As I write this, our election day in the U.S. looms, with all of the potential fear, anger and chaos that might occur, no matter who wins. The Covid-19 pandemic in the U.S. is well into its third wave, with no let-up in sight. Russian crime groups have hacked into the computers of U.S. hospitals, making treatment impossible for some patients, and life even worse for exhausted healthcare workers. The latest GDP report shows signs of economic recovery, but unemployment numbers are double what they were when the pandemic began. The wildfires in California have doubled in size in the last few days and approximately 70,000 residents have been ordered to evacuate in Orange County alone. Hurricanes continue to batter a storm-weary Gulf Coast.
Every one of these situations is the result of a worldview issue that no longer fits reality, and perhaps never did. Examples include White supremacy, climate denial, and buying into the political privileges of wealth. If you are watching TV or reading the news, you might assume that the world is going to hell in a handbasket. You may think that there is nothing you can do and that there is nothing that can stop these trends.
You must not give into despair and hopelessness, no matter how bad things look at times. An unknown Persian Sufi poet taught, “This too shall pass.” Abraham Lincoln recounted in a speech in 1859; “It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: ‘And this too, shall pass away.’ How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction!”
Hope is the antidote to despair, and what gives me hope is that there are many things going on below the media radar that do not make news. These efforts are the results of visionaries. I have been particularly interested in groups that are committed to shifting our collective consciousness in ways that care for all living things and the planet. There are many approaches and they each contribute to collaborative transformation. The Global Coherence Initiative, co-sponsored by HeartMath and the Institute of Noetic Sciences meets online regularly with thousands of people in shared meditative practices with a focus on compassionate care, cooperation and peace. Pivot Projects is a group of over 200 people from around the world with expertise in artificial intelligence economics, job creation, climate science, spirituality and public health who meet in teams to develop projects on the local and regional level to create a healthy prosperity recovery for people and the planet. The Global Consciousness Institute approaches supporting the shift view with a commitment to applied research and the aim of educating leaders in a holistic way. All of these efforts are others like them are places where Edgewalkers feel right at home.
Edgewalkers are visionary and literally have visions. And we need visionaries more than ever right now. What enhances your ability to be a visionary? To begin with, you have to care about the future. It helps to have a regular contemplative practice that connects you to whatever is Transcendent for you. Time in silence and time in nature have been an essential part of visionary practices for millennia. If a vision or spiritual guidance comes, it is essential to write it down in order to ground it in the material world. Share your vision with trusted others and know that if you are given a vision, you will also be given the means to manifest it. If you aren’t sure how to get started, we recommend Martin Rutte’s Project Heaven on Earth (www.projectheavenonearth.com).
We’d love to hear your perspective on visions and being visionary. Please feel free to share your vision of the future as we emerge from these challenging times and build a more loving world that works for all.
Photo credit: Darius Bashar from Unsplash
I truly believe we are undergoing a collective awakening, but at present, we are sitting in the void, not knowing where we will be on the other end of this large-scale transition. Sitting in the discomfort for right now, knowing the dawn is coming, is a powerful practice.
Dear Judi, You are raising an essential skill; when a vision needs to be created, and it needs to be shared in a way that brings everyone together.. This has been a core aspect of my working life as a manager,. I have always found that when an organisation has a clear vision its success is inevitable, and when it doesn’t succeed you need to revisit the vision for it is rarely easy to create. It has to be universal in scope, inclusive in its impact, and engender a sense of enjoyment and fun in application for all. It is unfortunately not sufficient on its own though, for it also needs a supporting structure of strategy, plans and objectives to succeed, and a visionary must be aware of them, not in detail but in outline. When these aspects are in alignment you have solid foundations for a successful outcome.
As a CEO and coach/mentor to many organisations I have always maintained that my core role is to create the environment for success so that others can liberate their talents in meeting the shared objectives. For those in business it means being aware of the links between vision, strategy, plans and objectives; for each level determines the feeling created by the higher level. A lack of understanding of each of these and the key role it plays in defining the boundaries of the step below is essential, because a limited vision limits each step below in determining how we go about creating the means to achieve our vision. So, a visionary must be aware of their capacity to open to the universal, to consider every impact our vision may have for ALL life, and ensure it contains enjoyment. In advising a division of a global company how to improve its performance I invited it to tell me what its vision was; they gave me their marketing strap line which I quickly rejected and asked again, to be told that it wasn’t their role to create a vision, it was the Global CEO or main board. Knowing I couldn’t approach them I asked the team to humour me and consider what it might be. It took several frustrating hours for them to produce a vision which, although not satisfactory, I used to demonstrate how it affected their strategy by asking for a number of different strategies to deliver their vision. They struggled with this task too so I offered five different strategies to achieve it, and they rejected all but one – because the others “didn’t feel right”. I knew at the outset this would happen because I already realised what their reward system was for performance, and it was clearly a sales led operation. What they couldn’t understand was that every other aspect of their operations was ignored by this strategy and felt devalued because they couldn’t link their performance to “sales”, and the wider mood was therefore frustration with a poor remuneration for the essential other routines that sustain sales.
A vision containing a high energy emotional field will inspire everyone to contribute to its success. A sound complimentary strategy will create the supporting infrastructure, and sensible achievable planning will enable its delivery. It takes all of these to create the environment for the successful realisation of a vision. What always lifted me was when someone deep in the organisation, often a cleaner would say something along the lines of, “My boss has been talking about this vision thing but what is unusual is that when I hear other managers talking about it too, they use different words but they mean the same. That is different to anything we have heard before because normally they say the same thing but don’t mean it, now they say different things but it means the same, and we can relate to that!” It is matched by their cheerful application to the task they are doing and you realise how that is true for many others around them. The test of a good vision us that when you share it with anyone, they say, “Wow, wouldn’t I love to work there too!”
Fellow Edgewalkers
The approach that I’ve taken over the past 49 years is to introduce people to contemplative practice through the door of personal development – self-improvement, and intuition training. The shared vision is that as each of us shift from fear and survival to an expanded awareness of our authentic self we become a little more compassionate. It is my hope and belief that as we each raise our consciousness we recognize how interconnected all life is. It is my intention to provide the tools that people can use to know the truth and see through the cultural media hypnosis.
Thanks, Judi, for pulling the focus forward! We’re in a threshold time, and the call is to build the new!