My blog post on January 16th was about breathing and the meditation image in Opening the Heart: Meditations on How to Be (here). The meditations in Opening the Heart are paired; what my book designer and I call seeming dualities. The paired meditation for the one that says: "Breathe deeply. Breathe Slowly. You can breathe through anything." is this one: "Action is the counterpart to breath. Be in the world." This is the meditation image:
The question, I suppose for everyone is what action can I take, should I take. The expanded text for this meditation image in Part 2 of the book talks about taking the dreams that come to you when you are breathing deeply and bringing those dreams out into the world. (I keep forgetting to mention Parts 2 and 3 of the book - the book is much more than just the meditations images.)
It seems often that there is so much to do to help yourself, others and the world, so much that it can become paralyzing. So much that it feels useless to do small acts. But, you don't know the effect of small acts over time. I am, admittedly somewhat slowly, reading Charles Eisenstein's book, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible (here). In it he talks about changing the story of us from the Story of Separation to the Story of Interbeing. He also writes about the idea of doing what you can do, not trying to do it all, and that the actions we do take have resonance throughout the morphogenic field as theorized by Rupert Sheldrake. He says on page 180 that: "I have argued that change will come not from overcoming the powers-that-be, but through their transformation." I think that what is happening now is that many people are being called to transformation.
Taking care of yourself and those around you may be all you can do. Standing up for someone being berated or shamed may be all that you can do. Giving small amounts of money to organizations that you believe in may be all that you can do. Transforming yourself and helping those around you as well as your community to transform in some way may be what you can do. It may be all that you need to personally do.
I applaud those that sent out the email setting up an enormous conference call to discuss the next steps after the Women's March so that the momentum keeps going on the national scale. But action is also required on the personal, local and state levels if we are to accomplish the shift, The Great Turning that Joanna Macy talks about (here).
Yes, breathe deeply and slowly. Then please take whatever actions you are able to take. The Great Turning needs us all.
The question, I suppose for everyone is what action can I take, should I take. The expanded text for this meditation image in Part 2 of the book talks about taking the dreams that come to you when you are breathing deeply and bringing those dreams out into the world. (I keep forgetting to mention Parts 2 and 3 of the book - the book is much more than just the meditations images.)
It seems often that there is so much to do to help yourself, others and the world, so much that it can become paralyzing. So much that it feels useless to do small acts. But, you don't know the effect of small acts over time. I am, admittedly somewhat slowly, reading Charles Eisenstein's book, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible (here). In it he talks about changing the story of us from the Story of Separation to the Story of Interbeing. He also writes about the idea of doing what you can do, not trying to do it all, and that the actions we do take have resonance throughout the morphogenic field as theorized by Rupert Sheldrake. He says on page 180 that: "I have argued that change will come not from overcoming the powers-that-be, but through their transformation." I think that what is happening now is that many people are being called to transformation.
Taking care of yourself and those around you may be all you can do. Standing up for someone being berated or shamed may be all that you can do. Giving small amounts of money to organizations that you believe in may be all that you can do. Transforming yourself and helping those around you as well as your community to transform in some way may be what you can do. It may be all that you need to personally do.
I applaud those that sent out the email setting up an enormous conference call to discuss the next steps after the Women's March so that the momentum keeps going on the national scale. But action is also required on the personal, local and state levels if we are to accomplish the shift, The Great Turning that Joanna Macy talks about (here).
Yes, breathe deeply and slowly. Then please take whatever actions you are able to take. The Great Turning needs us all.
What a great post. Yes! We can all play our part in transforming our communities, and as we do we'll transform the world ^-^
ReplyDeleteThank you Julia. Charles Eisenstein also talks about receiving a vision rather creating a vision - and that's when you can more easily make it happen.
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