Rubber-band snaps

Many agree that 2016 was tough. So into the second month of 2017, I have people still asking me what 2017 would bring. My best imagery, I tell them…Think of a rubber band being pulled in two opposing directions, the extreme right and the extreme left. Both sides refuse to let go or relax their hold and the rubber band goes really taunt, stretched to the limit. During the holidays, the tension became too great and as we entered 2017, the rubber band splits, with one force of the energy moving upward, and the other downward — two opposing trajectories that are as strong and forceful.

So this is what is happening in the world now. And in a microcosm, also what is happening in many of our own lives. We are forced to contend with extremely opposing forces: the stress of living in our world today versus the demands of work-life balance; the busy-noisy mind controlled by the ego versus the demand for silence; the disbelief at national and world leaders governing styles totally against the norm; the fast-paced technological influences in our lives versus the demand for quiet serene nature; the need to grow and evolve versus certain outmoded belief systems that we still battle with; the dire pollution of mind and planet versus the intense need to find solutions to clean up and look to sustainable ways.

And our personal issues are really merely reflective of the bigger energy flow happening in the world today. There is a wisdom saying: “What is above is as below, what is inside us is likewise a reflection outside.” And the snap of the rubber band is the symbol of that change we knew was coming, and is actually here. And we panic? On the contrary…instead, we breathe deeper, create greater resolve and move the direction we want to go with clarity and purposeful minds and hearts.

So let us study the rubber band snapping. This would symbolize two directions we each can take in our lives. The movement upward is a shift towards the higher, better, holistic, constructive way of looking at life in good and positive lenses. 2017 is this “tough, pushupward” year. Again, let me try to give you an image: it’s like a plane that is just above the ground trying to take- off and lift- off after having been taxing in the tarmac all of 2016. Now, in its lift- off phase, so much energy is needed to push itself against gravity. An airline engineer once told me that the most crucial part of any flight is the 15 minutes from take- off due to the tremendous energy required. So all engines are in use, seat belts are regulatory, and all passengers take their seats as the liftoff brings them on an inclined plane, and we whisper prayers for a safe flight.

Last year, I wrote an article about the shifting of dimensions. Feedback by friends was that it was too deep and some couldn’t understand what I was trying to say. Let me concretely try to give some examples. The third dimension represents the mind set or construct we have of the physical world we have created: our way of life, institutions, governments, cultures, societal beliefs and rules. It’s been governed by ego fulfillment needs: money, power, beauty, sexual and sensual enjoyment. It is obviously unsustainable — just look at the world’s health- related problems, poverty and injustice, planetarial pollution and greeda driven societies. Take the example of our own physical body — we eat unhealthy food, keep an unsatisfied job we hate because we need to make money to keep the whole cycle going, are angry and resentful, and totally forgetting life and what it entails. Then we get sick.

So, we work for change as we look to heal, shift, understand, study and move towards new directions. This slow shifting is the fourth dimension where we navigate the emotions involved in shifting, looking at the problems, gaps and unhealed parts. In simple language, it is diving into the shadows to bring the “muck” out into the light before the new direction is taken. So with our sickness, we begin to try to change our lifestyle; choose people and activities that are more life- affirming than others. Suddenly, a walk in the park begins to have more meaning than that mad deadline we want to keep.

This period is moving through the fourth dimension (as we tried to understand our intuition, dreams, subconscious). Suddenly, there is a resolve to change, quit that job or modify the career, bring in more work- life balance, eat healthy, love deeper. Body-mind-heart-spirit begins to try to integrate. Suddenly we may find a deep desire to impact our family, company, society and world with something (!), anything (!) good for the majority. Suddenly, we have embraced a holistic worldview that is collaborative, inclusive and sustainable.

So now with the rubber-band snap, we move to the fifth dimension, which is characterized by conscious, awake, enlightened choices to create a more humane world that nurtures the planet. The upward choices also mean we need to do this with collaborations of people who are like-minded, whose values we share, whose energies we are aligned with. But the way to go forward and upward needs us to move through an existing world where we will continue to see the “destruction” of old forms dramatically changing. It is change at its most intense…brings fears, suffering, anger, pain, agony, too. I think the hardest hit would be those who cannot roll with the fast- paced changes, who cling to the past, cling to only what is tangible. And we will find, in the chaos of the exterior, that the one and only control we will really have is to begin from a truly personal space: to take the path of integrating one’s body, heart, mind to spirit. Go inside for now and check what’s there. If you choose to go out to meet the world’s crazy spin, be sure you are steady and centered.