Recently, A friend and I were hiking and talking about all the difficult things going on in in the world and in our lives. This is what occurred to me during the conversation:

Everything in life is challenging us to get ourselves together. Do you see it?

This pandemic and the lock down have shown a spotlight on all the things that have been simmering under the surface. Collectively, we’ve been forced out of our usual routines. We haven’t been able to distract ourselves in familiar ways and that has brought about a lot of unrest. We finally have time to see those things that have been calling out for our attention - personally and globally.

For me personally, the slowing down of life has been uncomfortable to say the least. I am used to “busyness” taking up a lot of my mental band width. My busyness keeps me from seeing what I need to see to get myself together.

Anything that happens personally also happens on a global level. As nations, as a culture, as an organization, as a family, as a person we are only as healthy as our weakest link, individual, cell, etc. This time is giving us an opportunity to to reevaluate how we define strength and health. It is exposing all the cracks in the machine.

We are faced with many challenges. Do we want to view those challenges as making us stronger or making us victims?

In this tumultuous time period we have seen a lot of our institutions, religions, beliefs and personal behaviors come under scrutiny. Instead of being triggered into negative reactivity can we be triggered into self inquiry? Should we as a population continue to live this way? Can we sustain capitalism in the same way we always have? Can the environment continue to bear the burden of commercialism the way it has this past century? Should our political institutions grow and evolve along with us? Should we approach our mental and physical health the way we always have? How do we want to show up in this world, do we want to be the light or the darkness?

Many gurus and thought leaders keep saying that we are going through a time period of great enlightenment on this planet. I am not sure I agree with that but I do see that something has conspired against us all to push us toward our evolution. It seems like the idea that it is leading us to enlightenment is just positive thinking. There is so much angst and fear how could that be leading to our enlightenment?

Perhaps SEE-ing is the key. If we choose to see the challenges as our road map to salvation instead of seeing them as our burdens, we may be able to overcome them. If we evaluate our challenges through the lense of love instead of fear we can see the positive changes we are being pushed toward.

Take a situation that challenges you and try to think of how that might be calling you to your higher purpose. - A personal example: Lately, I feel like my body is betraying me. I have always been in good health but now my joints ache, most days my working memory is SLOW and foggy, hot flashes are keeping me from a good nights sleep and irritating the crap out of me during the day. - In truth, instead of betraying me my body is calling me to get my act together. My body has been covering my bad behavior for years and it is ready for me to step up. Its tired of unmanaged tension, eating my feelings, bad food, lack of exercise and forgetting sunscreen. I have two choices, I can rise to the challenge and change my behavior or I can complain about it.

I am trying to see the challenges as opportunities for expansion. I am not always very good at it. When I have the time to be creative in my art journal or when I am fortunate enough to walk out in nature I can usually get the mental space I need to put things in perspective.

Earlier in this blog I asked a lot of questions, here are two more for you to think about:
Do you feel like there are more problems in this world than usual?
Do you see those challenges as opportunities for growth or as someone else’s problem?

As always, if you read this far - thank you!

I am still keeping up with #The100dayproject. Here are a few highlights from the past two weeks. If you want to see all the work you can find it here.

XO Beth