Living Our Values
Dear Friends,
Recently, I had the honor and pleasure of teaching dao yin to a group of Clean Language practitioners. As they were sharing presentations on their discoveries of how communication coupled with presence can cultivate respectful, empathetic connections, one person mentioned she is seeing how it's time for age-old paradigms full of wisdom and welcome to come forward again, and for the mechanistic, separatist way we view and operate in the world to fade.
And that is exactly the opportunity the lunar eclipse in November 2022 is offering us.
I can't put it better than what a friend just wrote:
...as humanity experiences a great crumbling of the old paradigms, massive growth, and frequency upgrades, what is essential for these times is to consistently align with your value system.
~Ra Ma
So, a little truth telling is due.
There are a plethora of values
— trust, love, peace, safety, and freedom are basic.
What values to you seek to manifest?
And whereabouts are your values?
Strange question, right?
You might notice your mind seeking outside yourself.
And, you might also feel a pull inside yourself.
That's because values are embodied.
We know this because when our values are challenged,
we feel something visceral.
When they are upheld, there's a feeling of satisfaction inside.
One of my hot-button values is truth and transparency when it comes to informed consent
and
freedom of choice in medicine.
And so I find this recent piece of information from the EU Parliament's recent press conference very important.
I'm grateful that it is finally coming forward through a well-respected
multi-government agency.
Warning: you may not like what you hear here. I believe it's critical to understand how medicine, business and politics influence public health policies that affect our civil and human rights, specifically our freedom. Awareness is the only way I know to evolve, and, clearly, our healthcare system needs to change.
Friends who are in the EU, I encourage you to listen to the end for the German representative's plea to all European citizens.
European Parliament Press Conference, October 2022
And if you have information to the contrary, please let me know.
Sobering news?
I like to consider the possibilities:
Were we to open our minds to other avenues of response to climate change or pandemics
— both of which, many scientists are saying, influence each other and are expected to escalate
—what might our world look like?
Could tending to ourselves and each other in a way where we see ourselves in everything— in the laboratory mouse, the penguin and whale, the Amazon forest, the Beijing sky, and even our gardens' earthworms—change the trajectory of humanity and the wellbeing of our planet?
Okay, yes, oneness, and everything as consciousness is a bit of a lofty goal.
So, maybe just consider this:
How might opening yourself to experiencing interconnectedness change your relationship to yourself?
I love this quote from Amma:
The sun shines down,
and its image reflects a thousand
different pots filled with water.
The reflections are many,
but they are each reflecting the same sun.
Similarly, when we come to know who we truly are,
we will see ourselves in all people.
How would seeing yourself in all people, in all things under heaven, change you?
And when you change, what happens next?
And that, my friends, is what keeps me coming to the mat.
If values are embodied, it makes sense to tune in to the body and recognize what's important to us and how we want to manifest that in the world.
Bringing my attention inside myself, I meet the wounded and resourced facets of myself, and have a 'sit down' with them.
I believe, it is only through that reckoning that I can change how I perceive and respond to the world — with greater compassion, clarity and kindness.
And doing that together, well, there's some power in that.
I invite you to join me.
