Many spiritual leaders believe the challenges that we are currently facing as a nation and as a world is a collective challenge. Its intent is to raise the consciousness of a large group of people all at once. From a higher consciousness perspective, being challenged is a good thing and the crisis is a natural part of evolution.
French sociologist, Emile Durkheim, first introduced the term collective consciousness in 1893. It's defined as the set of shared beliefs, ideas and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society. Just as our individual consciousness can evolve or ascend, so can the collective consciousness.
Eckhart Tolle explains that sometimes as part of this evolution, we first regress backward. Two steps forward, one step back. It is a cycle, you revert backward, so you can spring forward further. He believes that right now we have regressed, but that we are positioned to bounce forward collectively.
The choice for each of us is to see the craziness, to see the challenges that are happening now, and the other is to see from a higher perspective that what is happening now is part of the evolution. Right now, whether we realize it or not, we are standing at a big fork in the road. The question is, will we stay on the same path, or be brave and bold and venture down a new path?
We can choose to work toward the evolution or to work against it. You may be wondering, how do I choose to work toward it? There are many things that you can do to foster the growth of the collective consciousness. A global shift cannot occur until we acknowledge and own our actions and then take action in the world.
We can choose to infuse love, lots and lots of love. I believe that what our world needs more of right now is love, not more hate, anger and fear. We need to love intentionally, extravagantly and unconditionally. Infusing loving kindness into everything we do and every interaction that we have. Collective love, empathy and compassion will dissolve collective fear, anger and hate. Love is the medium of miracles. Do not underestimate the power of love, do not discount its impact. Even if you chose to not take action in other ways, spread loving kindness intentionally, extravagantly and unconditionally into the world.
As Mother Theresa said, "There are no great deeds, just small deeds done with great love". Let's each go out and do small deeds with great love. Let's expand into love instead of contract into fear. Let's hold the vision by taking a lot of little right actions in the direction of love. Love is a choice, just as fear and hate are a choice.
Gabby Bernstein states it this way, "The times we’re living in require a commitment to love. You don’t have to be a news junkie to know that division is at an all-time high. People are hurt, angry and resentful. Our work as people who walk a spiritual path is to shine a light in the darkness. When we reconnect to the power of love, we begin to vibrate at a new frequency. When you change your frequency, your family, neighbors and friends reap the benefits. One person’s energetic shift has the power to create a ripple effect across the globe. And as more and more people vibrate love, the vibrations of hate and judgment weaken."
We can choose to stop taking sides and fostering separation. This is not about us versus them. This is not about republicans versus democrats. This is not just about men versus women. This is not about blacks versus whites. This is not about blaming, deflecting or defending. This is about all of us working together. It's about understanding that we are all one. A collective higher consciousness means we stop acting as though we are separate, but instead work toward the good of the whole.
We can choose to exercise the ability to truly listen to one another. Listen without judgment. Listen with curiosity. Listen with an effort toward understanding. Listen without the goal of responding. Listen with the awareness that each of us has our own set of unique life circumstances. In this moment of stillness where you are listening you are not only aware of what that person is saying, but you can also become aware of the deeper essence in the other person that goes well beyond what they are speaking.
Author and spiritual teacher, Brother David Steindl-Rast, sums it up this way, "See everything as an opportunity. The current challenges that society faces is a huge opportunity. It is a moment in time that is calling each and everyone of us to step into this opportunity. It is a gift, a great gift. We have the opportunity to stretch even further than people have ever stretched before. An opportunity to stretch to understand each other more, to listen to each other more, to come to a common hope."
Stretch yourself into the vibration of love. Your love, your empathy and compassion, your kindness, your forgiveness, your surrender, your faith, your lack of judgment, your gratitude, your prayers, your commitment to action...that is how we'll save the world.
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After writing by blog post, I received an email from Hay House today with the following excerpt written by Wayne Dyer. I am sharing it with you below in hopes that it will be inspiring to you.
The power of an idea whose time has come is really the power of Spirit at work. Equality for all is how God is, for instance, and we seek to be like God. When enough of us, along with one or two at visionary consciousness, begin to contemplate these in-Spirit ideas, they can’t be stopped. Let’s take some time here to note a few such ideas from America’s history:
— When it was time for the unspeakably horrid practice of slavery to be abolished, that was an idea whose time had come. This was because a critical mass of individuals with a new vision for humanity began to contemplate something that had been espoused a few generations earlier: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” It took more than 85 years after Thomas Jefferson wrote these words, but then the idea couldn’t be stopped—even though slaves represented a tiny part of the population and had no voting rights. When a man with visionary consciousness, Abraham Lincoln (along with many others), approached this idea from an inspirational perspective, it was clear that the time had indeed come to end slavery. This new idea of equality for all is the way of Spirit.
— We can see also an idea whose time had come in the granting of voting rights for women in 1920. Despite the opposition of a nonvisionary President (Woodrow Wilson), and over the objection of a majority of men who had voting privileges, the idea couldn’t be stopped. Several visionary women, who aligned with many other men and women, believed and made it happen—a right that we take for granted today.
— The racial integration of the United States is another example of an idea whose time had come. When this concept began to surface in the visionary consciousness of a few individuals such as John F. Kennedy; Martin Luther King, Jr.; Lyndon Johnson; and Rosa Parks; it couldn’t be stopped—despite the objections of millions of people, many of whom were in positions of political power. Today, in schools that once practiced segregation, we have a multiracial student body. Racial integration is still in the process of manifesting everywhere in our society, and there’s much still to be done, but make no mistake about it, this idea cannot be stopped.
— Gay rights is another idea whose time has come. One of the many reasons I admire Ram Dass so much is the stand he took a long time ago on equal rights for people of all sexual orientations. No individual or group can be denied legal or social privileges because we all come from one Source, which excludes no one. An idea whose time has come is always in perfect alignment with our originating Spirit.
— Finally, the shift in consciousness from a collective belief that smoking in public places is permissible to one where it’s not tolerated was an idea whose time had come. The idea became unstoppable when one visionary airline banned smoking on their commercial flights—and then the rest fell into spiritual alignment. Since we come from a nontoxic Source of Well-Being, aligning with It is our destiny and can’t be stopped.
I could go on and on with examples of such ideas manifesting in our society, but instead I propose that we begin looking around us for evidence of ideas whose time has come. You see, when we’re ready, willing, and open to it, the Divine guidance we seek will spring into action on our behalf. It has been that way throughout our life. For example, the people we’ve had love affairs with—regardless of how long the relationships lasted—are all characters in this dream of ours called “life.” They come to us for any number of reasons, such as to help us create a child (or children), to teach us forgiveness, or to assist us in fulfilling some other destiny.
It’s difficult for our ego to grasp, but every single person who’s drifted in and out of our life is a part of our Divinely chosen life experience—that is, they are ideas whose time had come. As we move into a life of inspiration, we’ll find it easy and even necessary to give thanks for all of these individuals, and to take serious note of what they brought us at the time of their arrival and/or departure.
By the same token, when we needed to have a certain vocational experience, it was made available to us. Because we were a vibrational match to what showed up, we took it in and got out of it precisely what we needed. And when we were no longer a vibrational match to that job, those people, that city, that house, or whatever, we left.
We’re in a system that’s directed by a Supreme Intelligence, and we’re a part of that system. Everything is on purpose. Our vibrational matchup determines what we attract and what we repel in our life. We needn’t focus on what’s already happened and what we’ve gone through; rather, we must shift our vibration upward so that it harmonizes with Spirit, and then—and only then—will spiritually based ideas come knocking on our door. These ideas won’t give up or go away because, as we know, there’s nothing in this Universe more powerful than an idea whose time has come. Our responsibility is simply to become beings who expect and await inspired ideas that will not and cannot be stopped.