renewal, a time for new beginnings.

In many spiritual traditions, the dark night of the soul is a profound portal to transformation and awakening. The way I see it, humanity is going through a massive initiation, a collective rebirth and these contractions we are experiencing are pushing us down the birth canal.

If the cataclysmic wildfires, floods, melting of the polar caps and species extinction weren’t enough for us to change our behavior, perhaps this will? With manufacturing, travel and commuting grinding to a halt, our planet now has space to breathe, blue skies are returning to polluted cities, waters are running clear and animals are returning home.

This stress test we are undergoing is helping us to become aware of and shore up the instability both at the individual and societal level. We have a massive opportunity to reinvent our healthcare, education, financial and political systems from a higher consciousness as our current ones are proving to be obsolete and deeply rooted in an old paradigm of greed, scarcity, lack, fear, power and control.

Humanity is uniting against a common nemesis that knows no party lines, borders, race or religion. In our isolation, we are being shown how interdependent and interconnected we are as a human family.

There’s an inherent danger in falling back into the lackadaisical comfort of ‘how things were’. Life as we know it will never be the same, nor should it. What got us here won’t get us where we want to go in the future. Everything is being dismantled for us to rebuild society in a way that is supportive of the whole, shifting from ME to WE, so that together we can co-create a more sustainable future living harmoniously with nature.

Gems are formed under pressure. Humans are adaptable and resilient and constraints have been shown to foster innovation and ingenuity. There’s a renaissance in creativity and consciousness emerging, if we choose it.

On the individual level, we are being forced to slow down. We get to be humans being.
In our stillness there’s an opportunity to recognize that our worth is not wrapped up in our job titles, achievements or doing, a coming home to who we really are.

We have time to reflect and reprioritize what is truly important in life. We have space to create more beauty, more art, and to love more deeply.

I’m seeing people coming together to support each other in community, showing up in service. Families are spending more time together. Kindness and compassion are contagious. Love is going viral.

It may be hard for you to focus on the wisdom and the gifts at this moment when things feel really challenging and everything seems to change from hour to hour. Particularly if loved ones are falling ill or are at risk, or when you’re losing your income, or you’re having to navigate homeschooling children. We will all be impacted by this in myriad ways. I see you, and my heart goes out to you.

Chances are you’ve been feeling fear, anxiety, stress, loneliness, confusion, despair, anger, uncertainty, worry or a whole rollercoaster of emotions. I’ve noticed my own nervous system going into overwhelm when I spend too much time on social media.

Whatever you’re feeling, know that it’s ok. Don’t add a layer of shame on top if you’re not ‘keeping it together.’ There’s no instruction manual for how to operate in a global pandemic.
Our survival brain is wired to look for danger and our trauma responses are being triggered. This is not about ignoring the difficult times we are facing, it’s about meeting them head on rather than distracting or numbing out. We’re being invited into deep healing and surrender. Learning how to be with and process difficult emotions and regulate your nervous system is key to remaining healthy and centered amidst the chaos.
 

From Ciro Gabriel Avruj


Todos estamos interrelacionados e interconectados.
Son tiempos de cuidarnos entre todos y por eso la recomendación de no salir de casa pero al mismo tiempo es nuestra oportunidad de contagiar esperanza y hacer brillar nuestra luz.
Los medios de comunicación y mucha gente permanentemente nos muestran oscuridad y es por eso que podemos convertirnos en servidores de la luz elevando nuestras vibraciones desde el lugar en que nos encontramos. El mundo se contagiará de una energía más alta y lograremos salir adelante fortalecidos.
Gracias por hacer tu aporte.

Translation
We are all interrelated and interconnected. I love you so much.
It's time to take care of us all and that's why the recommendation not to leave home. But at the same time it's our chance to infect hope and make our light shine.
The media and a lot of people permanently show us darkness and it's because of this that we can become light servers raising our vibes from the place we meet. The world will catch higher energy and we will make it forward strengthened.
Thank you for making your contribution. 
 

The Virus Can Give Your Life More Meaning

By Deepak Chopra, MD and Rudolph E. Tanzi, PhD

 

One way to respond in a crisis is to reduce its threat. The other way is to add to the threat. The coronavirus COVID-19 might be the first collective crisis that many people have faced, and it poses an uncertain future in every country that confronts it. But this doesn’t change the two choices just mentioned. Know that your individual actions will have an impact on countless other people.

No matter how the COVID-19 pandemic resolves itself—something no one can predict—you can personally choose right now to reduce its threat. If you consciously make that choice, three positive things will happen. You will feel more in control; you will be on the side of healing; and you will add to the meaning of your life.

How to be more in control:

This begins by acting responsibly, following what the experts in disease control advise. By now everyone is aware of the need to stay at home, self-quarantine if you show any symptoms, keep 6 to 10 ft. away from other people in public, don’t take long plane flights, and wash your hands frequently (the medical school routine for scrubbing up applies here: Wash your hands vigorously while singing “Happy birthday to you” twice—and don’t forget your thumbs and between your fingers). The active ingredient in effective hand sanitizers is isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol, which you can also use by itself in at least a 60% solution with water.

This is all useful advice, but it doesn’t address where being in control comes from, which is mental. Positive thinking isn’t enough. Feeling safe and secure is a state of awareness. It exists in us when we reach deeper than the everyday self. The everyday self cannot feel permanently safe. Outside forces loom too large and threatening. This is the time to take up meditation or return to it if you have lapsed. Your goal is to connect with your deeper awareness, the place where self-control and security comes from.

The superficial part of everyone gets involved in a crisis by staying glued to the news, attaching itself to worst case scenarios, and dwelling on the terrible things other people are going through. None of this behavior puts you in control. It does just the opposite by fueling fear, uncertainty, and insecurity. Looking at updates once a day is more than enough. The rest of the time, remain centered in yourself and keep doing the sensible thing.

How to be on the side of healing:

    Bad things happen to everyone. It is how you react that determines whether you come out healed or wounded. In all of us, the healing response is natural, innate, and powerful. More than the immune system is involved. Healing is a mind-body process. If you are sad, stressed, depressed, anxious, helpless, hopeless, panicky, or feel out of control, every cell in your body gets that message.

    Therefore, do everything you can to send the opposite message. We’ve already mentioned meditation, which has a strong effect in restoring mind-body balance. But you also need to be vigilant on two other fronts: sleep and stress. Good, sound sleep maintains homeostasis and prevents a cascade of imbalances that can occur in hormones, for example. Stress is a powerful trigger for hormone imbalance, among other things. It has been linked to chronic inflammation, for example, which seems to be present in acute and chronic disease.

    Besides doing all you can to sleep well and reduce immediate stresses, there is vagal breathing, which has become widely publicized in recent years. Centered on stimulating the vagus nerve, which runs from the brain to heart, lungs, intestinal tract, and elsewhere. By breathing in to a count of four, holding your breath for a short pause, and breathing out to a count of four, you tell the vagus nerve that you are in a calm, balanced state. In response, it helps maintain mindbody balance.

    You can do more to be on the side of healing by following the positive lifestyle choices you already know are good for you in terms of a healthy diet and avoiding or greatly minimizing alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. The good things you are doing contribute to boosting your immune response, or at the very least doing your best to keep it from being compromised. So far as anyone knows, the victims of COVID-19 are most likely to be immune-compromised. If you aren’t, your risks seems to be drastically lowered.

    How to give your life more meaning:

    This is the most positive thing you can get out of the COVID-19 crisis and yet the least discussed. Life becomes more meaningful when you feel you have purpose, when you give of yourself in service, when you find resources of strength and resilience inside yourself, and when you discover who you really are.

    No virus can deprive your life of meaning unless you allow it to. Conversely, a virus won’t add to the meaning of your life. Viruses have no motive except self-preservation and replication. All of us have the same instincts; they are built into our evolutionary past. But where human evolution excels is at the level of consciousness that goes beyond instinct, into the realms of empathy and self-awareness.

    The expert medical advice that now surrounds us should be heeded, of course, but it falls short when it comes to meaningful change. Will you come out of this crisis feeling stronger, more resilient, and with more purpose? We’re not talking about putting yourself more at risk of getting sick, which is foolhardy. Instead, you can be strong for others. You can be the source of nurturing and optimism when others feel afraid and insecure. You can empathize with how someone else feels and lend your support. Where there are personal barriers of class, age, race, and income, you can be the one who lowers the barrier to reach out.

    Yet ultimately the greatest meaning will not arrive until the world feels safer. Then the temptation will be to go back to the status quo, to return to normal by putting COVID-19 out of our minds. That would be a tragic loss of opportunity. During times of crisis, we naturally take time to appreciate what we have and place a greater priority on what is most important to us. The question is how to carry this on after the crisis of COVID-19 passes. The global mind must solve many problems, from climate change to over-population, refugees, and hostile nationalism. How the world deals with the COVID-19 pandemic offers a clue to how every other problem will be confronted. Your life will be more meaningful if you contribute to meaningful solutions that reach far, far beyond the rampage of this virus. Everything, including being in control and being a healer, is wrapped up in that.

    DEEPAK CHOPRA MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation, a non-profit entity for research on well-being and humanitarianism, and Chopra Global, a modern-day health company at the intersection of science and spirituality, is a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He is the author of over 89 books translated into over forty-three languages, including numerous New York Times bestsellers. Chopra is a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. His 90th book, Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential, unlocks the secrets to moving beyond our present limitations to access a field of infinite possibilities. TIME magazine has described Dr. Chopra as “one of the top 100 heroes and icons of the century.”

    Dr. Rudolph E. Tanzi is the Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Co-Director of the McCance Center for Brain Health at MGH. Dr. Tanzi has discovered numerous Alzheimer’s disease genes, including the first one, and is developing new Alzheimer’s therapies using human mini-brains pioneered in his laboratory. Dr. Tanzi has published 600 research papers, received numerous awards and was on the 2015 TIME100 Most Influential People in the World list. He has also co-authored several books, including “Decoding Darkness” and three bestsellers with Deepak Chopra: “Super Brain”, “Super Genes”, and “The Healing Self”. In his spare time, he plays keyboards with guitarist, Joe Perry of Aerosmith and other musicians.

    Reprinted from SF Gate, March 23
     

    Living with Mental Health Challenges During the Pandemic

    By Cassandra Vieten, Ph.D.

    Part 1: The Basics

    We are all working to maintain our peace of mind during this tricky time. Stay-at-home orders and a continuous stream of news and social media focused on the coronavirus pandemic is a form of stress most of us have never encountered. But for people who were already struggling with a serious mental health issue, being cooped up represents not only a loss of livelihood and connection. With diagnoses such as depression or bipolar disorder, anxiety, panic or PTSD, obsessive-compulsive disorders, substance dependence, schizophrenia or psychosis, coping with the pandemic also carries a high risk for symptoms getting worse, deterioration of mental or emotional state, or full-blown relapse. 

    Gazing into the vast expanses of unstructured time and isolation leaves people to free-range ruminate, at the mercy of their own rattling train of thought. Without those external checks and balances, or just plain distractions, an increasingly narrowed perspective can develop. The world feels further away, while fears both new and old can become louder. As recovery-oriented author Anne Lamott says, “My mind is a neighborhood I try not to go into alone.”

    At the same time, being in constant proximity to family members or roommates can be even more difficult than being alone. People performing the juggling act of mental health maintenance have learned to carefully manage the frequency and duration of interactions with others. Losing the option to take personal space can disrupt what is sometimes a delicate balance.

    Access to uninterrupted screen time increases the pressure even more. News updates and social media feeds serve up frequent “threat cues” – that is, pictures, words, facial expressions and vocal tones that convey to your conscious and unconscious mind that you are in danger. Exposing ourselves to a steady stream of these cues keeps us all in fight/flight/freeze mode, but they are even more likely to capture the attention of people who are anxious or depressed (1,2). Adding these triggers to the mental whirlwind can result in sharp increases in negative thought patterns, emotions, and behaviors towards self and others.

    People who are in recovery or remission from mental health disorders are also at risk, since they may have carefully constructed an ecosystem in their lives to keep them balanced. They may lose visits with friends, 12-step meetings or support groups, seeing a therapist, time with their spiritual community, going to the gym, being in nature, and even the security and structure of their jobs. For those in recovery, staying “sane” is often less a matter of comfort and more a matter of survival.

    So what can people facing mental health issues do, and how can friends and loved ones help?

    1. If you or someone else is a danger to themselves or others, call 911 or go to the emergency room. If you are not sure, call the toll-free National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), which is confidential and available to anyone, 24/7. Under normal circumstances suicide is the second leading cause of death in people ages 10-34. This is far and away higher than the risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from coronavirus. Do not hesitate to get help for a mental health crisis due to coronavirus risk. 

    2. If you are taking medication, be sure that you have enough and that you take it as prescribed. Request a refill well before you run out - many insurance companies have been instructed to waive requirements and limits on ordering prescriptions. Find out where you will go to pick up refills, as your usual pharmacy or clinic may be temporarily closed. If you have trouble with cost or access, talk to your prescriber or pharmacist about options available to you. 

    3. If you have a therapist, try to continue your treatment by phone or online. If you need treatment, visit SAMHSA’s National Helpline, or call  1-800-662-HELP (4357) for a local referral to low or no cost services, or text the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) crisis line 24/7 by texting NAMI to 741741. There are several online psychotherapy providers such as BetterHelp or TalkSpace, or you might try 7 Cups: a free online volunteer “listening” service that says it is the “world’s largest emotional support system.” A virtual “visit” to a therapist can feel awkward at first, but that professional perspective is often vital in spotting increased symptoms and getting new ideas that don’t come from more casual sources.

    4. Join a free support group online. A multitude of 12-step and other free community-based programs meet online – and not only for people recovering from alcohol or substance dependence, but also for people who overspend using credit, gamble too much, are quitting smoking, have a loved one who is an alcoholic or addict, grew up in alcoholic or dysfunctional families, and many more. These groups offer not only support for quitting unhealthy behaviors, but also for coping with daily life. You don’t have to be currently in crises to benefit from them.  At a time when a lot of people are at a loss for how to help others, support groups are also an unconventional way to contribute to your community. Your experience may be exactly what someone else needs to hear. 

    5. Move your body. Even a little is great. You can take a walk to the mailbox, around the block, do a few sit-ups or pushups, dance to your favorite song or playlist, move while washing dishes or folding laundry, or do a quick online gentle stretching or brief exercise routine. Even a tiny amount of movement can make a huge difference to your mental state, and when you can do more – even better. Regular exercise has been shown to be equivalent to antidepressants in treating depression, and appears to change the body’s chemistry in some of the same ways. The tricky part is doing it when you feel down. Start small, and give yourself a huge pat on the back when you do even a little.

    6. Take about an hour each day to read things that are helpful to your mental state, to talk to a therapist, sponsor, or good listener, to journal, or to use a free online guided meditation app which has specific recordings for mental health issues. Much like with exercise, if these are not part of your regular routine, you can start small with just a few minutes or a single chapter.

    7. Bring things into your life that give you happiness, meaning, gratitude and joy. These may seem superficial, but in fact they are antidotes to stress. Whether spiritual practices, inspirational movies, awe-inspiring photography, crafts, hot baths, or something as simple as getting flowers or lighting a candle – these things can help maintain your emotional balance, and prevent resorting to less healthy coping behaviors. If you feel too depressed or anxious to do any of these things, start by making a list of 20 things that might bring you moments of clarity, peace or joy, and then committing to doing just one of them. 

    I recommend doing these things even if you are not currently symptomatic. Don’t wait until you feel off-balance, or in crisis. It’s like adding to your mental health bank – and just as important as stocking up on other basics in your life. Maybe more, especially now.

    From Psychology Today

     

    How Are You Dealing with This Global Winter?

    By Peter Matthies

    Are you hunkering down, protecting yourself, disconnecting? There's always a Spring that follows the Winter. How can you prepare for the Spring with all its opportunities.

    Join Peter Matthies of the Conscious Business Institute for this hopeful 3-minute video on Facebook or for his weekly Reset Webinar Wednesdays at 9:30 Pacific Time at https://zoom.us/j/4585767516.
     

    Nobody Told Me Grief Comes in Big Waves

    By Trina Wyatt


    Nobody told me grief comes in big waves.
    Tsunamis await in the calm of bays.
    To swim in the sea you need to be brave.
    First feet, then my thighs, till up to waist wade,
    Damming the truth, my heart walled off to save.
    Nobody told me grief comes in big waves.
    Just when I think things are going okay,
    Crash! A crest pounds, I am lost in the cave.
    To swim in the sea you need to be brave.
    Caught in Hina’s grip, I kick, punch and rave,
    Viciously fighting veiled plans that I made.
    Nobody told me grief comes in big waves.
    Heaving chest, I cede, my soul I obey,
    Finally freed, I am flung to shore, frayed.
    To swim in the sea you need to be brave.
    Burnt eyes, salty throat, I silently pray,
    Dreaming to visit your unallowed grave.
    Nobody told me grief comes in big waves.
    To swim in the sea you need to be brave.
     

    Getting Rid of the Corona Virus with Thin Air

    By Lynne McTaggart


    Scientists know this and have studied it for several decades. The problem is that the general public don’t ever hear about this, and you’re certainly not going to read about it in the newspaper.

    I’m talking about negative ions and their ability, quite simply, to kill flu viruses and other bugs of all descriptions.

    In 2015, a group of scientists from the University of Linköping, the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and even the Swedish Institute for Communicable Disease Control, carried out an intriguing study.

    In this study, the team wanted to test the effect of a modified ionizer device on the infection rate of a flu virus through airborne transmission among a sample size of guinea pigs.
    In this study, the team used a 12-volt ionizing device, which generated negative ions. This gives a negative charge to any airborne particles or aerosol droplets and electrostatically attracts them to a positively charged collector plate, where they are captured.
    This machine was tested with airborne droplets of an airborne transmitted influenza A (strain Panama 99) virus infection, which easily infects guinea pigs.

    This flu and several other viruses, were attracted to the collective plate, which inactivated more than 97 per cent of the viruses. In the end, 100 percent of the guinea pigs were protected from infection (Sci Rep, 2015; 5: 11431).

    A decade earlier, a team at the University of Leeds in the UK tested the use of a negative air ionizer in an intensive care ward at St James’s Hospital in Leeds over a year to see if it could eliminate the spread of Acinetobacter bacteria, which is notoriously resistant to antibiotics and dangerous to people with compromised immune systems.

    To their astonishment, the infection rate fell to zero during the year-long trial. In fact, the results were so good that Stephen Dean, one of the consultants at St James’s said ,“The results have been fantastic – so much so that we have asked the university to leave the ionizers with us.”

    An ion forms when a molecule encounters enough energy to unleash an electron. They are also created by rainfall, air pressure, forces emitted during a waterfall and the friction from large volumes of air moving rapidly over a land mass, as during so-called ill winds, such as El Niño or Santa Anas of southern California.

    Both positive and negative ions are equivalent to a tiny pulse of static electricity, and the air that we breathe is made up of billions of these tiny charges.

    Ionizers produce negative air ions, which seek out suspended particles and give them a charge. Although the Leeds scientists don’t completely understand how the bacteria got killed, they suspect that these charged particles attract and then aggregate with the viruses and then fall out of the air, thereby disinfecting the atmosphere and stopping the transmission of infection.

    And if that’s so, the scientists would expect to find a higher percentage of Acinetobacter bacteria coalescing on surfaces, which is exactly what happened.

    Clinical microbiologist Keven Kerr, one of the other Leeds team members, remarked: “Ionizers may become a powerful weapon in the fight against hospital acquired infection. People had focused on getting doctors and nurses to wash their hands and had not looked at anything else.”

    In 2002, the company Sharp presented evidence at a conference that their air conditioners, which include a plasmacluster air purification system, had the ability to inactivate viruses, including flu, essentially through the same method.

    At the time, John Oxford, a flu expert at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, examined Sharp’s evidence and declared it sound.  He even thought that the system should be used in doctors' waiting rooms. But at the time, the plasmacluster technology was only available in Japan.

    And then in 2004, working with Director and Visiting Professor Tatsuo Suzuki PhD and Assistant Director Noritada Kobayashi PhD of the Kitasato Institute Medical Center Hospital, considered one of the world’s most prestigious viral research organizations, Sharp demonstrated that their plasmacluster technology inactivated the feline corona virus (FCoV), a member of the corona virus family. In their study 99.7 percent of the virus was rendered inactive within 40 minutes.

    Sharp claimed that their technology had proven effective against a host of pathogens, including human corona virus, SARS and flu.

    So why isn’t this equipment in every hospital across the world?

    Instead of trying to outlaw journalists trying to uncover possible treatments for this pandemic, why isn’t the standard media doing its job and looking into this further?

    You may well ask.
     

    CoSM Vernal Equinox and Healing Ceremony
    With Alex Grey and Allyson Grey

    Join artists Allyson Grey and Alex Grey live at the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors as they celebrate the vernal equinox in this unique moment in time.

    Empower your immune system the stunning opening Light Body Visualization and prayer to unite everyone for protection, recovery and wellbeing!
    www.cosm.org
     

    Minimize Suffering, Maximize Flow and Be of Greatest Service to Humanity

    By Justin Faerman


    If your goal is to minimize suffering, maximize flow and be of greatest service to humanity throughout this wild experience, here are the 5 most important things you can do:

    1. The single most impactful thing you can do is to face and heal your own fear and then help others who may be struggling with it to do the same, in that order.
    Despite what some are saying, not being swept up in the fear going around does not automatically mean you are being irresponsible or irrational by not taking things seriously.

    Quite the opposite.

    Capt. Roger Herbert, former commander of the Navy SEAL training program summed it up best when he said: "When you look at historic mistakes on the battlefield, they're almost always associated with fear and panic. So, the capacity to control these impulses is extremely important."

    The only way you can truly respond (read: not react) and assess what is the best course of action at this time is to transcend fear and do your best to act from a place of emotional neutrality and love.

    Acting from love and neutrality improves decision making exponentially and will help you to take the best possible course of action for the highest good of all whether that means self-quarantine or something else entirely.

    Acting from love and neutrality does not mean you leave prudence and rational judgement behind or that you foolishly downplay the urgency of a given situation—it simply means that you don’t unconsciously let fear run the show and instead seek to make the wisest possible choices in light of what is known.

    And beyond that, there is strong evidence emerging from the field of psychoneuroimmunology to suggest that fear weakens the immune system and love strengthens it.

    Your mind is so incredibly powerful—and the placebo effect is at work here just as much as it is at any other time.

    Choose the belief that you are strong enough to get through this, take some additional immune boosting supplements and whatever extra precautions you feel are necessary, lay low for a bit, work on shifting from fear to love (or at least neutrality) and you will be doing everything you can mentally, emotionally and physically to sail through this.
    Enough said.

    2. In moments like these, it is extremely important to remember that no matter what may be happening externally that seems to be far outside of your control, you *always* have a choice of how to react.
    If you choose to interpret what is happening as bad, you will suffer.

    If you choose to interpret what is unfolding as happening for your highest good, you will enter the realm of flow.

    And whichever path you choose, you will always find evidence to support it, so choose wisely, because reality is not neutral and will always conform to your perception of it.

    3. On the heels of the above: Tell an empowering, optimistic story about what is happening.
    It is *extremely* important to not give your power away to disempowering narratives about what may or may not happen, especially those predicting cataclysm or prolonged suffering.

    Why?

    Because as goes the belief of the individuals, so goes the belief of the collective… and as goes the belief of the collective, so goes reality.

    The chances are very low that you are going to die, but the chances are very high that you will have to live in the reality that is present during and after the #coronavirus has its moment.

    And if we all start collectively believing in the pessimistic narratives being passed off as ‘realism’ and ‘rational analysis’ of ‘highly probable’ outcomes of suffering and things getting worse before they get better, then we will create just that.

    Negative narratives create negative futures. Positive narratives create positive futures.
    Narratives are NOT controlled by the media or so-called ‘experts’. Narratives may start in these places, but we keep them alive in our individual conversations, social media posts and beliefs.

    You can opt-out of the negative realities being spun by your friends and the media by choosing to tell an empowering story about what is happening.

    Again, positive narratives don’t mean ignoring problems or imply a lack of ‘realistic thinking’.

    Quite the opposite.

    It means problems are dealt with and challenging situations are navigated while still deeply acknowledging the truth that we are powerful creators of our reality, and thus, we don’t let present problems or challenges limit the positive possibilities of our future.
    Our future is not by any means written in stone—we are co-creating it in real time with our thoughts, beliefs and actions, and we can collectively choose to make the best of whatever challenges are arising and go through this initiation looking for ways to make things better rather than lamenting and wringing our hands at the ‘possible’ doomsday scenarios being played out—while still acting prudently and responsibly with the information fed to us by experts.

    4. What you are witnessing on a meta-level is the collapse and last, dying breaths of an old system built on fear, scarcity, greed and control.
    Much wiser cultures than our own with incredibly sophisticated understandings of the cycles of time remind us that there are cyclical cosmic forces at play here that are exponentially more powerful than anything corrupt governments and corporations could ever muster that are in the process of clearing the decks of the old power structures to make way for a far more symbiotic and enlightened future that is in the birthing process as we speak.

    As such, if you want to thrive financially and otherwise in the coming weeks, months and years ahead, do not cling to old ways.

    Embrace the new paradigm that is emerging, face and heal your fears, participate in the building of a better future and you will stay in the highest possible flow in the years and decades ahead.

    I like to describe the new paradigm as a resurrection of the timeless, ancient wisdom of nature and the indigenous cultures who know how to live in deep harmony with it symbiotically integrated with the evolutionary ideas bridging the best of science, spirituality and the exponential technologies birthing at this time.

    [Further reading on this wavelength: Buckminster Fuller, Barbara Marx Hubbard, anything on Deep Ecology, Ervin Laszlo, Jude Currivan, Books and Speeches from Elders of Indigenous Cultures, Peter Diamandis, etc.]

    5. Trust the perfection of what is unfolding.
    Reality has an inherent bias towards life, symbiosis, pleasure and evolving towards greater harmony and complexity that is encoded at levels of existence and is ALWAYS at play.

    And despite how it might seem on the surface, this moment in history is no exception.
    Thus, what is happening is ultimately part of the larger process of our collective move to a higher order of functioning…

    Deep down, the soul of humanity is choosing to evolve because our current way of life on this planet is unsustainable.

    That process is underway and there is no going back…

    And while there may be some bumps on the road throughout the journey, what is coming is going to be exponentially better than where we are now.

    The only question is how long and drawn out this process of transformation will be—and that is something that is entirely up to us and is dependent on how we choose to go about this process:

    Singing, dancing, healing, dreaming and creatively building a better future in joy and possibility - or - kicking, screaming, resisting and suffering through the unavoidable transformation that is taking place.

    I know which one I am choosing.
     

    Astrological Insights

    From George H. Lewis


    Artist George H. Lewis presents a few astrological insights
    as we deal with our new reality on the ground.
    Listen Here
     

    Dear Coronavirus

    By Gino Pastori-Ng


    Dear Coronavirus,

    Thank you for saving us from ourselves. Thank you for waiting patiently and giving us every opportunity to change our course and avoid going over the edge of annihilation. Thank you for recognizing that we are at the point of no return and lack the political will to take substantial action in time to avoid catastrophe. Thank you for coming to wake us from our slumber. Without you, we would have continued marching ever faster towards our own demise, going increasingly beyond the limits of what the earth can sustain. Thank you for illustrating exactly what we are doing to the earth by creating the same symptoms in us. If we experience difficulty breathing and feel like our lungs are filling with fluid, may we realize the connection to our pollution of the atmosphere, our creation of a perpetual fire season and the rising level of the sea.

    Thank you for pressing the pause button. Even those who dream of living in harmony with the earth and equitably sharing resources have too often been engulfed in the trap of productivity and efficiency, moving at ever faster speeds and with increasingly frantic urgency. Thank you for reminding us of the absolute need for rest, for regeneration, for creating space for stillness, and cultivating the ability to listen deeply. Thank you for showing us how utterly interdependent we are. Thank you for destroying the illusion of separation and demonstrating how our bodies are constantly in a dance of giving and receiving. Thank you for awakening our creativity, our resourcefulness and our collective imagination. Thank you for showcasing the invaluable role of the artists, those who remind us of the beauty of being alive and those who have the audacity to imagine a more joyful and harmonious future.

    As you teach us, I humbly ask that you have mercy on us. Please be kind to those who have already been struggling for survival before you arrived. Please discern who is most in need of your wisdom, and protect those who are on the frontlines; the unhoused, those who have no choice but to continue working in dangerous environments, and especially the brave souls who toil so that we may continue to have access to food. Please protect the medical professionals who care for the sick and put themselves at risk every day they go to work. I even pray that you be compassionate towards those who most need to receive what you are here to deliver. To those who have been most adamant about destroying the earth and exploiting its people, may you deliver your message with clarity, but not cause more suffering than is necessary for your truth to be realized. May you open the minds and hearts that have been encased in fear and greed and liberate them to rejoin the human family.

    As you weave your way through the human genome, I commit to envisioning the world that will be birthed in your aftermath, where all life is treated as sacred. I vow to slow down enough to intuit what I am being called to create at this time. I commit to giving generously to those who are being most impacted by this unprecedented tumult. I have faith that this story will be a celebratory one, the defining moment of the great turning, which our great-grandchildren will come to know as the time when we began to remember who we truly are.
     

    Crowning

    By Llyn Cedar Roberts

    The word “corona” means crown and the corona virus is so named because the virus looks like a crown.
     
    As spiritual folks, we know that everything holds meaning.
     
    I was reminded recently of the meaning of words and it made me wonder:
     
    How may we choose to frame this experience?
     
    How may even the name of the virus, this word 'crown', hold significance for us; even be a signpost to support us as we move through precarious times?
     
    How might it help us find the intelligence that underlies what we perceive now as threat and chaos - to not only make sense of the moments and find our way through dramatic change, but also to embrace its gifts?
     
    I have birthed two babies at home. You can see in this photo of me with my children Sayre and Eben, taken last summer in the Olympic Mountains, that they are now wonderful adults!
     
    Being a mother, what naturally comes to me in reference to the word ‘crown’ is the birthing process. Crowning is when the baby’s head engages the birth canal.
     
    When a baby's head crowns, there is no turning back. Birth is inevitable.
     
    Are we in the birth canal now, undergoing the impending birthing of new ways to experience life on Planet Earth?
     
    For me, it helps to reframe things in this way.
     
    No childbirth is without pain or potential danger, which may include the death of the baby or the mother. Eben was a strapping baby boy of 10 pounds, 2 ounces. He almost died when he was born and my life was threatened, too.
     
    Birthing itself is a death journey. A release of one way of being, to another. In indigenous shamanic cultures, as in nature, death and birth are always linked. AND - there is never death without rebirth.
     
    A baby cannot hold back the dying of life in the womb, to birth into the life yet to be.
     
    It helps me to reflect upon what’s happening in the world right now in the above ways. It helps me surrender to the suffering, grief, confusion and fear that so many people experience now; acknowledging that the very rhythms of these feelings, like contractions in birthing, can guide us to deeper places of knowing and embodiment. Despite, yet not dissociated from, all that’s playing out around us.
     
    To be born is to surrender. To new life. To die is also to surrender. To new life.
     
    Embracing the threat of death, this is a time to trust. To corral our racing minds and our panicked hearts. To do our ceremonies and prayers. To spend quiet time with our own hearts, and with the Earth. To apply good energy to whatever our experience, to nature, and to whomever we can.
     
    There are many examples of how nature is flourishing as our human-created reality structures slow down. This is part of the new life already arising from the death-birth passage. For humans, we can look deeply into that nature-mirror, remembering that we are nature. Nature is clearly showing us what and how to restore.
     
    We each have to find our own way through this gauntlet. Inseparable from the loss and turmoil, the promise of new life is there to nourish. New perspectives. More whole ways to be. For that, I am grateful.
     
    I am honored to be in circle together during this powerful time of opportunity.
     
    From my heart to yours,
     
    Please learn about our projects and events to encourage a sacred and responsible relationship with the Earth and to preserve ancient wisdom ways at eomec.org.
     

    A Message From Jean Houston

    Dear Friends

    Like all of you, the epic scale of the Coronavirus threat has humbled me with its power, and is asking more than just staying at home. All my life I have been dedicated to encouraging the potential that every person carries within them. I’ve taught about our innate depths, our possibilities and purpose. Now, however, it’s time to live out the promise that we all carry to become a noble, kind and compassionate people. My hope today is that we allow this crisis to evoke the best of us.

    We can hunker down in fear, or look for the opportunity to care, each in our own way. Our kindness is a light. The more we extend it, the brighter it becomes and the more darkness we illuminate. We can give without any expectations until goodness flows from our depths, presents new possibilities, and expands our sense of purpose.
    So my dear friend, I invite you to create a new virus of caring, of a nobility of our humanity that becomes even more contagious than the one dancing in the headlines.

    This is our time. We can choose to surrender to fear or we can show the world what it means to be thoughtful, to be generous, and to be proactive in helping friends or strangers alike. Perhaps this is an initiation of sorts in which we are invited to step into a new experience of our interdependence and empathy.

    Take all the precautions that are recommended, and at the same time be bold in your love, and constant in your faith that together we will pass through this challenging time. On the other side of it, we will look back and realize that we were part of an epic time in history when caring triumphed over fear, and goodness prevailed!

    Bless you dear ones, now and always.