Contributing to the World – Where do you start?
I participated in a sweat lodge ceremony last weekend at this beautiful place near Kassel (check it out here). Helge led us beautifully through the process and at one point reaffirmed something that resonated deeply with me: If we want to contribute to the world, the best way to start is to heal ourselves. I see myself as a part of a larger organism, like a blood cell flowing through the vessels of a living being.
If we all strive for healing (i.e. wholeness) ourselves, we will automatically contribute to the healing of the collective. If we start to eat healthily again, take good care of our emotional and physical selves we regenerate an element of the cosmos.
More and more people wake up to the understanding, that they are part of a larger whole. And with that comes the desire to contribute. And the best way to start with is yourself.
My current edge to healing myself and to growing more into wholeness is to be unapologetically me. Without having to prove myself or trying to be anyone else or anything more (or less) than who I am. Not so easy for me in some situations, e.g. if I want to win a business deal.
Being educated in integral theory I’m not saying that personal development and healing is the best and only way to contribute to our multidimensional challenge an awakening process on the planet. Certainly not becoming absorbed in exaggerated narcissistic self-improvement. However I regard it as essential to start with self-reflection, healing and inner work before we endeavor out in to the world trying to “fix things” when we ourselves come from an unstable basis.
At one point to my experience personal growth automatically links with collective contribution and impact. The desire to reach out becomes so strong that you would have to fight it to stop yourself. And when you come from a place of (larger) wholeness your impact on the world will be very different.
But if you don’t know where to start, yet – look within!
What is your current edge in healing yourself?
Image Credits: Kristof Zerbe (Creative Commons BY)