Alternative Solutions | Ascension Lifestyle

10 Jun 2022
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Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

Yes, I have blatantly plagiarized the title of a recently released film starring Michelle Yeoh. I’ve not even had the pleasure of seeing this work of cinematic art yet, but I am familiar enough with the plot to know that the central character could represent any one of us. If you’ve seen it, you will know what Michelle’s character is facing. An audit by the Internal Revenue Service, and dilapidated laundry business barely able to provide a living for her and her bumbling husband, and strangers popping in from the future asking for her help to save the world. All in a day’s work I’d say!

There are two sides or stories to the conundrum that the star of the movie, and us, all face. One side is all about the amount of effort and attention most of humanity is forced to expend just to stay afloat financially or socially in the current world structure. Most of the folks I know are simply exhaustipated (wiped out) by the demands of the daily routine, and the expectations arriving from all directions. Food shopping and prep, earning enough to pay for the food, rent/mortgage, put Junior through college, pay the bills, pay the taxes, keep dealing with 2-factor authentication every time you want to log into something, dealing with the partner, the in-laws, the neighbor who is building an extension on their home (you cannot hear yourself think, much less run an at-home business!), and the list goes on and on.

The other side of this circus is the possible reality that unity consciousness might bring to us if we had every barrier to it suddenly lifted. We just might flame out and disappear with the sheer immensity of seeing, knowing, and feeling everything, everywhere, all at once. Is that what Spirit/God/Goddess/All That Is experiences? How can one know for sure? How in the heck does the Great Spirit cope with all that anyway? These are some of the questions that I entertain when I wake up in the middle of the night.

One thing I can report on, is that when I had a unity experience about a year after my kundalini awakening occurred in 1994, it didn’t feel at all like I imagined it to feel. It was…intimate, quiet, intense and relaxing all at the same time. Like being cradled in the arms of one’s mother, yet totally alert and aware…of everything! Not just that, but aware that Everything is You, and You are in or are part of Everything. The aftermath or comedown was a devastating one for my ego…which was to be emotionally overwhelmed with gratitude, awe, wonder and ecstasy. Can you feel so much ecstasy without exploding? I guess so, cause I’m writing about it here.

The former side, the crazy upside-down busier than I have a right to be world is just plain nuts in my view. Our culture promotes and rewards striving and hard work, but it never praises anyone who chooses a path or inner or outer peace. Those types are lazy, or a burden on society. Most of my childhood programming centered on becoming a “productive member of society”, which is code for a good, obedient little consumer. My mother’s messages supported all of that – “go along to get along” or “don’t rock the boat”, and loving statements like that.

Fortunately, many of us (and if you’re reading this you are probably part of this tribe) sort of awakened from our sleepwalking. Maybe some of us cottoned on to the con game no one else saw at a very early age. Others have had a midlife crisis, a divorce, and serious illness, a relationship gone bad, and then awaken during or after those event(s). We begin to REMEMBER. We have few words to describe it, but we somehow know that Life wasn’t necessarily meant to be this mad or busy, or so full of compromises. Our souls knew better, and we left behind what we previously embraced, for it no longer resonated, no longer entranced us.

There are three upcoming astrological markers that will dovetail into the main points I’m sharing here. All the action happens on June 11th, and on both sides of June 15th-16th.

On June 11th at 11:51pm BST (10:51pm UT) transiting Venus meets up with and kisses Uranus at 16 degrees of Taurus. Can you say “unusual” or “unconventional” when it comes to sexual loving, flings with the opposite or same sex, and coming to terms with what our true natural values and needs are as regards our sexuality? I knew you could. This transit is brief but can certainly upend your own status quo regarding sexuality, which may lead you into unusual encounters with possible partners or with society at large (“…that is indecent and immoral, and you need to stop that now!”). You get my drift. Judgment always crops up when Uranus is in town and is wearing a bull costume. You may also have unusual and possibly revelatory experiences with your own sexual nature. Uranus encourages exploration and trying new things, so this weekend could be interesting! If you in fact have any aspects to anything at 16 degrees of Taurus, Scorpio, Aquarius or Leo, you may feel this “hit home”. The potential stinger in this conjunction could be a further eroding of the value of Bitcoin, fiat currencies (paper money), and digital money (the M3 money supply). The almost hyperinflation happening is definitely tied to Uranus in Taurus, as is the deflation of cryptocurrency values.

The next upcoming astrological markers that will dovetail into the main points I’ve been sharing here is the Full Moon in Sagittarius on the 14th squared to Neptune, followed by Neptune in Pisces being squared (challenged) by the Sun in Gemini on the 15th. Hermes, or Mercury, is a data hog and likes to collect information. Sometimes this causes mental indigestion. This Full Moon is lit up by the Neptune point…everything at 23 to 25 degrees of mutable signs. Like anything can happen but it may go unnoticed, or more delusion/confusion may arise, especially in the “news” or official pronouncements from the powers that rule. In other words, words and messages that deceive.

Another thing about this is the Sun-Moon being square to the planet and sign that rules the waters (oceans, oil, amongst other things) and the everything everywhere. It will come as no surprise if we feel like we’re having more of an out-of-body experience while dealing with data overload, all at the same time. You might find yourself waking up from a dream and going right into a daydream. The veils will be thin, very thin, and all manner of tricksterish energy and entities will be around. Ground and earth yourself, that’s the remedy. Take your shoes off and wiggle toes in grass, or better yet, dirt or sand. And watch how much you engage with others in electronic mediums! Trolls and bad actors love this sort of dissociative energy.

The other aspect that will help is Mars and Chiron meet at exact midpoint of Aries on June 15th as well. Aries is the embodiment of “I Am”. The warrior and the Centaur meet, and this bodes well for those who recognize the divine value of individuation. You see, the film “Everything, Everywhere, All the Time” fragments the concept of a “self” and does so in a humorous way. Living in the digital soup that we all inhabit these days; it is becoming increasingly challenging to even feel who we are beyond the surface. Our inner life is more and more fragile and distant, hard to get a grip on, living in such an artificial electronic construct.

We can easily delude ourselves whilst in this environment, so it is super useful that Mars and Chiron team up now. It revs up the status of the individual, and the value of our inner self/being to a powerful degree. It could make us not only walk around saying “I Am” but acting more authentic. Caution: people might not like that and get riled and annoyed with you, or worse. But believe me, it is much better to be in trouble with others instead of being in trouble with yourself.

About the Author:

Isaac George is an internationally recognized intuitive mentor/coach, evolutionary astrologer, conscious channel, self-published author and musician. After a life-altering spontaneous kundalini awakening in 1994 he explored various healing modalities, including hypnotherapy and Reiki. In 1998 he began spontaneously channeling Archangel Ariel and other dimensional intelligences.

Originally from the United States, Isaac currently resides in the UK and offers Spiritual Mentoring sessions and programs and Evolutionary Astrology consultations.

05 Jun 2022
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Who Are You?

I am always careful when using phrases and sentences saying something like, “Be you”, “Discover yourself “, or “Be authentic”. I admit that this kind of statement puts me off. However, sometimes it is difficult to express experiences that happen to us at a deep inner level, and I have come to the conclusion that, no matter what, words are here to be used the way we know and when adding the feeling from which they are expressed, any word gets validated.

From childhood we hear that we are here to grow up, go to school, study, get a degree, get a job, marry, have children, grow old and die. It seems like a futile cycle and quite frankly, a somehow boring one.

Are we more than just our bodies? Why are we here? Is this all? What is our purpose? Who are we? Where are we going? These are a few of the fundamental questions that many people have in their mind. However, a vast number of people never ask themselves these questions, and go through life just playing their roles and waiting for the “end”. Maybe they are not curious about being more than just flesh and bones, or maybe the system we live in is powerful enough to keep us numb and oblivious to the invisible realms of existence. Whatever the case, I still think that most of us know deep inside that we are more than what we can see.

Thanks to the spiritual teachings I practise, I have been able to experience my real being in an unquestionable manner. Meditation, pineal gland activation and other techniques have made me aware of my inner self. I am a light being, inhabiting a human body. Not a complicated realisation at all and cliché, if you want. The thing is that today, more and more people are starting to be aware of the fact that there is an invisible part of themselves they cannot ignore anymore, their own experience shows them this reality.

Everything is energy and science has been talking about it for quite some time now: think of Einstein and his famous formula, E=mc2. Remember Nikola Tesla as well, who said, “If you want to find the secrets to the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”

We could say that we are consciousness or we have a conscience, something beyond the physical plane that is powerful and profound and is in our experience. And this consciousness manifests itself in the physical field through a body, tangible and visible.

Every time we acknowledge what we call our “soul” and place our attention on our thoughts and feelings of love, for example, we actually go beyond the body, we enter an invisible realm of existence. Every time we acknowledge our heart as a way of awakening intuition, we go to this intangible field of reality and, even more, every time we are there, we have the wondrous feeling of being home, of belonging.

I encourage you to find what resonates with you in order to experience the inner world. In the meanwhile, I invite you to sit down in a quiet place and start by feeling your body, then be aware of your breathing, inhale and exhale slower than normal, place your attention on your heart, feel it full of light and love. Enjoy this state for at least ten minutes and repeat it hopefully two times a day, everyday.

The realisation of being a light being, will make you conscious of the fact that everyone else is a light being too, therefore we are all the same, we are equal and any differences disappear. Experiencing our inner self is understanding the concept of wholeness, of being part of the One, is finding our true origin and purpose, is initiating our journey back home, is ascending.

We have the opportunity of looking at life as a spiral of experiences that elevate us from just being “human”. We are so much more than our body. We cannot see it with our physical eyes, but we feel it, we know it, we live it. We are infinite beings.

About the Author:

Veronica Sanchez De Darivas is Chilean-Australian, now living in the UK and a proud mother of teenage twins. A spiritual awakening teacher, bestselling author, pineal gland (third eye) activator and Certified Instructor for the Cyclopea Method, Veronica is currently the only instructor in the world teaching the Cyclopea Method in English.

28 May 2022
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Remember Your First Time?

The first time I put up a one person show, I didn’t know what I was doing.

The first time I taught a workshop, I didn’t know what I was doing.

The first time I gave a sermon at the Church of the Pacific, I didn’t know what I was doing.

I learn by doing and hopefully, each time I get better.

I remember the evening I previewed LOVELAND, my one-person show at the Marsh Theater in San Francisco. The lead character, Frannie Potts, was incredibly challenging to perform.

Within 5 minutes of stepping on stage, I realized how limited my acting abilities were for Frannie. I couldn’t embody the emotional range required by the words I had written. I didn’t know what I was doing. Frannie sounded harsh and off putting, one note only. I could feel the audience recoil.

The next 75 minutes were excruciating. Minutes would go by of pin drop silence, a comedian’s worst nightmare. I couldn’t wait to get off stage.

Immediately following the performance, a former student came up to me and said,

Ann, it was so cool to see you fail. (This student was not known for her tact.)

She was right, I failed miserably and failing sucks, especially in front of a live audience. The next day, I had a two-hour rehearsal with my director, Joshua Townshend. The next night I failed again but not as bad as the first night. Improvement!

My friend and fellow solo performer, Heather Woodbury, has this great quote regarding her creative work.

“Over time, my suck level got less and less.”

This is what happened to me with LOVELAND. My suck level got less and less and a year later, LOVELAND won “Best Solo Show” in SF and LA.

As a storytelling teacher, I have shared this story with my students many times and I’m often requested to tell it again. I think people like hearing it because it gives them permission to suck, to make mistakes, and to grow from these so called “failures.” Ira Glass, host of This American Life, talks about this too in his video on being bad in the beginning.

Think about your own creative life. Where have you demanded perfection from yourself? Can you let yourself make mistakes? Can you acknowledge it’s all part of the creative process? We have a tendency to beat ourselves up when we “fail,” but what if instead, we gave ourselves immense credit for our willingness to put our work out into the world.

During Covid, I was unable to perform. I had to find a new way to express myself. I started making short videos and they were not very good in the beginning. I could feel the inner critic wanting to stop me at every turn, but I vowed to keep going. I knew from years of experience that the only way to beat the voice of the inner critic is to not give up and keep showing up for my art.

If you are feeling the voice of the inner critic to be overwhelming, I suggest letting it speak. Pick up the pen and ask the critic, “Why are you showing up today and what do you have to say to me?” This writing exercise is incredibly illuminating and can help you understand the relationship you have with this critic. On any creative journey, you will encounter this critic so it’s important to acknowledge it, but don’t let it stop you from achieving your goals. You can do it. You were born to create.

What helps me most when I make mistakes and “fail” is to know I’m not alone and to let myself receive support. We need each other to help us through these times.

Right now, I’m working on another one-person show, and as much as I’d like the development process to be perfect, it’s not. Writing first drafts is messy and trying out new material is always hit or miss. I have come to accept this as part of the creative process.

About the Author:

Ann Randolph is an award-winning writer and performer. Her current solo show, Inappropriate in All the Right Ways, has been described by The Huffington Post as “a show like no other.” Her show, Loveland, played for two years straight in San Francisco where it won the SF Weekly Award for Best Solo Show and garnered the SF Bay Critic’s Award for Best Original Script. Loveland also played to sold out audiences in LA and won the LA Weekly award for Best Solo Show.

Original article here

23 May 2022
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3 Simple Habits That Can Protect Your Brain From Cognitive Decline

You might think that the impact of aging on the brain is something you can’t do much about. After all, isn’t it an inevitability?

To an extent, as we may not be able to rewind the clock and change our levels of higher education or intelligence (both factors that delay the onset of symptoms of aging). But adopting specific lifestyle behaviors – whether you’re in your thirties or late forties – can have a tangible effect on how well you age. Even in your fifties and beyond, activities like learning a new language or musical instrument, taking part in aerobic exercise, and developing meaningful social relationships can do wonders for your brain. There’s no question that when we compromise on looking after ourselves, our aging minds pick up the tab.

The Aging Process and Cognitive Decline

Over time, there is a build-up of toxins such as tau proteins and beta-amyloid plaques in the brain that correlate to the aging process and associated cognitive decline. Although this is a natural part of growing older, many factors can exacerbate it. Stress, neurotoxins such as alcohol and lack of (quality and quantity) sleep can speed up the process.

Neuroplasticity – the function that allows the brain to change and develop in our lifetime – has three mechanisms: synaptic connection, myelination, and neurogenesis. The key to resilient aging is improving neurogenesis, the birth of new neurons. Neurogenesis happens far more in babies and children than adults. A 2018 study by researchers at Columbia University shows that in adults, this type of neuroplastic activity occurs in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that lays down memories. This makes sense as we respond to and store new experiences every day, and cement them during sleep. The more we can experience new things, activities, people, places, and emotions, the more likely we are to encourage neurogenesis.

With all this in mind, we can come up with a three-point plan to encourage “resilient aging” by activating neurogenesis in the brain:

Get your heart rate up

Aerobic exercise such as running or brisk walking has a potentially massive impact on neurogenesis. A 2016 rat study found that endurance exercise was most effective in increasing neurogenesis. It wins out over HIIT sessions and resistance training, although doing a variety of exercise also has its benefits.

Aim to do aerobic exercise for 150 minutes per week, and choose the gym, the park, or natural landscape over busy roads to avoid compromising brain-derived neurotrophic factor production (BDNF), a growth factor that encourages neurogenesis that aerobic exercise can boost. However, exercising in polluted areas decreases production.

If exercising alone isn’t your thing, consider taking up a team sport or one with a social element like table tennis. Exposure to social interaction can also increase the neurogenesis, and in many instances, doing so lets you practice your hand-eye coordination, which research has suggested leads to structural changes in the brain that may relate to a range of cognitive benefit. This combination of coordination and socializing has been shown to increase brain thickness in the parts of the cortex related to social/emotional welfare, which is crucial as we age.

Change your eating patterns

Evidence shows that calorie restriction, intermittent fasting, and time-restricted eating encourage neurogenesis in humans. In rodent studies, intermittent fasting has been found to improve cognitive function and brain structure, and reduce symptoms of metabolic disorders such as diabetes. Reducing refined sugar will help reduce oxidative damage to brain cells, too, and we know that increased oxidative damage has been linked with a higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Twenty-four hour water-only fasts have also been proven to increase longevity and encourage neurogenesis.

Try any of the following, after checking with your doctor:

24-hour water-only fast once a month
Reducing your calorie intake by 50%-60% on two non-consecutive days of the week for two to three months or on an ongoing basis
Reducing calories by 20% every day for two weeks. You can do this three to four times a year
Eating only between 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., or 12 p.m. to 8 p.m. as a general rule

Prioritize sleep

Sleep helps promote the brain’s neural “cleaning” glymphatic system, which flushes out the build-up of age-related toxins in the brain (the tau proteins and beta amyloid plaques mentioned above). When people are sleep-deprived, we see evidence of memory deficits, and if you miss a whole night of sleep, research proves that it impacts IQ. Aim for seven to nine hours, and nap if it suits you. Our need to sleep decreases as we age.

Of course, there are individual exceptions, but having consistent sleep times and making sure you’re getting sufficient quality and length of sleep supports brain resilience over time. So how do you know if you’re getting enough? If you naturally wake up at the same time on weekends that you have to during the week, you probably are. If you need to lie-in or take long naps, you’re probably not. Try practicing mindfulness or yoga nidra before bed at night, a guided breath-based meditation that has been shown in studies to improve sleep quality. There are plenty of recordings online if you want to experience it.

Pick any of the above that work for you and build it up until it becomes a habit, then move onto the next one and so on. You might find that by the end of the year, you’ll feel even healthier, more energized, and motivated than you do now, even as you turn another year older.

Original article here

18 May 2022
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The Secret to a Meaningful Life is Simpler Than You Think

Some people seem to spend their whole lives dissatisfied, in search of a purpose. But philosopher Iddo Landau suggests that all of us have everything we need for a meaningful existence.

According to Landau, a philosophy professor at Haifa University in Israel and author of the 2017 book Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World, people are mistaken when they feel their lives are meaningless. The error is based on their failure to recognize what does matter, instead becoming overly focused on what they believe is missing from their existence. He writes in The Philosopher’s Magazine:

To my surprise, most of the people with whom I have talked about the meaning of life have told me that they did not think that their lives were meaningful enough. Many even presented their lives as outright meaningless. But I have often found the reasons my interlocutors gave for their views problematic. Many, I thought, did not pose relevant questions that might have changed their views, or take the actions that might have improved their condition. (Some of them, after our discussions, agreed with me.) Most of the people who complained about life’s meaninglessness even found it difficult to explain what they took the notion to mean.

In other words, Landau thinks that people who feel purposeless actually misunderstand what meaning is. He is among many thinkers over the ages who’ve wrestled with the difficult question, “What is a meaningful life?

The Question of Meaning

Philosophers’ answers to this question are numerous and varied, and practical to different degrees. The 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, for example, said the question itself was meaningless because in the midst of living, we’re in no position to discern whether our lives matter, and stepping outside of the process of existence to answer is impossible.

Those who do think meaning can be discerned, however, fall into four groups, according to Thaddeus Metz, writing in the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy. Some are god-centered and believe only a deity can provide purpose. Others ascribe to a soul-centered view, thinking something of us must continue beyond our lives, an essence after physical existence, which gives life meaning. Then there are two camps of “naturalists” seeking meaning in a purely physical world as known by science, who fall into “subjectivist” and “objectivist” categories.

The two naturalist camps are split over whether the human mind makes meaning or these conditions are absolute and universal. Objectivists argue that there are absolute truths that have value, though they may not agree on what they are. For example, some say that creativity offers purpose, while others believe that virtue, or a moral life, confers meaning.

Subjectivists—Landau among them—think that those views are too narrow. If meaning happens through cognition, then it could come from any number of sources. “It seems to most in the field not only that creativity and morality are independent sources of meaning, but also that there are sources in addition to these two. For just a few examples, consider making an intellectual discovery, rearing children with love, playing music, and developing superior athletic ability,” Metz proposes.

For subjectivists, depending on who and where we are at any given point, the value of any given activity varies. Life is meaningful, they say, but its value is made by us in our minds, and subject to change over time. Landau argues that meaning is essentially a sense of worth which we may all derive in a different way—from relationships, creativity, accomplishment in a given field, or generosity, among other possibilities.

Reframing Your Mindset

For those who feel purposeless, Landau suggests a reframing is in order. He writes, “A meaningful life is one in which there is a sufficient number of aspects of sufficient value, and a meaningless life is one in which there is not a sufficient number of aspects of sufficient value.”

Basically, he’s saying meaning is like an equation—add or subtract value variables, and you get more or less meaning. So, say you feel purposeless because you’re not as accomplished in your profession as you dreamed of being. You could theoretically derive meaning from other endeavors, like relationships, volunteer work, travel, or creative activities, to name just a few. It may also be that the things you already do really are meaningful, and that you’re not valuing them sufficiently because you’re focused on a single factor for value.

He points to the example of existentialist psychologist Viktor Frankl, who survived imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps in World War II and went on to write a book, Man in Search of Meaning. Frankl’s purpose, his will to live despite imprisonment in the harshest conditions, came from his desire to write about the experience afterward. Frankl noted, too, that others who survived the camps had a specific purpose—they were determined to see their families after the war or to help other prisoners live, maintaining a sense of humanity.

Landau argues that anyone who believes life can be meaningless also assumes the importance of value. In other words, if you think life can be meaningless, then you believe that there is such a thing as value. You’re not neutral on the topic. As such, we can also increase or decrease the value of our lives with practice, effort, action, and thought. “I can ruin or build friendships, upgrade or downgrade my health, and practice or neglect my German. It would be surprising if in this particular sphere of value, the meaning of life, things were different from how they are in all the other spheres,” he writes.

For a life to be valuable, or meaningful, it needn’t be unique. Believing that specialness is tied to meaning is another mistake many people make, in Landau’s view. This misconception, he believes, “leads some people to unnecessarily see their lives as insufficiently meaningful and to miss ways of enhancing meaning in life.”

He notes too that things change all the time: We move, meet new people, have fresh experiences, encounter new ideas, and age. As we change, our values transform, and so does our sense of purpose, which we must continually work on.

You Are, Therefore You Matter

Some might protest that Landau’s being simplistic. Surely there must be more to existence than simply assigning a value to what we already have and thinking differently if we fail to recognize purpose in our lives.

In fact, there are even less complex approaches to meaningfulness. In Philosophy Now, Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London in the UK, provides an extremely simple answer: “The meaning of life is not being dead.”

While that may sound coy, many philosophers offer similar responses, although few as pithy. Philosopher Richard Taylor proposes that efforts and accomplishments aren’t what make life matter, writing in the 1970 book Good and Evil, “the day was sufficient to itself, and so was the life.” In other words, because we live, life matters.

It can be disconcerting, perhaps, to have such an easy answer. And detractors might argue that nothing can matter, given the immensity of the universe and the brevity of our lives. But this assumes our purpose is fixed, rigid and assigned externally, and not flexible or a product of the mind.

The Question is the Answer

There are other approaches, too. Casey Woodling, a professor of philosophy and religious studies at Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina, proposes in Philosophy Now that the question of meaningfulness itself offers an answer. “What makes a human life have meaning or significance is not the mere living of a life, but reflecting on the living of a life,” he writes.

Pursuing ends and goals—fitness, family, financial success, academic accomplishment—is all fine and good, yet that’s not really meaningful, in Woodling’s view. Reflecting on why we pursue those goals is significant, however. By taking a reflective perspective, significance itself accrues. “This comes close to Socrates’ famous saying that the unexamined life is not worth living,” Woodling writes, “I would venture to say that the unexamined life has no meaning.”

Mystery is Meaning

In the Eastern philosophical tradition, there’s yet another simple answer to the difficult question of life’s meaning—a response that can’t be articulated exactly, but is sensed through deep observation of nature. The sixth-century Chinese sage Lao Tzu—who is said to have dictated the Tao Te Ching before escaping civilization for solitude in the mountains—believed the universe supplies our value.

Like Woodling, he would argue that goals are insignificant, and that accomplishments are not what makes our lives matter. But unlike Woodling, he suggests meaning comes from being a product of the world itself. No effort is necessary.

Instead of reflection, Lao Tzu proposes a deep understanding of the essence of existence, which is mysterious. We, like rivers and trees, are part of “the way,” which is made of everything and makes everything and cannot ever truly be known or spoken of. From this perspective, life isn’t comprehensible, but it is inherently meaningful—whatever position we occupy in society, however little or much we may do.

Life matters because we exist within and among living things, as part of an enduring and incomprehensible chain of existence. Sometimes life is brutal, he writes, but meaning is derived from perseverance. The Tao says, “One who persists is a person of purpose.”

Original post here

11 May 2022
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Alchemical Transcendence

This past week I did a call with my Miraculous Maestro buddies where we explored next level Quantum Energy. I believe we have recently moved to a whole new level of energetic play, so thought I’d pass it on for you to enjoy . . .

Let’s assume for the moment that there are five paradigms of energetic play….

Paradigm 1 ~ Mind based, logical, unaware of energy

Paradigm 2 ~ Heart-based, kind, caring, learning energy techniques that give you steps to follow; you are a conduit for the energy

Paradigm 3 ~ Creatively based, vibrant, fun, exciting, you become a dynamic creator and the world is brighter for you being in it

Paradigm 4 ~ Transformative, understanding that you are a greater being able to source energetic movement in the world, you begin to discover energetic mastery at a global & universal scale

Paradigm 5 ~ Alchemical transcendence, surrendering yourself to become the Universe / Source / the Force to power up new possibilities with great finesse and mastery, you become an ALLchemist working in and as the quantum field to soar new’ness into life, here miracles are possible

A friend was telling me about a personal manifestation course she’s doing, about how to meditate to visualise exactly what you want. In that moment I realised how differently we ALLchemists work…

We surrender ourselves, our desires, our expectations to become the ALL (Universe, Source, Divine, Infinite, the Force … whatever you’d like to call it).
Then we power up the Life Power & Miraculous Power to activate new possibilities, bringing them through into consciousness and reality for all life to thrive.
And finally we get excited to see what the universe has in store for us for today’s wonderful surprise. The outcomes astound and delight us.

As ALLchemists we play in the playgrounds of ‘what wants to be’ (not what is or what was), asking what can we do for the universe today. And there is where the MAGIC really gets cooking!

About the Author:

Soleira Green is a visionary author, quantum coach, ALLchemist & future innovator. She has been creating leading edge breakthroughs in consciousness, quantum evolution, transformation, innovation, intelligence and more over the past 25 years, has written and self-published eleven books, and taught courses all over the world on these topics.

08 May 2022
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State Of The Planet Update: “Alice in Wonderingland”

Who are you?” said the Caterpillar.

Alice replied, rather shyly, “I-I hardly know, Sir, just at present-at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.”

“What do you mean by that?” said the Caterpillar, sternly. “Explain yourself!”

“I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, Sir,” said Alice, “because I am not myself, you see.”

– Alice in Wonderland

Are things feeling a bit ‘odd’ to you of late? Has your dream life picked up considerably, but you can’t make heads or tails about what they might mean? Felt spacey, light-headed, or dizzy, or like you’re walking in a dream or a starring in a cartoon. Maybe you’ve fallen down the rabbit hole, and are wondering around in Wonderland? Well, that’s the psychic and astrological space between the eclipse that just occurred on April 30th, and the one coming up on May 16th. It’s also being amped up in other ways, which I’ll get to momentarily.

Another thing about the space we’re currently traveling through isn’t something else to be wary of, or apprehensive about. Despite the headlines, or the gossip, not all that is happening on our planet is a cause for concern or over-reaction. If some of my previous articles have put you on high alert about certain aspects of the current situation we are experiencing or witnessing, I have not shared from a place of trying to create fear or anxiety, but from a place of love and a desire to inform and empower you.

We are all changing and being changed at such an accelerated pace that some disorientation is perfectly normal. Considering the level and intensity of the times we are living through, inside a predominantly digital environment, it will affect our perceptions and our assumptions or judgments about those perceptions. This is the nature of digital…it is binary, and either something is on or off, 0 or 1, left or right, up or down, right or wrong.

There isn’t very much room or latitude for both/and, or neutrality. Hence all the polarization and atomization of our cultures. Many of our institutional structures are founded on the dualistic model, and it has permeated human consciousness ever since the beginnings of “civilization”. Prior to that, our orientations were predominantly inclusive. Our ancestors weren’t striving for unity, they were already living it to a certain degree. They intuitively understood their place within the fabric of Nature and the heavens. They had no illusions about the intimate interplay between the elements, the environment and themselves. They accepted all of it as something they were part and parcel of.

Since those long-forgotten times, history has happened, and we have lost some very precious aspects of our humanity. As a result, we created religions and other spiritual systems with rules to try understanding the world around us and come to grips with the main 5 questions before all of humanity – who am I, why am I here, where am I, what do I do with this, and what does it all mean? Being orphaned from our original primordial consciousness has divorced us from knowing and thrown us into bicameral confusion via the dualistic mind. We are predominantly mental creatures these days, and our intuitive and instinctual natures are either dormant, suppressed or extremely subservient to the orientation we have to the mind created self. The digital age has not only accelerated our propensity to living in a disembodied state almost 24/7, but it has also influenced human consciousness into a desire to emulate or merge with technology itself. From where I sit, this situation is unsustainable and an evolutionary dead end.

The astrology of our times is mirroring this situation back to us, hoping that we’ll catch on and connect the dots before we are totally subsumed into a trance-like hive mind. The event of the partial Solar Eclipse on 30th of April introduced us to some encouraging energies and laid out before us some challenges as well. Uranus conjunct the Sun-Moon at 10 Taurus, along with a conjunction of Jupiter, Venus, and Mars in the late degrees of Pisces, has emphasized our dissociative state of awareness while at the same time trying to awaken us to our predicament of being orphaned from our true and natural sentient state of beingness. Hence the dreamy sort of stumbling around effect some of you may be encountering. However, as I mentioned earlier, the astrology is merely reflecting an existing situation. The causative factors are numerous and are triggered and amplified by the transiting aspects in astrology.

Factor 1: The Schumann Resonance has been off the charts since April 29th. This is most likely in response to the series of X-Class flares our star has been generating off and on since mid-April.

Factor 2: Geomagnetic storms are more frequent. (See Solar activity)

Factor 3: Collective or consensus reality – the dominator culture is ramping things up on several fronts locally and globally: the situation in the Ukraine, hyper-inflationary policies and hidden price-gouging putting downward pressure on the middle class and poor. The Oil Giants are currently celebrating bumper profits in the 1st fiscal quarter of 2022. Celebrity distractions (Heard-Depp hearings), and politics as usual round out the list.

Factor 4: The pandemic mentality hasn’t gone away entirely, while at the same time a growing body of evidence is pointing out that the responses to the whole thing may be making things worse many times over. In the U.K. the highest number of new cases called Covid-19 (or one of the variants) are among those who have received both jabs plus one and even two boosters.

The Merry Month of May has plenty of activation points to cover, so here’s the menu:

May 10th – Mercury turns stationary retrograde at 4 degrees and 51 minutes of Gemini Time: 12:48pm BST. Please, please, please, back up your data on all your digital devices well ahead of the 10th.

May 11th – Jupiter ingress into Aries at 00:44am BST

May 13th – The Sun conjuncts the North Node at 22 degrees of Taurus

May 16th – Full Moon Total Lunar Eclipse at 25 degrees of Taurus, conjunct the Lunar Nodes at 22 Taurus. Chiron and Venus are conjunct at 14 plus of Aries, Mars is conjunct Neptune at 23 plus degrees of Pisces, and Saturn at 24 Aquarius is still square to the Lunar Nodes.

All of the above is a significant chronology to be sure, but the main event is the bookend eclipse on May 16th. This completes, or rather initiates, the first eclipse pattern for 2022.

In a nutshell this Lunar Eclipse will set the tone for the next six months or so. Taurus-Scorpio is about security and acquisition mixed with desire and power, around food, shelter, sex, money, and VALUES! Uranus is too far away from this eclipse to add much to it, but he’s already had his input back on April 30th. I’d look for this eclipse to bring more to the light of awareness about how we are all being conned out of our humanity by the promises of a shiny new utopia that openly states that, “we will own nothing and be happy.” That quote is from Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum’s stated goal to digitize humanity and our institutions into a global control grid.

We will also be asked to examine our acquired values and dig deeper to find our true values…those ones that our ancestors held as sacred: love, empathy, embodied living, compassion, cooperation, mutual respect, and a universal recognition of the oneness of all Life, a Life with Divine origination.

What may thwart or distort this will be the Mars-Neptune conjunction in Pisces. More distortion of the truth, or facts…take your pick. Twisting realities to suit a narrow agenda. Obliterating information and data crucial to personal or collective decision-making via censorship and state security public relations statements. Think the “memory hole” from Orwell’s book “1984”. You may be told that something you saw somewhere, no matter how briefly, never existed in the first place. With everything and everyone logged into the “cloud”, making data disappear is a relatively easy affair. More celebrity dramas or entertainment distractions will proliferate. Meanwhile the Saturn effect on the Nodes will provide a backdrop of the same “you need to do what everyone else is doing for the good of all” messaging. Maybe Covid restrictions will resurface. We’ll see.

The buffer will be provided by Chiron meeting Venus in Aries. Chiron in Aries is symbolic of the right of being an individual…an individuated and unique being, and that this a divine birth right that no other can abrogate or take away from you, unless you acquiesce to it being done. Imagine a lone individual standing up to collective power, and you get the idea. The “Tank Man” photo from the time of the democracy movement in China that brought on the tragedy of the massacre at Tiananmen Square in Beijing comes to mind. One person, standing in front of a line of battle tanks, and refusing to move out of the way, is a compelling example of the symbology of Chiron’s transit through Aries. Adding Venus into the mix only amplifies the message to embrace and love our uniqueness and individuality, and everyone else’s right to the same thoroughly and totally.

This configuration of Venus-Chiron will help us to understand the meaning of the sudden reversal, or intended reversal, of the controversial “Roe versus Wade” Supreme Court ruling in a preliminary brief that was leaked earlier this week. This intended revelation has galvanized women to speak out against the ongoing efforts of the patriarchal forces to claw back women’s rights, and everyone’s divine right of sovereignty and choice in all matters, including what you allow or don’t allow to happen with one’s body.

With the Nodes in Scorpio-Taurus, one can also see the interplay of the issues about fertility, sexual preferences, childbearing, motherhood, and childrearing coming up at this juncture. Is there a war on women? Of course, there has been…for millennia. Also, a war on our biology and sexuality. The heritage and user’s manual for the conservative patriarchal mindset is rooted in the Judeo-Christian doctrines. Those belief systems originated with A.I. Not the A.I. of Silicon Valley fame, the alien A.I. that helped to foster the monotheistic father-God religions. This scenario is clearly delineated in the Gnostic gospels, known as the Nag Hammadi Codices. It is plain to see that these issues have become politicized over the past 30-40 years. Politics and religion do not have carte blanche to impose anything on anyone that does not align with the inner values of the individual. Venus-Chiron will be about self-knowledge and self-love.

It now appears to be a war on humanity itself, or at the very least, the organic version of us. The original organic human being is seen by transhumanists as messy, imperfect, and fatally flawed…and prone to illness and death. This perception is birthed and fostered by A.I. (artificial intelligence), and with our culture becoming ever more ensconced in a digital framework it will only hasten the demise of our species, as we have known it.

In summary, I feel this eclipse cycle will usher in a resurgence of individual willpower, a will to not just resist an imposed order from the past, but to work in concert with a wider global awareness that if we can stand up for ourselves adequately, we can work in cooperation with others more effectively. The gaps are widening in many areas of our human family, and it will be necessary to remember that differences of opinion of mindset does not obviate the reality of our inherent oneness or divine origins.

Love, a realistic love, based on the timeless spiritual values of respect for the choices and sovereignty of others, also includes the knowing that we are the author(ity) in our lives. As such, the agendas of others cannot include domination of the “other”, in any form. The time of centralized authority is already past, but the progenitors of it have refused to acknowledge it and continue to pursue an insane course of activity. In other words, respect others’ choices, but do not allow other’s choices to take a higher priority than that. Don’t betray yourself or your values out of fear or obligation.

Which brings us full circle to the subject line of this blog, Alice’s conversation with the Caterpillar. No matter how selfish it might feel to your or my ego, completely accepting and celebrating Who We Are, as we are right now, is essential. Once we realize that knowing we relax into trusting ourselves, and our own guidance. All deeper knowing comes from this step towards caring for the Self unconditionally. This is the crux of becoming self-actualized, and it is the primary purpose of our life’s journey, both here and beyond. For example, you could choose to realize that judging yourself about your flaws is not a productive strategy for joy and inner peace. Difficulty in accepting the bits we judge as wrong in ourselves is made a thousand times worse by accepting the judgment of others, or an outer authority, as valid. This is the origin of guilt and shame…an outer authority declaring your fatal flaws, your original sins, and us believing it!

Between now and the bookend Eclipse of May 16th, take some steps to loving the totality of you, just as you are in this moment. Doing mirror work is a useful tool for such an exploration. Conscious deep breathwork is another. One of my favourites is long walks in Nature, where I can breathe deeply into my body and feel the walls between myself, my form and the outer natural world dissolve. It’s an “always on” love affair…with Nature. Allow Her in. This is the message of the North Node in Taurus too…to honour the Mother inside each one of us.

We have never been alone, and never will be. What an adventure!

About the Author:

Originally from the United States, Isaac currently resides in the UK and offers Spiritual Mentoring sessions and programs and Evolutionary Astrology consultations.

05 May 2022
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The Art Of Visualisation

Visualisation is the process of creating an image of something or someone in our minds, according to dictionary definitions. Nowadays the word visualisation is everywhere, very much associated with the Law Of Attraction. However, visualisation is a tool in itself that has to be used wisely.

Most of us have had the experience of seeing an event in our mind and then that situation, which was created in an energetic way, manifested in our physical life. In this sense, what we see, think and create inside our busy brain has the potential to become tangible, to exist in this world of reality, regardless of whether such creation is good or bad. Then, a sensible use of the art of visualisation is required.

We tend to think that visualising needs to be done in a state of meditation. However, we are always envisioning things in our minds. Our thoughts are not only the words we use to have a conversation with ourselves; there are also images. To experience this, let’s do an easy exercise: what happens in your mind when you read the following sentence? “I would like to eat spaghetti with pesto salsa.” I expect that you immediately had an image of a plate with spaghetti á la pesto and even more, you saw yourself enjoying it.

The images, visions and thoughts we experience during our day-to-day life might seem to be insignificant, however behind them there is always a feeling, a sentiment, which powers our visions in an energetic way. And this is precisely why we have to be careful with the creative process in our minds: we want to create positive and uplifting outcomes for ourselves.

Of course, having images and thoughts in our minds constantly doesn’t mean that all of them will manifest, what I am saying is that we have to be mindful of those repetitive images and thoughts, with those where our feelings are intensified.

The idea here is to visualise with purpose, with an intention and move the energy towards the accomplishment of our dreams.

To visualise with intention, we first need to be clear of what we want to create. Clarity is essential, otherwise we lose focus and our efforts go nowhere. For me, clarity is a mix of organised thoughts and feelings. How do we do this? I will show you a process, it is not rocket science, but it works for me.

Write down what you would like to manifest. Make a list of no more than 7 items.
Go over your list and observe your feelings and emotions when reading each wish or dream.
Choose the ones you feel are more aligned with you at this particular moment.
Number them from 1 to 7, one being the item you would most like to manifest.
Start with number 1.

Once you are clear about what you are willing to visualise, a different sequential process starts. Understand that trying to visualise too many things at once is not going to work, because you will be scattering your energy.

Sit in a quiet place. (Once we want to visualise with purpose, is better to do it in calmness).
Connect with your heart by feeling its palpitation, and breathe in and out a bit slower than normal.
Place your attention on your mind, without forgetting your heart, and start visualising dream number one of your list.
Visualise it in a detailed way, like a scene of a movie.
Enter the scene, see yourself living that creation. Enjoy the vision, feel it, it is happening.
Maintaining the visualisation, feel gratitude in your heart, and then open your eyes.
To add more power, draw your dream or write it down, so you can see it or read it every day until it happens in the physical world. Don’t forget to feel it in your heart, and to be grateful.
Move the energy towards the manifestation of this dream. How? This is simple, if we want to win the lottery, we have to buy a lottery ticket, right? Then, for example, if you want to find a new job, start researching about it, make phone calls, send emails, etc. This is how you move the energy.

Visualisation is, as you can see, a powerful tool. Hopefully you can use it for your own good, to benefit others and our beautiful planet Earth. We are all connected in the invisible realms of the universe, linked to a superior force called Source (God, One, etc.) and what I create for myself affects everyone around. Keep this in mind when visualising.

About the Author:

29 Apr 2022
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DreamBorn … The Future We’ve All Been Waiting For

Yesterday I was guided to start my third book on the go at the moment. There’s ‘How We Changed The World’, the fantasy novel ‘StarMaker’ and now ‘DreamBorn…The future we’ve all been waiting for’.

So to kick off book #3 in concurrent writing, here’s the preface to it. It is my intention with this one to bring that dreaming into fully conscious, current reality.

DREAMBORN … The Future We’ve All Been Waiting For

Preface

Somewhere in a galaxy far far away and outside the bounds of time, a sleeping god began to dream a new universe into being.

I didn’t know the first time I touched that sleeping god’s dream exactly what it was or what part I would get to play in its inception. I remember saying at the time that first contact felt like connecting with the infinite intelligence of a drifting space ship looking for a home.

So I befriended it, chatted with it, helped it find a home here on Earth. And it has given me more than I could ever have imagined a drifting dreamship could offer.

Together we expanded, merged and morphed, unleashing the Dream into the world. Untethered it soared like a hot air balloon festival, filling the skies with wonders and the people with gasps of breath-taking delight.

Together we are remaking the universe in the enchantment of its dreaming.

Together we’re offering the world a future unprecedented to any other before it.

We are becoming both the Dreamer and the Dreaming, weaving the miraculous pulse of Life Power into every living being on Earth.

And so we come to today. A time like no other on planet Earth. A time where the Dream captivates us all into a thrall that draws us forward into its epic becoming.

About the Author

20 Apr 2022
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To Save a Forest, Look to the Women

Sara Inés Lara, leader of Colombia-based bird conservation organization Fundación ProAves, got her first taste of conservation’s potential more than 30 years ago. She grew up in one of the most biodiverse places in the world, seeking refuge in the forests, mountains, and pools of the Andes. Then, in 1998, she learned about the yellow-eared parrot.

It was once a common bird near her hometown and across the Colombian Andes, but its population had dwindled to a flock of 81 individuals. Captivated by the fate of the little bird, she abandoned her career as a civil engineer and, along with British ornithologist and her now-husband Paul Salaman and a group of other conservationists, founded ProAves to protect it.

With the help of nearby communities, especially local women, the group successfully fought for an end to the logging of wax palms—the bird’s nesting and feeding site—and hunting of the parrot for sport. The yellow-eared parrot was adopted as a regional emblem. Soon, the population started growing rapidly. Today, there are more than 2,800 individuals, and a couple of years ago, a flock of two dozen parrots was spotted near Lara’s hometown.

It was a huge win, and it taught Lara an important lesson: Women are instrumental in conservation. Women often feel the adverse effects of environmental degradation hardest, and their participation in ProAves’ work quickly demonstrated that they were essential to the success of community-based conservation projects. In many rural communities in Colombia, women are responsible for meeting their families’ most basic needs from nature, including water, firewood, and food—all of which become increasingly difficult as the environment suffers. But the women she encountered needed support, too.

“Many of the women I met were exhausted from childbearing, they did not have any food to feed their children, and they were desperate to have access to family planning,” says Lara.

In 2004, Lara founded Women for Conservation to increase access to public health, family planning, economic opportunities, and environmental conservation. The nonprofit organization aims to build the health of the communities bordering nature reserves, so they can be more economically independent and better able to protect their local environment. The organization runs workshops and trainings, ranging from environmental education to sustainable livelihoods and family planning, for women in 10 communities. It became independent of ProAves in late 2019, and reports that it has since directly reached more than 2,200 people, mostly women and young girls.

Women for Conservation also teaches women to produce wildlife-friendly artisan crafts to replace dependence on cattle ranching and prevent deforestation. In Puerto Pinzón, for example, as part of a broader project to protect the blue-billed curassow, the organization taught women to collect tagua nuts, the seeds of palm trees that are known as “vegetable ivory,” and to produce jewelry that they can sell on the market. Women for Conservation also encouraged the local community to ban hunting, use fuel-efficient stoves to decrease deforestation, and start a tree nursery.

Women for Conservation also runs workshops aimed at training women for careers in conservation and ecotourism.

Ninfa Estella Carinialli was the first woman forest ranger trained and sponsored by Women for Conservation and ProAves. She obtained the International Ranger Award from the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2021, and she works in the Águila Harpía ProAves Reserve, which is located in the eastern Colombian state of Guainía.

Carinialli’s first few years as a forest guard were hard. “My son drowned and my husband passed away from COVID,” she remembers. But, as it had with Lara, the forest proved a refuge. “I felt a deep sadness, but I am thankful for the memories I have with them, and for the opportunity to work in conservation, which makes me happy and fills me with peace.”

Overcoming Myths and Barriers

One of the most important—and sensitive—tasks Women for Conservation has taken on is a focus on reproduction and family planning in local communities. Lara initially had to deal with pushback from local communities. “When we started talking about family planning, we had a couple of incidents where women were severely beaten up for participating in our workshops,” she says. “I learned in a hard way that we need to present women’s empowerment not as a threat, but as a benefit for the family.”

In partnership with the reproductive and family health organization Profamilia, Women for Conservation organizes reproductive health workshops and provides family planning services. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the organization reports it has facilitated 360 contraceptive implants and 27 surgical procedures, including tubal ligations and vasectomies.

The ability to plan pregnancies becomes vital for women and girls when they can’t depend on the natural environment for basic survival needs, says Kelly Donado, who organizes logistics for the family planning brigades at Women for Conservation.

“When there’s ever-less food, jobs, and water, it scares me to think of bringing more babies into the world,” she says. “What kind of situation are we bringing them into? When girls have unplanned pregnancies, they cannot be adequate carers, and often, they’re not able to provide for their babies.”

Donado is leading a campaign in Zona Bananera, a municipality of Santa Marta, which suffers from water scarcity due to diversion for banana and palm growing. Her sister is a local nurse and has offered her home as a center for the clinics and workshops, as there are no medical clinics in the area. Ana Marquis, an 18-year-old from the area, is one of those who participated and decided to get a contraceptive implant.

“It lets me decide when to have my children,” she says in Spanish. She lost two pregnancies in recent years. “Right now, I’m looking after myself so that I can study and not have to worry about getting pregnant.”

In February 2022, Women for Conservation provided 72 women in Zona Bananera with contraceptive implants, in addition to offering cancer screenings, follow-ups, and reproductive education workshops. By the time the group’s representatives returned in March for checkups, more than 190 women and girls had added their names to the waiting list. Men also began requesting contraception from Women for Conservation, which resulted in the first vasectomy procedures in the Zona Bananera region in February 2022.

“Family planning has myriad social, economic, and environmental benefits: It improves the livelihoods and well-being of people and the planet and relieves population pressures on the natural environment, as well as on food production and water scarcity,” says Catriona Spaven-Donn, the Empower to Plan project coordinator for the British charity Population Matters, which supports Women for Conservation.

While Women for Conservation has made significant progress destigmatizing family planning, resistance remains. Marquis says her family forbid her from getting the implant until she was 18, as they have for her 16-year-old sister.

Some families believe that denying teenagers access to contraceptive resources will prevent them from engaging in sexual activity, a belief that has been widely debunked.

Women for Conservation also faced resistance from its peers in the environmental world. Lara remembers other conservation leaders telling her that working with women was nice, but it was not a priority. Whenever she spoke about the link between a growing population, increasing poverty, and environmental impacts, she was told to avoid talking about population.

That’s a trend in recent decades among development, environmental, and reproductive rights community groups. The focus is instead on sexual and reproductive health, choice, and rights of individuals, rather than addressing demographic factors.

“In the past, people wasted a lot of time stereotyping our planetary crises, asking whether the main problem is population or consumption,” says Phoebe Barnard, professor of global change science and futures at the University of Washington, and founding director of the global Stable Planet Alliance, which aims to stabilize and reduce consumption and global population. “Well, of course, it’s not either–or. It’s both. Investing in women’s education, leadership, and opportunities remains a really powerful way to bring benefits not only for women, but for families and children, nature, and the future of our whole civilization.”

Still, even the issues of reproductive health and women’s rights can be difficult to raise among poor, rural Colombian women living in communities where maternity and a large number of children are often viewed positively, and where men may feel a loss of control over women’s sexuality when women use modern contraceptives. In such contexts, contraception is sometimes seen as undermining the traditional gender roles and the stability of the couple and is therefore not trusted or not used.

What’s clear is the close tie between women’s empowerment and environmental outcomes. Recent research found that 80% of people displaced by climate change are women. The U.N. made gender equality an integral part of its Sustainable Development Goals, from equal access to education to family planning.

That link has pushed Women for Conservation beyond family planning to providing basic services to ensure Colombian women are healthy and safe. Breast cancer is the most diagnosed form of cancer in Colombia, so last year, the NGO started providing mammograms and training women on how to conduct a self breast exam. With a drastic increase in calls to domestic violence hotlines during the pandemic, Lara has also started leading workshops and education on the subject.

Original article here