What’s Happening Universally Is Also Happening In You

Everything that once hid beneath the surface is now being pushed to the top. That is happening Universally. And what’s happening Universally, is also happening in you. Meaning that the parts of ourselves that we’ve pushed beneath the surface, but have always, really, sort of known were there, are now coming to the top of our consciousness and demanding to be dealt with. 

Not only will this realization help you connect more deeply to the social justice movements happening in our society, but also, it will bring you to a deeper knowing of yourself, and hopefully, to a better place as a person.

A question to ponder: what parts of yourself have you been separating from, that are keeping you from being more fully human? Something I’ve recognized is how much I’ve tried to separate myself from my anger. These past few months, I have been angrier than I’ve ever been in my whole life. It has been deeply uncomfortable, and frankly, a little terrifying, because it’s not something I’m used to letting myself express. 

I’ve asked why? If I look up my family bloodline to my Great Grandmother on my Mother’s side, there was a history of anger that hurt people. Could this repression of my own anger have been a backlash from that? If I allow myself to be in touch with my anger, what would that mean for me? The same energy center in the body that allows for anger is also in charge of creativity, passion and lifeforce energy…These are parts of myself I cannot and will not shut down. But if I am shutting down anger because I am afraid of it, am I not also dulling the power of those other states of being? 

Next, look at the recurring patterns in your life that you know have been hurting you, but you seem to do nothing about, or fix with a Band-Aid, only to eventually go back to them again. Why is that? Is there some sort of comfort you’re benefiting from, by repeatedly engaging in the same behavior? 

For me, it’s a disorganized and an unstructured way of living. This has been heightened since I’ve been home in Michigan with my parents during the pandemic. I haven’t been able to get into a groove here, and rather than intentionally setting out to get into said groove, I’ve resorted to falling into unhealthy and unhelpful patterns of chaos. For some reason, changing into a pattern of structure and organization sounds SO painful to me, that I avoid it at all costs. I engage with it for a few days, but then get right back to my old ways. However, when I look back at the most peaceful times in my life, they were always when I had some level of structure and was organized in my own way. This is something I am deeply working to uncover and taking steps to remedy.

Finally, look at what is literally happening in the world. First, we need to look at how our society’s current way of being is affecting the oppressed. However, no matter who you are, it is also affecting you. How has white supremacy kept you from being more human, fully connected to other people and even to your own Ethnic identity? How has the patriarchy shut your mouth and kept you small? How have homophobia and transphobia kept you from owning certain parts of your sexuality or gender expression? How has our country, with its paradoxical values of freedom and oppression, skewed your own view of what it means to be truly free? 

These macro and micro systems (and being out of touch with them) have kept us from our true goodness, from ourselves and from each other. One person’s pain is not JUST their pain. It is a collective pain felt across the world. Everything happening right now is personal. You can’t give away what you don’t have. If you’re not doing your own inner work, how can you fully engage with the difficult work that is social justice?

So while you sign petitions, write letters, donate, vote, protest, engage in difficult conversations, journal, read and learn…I urge you to also deeply question how these Universal topics are reflected in you. Whatever is rising to the surface right now is there for a reason. Don’t shrug it off. Confront it head on and own the full story so you can write a better ending. I believe in you and I believe in us.