The USA has Inflammation (Maybe the whole world!)

The USA has Inflammation

(Maybe the whole world!)

It is inarguable that tempers are rising across the country and have been for quite a while. In a physical body, inflammation is a protective response to infection, illness or injury. According to the ancient health system of Ayurveda, from which our current practice of yoga comes from, inflammation is the result of an accumulation of too much Pitta, or fire in the system. This may be from a combination of lifestyle habits: unbalanced diet, aggravating thoughts, stress, toxins, too much heated activity, frustrations or other impediments to a soothing and calm experience. If it continues over a long period of time without recognizing and changing the harmful patterns in one's life, inflammatory disease could result, such as heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, autoimmune diseases, and premature aging among them.

Of course, the country, as a society, has the qualities of consciousness, just as a person does. It can be called group consciousness or mass consciousness. Therefore, the consciousness we are experiencing as a group affects our life experience on all levels: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. Only if you were a hermit in the woods, never interacting with others or hearing the news, would you be unaffected. All that goes on about us and around us is affecting us. The outrage, the violence, political standoffs, verbal abuses, increasingly violent entertainment, obsessive use of electronics streaming unsavory images, people caught behaving in awful ways, and on and on, all seeps into our lives. It's nearly impossible to avoid. We may become inflamed over and over during a typical day. This energy is added to the mass consciousness.

Something has to give.

And so, the country. The vulnerable, the susceptible, will out-picture the inflammation emanating from the masses. The weakest links will move to release the pressure from the cooker. And we have the outbreaks of cynicism, frustration, rage, and violence.

Before and after the world wars we had long periods of a calmer, more peaceful society. The wars blew out the built-up inflammation. Now we have some small international skirmishes that are barely on our radar. There is no big safety valve to release this build up, not that a war is an acceptable release.

We must evolve to find healthy ways to bring our society to wellbeing. We must enable the release of the anger and inflammation safely, and at the same time learn skills and practices that allow each of us to find peace within.

·        Practice Conscious Communication from the work of psychologist Marshall Rosenberg.

·        Meditate. A practice of meditation allows you to become aware of your knee jerk reactions and emotions so you understand you have a choice how to respond.

·        Limit your exposure to media and information that upsets you. Read about the topic instead of watching images, etc.

·       Take up spiritual/religious studies that cause you to see a greater perspective of life. How we are all inextricably connected, and what affects one affects all.
·       Learn to release your anger in a healthy way such as telling loved ones using 'I' messages, when anger arises stop and drop your attention to your bodily sensations and observe them, get plenty of fresh air and exercise, go for a walk etc. And take care of each other.

By doing the things that create peace within ourselves, we can eventually see it change society as a whole. It doesn't take a majority to do this, just a small but significant percentage can shift everything. Take care of yourself and teach others, spread peace.

What Do We Make of the Abortion Issue Today?

What do we make of the abortion issue? This is one topic you better stay away from at that cocktail party.

Is one side right and one side wrong, really? If so, which side is right? It depends on many factors; how it is perceived by an individual: including but not limited to their faith, beliefs, cultural conditioning, experiences, role model’s views, politicians’ arguments, party affiliations, etc. etc. These all have play into an individual’s response to this subject.

Neither side is trying to be divisive, authoritarian, judgmental, or elitist. Individuals, if we really care to dig deeply, are thinking and deciding out of an abundance of care.

Each side has explored an issue that is quite unsavory, an action that is irreversible with unknowns as to how a woman, or the potential father, will look back and feel about it.

When I was a young mother in my 20s, a friend asked me to drive her to an abortion clinic to get an abortion. She already had three children and found herself pregnant. As I sat in the waiting room, the atmosphere felt thick with tension, with women sitting around staring into space, some softly crying, most very quiet. A sweet looking young girl, maybe 16, sat beside me. She seemed confused. She kept glancing sideways looks at me. Finally, she spoke.

“I’m scared,” she said turning directly to me, her face pinching up. “I’m not sure this is right thing to do. How do I know if this is what I should do?”

Then the tears she'd been trying to hold back came in a downpour, wetting her reddening face. She was alone. I couldn’t imagine how frightening this must be for her. I feebly told her they would take her in first to talk to a counselor, pointing to a door down the hallway, who will help make sure she had all the information to make a good decision. They will help her, I said. I didn’t really know what else to say to her. I felt totally inadequate to counsel this young, distraught girl.

I, myself, didn’t have a strong leaning for or against abortion rights. I just know I found the topic dreadful.

A few years later, with a little more maturity in me, and more medical and spiritual knowledge under my belt, I had a liberal attitude toward abortion ‘rights’. It was 1981. Sandra Day O’Connor was just sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. I wrote her a long letter explaining my view on the abortion issue. I was for the government staying out of the decision making. Not making it a right or a wrong, but a decision between the physician and the woman.

That’s one thing I've never quite understood; why or how the government became a party to making this difficult decision for a woman. How does a governing body mandate a healthcare decision? An extremely personal, even heart-wrenching decision?

So, I watch the sides once again bringing this to the fore, adhering to their playbooks. One side telling us the opposing side is trying to take women’s freedom away, one side telling us the other side doesn’t care about these tiny human beings.

But in the nut of it, at the core of it, it is all out of love.

There are those who want to make sure a woman is able to do what she thinks is right for herself and her own life. Their mantra is, "Those against abortion want to take your choice away and control your bodies. We want to protect  a woman's freedom." They care about these women. They don’t want them to suffer. It is out of love.

There are those who want to protect the innocent. Those beings not yet born. They value and hold these lives as every bit as important as you and I, with all the rights we have. Their mantra is, "Those for abortion want to kill babies. And many of them are the poor and uneducated. They don't offer better solutions."

But this too, is out of love. 

Yet this stops any communication and problem solving in its tracks.

It is more important now that we work harder on creating a society that has reduced unwanted pregnancies to the lowest number possible. That we don't give our young girls the idea that casual sex is fine, and no worries if you get pregnant because it's an easy fix.

Do we really know how that will affect a woman or a young girl down the road?  I've had friends who seemed to manage fine post-aborting, and others who experienced a gnawing regret. I'll never forget one woman who had an abortion when she was young and single; then years later, after marriage, she found out she couldn't conceive again.

Neither side is evil. They care very much. Let's be more grown up about this and admit there is a lot of pain experienced around this topic and the procedure. How about working together to reduce the need?

This is serious stuff. Which is why, I think, people get so emotional on both sides. It isn't a frivolous topic. Some see it as a freedom issue, and some see it as a life and death issue.

Can we open our minds and hearts to understand both sides?

Photo by freestocks.org on Unsplash

How much is the US Budget? How much is a trillion dollars?

Answer. The 2019 US budget is $4.407 Trillion Dollars

A trillion dollars is a 1 with 12 zeros after it. $1,000,000,000,000.

If you stacked this in $100 dollar bills, they would reach the International Space Station.

The top 20% of US citizens are worth an average of $3 million each

Net worth of all US households in 2017 was $94.7 Trillion

40% of this worth is owned by the top 1% = $37.88 Trillion

Therefore, roughly the top 1%, 400 people, are worth each an average of $34 billion

What if the 1% then paid 40% of the budget? They own 40% of everything.

They would pay $1.8 trillion divided by 400 or $20 billion each. So, their wealth would last less than 2 years.

There is a point here, there isn't enough money to continue spending trillions of dollars a year. The numbers tell the story. Our government continues sidestepping this, pretending money will always be there. The top 1% cannot save us.

A conversation between Trump and the Angel, Grace, when his life is over*

The soul who had played the energetic personality of a powerful man on earth left his physical life, emerging into the next world. In this realm, there was no real evidence that he had been such a force in humanity, except now he senses being newly freed, as well as awareness of his deep wisdom, which was hidden before.

"Wow Sweetheart, what a pivotal, important role you played! Exceptional. Your whole life, culminating in your becoming president of the most powerful country on Earth! It was such a strong expression of so many waning thought patterns. Their last hoorah! What was it like? What did you feel while in that life?" Grace fluttered about the shifting image as he went through that life and all the emotions it evoked.

"It was tough, not fully realizing who I was, who we really are; from my bombastic, critical father who made me feel so small and incompetent, to always feeling like I was on the edge of obliteration if I didn't barrel through and defeat everyone in my way. My enemies were anyone who disagreed with me! The worst was the constant search for validation; but I guess without that, I wouldn't have been able to play such a role. When I volunteered for this—whenever we volunteer for something so critical in human evolution—we don't quite grasp the depth of suffering and longing we will endure. But there was always small glimpses, Grace. I felt you near in those depths, even though I never articulated them. Myself as 'The Donald' would never allow that type of introspection or personal disclosure. That would have been far too threatening.

Of course, I see and know now how you were there every step of the way. How you sent kind souls to give me strength, how you fortified my feelings of power. Phew. I had to have almost inhuman power to pull that character off!"

"And just look at how many humans you woke up! Of course, there were reactions at every level of consciousness, but those nearing the leading edge of evolution, they needed the strong push you gave them!

            That culture had been moving—no—expanding, in two directions at once: one where those with the most evolved state of consciousness, bringing messages of peace and compassion, grew in great numbers, while the vulgar, violent, hateful expressions of lower awareness was ripped wide open for all to see. And you became a masthead for that." Grace stopped, observing the twisting and tightening of his energy field in front of her.

            "It is so painful. All those negative expressions came from such a state of pain. People who were trying to be good found hate in their hearts for those who they disagreed with! From good, hearty family folks who went to church every Sunday, and the spiritual community who studied philosophy and wanted nothing more than to grow and love, to those who felt sidelined from the country's promises—they all seemed to fall into some kind of spell when they heard other viewpoints and then spewed such vitriol. It really did pull all of this out of the population, what they had no idea was there. But, you're right of course. Those nearing the highest awareness of that time on Earth, they really needed a push. They were so very necessary to bring about a change."

            Grace fluttered, changing colors and twinkling, "The unearthing of all that was inside really startled the spiritual community! They found it so difficult to walk the walk as they say, when faced with this darkness that was so blatant. Ah, finally, we will see, years after your death, they discover that it was inside them and that's the turning point, don't you think? They thought before that it was just within the "other" people?”

            "Yes Grace! That is when things really begin to improve. When they all accept responsibility. Wish I had lived long enough to see that. From this vantage point, we can see what unfolds. I did see the unraveling of the two-party political system, I saw the beginnings of a great reorganization of a fairer, more just system. But it wasn't completed. Grab some old Earth popcorn, let's watch it."

*Grace is a character from Kasey Claytor's novel, The Light of Grace, Journeys of an Angel. Grace is brought in as an experienced life review Spirit Guide. This is a work of fiction.