The Great Transformation

Hold on to your seats ...then go with the flow.  The Germans are calling it "Die Große Veränderung," "The Great Transformation."  The shift is here, the consciousness shift (the Mayan calendar ending, 2012 et al.) that is driven by climate change.  Or we could say that climate change (which we created) is now accelerating our consciousness shift.  Oh well, they all inform each other reciprocally anyhow.

It is the Great Transformation to a cooperative, peer-to-peer (as Jeremy Rifkin, the economist, writer, public speaker, and consultant to the German government, says), lateral (no more from-the-top-down) culture and consciousness structure that will radically transform our approach to energy and its distribution, and with it to our culture at large.  And, Rifkin states, it will all happen within one generation!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (If we don't get off carbon in 30 years, he says, we are doomed, so we better go with the flow, and fast, than resist, because otherwise it'll be even more painful).  I do want to scare you a bit out of your slumber, as Rifkin did at this past week-end's conference on Sustainable Living, when he said about climate change that we are really not being told the seriousness and urgency of the issue here in the US - Germany, Denmark, as well as Costa Rica are on the forefront of all things climate and energy change.  Rifkin says about climate change "It's terrifying!"

So this consciousness transformation, that my book and blog are about, albeit from a slightly different twist (more about returning to a more balanced heart and spirit based way of living as a basis for healing from the inside out) is actually forcing itself on us from the environmental side.  And from there it will transform our economy from the bottom up, and with it our entire culture.  Out with scarcity based economics, in with an economy of abundance (see also Charles Eisenstein's Sacred Economics).   In importance this shift is bigger than the Fall of the Roman Empire, and it will happen faster and reverberate around the entire globe.

Cultural change here it comes!  The thing is - if you are an active participant it's an exciting opportunity to help create a new cultural paradigm; if you resist it (or even deny that climate change is happening) you will be dragged kicking and screaming along in the wave of change.  So, you choose - creative opportunity and empowerment vs. victimization.  We live during such a crucial, a bit scary (why is change scary?), yet such an incredibly momentous period in the history of humanity, let's make the most of it!

Also visit my previous post on the notes from the conference on Sustainable Living.

conference notes - sustainable living conference

Totally inspiring conference at Omega on Sustainable Living this past week-end, awesome speakers, all on the forefront of this new consciousness paradigm. Bill Clinton made two major points: Americans are not politically active enough (hence the Congressional mess - 40 years in the making he said, go vote, not only in the presidential elections), and from here on in it's  all about cooperation and community, win-win for all.

Economist Jeremy Rifkin, who consults the Germany government on how to transition to the new energy paradigm (not enough people listening on this side of the Atlantic yet, oops) foresees the new cultural paradigm arising out of the climate change calamity and predicts a lateral energy and infrastructure development, solar go! - Germany and Denmark are developing it now, America - look there for the future.

Environmentalist Paul Hawken is currently writing a book on loving our enemy: carbon - isn't that what they teach in all the spiritual disciplines, to love your enemy?

Biologist Janine Benyus teaches think tanks to use the natural world as a model for new technologies.

Rob Hopkins of the Transition Movement, which is about living without fossil fuels, preaches local + community + cooperation.

Environmental professor David W. Orr and architect Bob Berkebile are developing entire sustainable communities, not just individual buildings.

Live stream of conference can be watched until December 5:  http://www.eomega.org/workshops/conferences/where-we-go-from-here

Let yourself be inspired!  These are people we need to listen to.

finding the You in You

It's nothing new - that beauty comes from within, and that that beauty also entails youthfulness.  As Jane Brody explained in her recent NY Times article you can lather yourself with all the creams in the world, dye your hair, tuck your tummy - if you are miserable it shows.  And if you are happy it shows also.  The French word for the state of mind that makes you shine from within is épanouie  - the best translation is radiant. Radiance shines through.  When everything works well for you in life, when you are who you need to be (or working on it) and do what you need to do (or trying to get there), it goes way beyond manicured nails, the next bigger car, or a breast or nose job.

I'm never so sure what women are trying to achieve when they dye their hair or otherwise tweak their external features (granted there are exceptions).   After all the world's oldest model Carmen Dell'Orefice (she is 82!!!) with her signature white hair would no longer be Carmen if she dyed her hair.  She looks radiant and unique with it.  And if Sofia Loren had had cosmetic surgery to make her into a standard Barbie beauty she would no longer be Sofia Loren.  Her lips and eyes are so uniquely Sofia.

There is no one more unique than you!  And all that is special about you will come out and shine and glow and radiate when you do that inner work.  It's about finding the You in You.

life is here to make you better, not bitter

That's what my yoga teacher said the other day.  It's important to realize that people don't do things and or say things to annoy you.  People do whatever they do, and say whatever they say, from the perspective of their own emotional needs.

We all have common universal emotional needs, such as the needs for love, shelter, safety, nourishment, sleep; and we have more individualistic emotional needs for say beauty, peace, creativity, order, quiet, connection, community and so on.

We usually operate in an egocentric world and thus live from the perspective of our individual needs.   When those needs are not recognized or met we tend to get irritated, annoyed, impatient, angry, or even furious.  These emotions signal our own, not the other person's unmet needs.

When my daughter does her math homework slowly, methodically, not too neatly, I tend to become impatient and raise the tone of my voice.  That signals my unmet need for neatness and organization, and my self-imposed desire to get on with it and on to other activities.  I need to remind myself that I irritate myself, my daughter doesn't irritate me for the sake of irritating me.

So, instead of becoming bitter at others for supposedly annoying us all day long, hassling us, wanting to irritate and frustrate us, bitter at what life throws in our way, let's dig a bit deeper into those emotions.  Let them make us better, more compassionate and understanding.

on sustainability

You may wonder what all the buzz is with sustainability and "green" practices and what it actually means. Most of our current manufacturing processes are linear, energy intense and they create waste, thus damaging the environment one way or the other. Just imagine how corn flakes are made (not that I'm an expert). The various ingredients - GMO corn (oh no), food coloring (just saying), high-fructose corn syrup (oh well), preservatives and additives (ahem) - have to be shipped to the corn flakes factory from various locations at the expense of a lot of energy (trucking, gas) and packaging material. The packaging waste of the corn flakes ingredients goes into the garbage or recycling (if we are lucky) stream. Then the cereal is being manufactured (don't like that word for food) by machines with high energy input and some waste products (waste water, steam and fumes, and who knows what else). After that it gets packaged into sealed inner plastic bags and outer cardboard boxes (another high energy/high supply input process) and shipped to distributors (trucking, gas - you get the picture), after that to the supermarkets, where they have to recycle or throw away the pallets/shrink wrap/outer cartons. Finally the cereal gets purchased, and the retail packaging goes into the waste (the inside plastic pouch) or gets recycled (the exterior cardboard box).   Overall it's a process that requires huge material and energy inputs all along and creates enormous waste and pollution.

A sustainable process should require no exterior input of energy or material. It is a cyclical and wasteless process that repeats itself indefinitely without damage or side effects to the environment. The easiest example of such a process is a vegetable garden. If we save the seeds from one year to the next, if we fertilize with compost created from organic home and garden waste, if we use manual labor to tend to it, it becomes a wasteless indefinitely renewable cycle that requires no outside energy or product purchase other than elbow grease. All natural cycles are thus sustainable. Permaculture is such a sustainable agricultural/cultural system (please refer to an earlier post on permaculture).

On the homefront the better our houses are insulated for example, the less outside energy we need to introduce to heat and cool them, and the more sustainable the home energy cycle becomes. The Passivhaus is a residential building concept with such stringent insulation specifications that the house retains a constant temperature and requires no heating system (heating the hot water is another story, and energy to run appliances and lighting is yet another). A Passivhaus also takes into account the heat output from lights, people, and appliances in its energy calculations. There is also a zero-energy house, which is sustainable and generates its own energy needs. A zero energy house may include a geothermal heating/cooling system, solar panels to offset the electrical needs, LED lighting (the lightbulbs are good for 50,000 hours!!! - something like 20 years, and consume minimal energy), triple-pane windows (see a previous post), and a few other new cutting edge mechanical systems, in addition to superior insulation.

Sustainable is the way to go, it is gentle on the planet!

we can buy calories but not real nourishment

That's what Charles Eisenstein wrote. Since my last blog post was about the importance of feeding the soul, in that case through mantras, I'll continue a bit along those lines. Gaining nourishment from food is a many-layered process that includes a lot more than counting the calories of a meal or dissecting its nutritional content. Those are quantifying analyses. But the soul also gets nourishment from the qualitative aspects in and around food.

What might those elements be? The first thing that comes to mind has to do with how the food grew, was or was not processed, and how it was made. Vegetables and fruits grown in healthy and mineral rich soil on a small farm with loving care, grown without -ides (pesti-, insecti-, fungi-), harvested at the height of their ripe- or readyness, and used for cooking as soon as possible after harvesting, is incredibly nourishing to body and soul. Its intrinsic quality is so much more complex than produce that was harvested before ripening (bananas, peaches, tomatoes grown on large farms all get harvested before their prime to ensure unsquooshed arrival at the supermarket), had to be shuttled cross country or across continents, and then sits in the supermarket for another few days, before making it to our fridge, where it sits yet another few days. Same goes for meat, for those who do eat meat.  It matters in what surroundings the animal was kept, how it was handled, what it was fed, and how it met its end.  That quality, which we introduce into our body, has an influence on our spirit.

Other elements that add a more ethereal quality to the food we eat are the care and love and interest with which we prepare and cook the food. A lovingly prepared and composed dish will have a better energetic quality than a quickly slapped together microwaved meal. Your homemade jar of jam has so much more qualitative depth than one from the supermarket that's been made industrially.

Lastly, the context within which we eat the meal can nourish the soul. A nicely set table helps; taking the time to sit down as a family for a meal sets a comforting and warm tone of togetherness for the day or evening; and sharing a leisurely meal with friends imbues the food with a different meaning than eating alone.  And just think of those special holiday meals coming up soon.

Also look back at my post "food, glorious food."

feeding the body, feeding the soul

I am currently - sort of (on and off) - doing Deva Premal & Miten's 21-day mantra journey.  During the introduction to Day 5 Miten points out that just as we feed the body (with food obviously, but perhaps also with exercise and fresh air) we also need to feed the soul, that other part of us.  We can feed our soul in all sorts of ways.  I think anything that emphasizes the quality of life feeds the soul, such as beauty, friendship, love or serenity (did you notice that these are all things money can't buy?). Mantra chanting, as Miten explained, is one such soul food.  In the German September 2013 issue of GEO was a small article on the benefits of singing together.  Researchers discovered that the hearts of a group of mantra singers beat in synchronicity.  The controlled breathing of mantra chanting, similar to the controlled breathing practised in yoga, slows the heartbeat down and strengthens it, which is so beneficial.  When a group chants mantras together each individual melds into the group togetherness through the common synchronized heartbeat.   Neat!

there's no food!

At least that's what my son keeps telling me.  "Mom, there is no food in the fridge/pantry!"  He doesn't mean that there is literally nothing in the fridge or pantry.  He means that there are no little packages and baggies with portion size snacks he can just help himself to. The thing is, I cook from scratch.  So fridge and pantry are stocked with "basics" to create meals, such as legumes, grains, canned tomatoes, flour and so on.  That's indeed pretty unsatisfying for someone looking for a quick snack.  "You are so European, mom," he says, the idea being that Europeans don't snack as much as we do over here.

So then - what about healthy unpackaged snacks?  My daughter has recently taken to making "quick nachos" by simply grating cheese over some tortilla chips and broiling them in the oven for a few minutes.  Other wholesome "from-scratch" afternoon snack ideas for hungry school children are apple slices with pea/nut butter and/or chocolate/hazelnut paste, oven broiled cinnamon toasts, oven broiled cheese toasts, yogurt/ricotta cheese with honey and sunflower seeds, a few chunks of cheddar and some fruit, crackers with hummus, nuts with raisins or dried cranberries.  There you go - we do have food.

here's some magic

What about pragmatism?  What about rational-analytical thinking and the glorification of science?  What about pushing our emotions under the rug, or believing our Western culture to be superior to or more evolved than indigenous cultures? These beliefs are all a reflection of the loss of the spiritual, the loss for an appreciation of the mystical, the wonderment of life.  When I was little Christmas was so full of glitter and magic and mystery.  My sister and I would even climb into the attic in the middle of the year to open up the Christmas boxes and look at the sparkly ornaments to try to recapture some of that magic (but it works better when it's cold outside, the candles are lit and it smells like cinnamon and cloves).

Life is so one-sided, so devoid of sparkle without this magic - so, well, pragmatic.   But the magic is there, it's right in front of your eyes.  Whether the sparkle of a Christmas ornament, the glistening of rain drops on a leaf, or the shiny beauty and perfection of these red peppers - it's really quite magical.  It pays to tune into the magic because it's everywhere around you!

an attitude of gratitude

How about thinking of life as a gift, as author Charles Eisenstein suggests?  What an extraordinary opportunity, what a biological coincidence, what a marvel that you find yourself incarnated in this body, in this place, during these times which Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker has called the most peaceful on earth yet (despite what the media coverage might suggest). Think about this opportunity as a gift to experience life on this beautiful earth, a gift to express your spiritual self in this three dimensional realm through all the things you do, a gift to share your life with all the people you choose to have around you.  This perspective creates an attitude of a half full glass instead of a half empty glass, an attitude of gratitude, an attitude of joy, amazement and wonder.  Research suggests that people with a positive outlook on life, a good social network, and a can-do attitude have a longer life expectancy.  So from that perspective alone it's worth it.

What if life were really only about the actual experience and joy of being?