Global Change and Healing

Today is Earth Day. And like the rest of the planet still in the midst of a global pandemic, I’ve had a lot of thoughts and feelings buzzing around my head and heart the last few weeks. Our world has been shaken like a snow globe and we’re collectively on pause, still waiting for all the whirling bits to settle back down. The reactions to this pandemic have brought varying degrees of emotional intensity, but I think for most of us it’s been very stressful, uncomfortable and unsettling. We’re in a collective grief on a global scale unlike anything we’ve seen before to this magnitude. This has affected each one of us worldwide; we are all feeling the effects on some level and will probably continue to feel them for some time.

I’ve been pondering on grief as I’ve been processing through my own. We’ve been collectively in an energy of unhealed grief for a long time and this has brought it to the surface, a chance for us to take a good hard look so we can finally begin to process through it and heal. The planet itself has been in grief; our Mother Earth is hurting. We’ve abused her terribly with pollution and chemicals, depleting her natural resources, destroying her forests and oceans, and damaging the ecosystem’s delicate balance.

Energetically, grief is held in the heart chakra, specifically the lungs. It feels tight, heavy, and suffocating. Choking back tears for fear of not being able to stop, fighting to catch a breath, barely able to stay above water. We’re scared to allow it to come up, to open up that carefully contained box and look at the scary stuff inside. So we project it onto the world around us. We feel anxious and worried, overwhelmed and out of control, or angry and attacking, but we think we are the ones being attacked, or we point fingers, convinced it’s their fault. It’s exhausting.

I don’t believe it’s any coincidence that this coronavirus affects the lungs. It’s a manifestation of unhealed grief on a planetary scale. And if you know anything about fractals (repeating patterns in nature), what happens in the microcosm also happens in the macrocosm: “as above, so below,” or specifically, within us individually, so it is in the collective, and again so it is with Gaia, our Mother Earth.

Did you know that the lungs of the Earth are the forests? They breathe carbon dioxide and give us back clean oxygen, creating a symbiotic relationship with us, the ability to fill our lungs with life-giving breath. Over 20% of the world’s oxygen is produced in the Amazon rainforest alone. But just look at what’s been happening to the forests! The rainforests have been burning up! They’re being rapidly destroyed, cut down and set fire for nothing more than profit and greed, turning this invaluably rich and diverse land into cattle ranches and feed lots, feeding human’s increasing appetite for meat.  

Deforestation has increased nearly 30% the last two years, destroying 15-20% of the Amazon rainforest with estimates of them disappearing within the next 40-100 years. This will cause a massive ripple effect throughout the rest of the world, further increasing climate change that could have devastating consequences.   

There are so many other staggering statistics. As an herbalist and lover of all plants, animals, insects and microorganisms it’s heartbreaking to read that 50,000 species of all life are destroyed and disappear from the Amazon every year!! The Amazon is home to more than half of all living species on the planet and they are rapidly disappearing. Many indigenous cultures are being destroyed. There are very few shaman and medicine men left. When they are gone so will be lost thousands of years’ worth of knowledge, the use of medicinal native plants past down countless generations. (Source)

I could go on with more statistics, with the way the Earth has been polluted and destroyed, the oceans, land and atmosphere and so many living creatures. But Mother Earth is a mighty force to be reckoned with. She will not be destroyed; she will destroy us first, or rather we will destroy ourselves. She is resilient, adaptable and powerful, and she will reclaim the land, skies and seas. But the question is, are we as resilient as she?

This is our wake up call. This is our chance to choose again. A chance to slow down, breathe, tune in to our hearts, God and our Mother Earth, and ask some hard questions: Am I really happy with “business as usual?” Do I really want to go back to the world and life I knew before this? Or is there a better way? What are my core values? Have I been true to them? What do I want to see in the world? How can I be part of the solution, rather than part of the problem? It’s time to get a clear vision of what we want the world to look like, of what we want our lives to look like.

There has never been a time of such depression, anxiety, mental instability and suicide. We’ve never been so disconnected from the land and nature, from each other as communities and neighbors, and even our own bodies and emotions. We are constantly being manipulated by the media, by big corporations, by governments, like a lamb led to slaughter, and we buy into it. We buy into the commercialism, over-consumerism, the hamster wheel of trading time for dollars, then trading our dollars for stuff, losing sight of our values and priorities, our appreciation for the simpler things in life. Our voracious appetite for stuff we think will make us feel better, but it really doesn’t after the temporary dopamine hit wears off. Want to really feel better? It can only come from within. We can never “buy” ourselves happy. We will never find what we’re longing for when we look in all the wrong places.

I’m not saying to take a vow of poverty and live like a monk. Money is great!! You can do amazing things with it. But I will ask you to consider educating yourself, making informed decisions on where you spend your money so that it’s supporting small local businesses that need your support to survive. I’ll ask you to recycle, reuse and repurpose what you can, to be conscientious of unnecessary packaging, disposable products and waste, and to reduce your carbon footprint. I’ll ask you to spend your dollars on sustainable and earth-friendly companies, products and practices, and stop lining the pockets of the corporate monsters that exploit the poor and destroy the earth. Greed and corruption only get into power because we put them there with what we spend our money on.

An even more important aspect of healing the planet is healing ourselves. There’s a collective consciousness that contributes to large scale events by way of the overall sum of energy frequencies we’re all emitting. Through our own healing we raise our vibration to higher frequencies that tip the scales in the collective so that others around us are able to heal, causing a positive ripple effect out into the world.

In the book Power vs. Force, author Dr. David Hawkins, famous psychologist and leading expert on consciousness and spirituality, talks of a Scale of Consciousness that ranges from 0 to 1000. The lower levels of consciousness at the bottom of the scale start with shame, moving up to guilt, hate, grief, fear, desire, anger and pride. Grief is at level 75.

Courage is at the level of 200, which is the tipping point from negative frequencies to positive. It moves up the scale from there to willingness, acceptance, love, joy and peace. So healing starts with courage and a willingness to do your inner work, a willingness to question your beliefs, attitudes and behaviors, a willingness to own your shit and take responsibility for your life. From there you move up to acceptance and love, and only then can you move into living in a state of true peace and joy.

I’ve enjoyed my time in quarantine. I’ve appreciated the opportunity to slow down, take a breath and reevaluate my priorities. I’ve done a lot of inner reflection and processing through emotions, and have gotten projects done that have been too long neglected. I’m filled with gratitude, and I’m excited to see how this crisis will be turned into a blessing, to see how the world will evolve because of it. I know there’s a better way and I’m committed to evolving. I’m committed to being a part of the solution, to being the change I wish to see in the world, and I hope you are too.