By Joanna Herrera, PsyD, RPsy
Just a few days ago I found this illuminating message in an email from Spirit Rock, the Bay Area meditation center that was founded by Jack Kornfield. It was by Kaira Jewel Lingo and it said:
As I see it, in a sense our culture, our society, is dissolving. We’re entering collectively a chrysalis. Structures we’ve come to rely on and identify with are breaking down. And we don’t know what the next phase will be like. Things that we thought were not going to change are changing, and the new form isn’t clear yet.
So we’re in this cocoon as a species. There’s climate change. There’s huge change that’s coming very fast. Learning to surrender, to let go in our own lives, in the space of the unknown, is essential to our collective learning to move through this time.
We are in a time of deep evolutionary change and how we meet this moment is crucial. Mindfulness, as a fundamental orientation to reality is crucial. Mindlessness is an extremely expensive state for humans to be in, as we now experience with this pandemic. The real culprit of this global crisis is not Coronavirus. It is human mindlessness. Mindlessness of consumption, of economic habits that lead to harmful disruptions in the earth’s natural life, mindlessness of interconnection. In order to survive (and it is not an exaggeration), we simply cannot step into a next normal without committing to Mindfulness as a way of life. It is the beginning point of any real course-correction that humanity needs to make, and this involves each human life on this planet.
Living mindfully also awakens us to the truth that we are ONE. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu said, “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.” Mindlessness is a costly mistake because it gives us an illusion of separateness when in truth, you are me and I am you, we are the trees, we are the mountains, we are the animals that roam the earth and swim in the oceans, we are the ocean, we are the sky…If we dare to listen to the inner call of these pivotal times, it really is urging us to walk the earth mindfully and together in compassion. This is the evolution we could choose to step into, the new life we can birth with each other. Evolution presents us with possibility and opportunity to transform ourselves and our world into wisdom and wholeness. In the face of the restoration and renewal that is available to us, even in spite of our failings as stewards of life on this planet, we can only be GRATEFUL.
In The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership the authors (Dethmer, Chapman, and Klemp) describe a way of leading and living that takes our consciousness beyond our self-determined plans and goals into opening our vision to a more expansive question– “What is life’s highest idea of itself that wants to manifest in and through me?” It’s a beautiful question to begin a relationship with, in this time of birthing through chaos. Take a few moments to open the space for this exploration…wherever you are, allow yourself to sit with dignity, taking a few soothing breaths. Imagine yourself stepping into a spiral staircase that goes up and up into a yet unknown destination, notice how you feel and allow the feelings to be. The spiral staircase leads into a rooftop with a vista view of life manifesting itself through you—what do you see? What is life showing you about how it wants to manifest through you? You don’t have to force any insights. Simply relate to this moment with openness. Greet life with gratitude.
