Personal Apocalypse

Recently I have been enjoying asking people how their overall experience of life has been during 2013. It is truly amazing to hear about the incredible diversity of experience available within such a small area on this enormous planet of potential. Lately, I often hear of an overall increase in life’s ‘intensity’ expressed back to me. This is a very common theme I observe and also personally navigate through within my own life experience. This past week the intensity has been manifesting itself as a deep revealing, an uncovering of sorts. The truth is bursting forth – lies no longer able to suppress truth’s tidal healing force. Truth is always being shared with us; the question is whether we have the awareness to recognize it.

I am open and reflective when I hear stories about an individual’s actions that run contrary to my perception of them. I recognize that there are always two sides to every story and both sides carry some measure of responsibility. I also recognize that we create images of people in our minds and these images do not always accurately reflect their character in other contexts (related to the “Fundamental Attribution Error“). When a story I am told presents a different character than the one I have personally experienced, I have to make an effort to not let that story influence my perceptions of them – I do not even know for sure if the information is accurate. I remember the strong influence context and situation have on how all individuals behave. People are also changing in each and every moment; I am not the same person as I was a year ago, a month ago, or even a day ago. This idea opens me to the potential that someone is different, not necessarily that they are different. We still need to form images of people in order to interact in a consistent manner, all I mean is that it is important to keep those images flexible.

The definition of “Apocalypse” is an uncovering, a lifting of a veil, or a revelation. Over the past week I have had multiple instances of people bringing information to my attention relating to particular people in my life, totally contradictory to my image of them. I choose to be a very trusting person and it gives me a lot to meditate on when I am being told I cannot trust someone I have perceived as okay to trust. Do I continue being open and trusting, or do I start to build walls and reserve my trust? Perhaps I am experiencing a personal Apocalypse and all that is false is in fact being revealed to me.

I practice expanding my awareness to recognize the shadow we all carry within us, for it comes in many disguises. I hear it in the way we talk to each other. I see it in the way we treat our home, Mother Earth. I feel it in the collective pain of our global brothers and sisters. We want to run from it. We want to ignore, suppress, and hate it – but none of that will make it go away. We try to get to the light by going through the light, when in fact we need to squarely face and illuminate the darkness. By knowing myself and becoming familiar with my own shadow, I expand my ability to trust in myself. My ability to trust myself is reflected in my ability to trust others as they are parts of me, challenging me to step more fully into my personal power, to feel into my intuition about the moment, to create balance and boundaries, to forgive and to love.

The process of forgiving is the process of releasing and healing past wounds from our relationships. This does not mean that we continue to accept and tolerate the destructive actions of others in our lives. We are always free to release that which no longer serves our highest purpose, whether that is a part of our past or a particular person. Love and accept the core of every being as their essential core is also yours. See and feel past the layers of past programming, surface level behaviours, and egoic expressions. This has been a key to my healing process of forgiveness. What do the people in your life mirror back to you? What do their words, actions, and behaviours show you about yourself?

I will continue to trust others because it is the only thing that feels right to me. The expression of this trust carries with it the confidence that I will recognize when and how I am to act in each moment as it unfolds, whether that be in complete vulnerability or reserved caution. In the words of one of my brothers – trust always, and if that trust is broken, trust that that was what needed to happen. <3

Keep dreaming!

Skye