Dear Common Awakening Community, 

Another week of violence across our world shattered our hearts, from shootings in Kansas City to unrest and raids in Gaza. As the chaos of our world increases, so may your fear and worry about what is happening in our world and its impact on what matters to you the most. Our world stands on the precipice of dramatic change in the coming years, as predicted by many spiritual, economic, and political forecasters. 

Weeks like this one remind us that rapid change and unfolding chaos are already here.

Leaning into the edge of change is uncomfortable. It evokes fear, anxiety, worry, and overwhelm. We are patterned for predictability and certainty, and we avoid discomfort. The solution to preparing and steadying ourselves to get beyond our fears and worries is to access an expanded perception that gives us a perspective beyond ourselves. We serve the world when we get beyond the fears that hold us back.

This week one of the individuals who tackled one of the Kansas City shooters described an expanded experience in terms of an immediate inner response of what to do. A few years ago, a friend of mine was held up at gunpoint. In the midst of her fear, she described a sudden expanded state of immense compassion and love rising in her. At the moment of my son’s death, I entered an expanded experience of light and knew unequivocally that a larger movement was at work. 

This is the power of an expanded state in real, live action. It gives us a radical perspective in the midst of everything falling apart so we can perceive with hope what is coming forward.

A recent study describes how worry and fear about the pandemic (health), the economy, and global warming can serve as either constructive motivators or destructive paralyzers. What makes the difference between constructive and destructive fear or worry is our position, perception, and perspective. Expanded experiences support us to encounter our worst fears and biggest worries in a way that circumvents the ruminating mind and places us at the edge of change. We discover a fresh perspective beyond ourselves that readies us to be a constructive part of the unfolding changes in our world and innovates a path forward.

You may be carrying with you a worry about what is happening in our world, and you are ready to let go of being run by fear. This is what we work with in our upcoming Expanded State retreats. You bring the one thing, whether it be a worry, fear, challenge, or circumstance, and you experience an expanded state in order to grow beyond your limitations. You get to live beyond what holds you back, and you ready yourself for the changing world so that you are the very “change you wish to see in the world (Gandhi).”

In solidarity,

Annie

P.S. This week, try out the audio practice to work with one of your worries or fears about what is happening in the world. Take about 5 minutes to get a sense of what an expanded state at our retreat is like. Try it out and notice what you experience. Then consider taking the next step and join our April retreat. You belong with us! We all have one thing we carry with us that expanded states can transform. It’s time to let go of what is destructive worry and be part of constructive change.