Collective Consciousness 1: Stop the World, I want to get off!

I am deliberately mixing up existing definitions in my use of collective consciousness.... but stick with me!

Admit it..... how often in the last few years, or months even, have you wished that the World would stop so that you could 'catch up with myself'?  I know I often thought it, and my life is fairly 'slow' compared to many.

For the  majority of us .... the 'collective'.... the pace of life over the last generation (yes, that long!) has got increasingly faster and more pressurised. Often from an internal drive to do more, have more, get more. Also, in turn, from external pressures of work, to earn the £££ so that you can do more, have more, get more.

And I'm not just talking about 'stuff' like houses, cars, gadgets, but also about experiences.... which have been my guilty pleasure over the last many years. I am not writing this about 'you', I am writing this about 'us'.

And over these last few years, how many times have you wished for a 'time-out'? Breathing space to re-group, re-evaluate, re-assess. 

I'm deliberately using 're' above, because I'm sure you've already 'grouped', 'evaluated' and 'assessed' when making your initial big decisions and life plans.

And probably you were younger then, with different priorities and values.

And then came along the 'always-on' shift in technology. 

And an addiction. Addicted to checking your phone, your email, your social media account(s).... note the plural in that!

No longer able to leave work and switch off, because you're keeping an eye on work emails, just in case something urgent cropped up.

No longer giving your brain the down time that it needs. No longer giving your body's systems chance to quieten, to lessen the surge of adrenaline and cortisol running around your body, putting you into a constant state of 'fight or flight', a state which is meant to be short-term.

The exhausting, relentless, stress and pressure.

Oh, if only the World would stop!

Give me a break, let me breathe, let me sleep, let me move my body in different ways, let me re-look at what is important to me.

I'm fairly sure that, like me, you've had those thoughts.

I'm lucky in a way, I chose to leave the hectic life 3 years ago to follow my dream of doing something that I love, which fulfills me, and which has less stress. I choose to live a simpler life. But it still has it's stresses, as self-employment always does. 

Before I continue, I need to share some factual info about 'collective consciousness'.. so that I can then add my insight!

[Here comes the factual bit..  thanks to Wikipedia

Collective consciousness, collective conscience, or collective conscious (French: conscience collective) is the set of shared beliefs, ideas, and moral attitudes which operate as a unifying force within society. The term was introduced by the French sociologist Émile Durkheim and  various forms of what might be termed "collective consciousness" in modern societies have been identified by other sociologists, such as Mary Kelsey, going from solidarity attitudes and memes to extreme behaviors like group-think, herd behavior, or collectively shared experiences during collective rituals and dance parties.]

Now, as you probably know, I work with energy, and believe that we are all connected energetically, and there is plenty of scientific research on this now. And I believe, through my own experience, and that of others, in the power of our thoughts to manifest what we desire.

Mary Kelsey also writes about 'group-mind' and 'hive mind'.

What if, the stresses of the crazy run-away World that we've all been living in the last 10-20 years have finally reached a tipping point where enough of us have been thinking... Stop the World, I want to get off?!

And what if, that has now manifested as Covid-19, literally turning the World off?

It's perhaps not the ideal scenario we would have envisioned for stopping the World, but in manifesting our desires we have to be prepared for it showing up in a form we hadn't imagined... and then make the best of it.

I know that for many of you reading this, that the World hasn't stopped for you because you're a key-worker, one of our much needed front-line people keeping everyone well, safe, fed, cared for and protected, so I'm sure right now you're thinking 'if only'! My heart goes out to yours in the deepest of gratitude <3 

But for many of the rest of us, we have an opportunity right now to re-group, to re-evaluate life.

What do you really value in life?

What is really important to you?

Is it changing? How will you use this unexpected gift of time to change your life? To change your family's life? To change the World?

I am sure that the 'collective consciousness' of humanity is shifting as a result of this shared experience. We rarely have global crises any more, so why this one, and why now, if not to serve as the 'awakening' that humanity needs, the long talked about shift in consciousness to a new way of living.

We will emerge, I sincerely hope, as a kinder society, less focused on continual expansion, and more focused internally and locally. More focused on community and our contribution to society and those around us.

More connected to Mother Earth, less obsessed about travelling to far flung places and happier growing our own fruit and veg and exploring what's on our doorstep instead of expecting to get out of season fruit shipped in from the other side of the world.

I have loved to travel and explore and have been very fortunate to do so over the years, but I also know that during those years I missed what was around my local area. I am re-evaluating what I will focus on when we're allowed out again.

I know that I am also very fortunate to have moved to a beautiful part of Scotland and am blessed every day by views which many people go on holiday to enjoy, and I give thanks for that every day, so perhaps it's a little easier for me in some respects.

I know that it's only a few of you too that will be in a scenario which has gifted you lots of time and a secure income during this experience, but I encourage you to carve out some time for yourself (and with your family/partner etc) to reflect on whether you really want the world, your world, to go back to how it was before.

Perhaps YOU are part of the solution the World needs to complete it's shift :) 

Whenever we make changes to habits, it's often like stretching an elastic band. Sometimes we can stretch it and break it one go, the new habit 'sticks' straight away and we never go back to our old ways.

And other times (quite often!), that elastic band stretches, then relaxes as we return to the old, then we stretch it again, and return, until eventually we get the breakthrough and the snap!

Let's hope that, as a World, we don't need to keep going through this kind of scenario! Let's make sure that elastic band snaps and we emerge form world-wide lock-down committed to a new way of life.

Thank you for reading this far!

I have more musings to come on the collective consciousness and how to make the most of this strange time that we find ourselves in  so pop back to the blog soon :) 

Dawn x