In the wake of a contentious election that left many of us deeply disturbed by the extreme negativity unleashed upon us, we must take pause. It is imperative that we allow ourselves time each day to be completely silent, like a satellite orbiting the earth, just observing the parade of negative thoughts and emotions as they pass through us, holding on to none. It only takes a moment of inner silence to rise to a higher consciousness. That is what our country urgently needs. And it is what this election makes alarmingly clear. Undoubtedly, our collective higher consciousness is the real change we seek.
For our country to become better we each have to become better. In reality, the issues troubling all countries can be remedied by a global shift in consciousness. It is time for the heart’s wisdom to replace the mind’s divisiveness. More of us simply need to put our focus there, and conduct our lives with a supremely higher standard. We are disturbed by others’ bigotry and hatred, yet we do little and often nothing about our own unlit tendencies. We seem unaware, as a society, that absolutely everything we do, say and think affects our consciousness. We indulge in all kinds of negative thinking and behaviors. Yet, if we really want a better country, we have to become better. If we want to live in a world imbued with peace, we have to embody peace. The more of us who are determined to raise the standard by which we live our lives, the more that consciousness will permeate and inspire others to do the same.
America is about encouraging and including all of humanity to grow, evolve and progress right along with us. At some point it can no longer be all about me, my family, my country, but about us — all of us as a humanity becoming our best together. So in these troubled times let us embrace the good that can come from it.
Here in America our government has been gridlocked. President Obama hoped and asked all of us to come forward and make our voices heard. He asked us to rise up and demand that what is right for us all be fulfilled. But we did not. Complacency and a comfortable enough life kept us silent in the face of egregious actions of our Congress. With Trump’s election that complacency has finally been lit like a fuse on dynamite. At last, we are making our voices heard. We are drawing strength from the very heart of democracy. It is the people and their voices that will have to act like the fourth branch of government — creating the checks and balances for an unbalanced government to come. In the same way that African Americans have been rallying for a stop to racism, the bewildered by this election must become a positive force for what is right.
So if there is good to be gleaned from our current situation, it is that it has lifted the veil of complacency in Americans who want to move in the direction of light. Our spiritual aspiration, our inner cry to grow into our best, is begging to be intensified. Perhaps, too, in the face of such degraded conduct we will begin to demand from each of ourselves a higher form of conduct — with respectful language, with a humble approach to our global family of diverse brothers and sisters, and with some value for purity; purity in thought, purity in dress, purity in the sacredness of our being and purity in the way we present ourselves to others.
These are the good things that can blossom from the dark ashes of these troubled times. And these same good things can unite a divided country. For deep down, beyond the crude and the vulgar, the hatred and the separatism, we all have a heart and soul that thrives on peace, delights in being inundated with illumining light and beams with joy when pure, unconditional love resonates from heart to heart, sea to sea and nation to nation.
Originally published at medium.com