Mary O’Malley – What has your mind been doing with the election? Some of you may be feeling good, and some may be feeling dismayed.  If you are feeling good, is it because you think you “got what you wanted” and that will guarantee that you aren’t going to get what you don’t want?  How would you have felt if it had gone the other way?  And if you are feeling dismayed, is your mind filled with fear about what may happen as a result of Trump’s policies being implemented?

Take a moment and ask yourself, “Do these thoughts and feelings open my heart? Do they bring more spaciousness, kindness and trust?” Or do they bring reaction, judgment, fear and reinforce the ‘us and them’ point of view. There is another way to relate to the huge rift in our country that this election has amplified. There is a way that helps us to see this, not as a breakdown, but as a breakthrough time. There is a way of relating to all of this that allows each one of us to become a part of the healing that always available in chaos.

This new way comes from the understanding that whenever we are in a time of accelerated growth, there is always chaos as the old way is letting go and a new way is showing up. Think of the American and French revolutions and you will know what I mean.  Out of chaos came a representative form of government! There is a wonderful quote by Cynthia Occelli  that speaks to the healing that can come from times like this: “For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.”

Whatever your political beliefs may be, this is an opportunity for accelerated growth. The seed of our collective heart is being cracked open. It is messy, it is scary, and yet think of the potentiality of a seed. Think of the potentiality of humanity as more and more of us live from our aware hearts rather than our reactionary minds.

There are many protests and expressions of reactivity now and they speak to how deeply people are feeling.  But all lasting healing comes from our hearts. The healing we long for comes from the understanding that there is no ‘them and us’. We are all in this together and each one of us is doing the best that we know how with the conditioning we have taken on.

To be against anything simply perpetuates the game of liking/disliking, right/wrong that humanity has been caught in since we lived in caves.  What I am offering you is that the healing you long for comes from meeting all of this with your heart. That is the place where our divided country can be healed. In fact, that is what all of this chaos is asking of you – to allow your heart to be your guide, for your heart is not against anything.  It has room for everything.  Your natural state is the aware heart! All you need to do to live from your heart is to bring kindness, compassion, and curiosity to judgment, fear, and grief as they show up inside of you.  Clearing the clouds from your mind, you will naturally meet life with your heart.

What does this look like? It is the shift from ‘I am afraid or angry’ to ‘there is something inside of me that is feeling fear or anger right now’. Can you feel the difference? In the first you are identified with your conditioned, reactive, separate mind. In the second you are relating to what you are experiencing. In that place, there is the possibility of bringing spaciousness to everything inside of you that is reacting and contracting. And in that spaciousness, your heart can be heard.

So be willing to become aware of your stories around the election. And for a moment here and a moment there, rather than buying into the stories that tighten you and create more reaction, be willing to pause and check-in to see what story you are believing at that moment.  Then touch it with compassion, with understanding, with the willingness to not go to get lost in your mind.

I have mapped the pathway from our mind to our heart in my radio show.  If this interests you, follow  and start with the previous show button.  Also, it is fully laid out in my book, What’s in the Way IS the Way.

Our world needs your aware heart. It needs your willingness to heal your reactionary mind so that you can live from your heart and become a part of the healing that is possible right now.

SF Source Awakening Nov. 2016

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