“The answer to external chaos is to deepen your internal resolve. Do that now.” (1)
I just watched the BBC News and a roundtable participant said that the floods in Australia were of Biblical proportions, which made you remember that the end times are here and reminded us to get religion, if we didn’t already have it.
BBC News? Give me a break.
But nonetheless, it looks like we’re in the thick of it. What is the impact of reaching a point in our history when Earth changes are actually happening, are affecting the lives of millions, and are causing even the dedicated to question what is occurring?
The word I would use for it is cognitive dissonance. Wikipedia says that “cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding conflicting ideas simultaneously.” What are examples of conflicting ideas? We are safe/we are not safe. The galactics are helping/the galactics are not helping. We are headed for heaven/we are headed for hell.
How does one handle the cognitive dissonance that arises at a time like this?
Assuming that one actually wants to manage cognitive dissonance and not that one wants to yield to it and move by steps toward becoming a basket case:
Cognitive dissonance drives us deeper into the field of consciousness that we are. That’s why so many people have spiritual experiences as an outcome of cognitive dissonance: because they’re obliged to dig deeper to get underneath it. Digging deeper, they may find the treasure buried in the field.
Sometimes the question that helps me get underneath dissonance is: Who am I underneath all this?
Given that answering this question is an operation in consciousness, any description I use that draws on words with physical meanings must be a metaphor.
For instance, if I say I “dig deep,” well, I don’t actually dig.
So providing that we realize we’re obliged to speak metaphorically:
I reach down, deep into myself, and find out where I am with the matter in question. When I find out, I feel calmed again.
So here I am digging down deep with the Earth changes and this is what arises for me.
I chose to be here now. Ten minutes from now I may be swept away in a flood of water or fall to an earthquake. Nevertheless I’m not moving from this spot, which it seems to me is where I was intended to be. (You may feel differently.)
No matter what occurs, I choose to remember that I’m eternal. Though my body can and will drop away, I as a personality can and will never die.
Moreover, I know that death is painless (2) and I choose to remember that too. I will die some day. And, when I do, it’s almost predictable that I’ll protest. I allow myself some room to go through that process however I do.
For the rest, I intend to serve – in whatever capacity presents itself to me. I’ve led a good life and enjoyed what life has to offer. I drank fully at the spring of experience and did everything I wanted to. The rest of my life is not about me and what I want. It’s about serving the larger Plan. What I need to do where I am is look around me and see how I can serve.
Now I look again and find that the dissonance has fallen away. I am “restored to Self,” calm again. My anxiety has fallen away. I feel certain of who I am in the matter once more. I’ve gotten underneath the dissonance.
When cognitive dissonance strikes again, I’ll repeat the process. I’m not the victim of circumstances. I’m not helpless before my fate. I’m capable of choosing how best to serve the situation I find myself in. That choice in that moment is the only important thing to me.
Footnotes
(1) Council of Light, “The Most Beautiful Story Never Written,” Sept. 30, 2008, at https://www.heartlight.ca/council/latest
(2) This passage originally read “not painless.” That was a typographical error. On death being painless, see “Death is Painless; Most People Do Not Suffer,” at https://www.angelfire.com/space2/light11/nmh/death1.html#painless