It’s the time of year to reflect on the major events of the past twelve months and how they will possibly affect humanity’s very survival. While the media narrative is focused on mostly external threats we are losing sight of mental well-being that will equally determine our capacity of dealing with the major challenges ahead.
The sages of old and the great Mystics teach us that God expresses himself in and through nature in experiential spirituality. God can only be experienced. He cannot be believed. Religious doctrine mainly tells us what to believe and how to behave but possibly it’s biggest sin has been in elevating man as a separate entity from a nature that had to be subdued and conquered.
The spiritual disconnect
It has inevitably led to a spiritual disconnect of modern man who sees the hill as a mineral resource, the indiginous plant and tree as a threat to monocultured agriculture, the animal as expendible if it cannot be put to domestic use and the rivers and seas as a resource for harvesting fish.
Within our lifetime we are therefore seeing the largest extinction of species since the Mesozoic era (252-266 million years ago with the multiple effects of climate crisis, desertification, deforestation, burning of fossil fuels, factory and monoculture farming all playing their part in this mass extinction.
We are just beginning to see the first signs of climate impact on food chain supplies, and what it could ultimately mean for the survival of future generations. Coffee, a must-have drink in most western countries, could soon become a luxurious rarity. Already many coffee bean producers are having trouble with harvests because of extreme drought and rain periods caused by climate change. Some of the world’s major staple food regions will in less than one generation be unable to produce food for ten billion hungry people if water shortage and desertification continues at the current pace.
Dr Florian Schierhorn, research associate at the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies, cites latest research showing maize yields in the world’s major breadbaskets under increasing pressure worldwide as a result of climate change.
We are an integral part of nature
It is part of modern man’s delusion that he sees himself as external to nature, failing to realize that he/she is an integral part of creation and that the way he lives, impacts and shapes the world. The bottom line: If we don’t change the way we live, think and what we believe, we as a civilization will not survive the next century.
But all hope is not yet lost. A crisis is always a wake-up call that something needs to change. In 1987 the world signed the landmark Montreal Protocol phasing out the production of ozone depleting substances. A report in nature magazine reveals that if nothing had been done, many of the world’s plants would have disappeared by today, destroyed by harmful UV rays piercing through the earth’s protective ozone layer.
So, if humanity could do what it did it 1987, why has it so far lost at least 15 years in seriously addressing climate change? The reason is that a large portion of educated, well-meaning and decent people are being brainwashed by grievance culture that thrives on rage, negativity, and hate. We are finding ourselves in an era where values and common norms of decent behaviour and kindness have fallen by the wayside. The basic tenets of science are being questioned with the environmental and climate protection movements becoming part of the culture wars.
The big brainwash of grievance culture
Negative news sells and generates advertising revenue. The tabloids, and the Twitter feeds are constantly feeding the minds of millions of people around the world with “junk” and false information. If we feed our bodies with junk food we will become ill and it is the same way with feeding the mind. A mind constantly in anger, fear, greed and anxiety will eventually also impact the physical body.
If your mind has been hijacked by toxic emotions, you are unable to reflect and think rationally. If you are fearful your instinctual or reptilian survival mode part of the brain will have been triggered into fear and flight mode. You will believe the strangest of conspiracy theories spun by the tabloids. One of the recent ones: Meghan Markle a sleeper agent of the U.S. government while another that Harry and Meghan were secret British agents wanting to recolonise America?!
Depression and anxiety has become endemic
It might be funny but there are people who actually believe what they read and want to believe. Depression and unhappiness has become endemic in our culture. It is human nature to compare with others. Millions of people feel deeply unhappy, a failure and inadequate if they cannot conform to the physical and material attributes of the rich and famous. Could this be one of the reasons why we are seeing so many suicides among teenagers who spend much of their time on social media and following the lives of “influencers”?
The mental health of the collective unconscious mind is under siege. More than ever before we need to teach ourselves and our loved ones on the importance of standing guard at the doorway to the soul. What serves me in a higher sense to become a happier, kinder and better human being? What interactions and conversations with my fellow human beings serve me and others and what do I need to stay away from?
Soul connection forms the essence of BEING. If you are connected to the essence of your BEING and you begin to realize that you are a unique individual, with unique talents and a unique purpose in life, you will begin to live a happier and far more fulfilling life.
The journey of life is a pilgrimage. When you have climbed a hill you realize that you are not yet at the end of your journey. There is another hill to climb, another valley to traverse. Another lesson to learn. Every crisis and a wrong turn in the road can also be an opportunity to turn back, to press the reset button and to start afresh.
Take a walk in nature to clear the mind and to realign body, mind and soul. Take a moment to reconnect with your breathing rhythm and connect that inhaling and exhaling sequence with the breath of life all around you. What do you smell, hear and see. Do you notice the harmonious cadence of the bird song, the fine texture of a leaf, the beauty of a flower growing from the crevice of a rock?
“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.” – Henry David Thoreau –
Reino Gevers – Author – Mentor – Speaker
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