The Chrysallis is Forming

Ever clean your house and it just makes you realize how dirty it actually is? Ever wake up from a nap seemingly more tired than you were when you laid your head down? Perhaps you had a bite to eat and now you are even more hungry. You work out after months, and it highlights to you how much your muscles have atrophied. Maybe you've experienced having great sex for the first time in awhile, and suddenly went from never thinking about it, to it's all you think about, and you wonder why it's been so long.

These are all signs of waking up, in a sense. Of becoming more aware. The transition from static to dynamic. From stuck into motion. Our bodies, minds, and spirits will go into a numb slumber if we do not practice with them. They'll adjust as they have to, when we don't pay attention to them, to survive, even if the environment is less than optimal.

Similarly, do you ever do something you feel is good for you, only to emerge feeling worse for it? Also, do you ever focus more on what you don't have, rather than what you do? Do you ever add one too many brushstrokes to a painting you knew in your heart was already complete?

Do you ever find yourself consuming too much, past the point of satisfaction?

If you do, you're not alone. We live in a consumer society, and although it's shifting, everywhere we look around us every day, is part of a system based on material consumption. Though we are becoming ever more conscious of our purchases, there is still a huge "Buy shit you don't need, with money you don't have." advertising machine humming along.

This conditioning pervades our lives in ways we may not even be aware of. (until we are)

I recently experienced this feeling after a recent guitar lesson. I've been actively working with an instructor for 6 months now, and on a rather ordinary Wednesday a month ago, I had a mini-epiphany, or breakthrough. We were discussing music theory, and BAM!, one magical moment caused weeks of progress fits and starts to synthesize in my head. All of a sudden, "I got it". Kinda like a baby realizing it can walk for the first time. This moment then brought my instructor, a brilliant technician on the guitar, back to that innocent time and place when the guitar was a love for him, and not just an obligation.

I was feeling quite satisfied.

Caught up in the high energy of the moment, my instructor started drilling more theory into my head, what was now possible for me to play, and where we could go from here. He basically saw the crack, or opening in my dense "guitar learning armor" and was trying to funnel as much light, or knowledge, as he could while this crack was still open.

Within moments, I was exhausted and the moment was gone. By tapping into new levels of "what I now know", a pandora's box of "what I now don't know" was opened. The old ceiling had become the new floor of possibility. I became keenly aware of how vast my "new guitar world" was, and when I thought about it too much, it was a bit overwhelming.

I had consumed too much.

Once I started thinking about it, I got too much in my mind, and left my heartspace, and I left the present moment. Once I left the present moment, it became about where I am going with my guitar, rather than enjoying where I am with my guitar.

Destination focus rather than journey enjoyment, all that jazz.

I do appreciate my instructor's passion, who is well-intentioned, and simply wants the best for me, in terms of reaching my true potential. And with that in mind, the question is how do we stay "whelmed" without being overwhelmed? How does one become OK with or embody satisfaction rather than needing to be full?

Chew on that for a moment. Do you eat a meal until you're satisfied, or until you're full? Do you eat everything on your plate just because it's there?

Maybe it's time we put a little less on our plate then.

I know my quality of life has gone up dramatically as I have continued to put less on my plate(and it's still a work in progress) literally and figuratively, connect with nature, and simply do things that I love to do, without fear of judgment or care for acceptance from others.

It makes me wonder why I ever cared about things like being accepted for anything other than who I am. It makes me wonder why I ever cared about material things, or ate until I was full, or worshipped to the false idols of things like money. Or why I was so reluctant to make the changes I knew in my heart were true. I was part of the over-consumption problem.

But I did feel those things, and the pain that occurred from being so disconnected, is the same pain that brought this disconnection into my awareness, and thus, helped me re-connect with my true self and choose to be part of the solution.

We live in a consumer and materialistic society, and although it is shifting, many of us are conditioned from birth that more is better, to accumulate, to win the trophy, to compete. It is a society that has utilized popular culture catchphrases such as "keep up with the Joneses", and "bigger is better" as a cause to act, or behave a certain way.

And while peer pressure to act a certain way has always existed in some form, concern for all things image, material gain, and destination-oriented thinking in regards to what one does or who one is, reached its egregious pinnacle during the last decade.

Symptoms of this egoic system include: the Steroids Era in our national pastime baseball, where cheating and lack of integrity were glossed over as record ticket and TV revenues lined corporate pockets; the reckless risk taking on Wall Street and taxpayer bailout; the obnoxious massive national debt/deficit, which has transferred responsibility of out-of-control spending for the past 20 years to next generation's children, and their children, and control exhibited through the attempted reduction of personal freedoms, and a bull market in fear-based marketing: see War on Terror.

'Do as I say, not as I do' seems like an appropriate mantra for the Era.

These are all products and part of the morphic field of the Baby Boomer generation, a generation initially associated with the Peace, Love, and Harmony of the Woodstock Festival. At this time, the 40th anniversary of that festival, I contemplate how this generation as a whole got so disconnected from itself, from the live and let live vibration. And I think about the impending identity crises this generation faces as it comes to grips with its own mortality. And what an opportunity that is, for them, and for humanity. We're ALL responsible for the healing of this planet, and I simply acknowledge how much impact the Boomers have had on popular culture for the past 60 years, and will continue to have as they age.

It's not good or bad, it just is.

We see the old structures embodying these disconnects right before our eyes. There are identity crises occurring everywhere. Wall Street. Politics. Sports. Religion.

The world is changing. The planet is shifting. Welcome to Chaos Theory: An organism through change can either: Adapt, Survive, and Thrive.....or Perish and Die. Choose to be part of the evolution of the new butterfly if you will, or go the way of the bloated caterpillar.

President Obama spared no punches in addressing this phenomenon, when he gave this commencement address at Arizona State in May:

"Other classes have received their diplomas in times of trial and upheaval, when the very foundations of our lives have been shaken, the old ideas and institutions have crumbled, and a new generation is called on to remake the world," he said. He said many graduates will want to grab at what he called "the usual brass rings" -- a who's who list, or a top 100 list, or a big corner office, or an important title, or a nice car. "But at this difficult time, let me suggest that such an approach won’t get you where you want to go; that in fact, the elevation of appearance over substance, celebrity over character, short-term gain over lasting achievement is precisely what your generation needs to help end," he said. When he called on "young people like you to step up" he was quick to add that his definition of young was not necessarily an age but an attitude: "A willingness to follow your passions, regardless of whether they lead to fortune and fame. A willingness to question conventional wisdom and rethink the old dogmas. A lack of regard for all the traditional markers of status and prestige – and a commitment instead to doing what is meaningful to you, what helps others, what makes a difference in this world."

What we are witnessing in this lifetime, maybe even in this here decade, as Bush passed the torch off to Obama, is the changing of the guard from the Love of Power to the Power of Love. Does that sound a little too New Agey? Perhaps, but I see it all around. The Internet is speeding up consciousness. People are being empowered to take personal responsibility for their own lives and own healings, as the old structures and beliefs fail to serve them. People are returning to simpler way of life, a deeper communion to nature/Earth, and finding their passion and following it.

Is there turmoil? Sure there is. With any massive changing of the guard, there is chaos. And to further, those who argue for their limiting beliefs, well, sure enough, they own them. And always will, until they learn what they need to learn from them, to evolve.

Rather than get upset over the overconsumption of the past 30 years, or my times of disconnection, I focus on being my own change, and remind myself to focus again on the caterpillar/butterfly metaphor. Before it metamorphizes into the butterfly, the caterpillar consumes 300x of its body weight on its way to forming its chrysallis. It then sheds 1/2 of its body weight, and becomes this vibrant little flying miracle.

There is hope.

We, as a society, and as a country,....check that....as a human race, are in the process of forming the chrysallis.

We have consumed 300x our weight, and beginning the process of shedding 1/2 of our body.

The caterpillar that is the old paradigms/old belief systems are dying off, no matter how much one may resist it. The question that remains to be seen, is whether enough of the butterfly cells survive and emerge, and the butterfly that is a new world dream recognizes itself as the magnificient, free-flying miracle that it is.

As more and more human beings continue to awaken and connect with who they truly are, the clusters of conscious 'butterfly cells' here and there will grow ever larger. And as the Boomers, who by sheer size have massively affected popular culture their entire existence, undergo their form of mortal chaos/transformation, and re-connect with their true Woodstock-root selves of peace, love, and harmony, a tidal wave of 'butterfly cells' will be the light switch that is flipped, and a form of galactic butterfly representing a new world will recognize itself as such and emerge, and so will a "cosmic global party", that makes Woodstock seem like a nice burp.

A new world is truly upon us.

So how do we all get to this happy place?

There isn't any one way, just your own one true way.

Living with gratitude helps, and I've found out along my way, I don't need something bad to happen to realize what a gift every day is.

For me, I will simply continue to put less on my plate, take what I need and give the rest back, connect and be with nature, help others help themselves, and do the things I love to do.

Peace.

Eric