Wherever we look, change is happening at an ever-increasing rate. This is not new news. However, what is not as widely reported in the media, nor recognized in our mainstream culture, is that the collective consciousness, the sum total of our collective thoughts, attitudes, behaviors, perspectives, actions, and choices, is also rapidly evolving. From where you are at any particular moment looking at the current challenges facing our world on so many levels, this evolution may not seem so obvious. However, if we go back and look at the big picture of what has changed in our world over the last few decades, not to mention the last few hundred years, there is clear evidence of evolution in technology, knowledge and, yes, increased awareness. . and an expanding consciousness. This is not to say that we still do not have a long way to go. When compared to the life cycle arc, many leading thinkers in the realm of human development and consciousness studies say that we, as a Western culture, are right in the middle of our adolescence. The questions become: How do we continue our evolution forward with clear intent and awareness? How do we recognize the rapidly emerging potentials in all areas of our lives β home and family, community, business, and government β ββin order to partner with them and become stewards of their continuing and rapid evolution? What is our part, both individually and collectively, in creating sustainability for a positive evolutionary process?
Three words have been rolling around in my consciousness for some time now: untie, focus, align. I’ve talked about them at keynotes and now recognize that they perhaps represent a simple three-step formula for ongoing sustainability, regardless of the project or potential available, especially in times of rapid evolution and change.
Let’s take these three words one at a time to explore what each means as part of the formula.
Unleash
Regardless of where you are in the world, if you ask people to point to themselves, they will almost certainly point to the center of their chest, the center of their heart. We have an instinctive knowledge that the essence of who we are lives somewhere in the core of our being, not in our intellect. It’s very rare for someone to point to their head. The HeartMath Institute in Boulder Creek, CA has shown through its research that the electromagnetic field of the heart is 5,000 times greater than the electromagnetic field of the brain. In their research on heart-brain coherence, they have shown a number of physiological processes in which the brain actually takes its direction from the heart and not the other way around, as we have been conditioned to think. We access our true wisdom and insight through the heart much more than through the intellect. Then the intellect takes that information gathered through the heart and organizes it. But that is getting ahead of ourselves; we’ll get to that when we talk about “focus” in a moment.
Unleashing as the first part of the formula is about unleashing the wisdom, truth, intuition and understanding of the heart. As an individual, it is about releasing the essence of who you are, of your soul. It is about unleashing your soul mission, why you are here, your life purpose, so that you can be free to reach your highest potential, your greatest potential, the greatest gifts you came to give in this life. For a project, it’s about unlocking the greatest potential for that project, what you really want to happen through this project in service of something bigger. For organizations and governments, it is about being clear about their soul and the mission of the soul, and releasing the potential of what they want to develop for the common good through policies, laws or projects.
Unleashing means paying attention to dormant or emerging potential, asking “What do you want to happen?” and become one of his allies or managers to help him cross the bridge from idea to reality. It takes courage to really unlock potential. Once it has been unleashed, it will begin to take on a life of its own. The larger the potential, the larger the wave of energy behind it. When first released, the energy can be overwhelming. You may feel like you don’t know how to tap into this enormous energy, much less be able to control it, organize it, or know what to do with it.
This is where, whether in our personal, business, or government lives, we too often give up potential or try to contain it in some way that allows us to neatly box it up where we can feel safe, comfortable, and in control. This is where we get caught up in “fixing” something, solving a problem, or trying to make everything okay again, instead of paying attention to what is trying to happen and usher in a new reality. It’s true that everyone can breathe a sigh of relief when that happens (crisis averted, problem solved, or so it seems), but in truth we just fixed something and slowed the evolutionary process forward. We have chosen short-term comfort and convenience over transformation and evolution.
Unleashing something implies that whatever we are unleashing was being held back, trapped, subdued in some way. The word itself carries a lot of energy. As the first step in our sustainability formula, “unleash” calls us to release what wants to happen and see what happens next.
Approach
As soon as we have unleashed the potential and given it freedom to fly, the next step in the formula is to focus on that energy: pay attention to it, listen to it, follow it, see what it has to tell us about how it can be performed in the best possible way. possible for everyone. This part of the process begins with focusing our intuition, entering into a constant intuitive dialogue with potential and letting it show us the way. From there, we take the information we’ve gathered and focus our intellect in service of that potential. The intellect is the great organizer. He knows how to do things. The heart is not so good at organization and action, however, without its general awareness and intuitive guidance, the intellect will not necessarily be in touch with the great potential that is trying to emerge. Without that awareness, the intellect can get caught up in the individual steps or pieces of the puzzle and lose sight of the big picture. The intellect, by default, will often get attached to smaller waves of energy that seem more manageable, safer, less threatening or unpredictable and more comfortable, and will lose the momentum and inspiration of the big wave of energy.
So the approach is about listening, observing and responding to what the potential asks of us as each step unfolds.
To line up
The third step of our sustainability formula is to “align”. This step asks us to align our thoughts, feelings, emotions, perspectives, habits, decisions, actions, and practices with the highest potential that is emerging. Something big is trying to happen here. When we are not aligned with that great energy, chaos can reign supreme because we are “out of sync” with what is trying to happen. The quicker we focus on what the potential is asking of us and what is trying to happen and then align ourselves on every level with that emerging potential, the quicker we move from chaos to order, the quicker synergy and harmony are established. synchronicity and the smoother the ride will be in every way.
Alignment is about creating congruence, that all parts of who we are and how we think and act are congruent with emerging potential. Through this process, we live in the service of our continuous evolution forward. We serve the evolution of our collective consciousness and continue to advance humanity in its evolutionary process.
A nonlinear process
Release, Focus, Align as a formula is initially a linear process: release potential, focus intuition and intellect, and then align all energies in service of the emerging potential. However, the easier the formula is to use, the faster it will go from being a linear process to a non-linear one. With a little practice, as soon as you release the potential, you will immediately find yourself focusing and aligning. And as it becomes focused and aligned, it continues to unleash the potential even as the potential itself continues to evolve and unfold.
Release, focus, align, join to become three things happening at the same time. In full practice, untying, focusing, aligning is a simultaneous and continuous process. And precisely because it is continuous and simultaneous, it becomes a powerful model for evolutionary sustainability. Sustainability comes from growth, evolution and a constant flow of energy that feeds all the elements of the project or idea. Things stop being sustainable when there is no growth or evolution, when we try to impose limitations, conditions or restrictions on the flow of energy in an effort to control or manipulate an outcome. Because life is energy in motion and therefore constantly changing and evolving, it can only be sustainable if we live in a way that supports and serves that ongoing natural change, transformation and evolution. Liberate, Focus, Align as a model of sustainability is about serving the greater good. This formula will not work when applied to something that is in the service of a single person or a select group, organization or society. Energy and potential do not recognize the hierarchy of one group over another, one person over another. Energy and potential do not work selectively. Whether in business, government or family systems, anything that is in the service of a select few will ultimately not be sustainable. While anyone can focus and align energy in a certain direction and successfully manipulate outcomes over a period of time, in the long run only forward and positive evolution is sustainable for the greater good. We can see this when we look back at human history.
Systems of abusive power, dictatorship, and manipulative control ultimately do not survive, and there has never been a continuing mass desire for such systems. However, the longing, the call and the actions for peace among the human race have never ceased to exist. We are learning. We are evolving. When we can let go of our personal ideas of what we want it to happen What we think things should lookPrayed what we want because it would serve our particular family, country, or lifestyle better, when we can tune in at a higher level of consciousness to what wants to happen for the highest good of all, we will move forward with much more grace, ease, and flow. Will there be missteps, discouragements, disappointments? Yes. However, if we continue to unleash the potential and listen to the deeper message within the missteps, discouragements and disappointments; if we continue to focus on that higher potential and what it is asking of us as the next step and respond accordingly; If we align our thoughts, feelings, emotions, actions, habits, and decisions with that unfolding potential, we will be in service to the ever more rapid evolution of mass consciousness that is trying to happen.