Taking Action in a Changing World—It Will Always Come Back to You

Two days after the election, I set off on a work adventure to Seattle and Portland. I am grateful that I could focus my heart and mind on consciousness raising, through seeing clients, and presenting music and workshops.

Perhaps, one of the “gifts” of my work, is that I am consistently engaged in human challenges. And, thus, these past couple weeks have been more like a heightened version of what I am already immersed in. That being said, they have still been intense.

Changing colors; Portland

Those who follow my work, know that I talk a lot about personal accountability, and how to move beyond suffering. And so, I offer these words.

As an empathic and intuitive being, in the not too distant past, if others were suffering, I felt a subconscious need to suffer, as well. Because of a deep awareness of our interconnection, I couldn’t separate myself from the suffering of others. In fact, to do so, felt disconnected and irresponsible.

Then, I learned that to do my life’s calling, I needed to address my own internal attachment to suffering (this is a work in progress, I might add!). And from that place, I am better suited to support others—including those who experience great trauma. To be clear, it is not that I no longer feel the struggle of others. It is that I make a more conscious choice of how to direct that energy.

Even in my own suffering, I felt great privilege in my life.

After all, I had loved ones experiencing war and unrest, across the world. I had clients who experienced intense abuse. It saddens me that people have trouble recognizing privilege—and, in fact, it has become a trigger word, for so many. Recognizing and acknowledging our privilege does not dishonor or diminish our own experiences.

When I look at things as my “human” self, much like other people, I can get very wrapped up in values, beliefs and policies. But when I expand my view, and see things more from my “spirit” self, I can see what I’m going to call “Consciousness Patterns,” such as fear and shame, and the behaviors that accompany them.

Those underlying Consciousness Patterns are present in many different human viewpoints. From my perspective, it is those patterns that we are seeking to heal, at the root, and until we do, we will always see manifestations of them in the world.

I consistently witness people who, to feel better about the choices they have made, dismiss the very real effects of their choices, on themselves and others.

My humble request is to, at the very least, own your choices for what they are and what effects they have (and, lest you feel blamed or absolved, I am not talking about voting here, but all choices).

If you are actually in alignment with your choices, this shouldn’t be hard. If you are not in alignment with your choices, you may find yourself defensive and uncomfortable. This is a spot where “the work” begins.

Mossy path; Portland

I believe in our collective capacity to support one another, while we address the places inside ourselves that are wounded. It takes awareness. It takes ownership.

When we release our own victim consciousness (which is another collective Consciousness Pattern), we are more able to have empathy and compassion for others, without attachment to our own suffering.

If anything is triggering you right now—about events in the world, about something a friend said, about being “called out” on something, about how people are being treated—think of it as an invitation.

A trigger is an invitation.

It may be an invitation towards going inward and addressing something wounded within your own heart, mind or spirit. It may be an invitation towards action in the world. I highly encourage both—in a cycle, over and over again!

I truly believe that for us to collectively shift, we must each take responsibility for addressing our individual wounds.

Lately, I’ve been watching people’s wounds knock into each other like “Wound Bumper Cars.”

Our collective rights are an amazing gift, but we will usually default to our individual experiences. For example, Freedom of Speech only goes so far for the person who feels completely shut down and unsafe to express due to personal experiences or trauma.

If you are feeling powerless, in any way, right now, it may be because you think your job is to affect something outside of yourself—and it may be, eventually. But, only through addressing your own place in the story, first.

When you do that, it makes you more equipped to affect something larger. To be clear, this is not about doing things in a particular order—if we each waited to address things in our greater world, until we were individually healed, we would be waiting a long time.

I see it more as a simultaneous process. In fact, through service to others, we efficiently heal many of our own traumas. It’s a yoga practice called “karma yoga.”

There is much to be done on the planet right now, as there has always been. This message addresses just one approach, albeit a pretty powerful one—personal work.

And so, I will continue to show up in my life’s work—dedicated to supporting and serving people, one person at a time, one home at a time, one workshop at a time. And I will continue to develop ways to reach more people for greater impact of these messages.

But, most importantly, I will continue to return to myself to address the places that need to be addressed. And, I invite you to do the same.

Puget Sound—between Seattle and Bainbridge Island