A crisis is calling us…
An essay from Sage Robbins, for Maria Shriver's Sunday Paper
At some point in each of our lives we have all been humbled and knocked to our knees by an event, whether a diagnosis, a loss of a loved one, loss of a job, the end of a relationship, or some other kind of painful emotional event.
Even though these circumstances are painful, they create an opening for us to perceive life differently. Life certainly has its way with us ALL. This commonality is where we ALL meet and connect as humans. No matter where we’re from, what our race, religion, relationship status, or economics…if we are alive, at some point in our lives we will or have experienced loss and/or pain in some form.
The events in the world over the past number of months have reminded us that none of us are in control, and we have no clue what tomorrow will bring. If someone would have told us a few months ago that the whole world would collectively be quarantined, thousands upon thousands worldwide would be protesting, with riots as well, no one would have believed it would even be possible!
Collectively we are having to create changes in the way we actually live, learn, relate, connect, communicate, and work on a day-to-day basis. Life is ever evolving – we must as human beings ADAPT and EVOLVE ourselves beyond our own limiting structures and beliefs to become our fullest potential no matter what circumstances are happening in the outside world.
Our regurgitated thoughts of anger, frustration, fear, worry, upset, or hate creates discord not only internally within us, but perpetuates the discord in the outside world around us and in those we love.
Part of this human experience is that we are all called to take responsibility for our experience of life, including our own happiness, which doesn’t depend on the outside environment being any different. Clarity of mind, love, and joy is an inner state of being – it’s up to each of us. We have the choice each day to be a beautiful human, and have that internal essence radiate out to be a blessing to life.
Crisis is here to wake us up. Crisis is pattern interrupt…it is a turning point…a time of change, a redirection, and calls us ALL to rise above the noise, to see the bigger picture, and find a higher meaning. Crisis calls us ALL differently but universally, to let go of the structures, the beliefs, and the stories that are no longer needed, so we can see each other and life with a renewed perspective.
There are many external voices: social media, news, politicians, etc., but there is also another voice that we don’t always quiet-down enough to tune into – our own inner voice. Even in the midst of chaos, when we truly still our minds, we connect to our true spiritual nature – the voice that guides us all home. It is wise beyond all of our understanding, and always reveals a higher truth.
If we want life to change, it is up to each of us to let go of what’s no longer serving. What beliefs, habits, stories, and/or unnecessary emotionality or drama is robbing you from the beauty of life that is right in front of you?
IF we really dig, many of the beliefs we call our own didn’t come from us in the first place. They were picked up or learned from those around us, from someone who may have been hurting, in pain, perhaps enraged, or like ourselves, possibly in reaction to their own past experiences, but with no reality or connection to what is needed in the moment today.
True change begins with each of us…recognizing the world is our mirror. Politicians, neighbors, spouses, our family…they are all our mirrors, showing us ourselves, or parts of ourselves we don’t even want to admit are there. We all so innocently think it is them, until we have the courage to turn the finger around and see it is our own selves that needs to change. If we believe a certain individual is a horrible human being, that he or she is angry, immature, or that they lie and manipulate all the time, we have no capacity whatsoever to change them or their behavior. But we do have the ability to change how we perceive a situation – all steeped within a sweet gentle willingness to actually see ourselves.
Am I angry internally right now that they are angry, and am I having my own internal temper tantrum that just appears different on the surface? When or who do I manipulate? Am I possibly just more smooth and less overt about it? When do I lie, who do I lie to, or do I lie to myself in order to maintain my own identity or a moral superiority that makes me feel better about myself?
When we have a willingness to accurately see our own selves, life all of sudden becomes less crazy and hostile. We recognize something that we have missed all along…it is ALL me. Everyone this universe has placed on my path is here to teach me, show me, and illuminate the areas within my mind and being that need to be healed, understood, forgiven, or simply rooted up and pulled.
As we all know, nothing in the external world is permanent, besides the unchangeable life that flows through all of existence. Even now amongst what seems to be chaos, flux, and unrest, the breeze keeps blowing, the birds keep chirping, the waves keep crashing, the sun keeps rising—all of existence happens with or without us. This invisible force, “life” that flows through all, and connects us all, is here, and always will be no matter what we do, create, or destroy…
Life is precious beyond all of our comprehension, no matter what appearance is happening in the external world. May we all give thanks to the divine source that breathes us, beats our hearts and gave us the miracle of this precious moment… that we all have the gift to call “our life.”
– Sage Robbins
