You’ve probably heard me talk about staying in alignment “with the highest good.” There are some misconceptions about what I mean when I talk about “highest good.”
First, naturally, we tend to think of “the highest good” as what’s our personal highest good. But that’s not what I’m talking about. Instead, I’m talking about what’s best for everyone collectively. And that means it’s not just about ME, it’s about WE.
The good news there, though, is that it isn’t all self-sacrifice, throwing yourself on the pyre for the good of humankind. Nope, no martyrs need apply! Because YOU are part of the collective “we,” so when you’re contributing to the good of all, we’re contributing to our good, too.
The other thing that can confuse people is that what’s in our highest good isn’t all sunshine and rainbow unicorn poop. Sometimes it is! It’s fairy dust and angel wings and tinkling bells, and happy signs from the universe that are unmistakable. But a lot of the time, though, it’s the shadowy side of things that we want to ignore, hide from, resist or refuse that needs to be illuminated for the good of all. So this is why I always say – Love, Light and SHADOW!!
We’ve seen a lot of that lately. The shadow of the collective is calling for us as individuals to heal ourselves, change ourselves, so we contribute to a world we’re proud to live in. Chaos is sacred! The chaos we’re facing now is mission driven and its upheaval has a purpose to make real changes! Even when we’re taking shelter, or forced to take shelter we’re not going there to hide.
It’s so important to address the shadow and shine the flashlight on our wounds, and our contribution to the wounds of others collectively and personally, the stuff we might prefer to hide. But even though the shadow work is the most uncomfortable because it digs up the monsters we would like to keep hidden under the bed, this is where we get the most healing and true satisfaction, liberation and creativity and all that leads to genuine compassionate prosperity!
And when you shine light on it, and into it, without turning away you’re not healing around the wound, you’re going directly into the wound and cleaning it out so it can heal properly.
We need to look at the shadow because there is beauty hidden in there. We must focus there because that’s what needs to heal. Evolution is calling us and it won’t wait for our convenience.
When we dive into the shadow side, we can often experience more chaos. But when you focus on the healing, you can get rebirth from that chaos. Think about so much in our world that emerges from chaos: Evolution. Emotional boosts. Clearing of obstacles. The incredible smell in the air after the storm clears. All such good, good stuff — but it takes dealing with what the chaos is pointing at to get there.
So how do you deal with the shadow side, while affected by the chaos? First, don’t try to do it all at once. Diving into this work can often feel like the ground is moving under your feet as you engage in the process of healing roiling emotions. It’s impossible to do this without getting your hands dirty and skinning your knees a bit. The journey can be confusing and unsettling, and as you get deeper and deeper in, you can want to beat a hasty retreat!
Even if you jump right in, knowing the riches that will come from the painful work, you still can have moments where you just want to hide in bed and pull the covers over your head. But that doesn’t work. That doesn’t bring healing. So we rest, then we have to get out of bed, and get back at it. We don’t quit before the miracle happens.
Remember that even when you stumble, you are moving forward, even just an inch at a time, into creating something new. It’s not going to be a smooth path. In fact, it’s not supposed to be smooth! That’s the whole point.
When you start working with the chaos as a sacred thing, you can feel unsteady and even like you’re sliding backward. But that’s only because you’re being asked to look to the past and review the lessons you learned, and face your conditioning so your next steps can be sure and steady. Remind yourself that no matter what it feels like, the ground is steady beneath your feet, the wind is at your back, and the conscious Universe is beside you. There’s no need to head off looking for what may seem like safer ground, because you are safe right where you are.
Remind yourself that the landscape around you is always changing. Nothing stays the same. You are changing, too, and you will feel more settled. So breathe, keep breathing, and remind yourself that the chaos will resolve and the obstacles you once found daunting will disappear.
That’s because those obstacles — the big boulders that we thought were blocking our path — are actually internal. It’s an inside job! I’m going to say it again: The obstacle is not outside of us. Everything that’s occurring to us now appears to be external. But it’s not. Everything evolves from our inside out. So the shadow work — it’s internal. It’s about our insides and our personal reflection on what we need to do today, ourselves. Where do we need to go with love and light?
So start small. Ask yourself these questions: What do I need to heal today, in myself, even if it makes me uncomfortable? What do I need to heal so that I can live a life that I’m proud of? What do I need to listen to inside myself?
I think a lot of times, we want to rush past the hurts and say, “Oh, I’m fine now.” But if we’re really going to do the shadow work and heal the hurt places, it’s time for deep listening. This isn’t something you can rush. You have to do the work. The listening actually provides a place for us to find peace in the center of the discomfort. So there’s even a deeper layer we can go with ourselves as we start to shine light internally and dissolve the inner obstacles. We think it’s the outer world that’s asking us to change. We think it’s the outer world saying, Please, fix this. But it’s really our souls crying out. Our souls want this. And when we listen, we can hear.
And this work can be truly beautiful if we don’t expect it to be easy. If we’re ready to go to the dark places and do the work, we can become part of this extraordinary collective that we feel welling up right now. We can choose to behave in a way that says, “I will be part of this change. I will be a person who will stand up.”
If we want to build a new society, if we want real prosperity, peace, and love ( I am so sounding like an old hippie now!) we have to heal the hurts. The racism, the injustice, everything that we participate in to perpetuate these things unconsciously, or consciously have to go. And it has to go inside us first. That’s where it needs to start. And we can keep it going so this kind of collective healing is our new normal.
This is our highest good. This is our hope.
