Written April 10th 2020
This pause from life as we knew it is a time of powerful transformation, but not for the faint of heart. These times of discomfort and uncertainty are lifting the veil off of the construction behind our images. Images of ourselves, our perceptions, our ways of being, and our reasons for doing. Images we unknowingly created through the beliefs we agreed to hold. We are seeing, more than ever in the history of our species, a diversity in beliefs, and the push and pull resulting from our clenching, disagreeing, and convincing of our beliefs. One of the commonly held beliefs is that this is a time for many to be able to ascend to a higher place of consciousness or dimension. This is a belief-based illusion of perception. We are already in a fully integrated multi-dimensional universe. It is only our thoughts that cause us to be blinded to, numb from, or amnesic to the reality that we all are already in all of it, all connected. There is no prayer, information, chant, embodiment exercise, shamanic experience, psychedelic, healing, or energy technique that will bring us to a doorway of awareness to see and know that we are already there. The only action we must take is no action. We must pause the doing and thinking and get to know the true essence of who we are under the masks we have so artfully designed and donned, though we have not been aware of doing so. Many think-believe they have been forced into living in ways they don't like, ways that are uncomfortable. All of us are experiencing an unveiling of some kind, in at least one major life dynamic. These shifts and their effects are unexpected, or take shape in unexpected forms. The unreadiness, unknown, and surprise are the potency, the magic, and the gift in these times. We are seeing New Life return in places that had been increasingly desolate, or out of balance. We are seeing our habits, routines, and patterns of thought, action, and emotion through lenses that we have not looked through before. We are becoming more conscious and aware of what we are doing and saying and wanting, and why, and how it makes us feel. We are cleaning out spaces, clearing clutter, releasing excess, and finding new satisfaction in the simplicity. We are learning to appreciate at a deep level. We are shedding old skins, though most do so reluctantly or resentfully. There is no randomness here. There is no coincidence. There is no conspiracy. This is not them versus us. This is not about weaker versus stronger. This is not about victims. This is about uncovering what we were too busy, too afraid, or too conditioned by habit not to know. We are noticing how our thoughts over time have crystallized into the beliefs we have so strongly identified ourselves with and created our experience of life and current reality. We are seeing that the state of our world is a direct manifestation reflecting our collective past beliefs, emotions, thoughts, and actions. This experience is transpiring across the globe because we, as a human species, have been exponentially asking for a shift and a desire to feel better that is so deeply seeded within our core that many have not been aware that they were asking. Many are holding their breath, in anticipation of going back to "normal." Normal was an image agreed to, designed, and constructed by our collective ego-thought mindset. The tighter we hold onto the masks, beliefs, and ways of seeing ourselves and the world, the greater we suffer, the harder we fall, the more painfully we crash. Holding onto our desire for permanency eventually shatters the dream. Life as we knew it just two months ago wore out its shelf life. It no longer exists, and we will never go back to it. Life will never return to the way it was. This is our opportunity to look at the belief-images we have identified ourselves with, the coping mechanisms and habits we have relied on, and the egoic-archetype personas, aka the masks we constructed. The fear, frustration, confusion, exhaustion, sadness, anger, guilt, judgment, or doubt we are experiencing and have ever experienced is because of our not knowing the true essence underneath our masks. All of our working, efforting, striving, goal-setting, competing, willing, pushing, achieving, worrying, strategizing, and stressing is from believing concepts about who we "should be," from thoughts we agreed to from a very young age, thoughts we continue to add to with complexity during all the years of our lives. We designed this time, though somewhat unconsciously, in our desire to create a new way of being, in a new world, in a new way. We have evolved to a higher experience of our true selves. This is a time when the veils are lifting, old perceptions are dying, and we are discovering that what we thought we wanted is not what we really want. The ways to get what we want are actually not the ways. What we have been trying to build is not what we are really here to build. The mission each of us is here to do is not what we are really here to do. The purpose for our existence is not what we have believed it was. Who we think we are is not who we really are. This pause is happening to slow us down so that we have time to transition. We have time to discover our true selves and come out of the darkness, out of the tunnel of thought-crystallized beliefs, up from self-induced suppression and dumbed and dulled states of being, away from repetitive, programmed, replicated, regurgitated ways of being. We are tired of that, bored with that, frustrated with that, and angry about that, because that way of being has exhausted our empty cups, in the same way we exhausted and depleted the aliveness of our universe. This unveiling of the illusions we have been living under, this unveiling of the masks we have put on is our gift to ourselves. It's time to let go our efforting, scattering, distracting, and suffering, to shatter our old paradigms, and to reveal the true, easy, complete, flowing, beautiful essence of beingness that we really are.
Before you ask yourself if you agree with this perception or dump it, ask yourself how the deepest part of you feels, what the soul of you knows, what the essence of you is resonating with. And then...
Before you get up in the morning, design your day, step into your routine, write your to-do list, begin your prayer or meditation, run that mile, do the next task, make that decision, say yes to that person, express that desire, fill that need, have that conversation, or create that vision....ask yourself one or more questions: Is this next choice, word, or action coming out of habit or routine, or does it feel brand new and generated from feeling into this present moment? Does this choice feel like a way of being, doing, thinking, or feeling that is part of the mask? Am I doing this for myself, or helping someone else? If it is helping someone else, is it in a way that is from my full cup, my flow, and my passion, or is it from a place of believing I need to serve, regardless of how full my cup is or how I feel? Am I saying this out of habit, from the person I have been, or am I saying this because I have taken the time first to feel the truth of the words before I say them? Is this something I thought I wanted, being in my former bubble, but now I no longer want it? Is it something I committed to, but now don't feel resonance with? Am I doing this out of guilt, desire to please someone, need to make someone happy, or urge for someone to have a better appraisal of me? Is this something I had previously thought was part of the package I needed to accomplish, but now that package has morphed or outgrown itself and I don't feel that way anymore? Does this feel like a way of being, doing, thinking, or feeling that is part of the mask? Is this idea, choice or action coming from a place that fills me with excitement and anticipation and energy? Does this feel good to me in a deep, knowing place, even if I'm afraid to step into that new place because of what people will think? Is this going to fill me or press me down? Will this enliven me? Will this inspire me? Does this take me to a place of self-discovery? Is this helping me be the true essence of myself, even if I don't know what that is yet?
This time we are living in is a gift inviting us to rebirth ourselves, to consciously disconnect from the life-long programming, conditioned habits and beliefs, and egoic constructed thoughts. This time is given to each of us to discover the stillness within us, look under and take off the masks, and be present to the Coming Alive of our newly revealed, ever-present, True Essence of Being.
"Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive. Because what this world needs is people who have come alive." ~ Howard Thurman Jan Edwards, Unmasked