So I wrote this article two a half years ago… right when the recession was biting and people were talking serious doom and gloom.

I didn’t feel that way.

I saw something different.

And now, it feels like the right time to share an edited version of this article with a wider audience.

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At any one time, many possible futures are available to us as individuals and as a whole. Times of great change represent both times of great challenge and times of great opportunity.

This is one of those times.

Yes – all the financial upheavals, and the crashing and burning of our current model of economic reality contains great opportunities for creative and innovative change left, right and centre.

This so-called economic crisis is providing the exact prompting we need to change the way we see the world, to change what we value, and therefore to change what we create.

We currently live in a world that has largely existed based on “survival” mode. Either people are focused on doing what they can to survive, or they’re a step or five up the rung doing what they can to make money to ensure their survival is as comfortable as possible.

In terms of the chakras, this is first, second and third chakra stuff. It’s all about material existence – prosperity, security, sexuality, procreation, power, control and will. These are the concerns that have driven humanity for much of it’s existence.

The boom of the last five or so years has been all about “making money”. Buying and selling houses to “make money”. Buying and selling shares to “make money”.  More and more money had to be”made” (credit) in order for people to access it so they could buy the stuff they needed in order to “make money”. It was an unsustainable bubble based on a concept that only exists because we all agree on it’s inherent value – money.

But what the hell is “money”? And why on earth would anyone want to “make” it?

Well doh! So I can buy more stuff, so I can feel secure, so I can quit my job, so I can look after my family, so I can be successful, so I can achieve…

If I’ve got more money then I’d be happy, then I’d be free, then I’d be able to…

These are the ideas that we’ve held to be true, and we’ve sacrificed everything else in the pursuit of “making more money” so we can finally achieve the material existence that we just know will make us happy.

Now, as corporations fail and share prices tumble and people lose jobs… our greatest concern is the effect this is having on “growth”, on “the economy”, on the “unemployment rate”. Yes, there are people who care about people, but the majority of the coverage and concern in the media is over numbers. We’re worried about how we can keep “growth” going, how we can keep the big companies going, how we can maintain the status quo.

But all transformation and change is preceded by destruction and the sooner we can face up to this reality, surrendering to it’s inevitability and embracing the change it heralds, the less painful this transition will be.

Our current focus on shoring up and maintaining the status quo via guarantees and large billion dollar injections of funds is missing the crucial point in the evolution of humanity.

For human beings to survive on this planet, we must change what we value and what we aspire to, and we must change now.

It is time to embrace the ending of the old and make way for the coming of the new. And as with any transformation or change, our willingness to step back and see what is happening so that we can work with the flow of change will determine how much struggle we endure during the process.

It is not enough to “survive” anymore, because surviving will surely kill the planet.

It is time for humanity to thrive, and to do that, we must learn the lessons of the three lower chakras and move up into the fourth chakra – that which bridges the material and the spiritual levels within.

The lessons and learning of this chakra show us how to approach this time of great change, and what we must do to create balance for us, and therefore for our existence upon the Earth.

The fourth chakra is the chakra of the Heart. The heart chakra is:

…related to love and is the integrator of opposites in the psyche: mind and body, male and female, persona and shadow, ego and unity. A healthy fourth chakra allows us to love deeply, feel compassion, have a deep sense of peace and centeredness.

Read those words again and ask yourself if this is the world you want to experience:

• Do you want to live in a world where you feel integrated, and can acknowledge both the light and the dark within?
• Do you want to live in a world where you love deeply, and are deeply loved?
• Do you want to live in a world where you feel compassion for your fellow human beings, and they feel compassion for you?
• Do you want to live in a world where you experience a deep sense of peace and centredness?
• And do you think that you need to “make money” in order to live in that world, be in that world, experience that world?

No?

Then why oh why oh why are we so concerned about whether or not we are “making money” when it has absolutely nothing at all to do with whether or not we live in a world of love, compassion, peace and centredness?

Now is the time for each and everyone of us to open our hearts and know that we are all in this together – one people, one planet, one future.

In this moment of great change and transformation, we are being given an opportunity to Wake Up and shift away from our preoccupation with survival issues like prosperity, security, sexuality, procreation, power, control and will.

We can see what happens when we make these our priorities – we only have to read the news to see what kind of world these things create.

Now is the moment to let go of our need for prosperity, to let go of our need for security, to let go of our need to control sexuality and procreation, to let go of our need to have power over others, exercise control over others, force our will upon others.

We don’t need to live this way anymore. This time is over.

And in the letting go, in the surrender, we create space for a new way of being to arise.

A way of being where our primary concern is not whether or not we’re making money, but whether or not we are acting in Love. Because we are one people living on one planet, and as hearts open up the world over, we become one heart – your heart opening to my heart opening to another’s heart, opening and opening and opening.

This is not an airy fairy wishy washy pie-in-the-sky concept.

When the heart opens, you will know it.

You will feel it.

It is as obvious and as real as the difference between walking around with your eyes shut and walking around with your eyes open.

Suddenly you can See.

Truly See.

And with this sight, it becomes clear in every second of every moment exactly what needs to be done. For all that needs to be done in each moment is for us to act in Love.

Towards the car that cuts you off in traffic in the morning.

Toward the boss that loads you up with deadlines when you’ve asked to leave early for family reasons.

Towards the partner that forgets to go to the supermarket and pick up dinner.

The children that race round and round the house when all you want to do is chill out.

The friend that stands you up at the movies.

The terrorist that bombs you.

The army that invades you.

Because when we respond in Love, with Love we are refusing to feed into the drama of the situation. We are able to step into the other’s perspective and see where they are coming from. We are able to let go of our need to be right. We are able to see the bigger picture and work toward a solution that is best for all.

Yes, it is challenging, yes it takes practice, but the rewards are huge.

In every moment, when our hearts are open, we accept and work with what life throws at us.

We don’t allow other people to walk all over us. We’re clear about our boundaries, and we’re willing to accept that they may not respond in love (yet).

We let go of what we think we want, of what we expect, of what we want to happen and instead relax into what is happening right here and right now.

There are moments of contraction, when the heart closes and you feel a contraction within… and all of a sudden you are back in a world ruled by survival issues and you know something has shifted and it feels so damn awful to be back here…

Ah… you remember, the heart needs to open.

Back and forth the shift goes, as each human being learns a new way to be, a new way to live. A way that takes practice, and intention. But just know that it’s happening all over the world – that other people are working on opening their hearts and living from a place of love, compassion and peace.

As our world shifts and changes at an ever increasing pace, this is all that truly matters – whether or not our hearts are open and we feel the connection that exists between all of us.

It doesn’t matter how much money you have in the bank, or how much your house is “worth”, or what your shares are doing or whether or not you’ll get a pay rise this year.

It matters how you listen to other people, how you love other people, how you open to other people, how you support other people, how you offer value to other people.

And the beautiful thing is that when this becomes your focus in life, other people will mirror it back to you.

They will listen to you.

They will love you.

They will open to you.

They will support you.

They will offer value to you.

So next time you find yourself worrying, fearing, anxious, freaking out, contracting, closing down, being nasty, gossiping, being righteous, condemning another, fighting back, getting mad, raging at the injustice of it all…

STOP.

Is this what you want to experience?

Take a deep breath, inhaling, exhaling… inhaling, exhaling… finding the gateway for surrendering into the moment, connecting with your heart, feeling the inhale open it up bright and wide, feeling the exhale release old patterns and old ways of being.

Come back into that place of love.

Come back into that place of compassion.

Come back into that place of peace.

This is the world we want to create.

This is the world we want to live in.

This is where we want to be.

This is where we can be.

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Two and a half years later… I reckon we’re getting there. I know I am… every day, with work, and practice. May you be too.