The Roads We Are Travelling

The Ways Ahead, at a Fork in the Path

Two Sides of Our Story

In these times, it is easy for us to lose faith in our humanity, and to fall into hopelessness. We need, in particular, to be careful about the narratives we weave and the stories we tell each other. Our choice of stories can either keep us in defensive nervous systems states, left brain hemisphere overactivation, despondency and despair, or help us to access ventral vagus nerve or right hemisphere activated states, to feel more connected and to be able to move towards becoming better.

While things seem really bad right now, and may even be getting worse by the day, there is an alternative perspective: that the signs are we are awakening to something better, and these times are just the death throes of the old, and the birthing pains of the new. There are definitely more and more of us waking up to what is going on, and becoming aware that there are better, healthier ways for us to be in the world. While perilous, the online worlds, especially the “long form” places like substack, are allowing those of us who glimpse this to gather and amplify.

A Choice of Paths

In one sense, sometimes I feel that the world is going fast to hell in a handcart. It can seem like more and more of us are becoming more and more disconnected and dissociated, living in fear, being manipulated, succumbing to disdain, disregard, despite and contempt for ourselves, each other and the planet, lives stripped of purpose and meaning, dehumanized and unfulfilled.

Yet, in another sense, I also see significant signs of something new emerging, with more and more folks awakening to connection and association, becoming enlivened with love and compassion, holding each other with regard and respect, finding fulfilment, meaning and purpose in Service to our best selves, humanity and the planet.

In terms of the Nervous System, we might say there are increasing numbers of people living in increasingly defensive and threatened states, yet also increasing numbers of people awakening to increasingly feeling Safe through access to engaged, calm, connected and somatic still states.

In terms of Iain McGilchrist’s “Divided Brain” research, we might say there are increasing numbers of people trapped in an increasingly dominant left brain hemisphere's selfish, mechanistic, fragmented way of attending to the world, yet also increasing numbers of people able to increasingly access and appreciate the right brain hemisphere's whole picture, living, embodied and connected way of attending.

It feels like the world currently hangs in the balance. If enough of the population could be awakened, my intuition tells me that some sort new age of enlightenment could emerge if we can reach a critical mass, provided this occurs before we sleep-walk ourselves into a self-inflicted wound that we can't survive.

It also seems to me that long form social media, and in particular, the podcast space and substack, clearly have a role to play. Current short form algorithms have a propensity to increase the division, disconnection and dissociation, and to dehumanize and "other" people. Long form allows us to access an increasing number of truly remarkable and enlightened folks emerging all across the planet, with potentially life-changing learnings to share, and for fellow travellers on the path to awakening to find and amplify each other.

The fact that many others have expressed similar feelings, including this sense that we stand at a fork in the road, on one side eternal darkness and on the other a new enlightenment, I think itself speaks to this emergence in collective consciousness.

Despite the despite, I feel there are enough glimmers that it is still possible to live in hope, and that these times are interesting enough that I want to stick around, to at least see how it all turns out.

“Open up your voice

Rejoice, rejoice

Open up your mind

Let your god-light shine

Open up your heart

Let the music start

Open up your soul

Let the good times roll

Open up your light

Let your sight open up your heart

And let your whole life start

See what you've been blind to

See what it reminds you to do

And to be as you”

~ Guru Singh

Inspired by the writings of

Mark Bisone

of

The Cat Was Never Found

,

Tessa Lena

of

Tessa Fights Robots

, and

Kathleen

of

Kathleen Devanney's Newsletter

.