Finally, at the starting line

Finally, at the starting line

Finally, we’re ready to launch A Whole New World. It’s been a long journey and, after three and a half years focused work, here we are at the starting line. Anyone who’s been involved in developing a similar project, transitioning from the old values to the new, will know how long it takes to bring a vision into manifestation and how much it’s a process of experimentation and feeling ones way step by intuitive step into the unknown.

But here we are: we have our website ready, our first series of six conscious e-books, three full-length soulful books and an exciting pilot programme poised to be a catalyst for developing Soul Cells or small local learning communities, linked up nationally and globally.

I’ve become very interested in grass roots community empowerment and how people change the world from the inside out, with shifts of consciousness happening alongside inspired action and heaps of experiential learning. Through the process of writing, Living your Passion: How love-in-action is seeding a Whole New World, I realized the innovative people I was interviewing in New Zealand represent the new emerging global culture of peace and unity. I became convinced that providing inspiring role models and linking up all the little lights into one big light, is an important part of my mission and Woods Elliott and other soul friends, were right alongside me encouraging me on.

For those of you who are interested in how life themes and passions develop into soul work, or our life’s mission, on the About Us page of the website, Woods and I have identified some of the life threads that have woven into the fabric of A Whole New World: www.awholenewworld.net/aboutus.htm In the free sampler, 8=1, HOW THE PILLARS OF TRANSFORMATION CREATE UNITY IN A WHOLE NEW WORLD, I identify more than thirty conscious decisions and actions that contribute to living a life with passion, purpose and meaning.

Here are some of them:
Open new dimensions of being.
It’s always difficult to know where and when a story starts but one starting place for me was in 1983 when I left a full time job in adult education to give myself time to write. I had fallen in love with poetry and was working on a long poem which was coming from very deep inside me. I was experiencing tension between the educational work I loved and the intense excitement of discovering the inner life for the first time. A whole new dimension of my being had opened up and it was very compelling. Later I came to understand this as the emergence of the spiritual dimension within me but at the time I didn’t have this understanding and writing poetry was the only way I was able to access and express these new experiences and contain the intense energy of this spiritual opening.

Leap into the unknown
Although I left my job in order to write, it didn’t turn out as I’d expected. I soon realized I needed to eat and keep a roof over my head and poetry couldn’t support me in that way. So I started working freelance as a personal and professional development trainer and went on to create my own business, which included being paid to write training materials in group leadership. When I took the leap from the security of the monthly pay check, I had to learn how to steer my own course according to my own creative rhythms and support myself financially at the same time. I had a lot to learn! It’s been a challenging, evolving process ever since and I love the freedom of it.

Follow your creative process
In 1992, I took a second leap when I made the conscious decision to follow my creative process wherever it led me. Despite everything I had achieved I felt empty, so I left my business, my psychotherapy practice, and my home and set off first to the North West Highlands of Scotland, and then to New Zealand on a soul journey adventure which has lasted for fourteen years and is ongoing. I soon realized following my passion, or my creative process, means allowing my unique path to unfold and being willing to go with it, even when it seems totally irrational or doesn’t make any sense in terms of material security. This has led to much learning and strengthening of my spirit as I’ve had to face the challenges of living such an uncompromising life. Over the years as my purpose here on earth has become more and more clear to me, I have found I am unwilling and unable to compromise this purpose; life seems far too short and the urge to evolve is compelling.

Find a consciousness practice to support you
The inspirational phase of the creative process calls us to flow with it, either as an inner journey from the safety of home, or as a physical life adventure. This can feel risky at times, whether the risk is leaving physical comfort behind, or dropping a belief system and entering the unknown. I’ve had to learn how to support myself through the fear and resistances which are a normal part of creative unfolding. Adopting various forms of consciousness practice such as meditation and journal writing has been an essential support for this.

Fall in love with your destiny and embrace it wholeheartedly.
When I left Scotland I intended to stay in New Zealand for four months, then return to join a new business but I fell in love with the beauty of the South Island, with the people, and with the way of life, and stayed for twelve years. New Zealand is a natural soul sanctuary and during my time there my spiritual journey deepened. After some adventures, including a Peace Walk around the South Island, and an experience of living in intentional community, I settled in Nelson and took a job teaching counselling theory and practice. This was perfect for me at the time; it enabled me to consolidate my psychotherapeutic experience, extend my teaching skills and make a contribution to the community. It supported me to get residency in New Zealand as well. Later on a friend came along and helped me to buy a house, so I became quite settled for a few years.

To find out more,if you haven’t downloaded your free sampler yet go to: http://www.awholenewworld.net/books.htm and you will find a download box under Living your Passion.

Conscious Eating 2

It was all over the Times that we should “Give up eating meat to save the planet”. Who knows maybe in twenty years it will be as socially unacceptable to eat meat as it is now to smoke cigarettes.

A few years ago I followed a “blood type” diet for a while. (see www.dadamo.com). I’m an A: a natural vegetarian and prefer to graze on fruit and nuts; meat feels heavy and hard to digest to me. For others, I know it is different. A few years ago I was running a soul retreat in an out of the way beauty spot and we had neglected to tell people we would be having a very simple vegetarian diet. After two days one of the men was desperate and drove a 50 mile round trip on unmade roads to forage for meat, he felt starved without it. So I acknowledge there are some people whose bodies need meat more than others.

But before I go further into meat production and the real cost of eating meat I’m going to report a little of my shopping adventures following my awareness being raised about the parlous state of fish. Right now, I’m staying with my father, the nearest shops are a mile and a half away and neither of us has a car. This makes sourcing local food difficult and the easiest way to shop is a once a week visit to the supermarket via community transport. Recently I visited a couple of small towns in the north of England and I noticed how refreshing it was to find small local food shops in the main street. It’s so unusual these days. Shopping in most towns in the UK or North America you’d think people really do live on air or the occasional vitamin pill. There’s no food in sight. The supermarket is convenient if you have a car.

So I decided to look at the fish and see where and how they had been caught before purchasing. I fancied a kipper. If they had been caught on line I would have bought a couple of kippers because at least line fishing seems to give the fish a chance. But it said: line fishing, seine fishing and trawling. Did trawling mean deep sea trawling, the kind where they destroy the sea bed? I didn’t know so I gave up on the kipper and went to look at the meat for my carnivorous father. I can’t bring myself to cook beef or pork, these big animals seem so close to us it’s almost like cannibalism, so I chose some lamb shanks to make a nice warming lamb stew. After all, I reasoned, sheep don’t generate as much methane as cows do they? Wrong. Here’s some facts, hot and steamy from the Times:

With the highest carbon footprint of all UK foods, lamb creates 17kg of Co2 for every kilo of product as compared to potatoes which creates 450gms of CO2 per 1 kilo. Flatulent farm animals create 14% of global emissions of methane.
The biggest meat eaters in the world – you’re right, the Americans, consume on average 123 kg of meat a year, as compared to Indians who eat an average of 3kg, or Japanese who tend to use meat as a flavor enhancer treat and eat only, 40kg a year average.

67% of the world’s agricultural land is given over to raising livestock. Direct emissions of methane from cows and pigs is a significant source of greenhouse gas. Methane is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas.
Meat production is also responsible for the destruction of forest land for cattle raising and for animal feeds such as soy. It takes 7lbs of grain to produce 1kg of beef.

A typical UK diet including animal products providing 38%of calories requires 0.195 hectares of land and 535,000 litres of water. A vegan diet requires 0.065 hectares and 140,000 litres of water.

So what to do?

Becoming more conscious about the way we eat does require more effort. Fast foods and convenience foods are not called that for nothing. Barbara Kingsolver in a wonderful book called, “Animal, vegetable, miracle”, about how she and her family learned to eat consciously tells how big agri-business turns convenience foods into profit with obesity a by-product:
“...70% of all our Midwestern agricultural land shifted gradually into single crop or soybean farms, each one of them now, on average, the size of Manhattan. Owing to synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, genetic modification, and a conversion of farming from a naturally based to a highly mechanized production system, us farmers now produce 3900 calories per us citizen today. That is twice what we need and 700 calories a day more than we grew in 1980......Most of those calories enter our mouths in forms hardly recognizable as corn and soybeans... if every product containing corn or soybeans were removed from your grocery store, it would look more like a hardware store...”

The more I delve into the machinations of the food industry, the more it starts to make a lot of sense to:

Eat less meat and animal products.
Buy local and in season.
Cut down on air freighted food and packaging.

I’d love to hear about your experiences with conscious eating. Please leave a message on the blog.
Rose

Conscious Eating

I watched a film last night called “The End of the Line” about the so-called fishing industry. Industry is much too noble a term for the mass slaughter that is happening in our seas.

I actually watched half the movie and at the end of the first hour I turned it off and went to bed, partly because I was tired but also to escape from the unrelenting distress of watching wild creatures such as the magnificent bluefin tuna being brutally predated and massacred to the point of near extinction. Grieving as I am now I wish I had been brave enough to watch the whole movie. I’d rather know the horrible truth, at least then I can make conscious choices.

I awoke early this morning with a mixture of emotions. Grief is the over-riding feeling but I also feel shame. I am ashamed to be part of a species that can behave with such unlimited cruelty motivated only by greed, and I am ashamed at my own unconsciousness in relation to the food I take into my body and make part of me. When people ask me if I am a vegetarian I say, “more or less, I eat a little fish and chicken”, Now I realize that’s like saying I’m more or less conscious. It won’t do any more. I need to know where every item of food I buy and eat has come from and who and what has been exploited by bringing this food to my table. For of course it is not only the animals that suffer. The hi-tech fishing fleets in which the fish literally don’t have a chance and are scooped up by the ton and thrown dead overboard if they are not the “right” ones, also destroy the livelihoods of the traditional fishermen such as those in western Africa, whose communities depend on the fish for survival. This is another story of the multi-national corporations such as Mitsubishi destroying both the eco-system and indigenous culture for the sake of their own fat profits.

If the fishing continues in this way they say the seas will be dead within thirty years. After seeing what I saw last night I think that is a conservative estimate and it will be sooner.

What does it mean the seas will be dead?

I feel sick in my stomach as I contemplate this. The cod which once were abundant in Nova Scotia are now all but gone. Even though the fishing was stopped in the 1980’s the cod have not replenished. The movie spoke of this as being a “soul loss” for the fishermen whose livelihoods have gone. That’s’ how it feels to me too. The mass wiping out of bio-diversity; the destruction of sustainable eco-systems; the slaughter of wild life; the vanishing of all the beauty and mystery that other species bring, is sacrilege; an offence against the sacred; against life.

All I want to say is, I am so, so sorry. But this is not enough. It is not enough to break and destroy and rape and pillage and then to be sorry.

I know I must change my habits regarding food and I know this is going to take effort because I will have to do some research. There’s a certain sacrifice involved because now I’m aware I don’t think I can eat fish again and I’ve always loved to eat fish; it has been one of the great pleasures of life for me. And it means I’m going to have to stop being in denial and pretending that eating one battery hen here and there doesn’t really matter. And I will have to pay more for my food because organic, locally sourced, sustainably farmed, fair trade food is often more expensive, yet still doesn’t reflect anywhere near the real price of food which in so many cases, like the killing of the seas, doesn’t have a dollar value.

In short I will have to make more effort, take less for granted and sacrifice my own little wants and appetites.

But even this effort seems a pitifully small contribution in the face of the catastrophes we’re facing. This is one occasion where I am tempted to think, well what difference will it make if I eat haddock or wild salmon or tuna once a week? I am brought up against one of my key beliefs, that one individual making conscious choices can make a difference. I have never been a lobbyist; I have little faith in the political system and have not seen that as my work. My only hope as a writer is to touch your heart and to remind you to keep feeling. I know if you are reading this it is because your heart has already been touched by the plight of the natural world. But I want to remind us all not to forget, not to numb ourselves from the pain and turn away because it is too much and we would rather have fun and be positive. This is happening to our world, this is real, the seas are part of us as we are part of the seas. If the seas are being killed off, we are being killed off. If our brothers and sisters in Senegal are losing their livelihoods, then so too will we.

What can we do?

Go to: www.endoftheline.com for information about sustainable fishing, campaigning and the movie.
www.fairtrade.org.uk is a Uk based foundation for protecting fair trade. Is there an equivalent in your country outside the UK?
www.peopleandplanet.org is a UK based student action site for world poverty, human rights and the environment.

What will happen tomorrow?

June 6th 2009



I’m here in Yorkshire at the Oasis School of Human Relations for three months, where I’m going to be participating in an inquiry into the workplace of tomorrow.

This week I was at Oasis everyday; the first time for several years I have been in any workplace for a full week. I felt very welcomed and in many ways at home with the directors and staff as we worked together as a team to prepare everything needed for the first groups to begin the inquiry next week.

At the same time it was quite a jolt to go from my inner oriented life as a writer studying consciousness to this outward orientation; and from practicing presence to contemplating the future.

How do you feel when you think about the future? Do you think about it? And if so, do you think about it in any detail? Over the week as we talked about how the half day sessions are going to be structured, and practiced some of the processes, I was struck by how much our individual projections into the future are coloured by our subjective perceptions and how ill prepared most of us are for what may come.

A personal example of this unpreparedness is how aging has suddenly caught up with me. Until six months ago when I injured my knee I didn’t feel old and I never gave getting older a thought, now here it is creeping up on me and I am totally unprepared. When considering the life of an organization, although there was a lot of recognition that the implications of climate change and planetary responsibility should be top of the priorities list, in actual fact short term goals and survival occupied the majority of people’s efforts. When we multiply these two admissions of short sightedness by several billion, we start to get the picture of just how many heads are being buried in the sand in our world. And how few concessions are being made in the face of the collective problems we face.

I know if some of my more positive friends were here right now they would be telling me it’s all perfect and we just have to open our hearts and trust. Hm. That place of trust is a very beautiful place to be and I love to be there, yet trust without action isn’t enough. “Trust in Allah, but tether your camel” the old saying goes. But where is my camel and where should I tether it?

I don’t think I am the only one confused. In the workplace the bits of paper fly around and everyone keeps super busy and I bury my head in the next e-book about consciousness and wish that the future would go away….

One good piece of news though. I’ve been watching some nature programs on tv. (British tv still has two channels without advertising, so it’s actually bearable to watch.) And the rivers here, which were badly polluted, have been regenerated, so much so that wild otters and beavers have been re-introduced and are now swimming with grace and joy amidst all the other wildlife enjoying the spring. This is good news and it makes me happy.

As I reflect on this week I realize I have two wishes for my own future, one is to be able to sink my roots deep into community and lasting relationship, and the other is to know that I’ve made a difference. Making a difference doesn’t have to be a big thing or heroic, it can be noticing when someone does a good job, or doing any of those hundred little things that make another person feel valued. I think that’s where I’m going to set my sights this week. Have a good one!

Rose

Spiritual Gypsy

May 29, 2009
My goal was to travel with only one bag but much to my chagrin I arrived here in England with two big heavy bags which even two people could barely carry. Since I expect to be here for three months, I have that much time to streamline down. In the interests of travelling light I’m going to keep a weekly journal and post on the blog; I no longer want to carry heavy books and papers around, so this is a way to archive my experience and also keep in touch with friends as I transform into a global traveler.

One of the qualities a global traveler has to have is a trust that whatever we need will be provided, so we don’t have to take everything with us. When I feel into this it feels like a great relief, although I still have an edge of fear: Really? Does that mean I no longer have to worry about having enough money? I hear a caution that we must be careful not to take more than we need nor build debt. This is radical trust in the limitless abundance of the Universe, in the flow, and in my own worthiness. I know it’s me who limits what I can have by my fear-based thoughts and beliefs in imperfection. To travel light means to travel in love, trust and openness.

Along with this goes an attitude of non attachment or non clinging. As I look up I see three beautiful scarves hanging from the wardrobe door, I carried them all the way from Golden Bay New Zealand, to Virginia, USA, and now to Yorkshire, England, many thousand miles. I rarely wear them but I like them, they connect me with Nelson and Golden Bay, my spiritual home, two of them were gifts, and they fit a certain image of myself I’m obviously attached to. But since I don’t wear them is that image really an accurate reflection of who I am? Are the inner and outer aligned? Am I ready to leave them behind?

If it’s so hard to let go of things how much harder is it to let go of people. I’ve just left people I love in Virginia and I feel I’ve been torn out of an organism I was embedded in, where I felt comfortable and at home in the end. I remember a poem by the poet, David Whyte in which he talks about how, just when you’ve hung the last picture in your home and got everything perfect, it’s time to leave. That’s hard! Are we not allowed to be too comfortable on the quest? I like a bit of comfort. It’s true I did resist Williamsburg, Virginia in all sorts of ways, but in the last weeks I was there we had such a delicious spring, so lush, with such bright sunshine and such abundant rain and so much colour and so many birds, it was difficult to tear myself away. Not to mention I didn’t want to leave my little family of Woods, Cheyenne the hound, Sam the moustachiod parakeet, and Edith, Woods’ sweet and generous Mother, as well as the friends I had made and love and want in my life. Yes, leaving is hard. As Beth said, we will always be connected; and as Woods said, there’s always email. But it’s not the same is it? As soon as we’re apart from people we start to idealize them, we lose that edge of learning which a real and unpredictable person always brings. We lose the energetic connection too, not entirely for sure, but nothing beats being in the presence of a person you love.

When there’s a physical journey it’s all more obvious but what I am writing about is not just happening to me. We’re all in a process of lightening up so we can move forward to something new, it’s part of our collective evolution, and it doesn’t always feels good. My challenge this week arriving in Yorkshire and settling into yet another cottage on my own, has been to find inside myself all that love and lushness I appear to have left on the other side of the Atlantic; to gather in all my energies and BE HERE NOW. On my fifth day I feel more peaceful. Two other writers have helped me to get centred and grounded. The first is Karen Bishop, who has a website called www.emergingearthangels.com I recommend a visit. Her regular writings which she calls, WINGS, explore what is happening on Planet Earth from the point of view of the Ascension process, and I found what she’s said about the last six months very reassuring. For example,

While almost fully removed from our old realities in so many ways, feeling homeless is perhaps now our only option, even if we may not know why. Perhaps wandering around with no clear sense of “home” quite yet, we might not know where we belong, or even what we will be doing next…even though at some level we know very well that something very new is on the very near horizon.

Right now, I don’t have a home in the sense we commonly know it, four walls and roof, a door key, a space labeled MINE. I’m here in England which is my birthplace, I’m a permanent resident of New Zealand, and I have heart ties in Virginia. Yet none of these is actually home right now. From the point of view of mainstream society I am viewed with suspicion, some kind of feckless drop out or ne’er do well, or at best a hopeless idealist. But Karen Bishop reminded me of the bigger picture and she made me feel quite normal. Go check out her archives, it’s a great read!

The other author who’s helped me this week is Caroline Myss. I’ve been listening to her cd, Spiritual Madness, after finishing my latest e-book on the Soul Journey. If Karen Bishop’s message is like sinking into a warm bath, Caroline Myss is more like an invigorating wake-up shower. For her, having a relationship with God is a serious business requiring complete self honesty. A cold shower is helpful sometimes especially when you’re feeling like a wimp, as I was for a day or two. Hey, come on, remember why you’re here, remember who you are, remember the journey! You’ve got tools, use them, whatever you do don’t sit around and feel sorry for yourself! Ok Caroline, I’d just been writing about the crazy-making nature of the soul journey, the need to be present, to be the eyes of the universe, but whenever I finish a piece of writing I always feel a bit lost, at least for a little while. It comes with the territory. Caroline reminded me that on the spiritual journey loneliness is normal; essential even. And she also reminded me how easy it is to deceive ourselves and how we need to stay aware and alert to our motivation in everything we do; its’ so easy to deceive ourselves and that’s why times of change can be so confusing because its sometimes quite difficult to discern what is true and what is delusion: are we on the spiritual path because we think it’s leading to an easy life, lolling in a hammock in heaven? Think again! The spiritual path is here to temper us, to show us where we’re unfinished, to knock off our sharp edges and render us fluent. It’s not always comfortable and it’s not always cosy, and it’s not always in the form we want, but it is the most amazing journey on Earth and once we’re on there’s no getting off. So I’m reminding myself to relax and enjoy the ride.

I’m looking forward to sorting out my stuff so I can get down to one bag I can easily carry. Woods’ mother Edith gave me some wonderful advice as I was leaving Williamsburg, “Keep your heart open so you can receive all the love that’s there for you, and keep your eyes open so you can see how beautiful the world is.” Yes, Edith, thank you! To that I would add, “if you’re bag’s too full you can’t receive anything new” If it’s time to strip down to the essential self, what do we really need? Who are we really? What and who are we ready to let go of and what do we want to hold onto?

The latest edition of New Moon Magic, A Soulful Life, is available for the give-away price of $11 Us, or $11 NZ, or £10, if you’re in England. If you’d like a copy write to me at rose@awholenewworld.net
Namaste
Rose

How to stay creatively empowered in troubled times

Step into a bigger sense of self.
By Rose Diamond

The economic recession is turning the lives of people all over the country inside out. It’s a great leveler, because apart from the ultra rich, we’re all affected. It’s traumatic to lose your home, your job or your savings, and when this happens the first step has to be to find some firm physical base from which to survive. We humans are creative and resourceful beings and from a very young age we are capable of making creative adaptations to our life situation in order to survive.

This is a prime time for creative problem solving on a practical level. Many people are finding solutions to their changed circumstances by sharing living space with others, using one vehicle instead of two, cutting inessential spending and avoiding credit card debt, passing on whatever things they no longer need, planting vegetable gardens, conserving resources like power, water and gas, joining with others to create communities for mutual support.

Once we have our physical base covered we are free to move on to the next level of reconstruction: our emotions. When we suffer a loss: whether it’s the loss of a loved one through death or relationship break up, the loss of livelihood, home or possessions, we also lose our sense of identity and we enter what is called an existential crisis, or a crisis about the meaning and purpose of life. This leads to confusion, depression, anger, hopelessness and despair; all difficult states to sustain ourselves through. In existential crisis we are disillusioned, literally stripped of our illusions. We thought we were somebody but who are we now? We thought we understood the way the world works but now we’re lost.

However, this very state of confusion and disillusionment can be a doorway to something new: a more authentic life; a life lived by deeper and more sustaining values. Unless we acknowledge, attend to, and process these difficult emotions, they go underground and wreak havoc with our health, relationships, and plans for the future. This time of crisis is an opportunity to strip down to essentials and build again on a more sustainable foundation.

Any time of major loss involves a grieving process and psychologists have identified stages of this process, these are the ones that make sense to me: shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression, release and acceptance. Only when we have moved through all the stages can we start to build anew on a more solid foundation.

Most people are less skilled with emotional work than at sorting out the practicalities of life. A symptom of the denial stage is when we try to lose ourselves or distract ourselves with activity rather than facing our underlying emotions. We tend to be scared of our unpredictable emotions and self exploration because we fear ending up in a bottomless pit which we are then helpless to climb out of.

I worked as a psychotherapist for many years and this kind of deep self exploration with someone trained in the territory of the inner world and with the skills to be an empathic yet objective listener can be very helpful. Now I prefer to work as a coach because my main interest is to help people move through blocks to their creativity, become empowered, and build lives around their deepest passion and purpose. A coach will help you to accept, contain and clear your emotions within the framework of building a meaningful life.

There are three great questions in life: Who am I? What am I doing here? What do I want? These questions can be answered on many different levels and form the basis for a spiritual practice that will take you deeper into yourself. The more deeply we know ourselves, and the more authentic we are, the more we connect with the meaning and purpose of our individual and collective life. This is the most powerful support we can have in a time of crisis.

When you first answer the question: Who am I? It might go something like this: “My name is Rose Diamond. I was born in England and now I’m living in Virginia, USA. I’m a lifelong educator and I’m passionate about writing….” The emphasis is on family personal history and roles, all things which give us our sense of identity.

If you dig a little deeper and come into the present, it might go something like this: “ Right now I’m hurting, angry and frustrated because……” Once you’re present and in touch with your emotions, you can start cleaning out the old in preparation for building the new. When you’ve taken ownership of your emotions and become more aware of the old conditioned mental patterns that rule your life, you are in a better position to answer the second and third questions.

“What am I doing here?” is a question about purpose. What is your purpose in being here on Earth at this time? What unique gifts and skills do you have to offer? How do you make sense of what’s going on in the world and your role in it?

I would answer this question something like this:” I’m in America right now because there are things I can learn only here which will help me to become more of who I can be. I also have skills and experience to help people through this crisis and transition.“

When we answer the question: “What do I really want?” it’s always a good idea to find the values behind what we think we want. For example, I asked a midlife client to make her “bucket list” of all the things she wants to do, have, or be in the second half of life and before she dies. She came back to me the following week and said she’s had an image of floating in an air balloon above a European city. When she dug a little deeper she discovered the values hidden in this image were freedom and transcendence. She wants to be free to have a bigger perspective on life and on history and to transcend the limitations of her present reality.

This is exciting because she may not be able to take off tomorrow to Europe and an air balloon, but she can start right now to realize freedom and transcendence. These are the qualities we develop when we commit to a spiritual practice, whether the practice is meditation or any of the other myriad tools and vehicles for developing awareness.

The master key to conscious choice and creating the lives we really want is awareness. With awareness we step into a bigger, freer, higher part of the mind. We become a witness of our experience, and as Einstein said: “We can’t solve a problem from the level at which that problem was created, we can only solve it by moving to a higher level”.

I’m convinced the only way we can solve our individual and collective problems in the face of this current economic and environmental crisis, is to move up the mountain of self discovery and gain a bigger, freer perspective.

Rose and Woods offer coaching to help you to Breakthrough to your Creative Power, go to: www.awholenewworldcoaching.com As part of the Whole New World community we offer monthly e-books on aspects of conscious living. The first two: Being Peace in Action and Living in Harmony with Nature are available now; the third, Exploring the New Consciousness and bringing it down to Earth, will be published on March 26th.
Go to: www.awholenewworld.net or http://livingyourpassion.info//nmm

The key to staying sane in troubled times: managing fear.

By Rose Diamond

Fear is one of the most difficult emotions to manage. But if we don’t learn how to manage our own fear and help those around us to manage theirs, we are going to turn crisis into disaster. As a former psychotherapist I have spent many years witnessing people’s reactions to their own fear (and this includes observing fear in myself). Most of us are afraid of our own fear and will do just about anything to avoid feeling it: alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, anti-depressants, over work, over eating and compulsive shopping, are some of the ways we avoid, or try to numb our fear.

Right now we are all facing a massive fear of the unknown. The world as we have known it is crumbling and none of us knows what is going to replace it. Personally, I believe this global crisis is an opportunity to create a more sustainable, humane society; yet in this present climate of crisis fear, at times it is difficult to maintain this trust that something better will emerge. I am no stranger to fear, having consciously chosen for many years a lifestyle in which I uncompromisingly live my passion, or do what I believe I am here to do, I know what it means to live on the edge financially and not know where the next dollar is coming from. Many people are being pushed into this same dilemma not through conscious choice but through external events over which they have no control. The opportunity and challenge in this is we can learn to live simple, sustainable, authentic, and community based lives which offer an inner fulfillment.

But people are not in a position to make conscious choices nor to think rationally about what needs to be done when they are gripped by fear. Fear creates stress and stress limits our sense of what is possible. If it is not attended to, fear goes underground and can manifest as anger, despair or ill health; fear literally grips the heart and squeezes the life force out of us. It cuts us off from the source of our creativity and empowerment. When we are afraid we tend to disassociate from the body and from the present moment and lose ourselves in worry, anxiety and doubt; all products of the mind. The kind of fear I am speaking of is a basic fear for survival, a root chakra fear which is connected to the oldest part of the brain, the reptilian brain, which as its name suggests is primitive, reactive and potentially aggressive. Such fear makes us feel more isolated, cuts us off from each other and causes people to become self protective, to look after their own and close their doors to “strangers”.

An important aspect of the Western psyche and sense of identity, particularly so in North America, is the belief that success means being independent, going it alone and competing with others for life’s goodies. These attitudes are being challenged by the current economic crisis, which is throwing many people into a situation where they literally can’t support themselves in the ways to which they have become accustomed, nor derive their identity from external sources such as status, money and material goods. This identity crisis comes on the heels of the economic crash and a shift of identity has to happen before anything new can be built. If we are going to survive as a species we have to learn to work together, to recognize we are all in the same boat, find ways to support each other and think creatively together.

So what can we do when fear comes knocking at the door of the heart? When people are gripped by fear, the first thing they need to know is they are not alone. Helping a frightened or distressed person to become more present is a good first step. Helping someone to become more grounded literally means getting them to put their feet on the ground and reminding them to breathe. The earth beneath us and the air we breathe are forms of support that are there for each one of us, always. By breathing into our fear, we enable the body, and thus the heart and mind, to expand, and we get back in touch with our own power and resourcefulness to effect change.

The skills of empathic, compassionate listening are very helpful. Giving someone you love or care about the space to vent their feelings is a good first step. But this can be challenging especially when their emotions are raw and put you in touch with your own fear. When we feel uncomfortable with another’s expression of feeling we tend to shut them down by interrupting, trying to “fix” them, or moving away. If we really want to help, the trick is to know when people need to express their feelings, when they need to be present and find inner calm, and when they need to look for solutions. People seldom find healthy solutions when they are afraid, and if you move into “fixing” them they are likely to become more reactive and frustrated, or to withdraw into depression.

Much of our fear is created by the mind. When we don’t know what is going to happen we tend to fill the empty space with fear. The insights and practical wisdom of spiritual teacher, Eckhart Tolle, have helped me to learn how to drop my negative fear based thoughts. Learning the laws of manifestation and the creative process has helped me to replace the negative thoughts with positive, creative thoughts. To focus on what I can do, to stay present, take my next step, and be relatively unattached to the outcome of my actions, keeps me sane and enables me to go with the flow of my creative process. Maintaining this kind of focus in this current climate of fear is a spiritual practice requiring daily, moment to moment intent. When I fall off the wave, I have to summon all my strength, haul myself back on the surfboard and start again. Of course this is very challenging, and the bottom line is, we all need each other. Many people who are focusing on maintaining a positive attitude in this way, seek out or create communities of like-minded people for mutual support, comfort and encouragement.

I hear many people these days talking about how “things are only going to get worse”. I don’t think this helps anybody; our thoughts create the situation we fear. Whilst the global economy in its current state is certainly bankrupt, the flow of commerce freezes in local communities when people hold onto their money. Abundance and prosperity can only come from staying open, trusting and sharing what we have. I also read even in “progressive” internet news groups criticisms of President Obama and how he isn’t living up to expectations after two weeks. As if there’s some great magician in the sky who’s going to wave a magic wand and make everything better. The reason people love Obama is he sows seeds of hope and encourages grassroots action and involvement. Hope alone is not enough. Life will only get better if we each choose to create it better, and that means connecting with our own power as creative beings and not passing the buck to any politician, guru, hero, or demi-god of our imagination; nor giving our power away to an invisible oligarchy of robber barons.

We all need hope, and positive models of people who are creating more peaceful sustainable lives, and the skills to build our lives anew. I agree with Obama, it’s not going to be easy, the path is strewn with challenges, the process of changing deeply ingrained attitudes doesn’t happen overnight. But it is possible, and it is worth working for, and we are the only ones who can do it.
Rose Diamond offers Coaching for Positive Change for people who need a helping hand in troubled times. Go to: www.awholenewworldcoaching.com

"The ONE LAW" of Universal Expansion

By Woods Elliott

One of my favorite subjects of thought is what I call cosmopsychology, or the study of how staggering it is to the human being to have such an ungraspably infinite setting for one’s home. I mean our location here in the universe is breath-taking, even crazy making. Is this not the most awe inspiring universe on hand as could ever be imagined? For most of my life I haven’t really felt at home in this vast cosmos. I was never sure what little me had to do with big IT. What meaning could there be behind such an unspeakable enormity? While finite, we’re at the same time in conjunction with, well, infinity! Bewildering. You get the picture?

In my book, Dazzlephrenia, I try to feel more at home in the cosmos. This is not an easy achievement as my title implies. Surely how we look upon the infinite cosmos, and ourselves in relation to it, deeply impacts us emotionally and psychologically and will, into the future, influence our way of being in the world and living our lives. There is more identical connection between pinprick stars and us than appears at first glance. That’s the thing. There must be a plausible correlation. It behooves us to perceive ourselves as more cosmic beings, integrating the cosmos, its central themes, patterns, and features, into our view of ourselves.

The cosmos is now generally regarded to be in an extravagant act of some kind of ever-evolving energy; this is its evolutionary property. I had a thinking buddy in Colorado, when I was organizing a small local philosopher’s club, one of many intriguing thinkers who were drawn in. His single, nearly obsessional contention was what he called The One Law of Universal Expansion. He believed everything in reality was subject to this primary cosmic law. And he believed that the human condition needed to be primarily understood in relation to this one basic driving principle. I recall he objected fiercely to deism, because it had stopped expansion beyond the concept of God. He thought the invention of God had put a cap on our imagination. I was immediately attracted to the novelty of his viewpoint. I had never heard anyone before him posit such an obvious notation, and at the same time, had never heard anyone bridge astrophysics to human psychology so uniquely. Why don’t people more readily see themselves as needing to expand like their cosmos? Why do people seem to go out of their way not to make such an obvious connection? This got me thinking about universal expansion and what that had to do with me and my life.

It seems to me that people have gone out of their way to not think of themselves as needing to expand like the universe and I’m not sure why this is so. Despite this, when I try to get down to my own deepest needs and strivings, what grabs at me the most, what I come away with most, is my unstoppable need to delve more deeply into what existence is: to learn more. Now, when you think of it, isn’t learning just a subtle way to self expand? So when I’ve achieved something in life, I’ve moved on to something new. Kept growing, extending, deepening. Are we not mostly evolution or expansion-in-action? One way to look at expansion is visual.

When I ponder the tie between cosmic expansion and love of freedom, I find myself remembering my first adventures out west, my first airplane flight from sea level Long Island to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1965, when I awoke after a night flight to see snow-capped mountains outside the hotel window as if they were on a big billboard of some kind. Wow! My eyes delighted by all the “extra” space the distant mountains created.

Then I keenly remember a euphoria of perception when first to Denver, in the mid 70’s. Mountains have a powerful presence on people. There’s a geospiritual correlation between mountains and humans, a literal uplifting of some kind you can directly experience. I went around smiling for months just because I had daily visual beauty and depth of field all about me. My eyes drank in expansive views in an almost sensual manner. There was a sense of being visually grateful, even privileged, just to be there. The setting had enhanced the quality of my life in some unclear but real way. My dear geologist friend, Hal Proska coined the phrase “geospiritual”, he too was a great believer in the energetic nature of unknown forces at work beneath the surface nature of the ordinary world.

I lived below majestic Pikes Peak in Manitou Springs and in other wonderful sites in Colorado for nearly twenty years. Felt free as a bird. So much room to move around in! You can even find actual remote places where there are no other people around for miles. That can be very relaxing. I felt more fully alive there than I do now in visually-hemmed in Williamsburg, VA, where a large nearby highway intersection opens up enough clearance to take in the sky. That’s sad and sorrowful to say, but true. Are my eyes less free than they were in Manitou? Can our eyes be confined?

We need to see how the law of expansion bears on us and the lives we lead. Is it possible that what people refer to when they use this familiar word, freedom, is simply referring to that cosmic aspect in people which corresponds to the need to be free to expand like the cosmos?

This is why I sometimes feel a quick fury at the slow driver holding me up, getting in my way, not letting me be on my way! But the truth of this is really driven home if you remind yourself how we punish people for wrong-doing. We put them in jails, restrict their movements, imprison them. Don’t we mostly prize freedom very highly? Is there anything else that grieves us more than to be caught in a traffic jam, or in some other way be restricted, trapped, crowded, confined, overpowered, or held against our will?

You can see how easily the cosmic and human need to expand conforms with one of Eckhart Tolle’s teachings about “space consciousness”, relearning a more spacious recognition of the larger “container” of awareness out of which all else arises. He teaches the importance of bringing more space and stillness into our experiences and relationships with others. It does seem that consciousness wants to keep expanding and enlarging, doesn’t it? Don’t we feel more present, peaceful, and relaxed when we feel expanded, enlarged, and freed? Eckhart urges us to remember the deep ground of awareness that underpins and enables the world of forms.

I’ve been doing some expansive work with my equally reflective soul friend, Rose Diamond, during the past two years. We refer to it as our Consciousness Practice. It represents our joint wish to experiment with bringing more conscious awareness into our relationships. In this practice, we set aside a regular time to be very present and transparent, co-create a sacred space, and enter into a very strong witness-centered form of awakening more completely into the present moment. This practice came quite naturally to us; both introspective types, trained psychotherapists, analytical and intuitive, and prone to self reflection and deeper types of exchanges than most people seem comfortable with. She and I will be talking more about our practice over time, but for now I just wanted to make a point about the importance of us learning how to expand into more open states of receptivity than we usually do, and what gifts and blessings this gives rise to. Most people would agree that there is a very special energy, intense higher forms of consciousness have. Surely this unnamed enlivening power is of an energetic nature; you can feel it as an entraining vibration moving throughout the whole body, in every cell so to speak.

Many days I feel like an expanding cosmic being. Other times like a lead balloon, as we say. :-)

Some Thoughts on the New Presidency from an Alien

By Rose Diamond

I’m an English woman living for a while in America, and according to the authorities that makes me “an alien”. I have to say, I frequently feel I’ve flown in from another planet and I’m witnessing a bizarre culture, but I felt like that in my birth country too.

After England, I lived in Scotland for twenty years, and that has a culture quite distinct from England; it’s own separate legal and education system, tradition of song, poetry, music, interpretations of religion, and so on. From Scotland I moved to New Zealand where I lived for twelve years, and now I’ve been here in Virginia for the last two years. Whilst these countries are all Western and English speaking, they’re all quite different. New Zealand and America are like the yin and yang, at different poles in the personality spectrum.

Living in different cultures in this way means I’m always an “outsider” and I have to be diplomatic when making social commentary. One of the things I like about the Brits is we do social commentary very well, anyone who watched David Frost back in the ‘60’s or Monty Python, knows that the Brits love to laugh at themselves, at each other, and at their politicians. I think that’s a healthy release of tension.
Another aspect of living in different cultures, or being a “spiritual gypsy”, is it makes me trans-national. I don’t have any allegiance to any particular nation. I really do feel like a global citizen, and from that perspective I find blatant expressions of nationalism disturbing, even when they’re positive expressions.
So here I am living in America in the worst economic meltdown for 80 years, observing, suffering, rejoicing, and attempting to build community. Along with millions of others, in this country and elsewhere, I felt a huge relief and joy when Barack Obama was elected. Of course I understand the significance of him being a black man, the first black president, and that seems so hopeful for this country and for the world at this point in history, a triumph of justice. For me, the joy at his election comes because he is clearly a conscious person; he moves and acts with grace and beauty; he thinks before he speaks; he doesn’t stoop to the same ole, same ole negative politics of dirt throwing; he stands for something. He’s smart; he’s articulate; he’s inspiring. This is all very refreshing in a politician, especially a politician as central on the world stage as the American President.

I was very moved on election night and on inauguration day to see so many Americans overcome with joy at the election of their new president. To me this shows there is a real longing in oh so many people in this country, for something new, for change, for a politics with heart maybe? A politics to remake America as a more humane society.

What concerns me is the huge gap between the joy, the longing, the hero worship, on the one hand, and the stark reality of people’s lives on the other. I live near Williamsburg, and this is not a poor town by any stretch of the imagination. Yet, every day I hear reports that commerce is frozen. Nobody is spending on anything but the bare necessities. Even people who have money aren’t spending it. So there’s one level of recession created from national debt and inflation, and another level created from fear. When money isn’t circulating everyone suffers, everyone is stuck, people become more contracted. It’s a difficult time to be living through. I hear every day of more people losing their homes, not in this area, but elsewhere. Where is the humanity in a society that turns people out of their homes? Isn’t having a home and the wherewithal to keep it running, a basic foundation for any humane society? Isn’t accessible healthcare for everyone another basic of a humane society? How have we, with all our technological prowess, creativity and invention, got so far from what really matters?

I see a huge and deep longing for change in so many of the American people but I don’t know how many people really know how to manifest positive change. Days after the Obamas moved into the Whitehouse I read in the alternative press lots of bitching and moaning about the new president: “Well, he’s been in office for five days and he hasn’t changed the world yet, he can’t be any good, he’s just gonna be another big disappointment like all the rest.” Come on guys! How about taking a bit of responsibility for the change you want to see?

I was at a Martin Luther King breakfast on Monday, and black community activist, Mrs Bobbye Alexander, stood at the end and said, “If Obama fails, it’s because each one of us has failed.” The time is well past for believing that any one hero is going to make it right; we’re moving from the age where we put authority outside ourselves and either hero worship that authority or crucify it. And we’re moving into a time when we realize the authority is in each one of us. If there has to be a hero then you’re it, and I’m it too. If we want positive change then we have to be the change and create the change, and join with others who want it too. We have to change our thinking and learn new skills. If there’s going to be any evolution in this country, it’s going to come from the people, and from each person making the commitment to raise his or her consciousness, and to live from that higher state of consciousness on a daily basis. When enough people raise their consciousness, the politicians have to follow suit. Obama knows that. Fear is the biggest barrier to higher consciousness; it’s the way people have always been controlled. Feeling disempowered and handing over your authority to a hero or an anti-hero, is an expression of fear, or not knowing what else to do.

Living at this time requires a big courage. It’s the courage to stay awake and be clear eyed. It’s the courage to hold the vision, the longing, the dream in one hand, and at the same time not flinch from reality, not avoid or deny the suffering which is caused by the present deprivation. We need people to keep the hope alive. Obama is such a person.

I have no idea what kind of politician he’ll turn out to be, or how much he’ll be able to restore from the former president’s legacy of ruination and constitution breaking. But I do see him as a new kind of politician: a conscious politician, a bridge builder, a man who listens and wants to hear all sides, someone who has understood the new paradigm of unity we are moving in to. None of this is easy. I would venture to say that the individual work of restoring our own consciousness to a clear, peaceful, creative state is almost as heroic as being a President. We all have our unique contribution to make. We are each responsible for the collective good. There is an enormous amount of work to be done. This is no time for bitching, moaning, complacency, or passing the buck. The time is now, and we are the people. The opportunity for real radical change to a more humane, united society and world, won’t ever come again in this way.

Disillusionment,Growth and Surrender

To be ready for wholeness, first be fragmented. To be ready for rightness, first be wronged. To be ready for fullness, first be empty. To be ready for renewal, first be worn out. To be ready for success, first fail. To be ready for doubt, first be certain.
Tao Te Ching

Happy New Year! If you’re like most of the people I’ve spoken to in the last few days you may be saying,” I’m glad 2008 is over, that was a tough year.” We’re all hoping for something better but hope is not enough. We have to choose, intend and consciously create the new.

Yes, the latter part of last year was tough here in the States. It was a time of disillusionment, loss, stress and chaos for many. Seeing the winter trees as I drove home the other day reminded me how disillusionment is a state of being stripped of comfort, stripped to the bone, down to the place of bare necessity, to the vulnerable self with no place to hide.

To lose one’s illusions about anything is ultimately a good thing because it means we can get real, and once we know what’s real we can become empowered to make conscious choices and create our reality anew.

But disillusionment is also uncomfortable and confusing because it creates a shift in identity – in our sense of who we are. Do you know those moments when you suddenly see yourself, your relationship or your situation differently? You may feel shocked, betrayed or tricked. You wonder if you have been blinded or bewitched. And of course most of us do walk around blind to parts of ourselves. These are the parts we have hidden or disassociated from, way back in the past when it wasn’t safe to experience ourselves fully. Many people disassociate from their vulnerability for instance, or from their need to be in control, or from their anger or spite. We can usually see these aspects of self very clearly in others, especially our nearest and dearest, and we try to get the other person to change because we can’t stand to see that part of us we’re hiding from. When we’re in a conscious relationship this is what we call shadow work or mirror work: seeing our friend, partner or family member as a mirror revealing to us our own blind spots. It’s a good idea when making a judgment of another to check and see if that quality or behavior we’re judging is also in us. But we’re all very good at fooling ourselves so we may not even see it when we look! Notice what you become most reactive to in others, reactivity is a very good warning system that there’s part of your self you are defending against which may be getting ready to come out of the closet.

But it’s all good! Dis-illusionment strips away old limiting patterns of thought and perception and shakes up our sense of who we are. It can be like the playground game, Blind Man’s Buff, where you blindfold someone and turn them around and around, then when they’re totally giddy, you point them in a new direction and they stumble off in blind faith.

We could see illusions rather like the chrysalis stage of the butterfly, in which we need the outer casing to keep us safe while we grow and then at a certain time the innate patterning to transform into the butterfly becomes so strong we have to shed the outer protection. Was the chrysalis in a state of illusion about itself and the nature of reality or was it simply living out a natural phase of its development?

Illusions usually crack apart when we’ve played them to the limit. As creative beings we all do the best we can to adapt to the situations of our lives, especially when we are young and vulnerable and have no choice but to stay in the difficult situation. At a certain point our creative adaptations start to hurt us more than they comfort us because they are preventing us from being whole and authentic. The growing self is like a plant that’s ready to be re-potted. It’s uncontainable life force pushes against the limitations of its pot, its roots ache to stretch out and draw more sustenance from the earth, it can’t breathe. It is like this for the fetus too as it nears the moment of birthing.

As we reach the point where the old identity cracks and strains, we may feel restless, trapped, we may play out some old dramas one last time, just so we get to see them clearly.

There is terror in breaking out of one’s cosy pot, the warm womb, one’s chrysalis shell, and entering into the unknown, the void, the blank slate. We are not conditioned to deal easily with emptiness and not knowing, especially here in America where identity is built on doing, achieving, being super-independent, being the best, the expert, the knower, the success story.

At the point where limitation is hurting most, if we’re lucky, we surrender, let go and free fall into emptiness.
More next week…..
Namaste
Rose

MESSAGE FROM THE HOPI ELDERS
You have been telling the people that this is the Eleventh Hour.
Now you must go back and tell the people that this is the Hour.
And there are things to be considered:

Where are you living?
What are you doing?
What are your relationships? Are you in right relation?
Where is your water? Know your garden.
It is time to speak your Truth.
Create your community. Be good to each other.
And do not look outside yourself for the leader.
This could be a good time!

There is a river flowing now very fast.
It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid.
They will try to hold on to the shore.
They will feel they are being torn apart, and they will suffer greatly.

Know the river has its destination.
The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river
Keep our eyes open and our heads above the water.
See who is in there with you
And celebrate.

At this time in history we are to take nothing personally.
Least of all, ourselves.
For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt.

The time of the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves!
Banish the word "struggle" from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.

We are the ones we've been waiting for.

(Contributed by Vivienne Wright, Founding Member, Auckland)
— THE ELDERS / ORAIBI, ARIZONA / HOPI NATION