Wow! It’s been a pivotal, painful, and highly transformative year so far. I’m not sure about you and what’s been happening in your life, but since COVID hit, life here on our little island (here in Turks and Caicos) has been turned upside down.
I’ve had days when I feel totally at peace and trusting the greater picture of what’s happening in our world, and then I have days when I feel like I’m losing all patience, perspective, and feel outraged. As I write this I have the lyrics to Feist’s song, “I feel it all” playing in my head… Cause that’s been the truth of so many of our lives lately — We’ve been feeling it all — The ups, the downs and all the inbetween. The full spectrum of emotion.
So here we are, it’s September, and for me this time of year has always had a new year vibe because of the new school year starting. And like with every new year, I like to sit and reflect on the year past. Yes, I know 2020 isn’t yet over, (though some people wish it were), but I think we can all agree we’ve had enough go down this year in the first 3/4 that taking a little time to reflect is warranted.
After much reflection, I’ve concluded that 2020 isn’t something we’re trying to get through, it’s something that’s transforming us.
It makes me think of Joseph Cambell’s The Hero’s Journey, where the hero always begins their journey of transformation with an unexpected inciting incident; a call to adventure that ushers them from the known world into the unknown. The call may start out as a whisper, but if ignored, grows louder and louder until it gets our attention. Hey you! Wake up! The call is never with malicious intent, but truly serves the greater good of the hero, to wake them from the slumber of their everyday life — an invitation to embark on a journey into the extraordinary and transform their lives.
Maybe COVID is our collective call to adventure.
Maybe the events that have happened in our lives are meant to catalyze growth personally and collectively. That doesn’t mean it’s easy and I’m certainly not recommending we spiritually bypass hard emotions with clichés either. But one thing that 2020 has done brilliantly so far is expose all the dark stuff that’s been hiding under the surface and bring it up into the light to be seen — with the intention to be healed.
This healing is a collective healing that’s been a long time coming and without the events and upheaval of the last several months I wonder if we would’ve just kept limping along as a species. Something needed to happen on a global scale to get our attention and wake us up.
We’re at a pivotal point in our history.
A turning point and how we choose to move forward from this moment will define us and our future. Global warming and pollution, racial injustice, gender inequality, economic disparity – things have reached a fever pitch. Something needed to happen to get our collective attention. And it did. Covid happened and it brought the world to a halt and ushered us all into a sacred pause. All that hasn’t been working, all that’s been lurking in the shadows has been exposed.
This has been happening on a collective level, but also a personal one. I know that the last several months have brought to light old patterns of behavior and outdated beliefs that have held me back in ways that I wasn’t aware of. What’s no longer in alignment with who we’re becoming, ways of being that no longer work or serve the growth and expansion of us as individuals (as well as a collective) have been brought front and centre.
One of the most important decisions you can make during this time is how you want to view the change occurring in our world.
It may appear chaotic and invoke fear and uncertainty, yes and that’s understandable. But chaos can also be viewed as a positive sign; Chaos is what we experience as we navigate between two states of being — what’s crumbling and what’s rising. As the old system built upon patriarchy, toxic capitalism and scientific materialism reaches its expiry, it makes way for a new system built upon the expansion of human consciousness, personal autonomy and equality, allowing us to create a more sustainable civilization so we can heal our planet and ourselves in order to thrive.
We can take great comfort in the chaos knowing that it ushers in the new. And this new world is born through our collective and individual healing. In fact, collective healing starts by us healing ourselves because healing inside allows you to recognize what needs healing on the outside of you.
Deep, individual healing work is what we’re being called to right now because it invokes a sort of clarity to recognize the destructive patterns and toxicity that has permeated much of our society. As you begin to see what’s been harming you internally and make efforts to change it, those changes radiate change around you. As within, so without.
The healing I’m talking about isn’t limited to the physical body, but includes the mind and the spirit as well.
I’m talking holism in its truest form.
Your personal healing will be as unique as you are but may include dietary and lifestyle changes, healing childhood trauma, identifying and changing destructive beliefs and behaviour patterns, becoming introspective and connecting with your intuition, developing a meditative practice or learning to finally forgive. No matter the manner of healing, our collective effort and transformation is where the magic happens.
If you ache for our planet the way I do, if you long to see change and healing, then I invite you to first create that change and healing within yourself. This is the collective charge of 2020.
The real change comes when we go within and do the work of inner transformation.
So I invite you to join me, with the remaining four months of 2020, to dive deep into your healing because as we do we create a tidal wave of love and healing for our world. Together let’s finish 2020 with an open heart and mind and fully surrender to the transformation that’s longing to take place.
Soon, you’ll learn all about some opportunities to go deeper into your healing coming this fall. I’m really excited about them and will be giving you all the details in the coming weeks so stay tuned.
Found this helpful? You might like these posts too:
A Powerful Pivot: How to feel calm and hopeful amid the storm
ADD A COMMENT