To create a sustainable society we need to understand our interconnection with everything around us; that our choices have an immeasurable ripple effect.
We often underestimate our power to change the world, yet one sentence can change a life.
What Kind of World Do You Want?
Most of us want to see a world where human and animal rights are respected; a world without the suffering caused by inequality, poverty, greed, and selfishness—where everyone has the opportunity to reach their highest potential. The vast majority of us would choose to live in peace and harmony, particularly for the sake of future generations.
Some may romanticize chaos, violence, and destruction until the reality of it lands on their front doorstep.
The truth is that our success as a species has been tied to our strong, positive social bonds. However, it is becoming increasingly evident that we must continue to evolve socially, and learn to extend our empathy beyond our own inner circle.
The small choices we make every day at work, school, in public, and in private, matter more than we know.
The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.
Albert Einstein
As a society, particularly in our public education systems, we tend to put more value on IQ and performance over EQ (emotional intelligence), yet empathy is the type of intelligence the world is starving for.
When we have the ability to consciously observe ourselves, practice self-awareness, and transcend our primal instinct toward selfishness, why would we not use this superpower to help save our species?
It’s really important to me to show the interconnectedness of things. I always try to illustrate how environmentalism, humanitarianism, animal rights—all those things—are one and the same.
Daryl Hannah
What we do to others, we do to ourselves. Our thoughts, words, and actions decide the state we live in, and what we attract into our lives.
Before we can relate authentically with others, we need to nourish our relationship with ourselves. Self-care and self-compassion promote wellness, and make us more able to give to others. Studies have shown that burnout and a lack of self-care can cause us to lose empathy. We cannot treat people better than we treat ourselves.
Abraham Maslow, a prominent American psychologist, grew to recognize “Self-Transcendence” as the highest level on his pyramid for human development.
To reach our highest potential there is a need to rise above the self and accept, with humility, that we are but one part of the whole of existence; there is a need for us to understand our connection to everything and work for the greater good. Self-transcendence broadens our minds and expands our awareness so that we can see beyond our own perspective—in order to understand all perspectives.
Transcending the limitations of the egoic mind, and the delusions, insecurities, and selfishness it can cause, helps to bring us closer to the truth in any situation.
The Global Cost of Selfishness
Both individually and collectively, selfishness leads to self-destruction.
Evil is not destructive of good alone; it also destroys itself.”
I Ching
The pandemic demonstrated how interconnected we truly are; what happens in one part of the world, regardless of how far away, can quickly impact us all. For example, as people are forced to continue encroaching on wildlife in order to survive, there is the constant threat of new zoonotic viruses.
The growing problem of income inequality, which is a result of human greed, is having a devastating impact on the environment. Poverty is often at the root of overpopulation and deforestation, and those who live in poverty are hit the hardest by climate change. In order to protect our precious ecosystem, people in all countries must have access to basic medical care, birth control, public education, living wages, modern infrastructure/waste management systems, and sustainable agricultural practices.
Look upon the poorest, for what they need is what the world needs in order to be saved.
In the midst of our ecological and extinction crisis, we are being challenged to think outside of the conventional views of our ruling institutions.
People are exhausted. The planet is exhausted.
We can’t solve today’s problems with the mentality that created them.
Albert Einstein
Understanding the Benefits of a Unity Consciousness
There is a flow in the Universe; one energy that connects us all.
The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the Universe to know itself.”
Carl Sagan
This flow is beautifully demonstrated when you witness the synergy of a team of individuals working together for a shared vision that goes beyond themselves, or when musicians are playing a song together in tune.
Selfishness disrupts “flow”. We often see this played out in politics, or in the workplace.
Embracing a unity consciousness, believed to be the highest level of consciousness, helps to expand our awareness and improves how we relate to others. We tend to experience more positive emotions and healthier relationships as a result, choosing collaboration over competition, and a win-win mentality, instead of win-lose.
Deep down we all want to be seen, heard, loved, and respected. Negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, mistrust, shame, or anger tend to erode us from the inside out.
All human behavior is either an act of love
Stan Dale
or a cry for love.
Bringing down our barriers to love deepens our connection with the Universe. The mysterious force that created the Universe is within us all—and connects us all. The most profound insights and answers can come to us when we silence our thoughts and go inward.
Many of us sense that we are experiencing both an individual and collective awareness/consciousness. As we align our lives with our deepest priorities and what brings meaning to us (this is unique to each individual), we will experience the miraculous. The Universe is intelligent and communicates with us through synchronicities, coincidence, music, art, books, movies, relationships, life experiences, and sometimes from the most unexpected places.
Synchronicity is an ever present reality for those who have eyes to see.”
Carl Jung
Whatever it is we want to attract, we must become first. We are being called to make a conscious choice to support the things we wish to see in the world, and to not support the things we don’t. Every day we are manifesting and co-creating our experiences by what we choose to put our attention and focus on.
It is the small choices we make in our daily lives that can reshape the world around us, and lead to big results over time.
Change on a local level can, and often does, lead to global change.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.
Chief Seattle
Connie Pillon 