Take responsibility for the self in a way that does no harm to others, in a way that is deeply personal and deeply healing. Let go of self-reproaching behaviors so that all that you do is in honor of your evolving self. Focus on your growth and fulfillment. Call upon your Higher Self to aid you in your endeavors. Intend health and inner peace. Intend calmness and kindness and a loving outlook, within and without. That is taking responsibility for the self.
Tend to all facets of self to maintain homeostasis… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
Classic stages of group development include differentiation followed by intimacy. Differentiation is also known as the storming stage, where group members vie for power and control. This would be an apt description for the disintegrative current state of the world.
As I sit writing this blog, I contemplate the recent mass shooting in Virginia Beach, located in my new home state of Virginia. Such occurrences are so commonplace in our time that by the time this blog is published, a few days from now, the attention of the world will have shifted to the next crisis. Survival in our time appears to require a numbing to the onslaught of daily crisis throughout the world.
This shooting, gun control issues aside, reflects an outbreak of a psychotic psychological virus that becomes activated, as the previous homeostasis in the world that contained these destructive energies is lost. These latent destructive energies are potentiated and invited to erupt through the fissures in our social networks.
Though these lethal outbreaks appear unrelated, they are all connected by an undercurrent of global psychosis, thinly contained by the governing world factions vying for control in this time of disintegration.
When threatened, humans turn to an array of defense mechanisms to protect the ego from the disintegrative effects of danger. These include denial and rationalization. Denial helps us maintain ego integrity by keeping the danger at bay. Rationalization protects the ego, through the supremacy of reason, from the disintegrative collective psychosis blatantly erupting by the hour throughout the globe.
We need our defenses. But we do well to allow ourselves to acknowledge the greater truth of the disintegrative times we live in, with their potential lethal side effects. Ego does well to call upon its higher Self or High SOUL for guidance in these extraordinary times. Synchronicities and dreams often provide precognitive guidance that might be useful in everyday decision making. We should not be so quick to override an ominous feeling that suggests, for instance, that we change a plan we have made.
Of course, we want to be careful to not become paranoid and overly fearful of the world. However, a bit of rational paranoia might be appropriate in these times of instability. Most significantly, we should give due consideration to all signs and messages from the unconscious that seek to get our conscious attention. Why refuse such wisdom and support from within?
Traditionally, children turn to their parents for security and stabilization in times of threat. Likewise, citizens turn to their leaders. The uniqueness of our times is that the leaders are heralding the disintegrative phase, which further thins the fissures in the social safety network.
Beyond that, the technological age has provided easily accessible social network mediums to further entice and activate destructive torrents. The preponderance and power of outside influences can easily distract one from their inner partner and personal homeostasis, which is vital in these disintegrative times.
The good news is that every individual can proceed to the intimacy stage of group development, what the world needs now, through inner psychic hygiene. Every individual has the power to seal the border of the self from outside influence and focus on bringing their inner self into balance by listening to the various factions of the inner self and creating good governance of self, within and without.
This might mean deciding, for instance, to give up coffee to calm the body and mind, or be honest with self and friend about a relationship that is not working. I make no judgment about coffee, by the way, the example simply reflects any truth an individual must face.
Surrendering our attachment to illusion is the first step toward intimacy with self. Facing this monumental challenge alone is a contribution toward the new intimacy and cohesion the world so desperately needs.
Be empowered to reconcile the warring factions of self vying for control in these times of disintegration. Reconciliation in the truth of the heart is true citizenship in these changing times. Do your duty to self and country; focus on sustainable inner balance.
Some people are afraid of the dark, others of the light… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
In our audio channeled message this week we are all challenged to face our fears and what they might be trying to tell us. Perhaps our fears are just showing us where we need to go next. Once we face them we often wonder what we were so afraid of to begin with, but until then they hold us back from truly embracing and enjoying life. Take a listen to the channeling and see where it leads. You never know!
Whether we feverishly track the news or guardedly protect ourselves from incoming data storms we are all, at our interconnected core, impacted by what is happening in the world. Though we might insulate ourselves from the plight of children separated from their parents, at a certain level the emotional energy of their fear and sadness runs through us all.
The high profile suicides we have witnessed recently speak to the existential despair of our fragile egos, subjected to a milieu of instability, uncertainty, and disintegration. As a psychotherapist my role is to acknowledge these truths and help people safely cross the tumultuous river of our time.
Recognizing that we are all interconnected means that certain currents of thought and feeling that flow through us are collective in nature; they are greater than our individual selves yet we might interpret them quite personally. Ego can forge its navigating ship by recognizing its interconnected core but at the same time not identify with or attach its individual self to its collective affiliation.
Copycat syndrome is actually ego loosing its grounded footing and identifying itself with the mood, thinking, and action of another. Ego is indeed vulnerable to dissolving its identity and merging with a collective impulse, as is well illustrated by a mob mentality. In fact, at present we are witnessing mob mentalities emerging from many corners, deeply challenging our individual egos to know thyself apart from the collective self of the group.
Turning attention to the body self is most helpful at this time. The body registers the collective emotional currents of now in stress reactions that tighten the body boundaries through clenching. Giving ourselves the message that, “it is safe to release in this moment,” accompanied by slow deeper breathing releases these inner dams of tension and better prepares ego to go with the flow.
From this more personally grounded place, ego can contribute to calming the collective angst by tapping into love energy, which radiates back into the collective river of energy at its deepest current, our interconnected oneness. Love is the glue that binds us together as a human family.
Feel and send love to the separated children. Feel and send compassion to those in control of deciding the fate of those children that they might find their way to love in their actions. Arm the self with love energy that it may hold together while weathering through the great changes and challenges of now.
Encased in love we hold together and advance regardless of outer circumstance. Love endures the pain of separation. Love issues from beyond space-time where all is one, all the time. It is our deepest challenge and greatest opportunity to find our way to this enduring connection in this time of great distraction and separation.
Through stabilizing and dis-indentifying with the violent currents of now we find our way to the deepest current of love, which contributes to the restoration of our true oneness. Find your way down to that which always flows at the depth of your being, the universal current of love, and let it radiate, period.
Maintain self-awareness. Notice when your body is trying to signal to you that it needs something, that it doesn’t want something, that it is time to pull inward and take care of the self. Get to know how your body speaks to you so that you may also know how your spirit speaks to you. Hone your self-awareness so that you may fully know yourself, body and spirit. In this manner find your balance, within and without.
-From the Soul Sisters, Jan & Jeanne
PS: Raspy voice this morning suggests that I not do an audio channeling as is my normal Monday morning routine. Next channeled “Message from Jeanne” will be next Monday!
