Author Archives: Laurana Rayne

Clinging doesn’t work .

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Life on Earth was designed to evolve. That’s why we’re here,,,for the ever-changing opportunities to experience life and grow in our humanness. Yet as we move through daily life, we seem to have forgotten the fundamental principle that makes growth possible.

I think it’s fair to say that most of us, me included, fall into the trap of wanting things to remain the same. That’s not surprising, because no-change feels like security. Life seems easier when we know what to expect and how to navigate it.

The desire for the security of sameness causes us to cling to how things are. The more they change, the tighter we cling to them—No, no, don’t go, stay the same. The energy it takes to fuel this resistance is then no longer available for the rest of living, and ends up causing misery and dissatisfaction to varying degrees.

Mindshift…

It is not just you or me—the desire for permanence is baked into the story of Western cultures. It surrounds us in the same way that water surrounds a fish in its usual habitat. And like the fish, we aren’t even aware of how we’re affected by what we are immersed in.

Eastern philosophies are more in tune with the law of impermanence. But for most Westerners, accepting the truth of impermanence requires a mindshift.

Not all Westerners, though. The video below shows a group of people in action on Tenby Beach in Wales, apparently not at all bothered by the reality of impermanence.

To see more stunning sand circles coming and going, visit the YouTube channel of their mastermind, Marc Treanor.

The first time I watched this, my knee-jerk reaction was to wonder how they could put all that work into a beautiful sand circle whose disappearance was both imminent and inevitable.

My second thought was: Hold on a minute! That is a metaphor for life.

Mind-shift…

Here’s what I think we can learn from those folks on the beach:

Accept impermanence. Revel in the process of doing and creating rather than in ownership of the result.

And what about the loss of security?

Security is an inside job.

In an ever-changing world, we will never find security outside ourselves. We need to cultivate it within, and there are tools to help us do that.

Energy activations are a good place to start. Energy activations are designed to enliven (activate) an aspect of your energy field. The words communicate directly with the field, guiding it to a new formation as needed.

This builds your field in a way that you can tap into your inner resources to guide you as you navigate any experience as it arises.

That is genuine security.

Here’s an activation relevant to change.

Relax when things are changing

Experiment with listening to it once or twice every day for the next week and see what happens. First thing in the morning and last at night is an easy routine for many people to make this happen.

 

This document has more free activations, compiled from Sarah McCrum’s YouTube channel. For courses and activations to purchase, visit Sarah McCrum’s website.

Increasing our Cosciousness

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Consciousness is my theme at the moment. Well, actually, It has been for many years. That’s how it ended up in the title of my book, Conscious Spending, Conscious Life, which grew out of my teaching college students to be conscious consumers.

In the time that has passed, I’ve become ever-more aware of the urgent need for increasing our consciousness on all fronts. We must, if we are to resolve the world-scale chaos around us.

That phrase—the more beautiful world our hearts know as possible—is borrowed from author and essayist, Charles Eisenstein. It’s the title of one of his books, and is completely relevant to this time where we must find ways to increase our consciousness.

Seeing the bigger picture…

One of the hallmarks of increased consciousness is the ability to see a bigger picture. And one of the best ways I’ve found is to pay attention to people who are speaking and writing from that greater perspective. It gives me the sense of a perspective I might take and the questions to ask. It helps me shift to another paradigm.

I’m not saying that when I hear a good speaker I immediately take on their views and start parroting them. What I mean is that it gives me other things to consider that may not have been on my radar when I was coming from a more limited viewpoint.

Charles Eisenstein  thinks deeply, writes thoughtfully, and is highly readable. I find him one of the most useful voices in the cacophony of the current chaos.

For consideration…

Click image to hear Charles Eisenstein reading his essay “Reinventing Progress”

So in that spirit, today I’m bringing you Charles Eisenstein reading one of his essays. In it, he describes the paradigm we are currently living under and presents a more expanded one for our consideration.

A paradigm is a framework that contains the basic assumptions, ways of thinking, and methodology that are commonly accepted by members of any discipline or group. This framework determines what people in that group believe is true, and discounts other beliefs as impossible.

We can change paradigms by shifting our perspectives. And this is where the viewpoints of deep thinkers such as Charles Eisenstein can be of value.

Essay summary…

i was going to list key points, but changed my mind.

Content of this nature needs to be taken in as a whole. It wouldn’t do it justice for me to fragment it into bullet points.

The way we perceive things changes what’s possible.

For more of Charles Eisenstein’s perspectives…

This week’s energy activation…

Energy activations are designed to enliven (activate) an aspect of your energy field. The words communicate directly with the field, guiding it to a new formation as needed. For more free activations, go to Sarah McCrum’s YouTube channel. For courses and activations to purchase, visit Sarah McCrum’s website.

True, but partial…

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As I wrote last week, there are many definitions of consciousness, depending on the viewpoint of the person creating the definition. Each definition is based on limited information, and the interpretations are all true…but partial.

The problem with partial information…

When we work from partial information, our decisions don’t serve us well because they aren’t taking the bigger picture into account.This is the theme of the Indian parable of six blind men describing an elephant, all of them arriving at erroneous conclusions because they don’t have the benefit of being aware of the whole.

This story has been retold by Westerners in many ways. The version I like best is by American poet John Godfrey Saxe, who wrote “The Blind Man and the Elephant” in 1873.

And so from their different perspectives, six men all misunderstood the essence of the elephant because they didn’t take into account that there was something bigger, beyond what they themselves could observe. These days, we see that happening a lot.

It’s worth wondering…

…in any situation you’re grappling with…

  • What is the “something bigger” that I’m not seeing from my limited perspective?
  • What would I see more clearly if I viewed this situation from a broader, higher perspective?
  • And how can I learn to see things from that higher perspective?

For starters, you might experiment with doing an energy activation, at least once a day but as many times as you like. Sit quietly and let energy work for you.

More energy activations…

Energy activations are designed to enliven (activate) an aspect of your energy field. The words communicate directly with the field, guiding it to a new formation as needed. For more free activations, go to Sarah McCrum’s YouTube channel. For courses and activations to purchase, visit Sarah McCrum’s website.

The Path Ahead is Not the Same

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While writing last week’s post about learning to play with consciousness, I was reminded of what Einstein said about problem-solving…

Einstein quote

Heaven knows, we certainly have problems to solve right now. Big ones.

This made me wonder if that’s why we’re facing so many crises all at once—a long-lived pandemic, a brutal war, intense social unrest, massive fires and flooding…

Could it be that this is what was needed to shake us out of our complacency … so we would acknowledge that our way of solving big problems isn’t working?

Will the current chaos finally motivate us to look for a better way?

And does that better way lie in increasing our individual level of consciousness?

So what exactly is consciousness?

I think most of us have at least a vague idea of what consciousness means. If you get curious and google it, you’ll find plenty of rabbit holes to go down.

There are multiple viewpoints and many arguments about who’s right and who’s wrong about consciousness and where it resides. Neurobiologists make the case that consciousness is a physical phenomenon, residing in the brain. Social psychologists view consciousness as a byproduct of the social system a person inhabits.

Eastern and contemplative traditions maintain that ordinary consciousness is just a limited version of a higher awareness that requires specific practices if you want to gain access. For a good overview of all the various viewpoints of consciousness, see An Integral Theory of Consciousness by American philosopher Ken Wilber.

Descriptions I relate to…

It probably won’t surprise you that I’m drawn to more expanded views of consciousness. Here are some descriptions I find useful…

  • Consciousness is the ability of a system to make choices, sourced in awareness, that change physical reality. (From this perspective, each human is considered a system operating within a larger whole.)
  • Consciousness is a deep knowing that all the parts make the whole; that each part has a distinct role in creating a cohesive whole; and that we each must work toward making our contribution while allowing others to do the same.

Where does all of this leave us?

Same-old, same-old will no longer work.

We see that.

We feel that.

And if we’re really honest, we know it in our bones.

Life will never be the same. Thank goodness.

This week’s activation…

If you feel you’ve been pulled off track by the chaos of world events, here’s a chance to reset your energy.

Resetting your energy is a step in the direction of increasing your consciousness. You can do it any time you feel you’re being pulled off track.

 Sit quietly and let energy work for you. Energy activations are designed to enliven (activate) an aspect of your energy field. The words communicate directly with the field, guiding it to a new formation as needed. For more free activations, go to Sarah McCrum’s YouTube channel. For courses and activations for purchase, visit Sarah’s website.

Power-less to Power-full

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When I wrote last week about holding peace in a time of war, I realized that I left a big question dangling—how can we find the inner power to do something so difficult and abstract? Where do we even start?

Play with Consciousness

It doesn’t help to feel powerless. Not in any situation.

Yet powerlessness is often our default position, especially when the problem is enormous and we just don’t know what to do.

Why learning to play with consciousness matters…

We’ve arrived at a time in human evolution where our mind is not enough to help us navigate through the dilemmas we must face. Neither information nor imagination give us the capacity for the level of wisdom we require now.

This need for wisdom is why we must learn to play with consciousness. It is our superpower…and one of the best-kept secrets of modern life.

Going back to the idea of holding peace in wartime, it is the wisdom of consciousness that gives us the capacity to do the difficult thing.

How to play with consciousness…

If you don’t watch any other videos I post, please watch this one. Then apply Sarah McCrum‘s simple steps to increase your consciousness so you’ll know what to do when the way is unclear…

For the activation “On the Edge of the Unknown” go here and scroll to the end.

Hold Peace

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When war is going on, it’s even more important to practise peace. Does that sound counter-intuitive—or maybe even downright ridiculous—to you? It would to many, because we aren’t used to thinking in terms of energy fields.

The field of peace…

So let’s consider the dynamics of peace in the context of energy. In a recent zoom session with his on-line community, Charles Eisenstein spoke about this:

In those moments when you choose not to demonize somebody and instead hold them in the fullness of their humanity, you generate a field of peace. As more of us do this at every chance that comes up, it will change the climate [of the field].

Peace is the capacity to hold the parts that we are uncomfortable with. It is not the same as capitulating. It is how you choose to see [others or the situation]. When you choose well, you are making a statement about what is possible for human beings to do.

I’ve experienced this shift in an energy field…

As I’ve mentioned before, an energy field forms when a group comes together. And each member of the group contributes to the field.

Recently I was participating in a small-group zoom session. There were four of us from various parts of the world—Britain, US, Germany and Canada. When conversation turned to the war in Ukraine, we started down the isn’t-this-awful path.

Then the woman from Germany, who is geographically closest to the chaos, began talking about how she’d witnessed people offering help to a degree that had never occurred before.

That prompted me to add two examples that were reported on the radio during the week before our meeting. One was Village Ice Cream, which dedicated 100% of Sunday sales to Ukraine relief. Calgarians lined up outside despite the cold weather, and staff stayed until the last person was served. This one-day blitz raised $100,000—five times as much as sales on their previous best-day-ever.

The other example was a woman who had come up with a simplified method to send supplies for refugees arriving in Poland. Because she has a cousin in Poland, she ordered emergency items to be delivered by amazon to her cousin who then distributed them at a refugee reception centre. The amount she has been able to send increased significantly as word got out and family, friends and neighbours contributed money to fund more orders.

The other two group members had similar stories to share. By shifting to this path, our group energy became peaceful rather than agitated. The difference was palpable, all because someone chose to redirect the conversation by speaking a story about a different aspect of the war.

For me it, it was a graphic reminder that what each of us puts into the field is crucial…and powerful.

And therefore, we each have the power to change things.

Learning more…

From my perspective, Charles Eisentein’s talent lies in helping us find the best in ourselves when he writes and speaks about civilization, money, crisis, and transition. He thinks deeply and expresses himself beautifully. You can find more on his website and YouTube channel.

This week’s activation…

This activation is designed to help you ground in the power and strength of your own energy, instead of being pushed around by what’s going on in the world. It helps you be at choice rather than responding with a knee-jerk reaction.

 Sit quietly and let energy work for you. Energy activations are designed to enliven (activate) an aspect of your energy field. The words communicate directly with the field, guiding it to a new formation as needed. For more free activations, go to Sarah McCrum’s YouTube channel. For courses and activations for purchase, visit Sarah’s website.

Q. What on Earth is going on?

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A.  We are evolving.

Evolution proceeds in cycles and leaps.

We humans tend to overlook the bigger picture of evolution, engrossed as we are in the details of our daily and yearly lives.

History offers perspective…

The cycles and leaps of humanity are more easily seen from the vantage point of hindsight than from the midst of a society that is being propelled into a big leap. 

Imagine you were a resident of England in medieval times. You were a member of a family—either serf or nobility, take your pick. The system was based on class. If you were a serf, you worked long and hard on the land owned by the nobles.

If you were the Noble, you felt entitled to their labor by virtue of your higher class. In that way the serfs were valuable to you, and you made sure to give them just enough of the produce from the land to keep them alive so they could continue serving you.

Both classes knew that this was how things were, and change was nowhere in the picture… until all of a sudden it was!

Can you imagine the disruption? Fundamental beliefs about how society operated no longer applied. People in both classes had to rethink how they would navigate life under entirely different circumstances. And they were entirely unprepared for a huge shift such as this.

Guess what?

We are now in a similarly disruptive change—not in the details of course, but in the magnitude of change. 

From my perspective, deeply disruptive times are upon us for a reason. Because we have not been proactive as a species in up-levelling our consciousness, we are being propelled into ever-more challenging circumstances so we can experience how dysfunctional our culture has become. 

I hope we get the message soon.

This week’s activation…

Energy activations are designed to enliven (activate) an aspect of your energy field. The words communicate directly with the field, guiding it to a new formation as needed. Sit quietly and let energy work for you.

For more free activations, go to Sarah McCrum’s YouTube channel. You’ll find courses and activations for purchase on Sarah’s website.

The Energy of Groups…

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Just as an individual has an energy field, so does a group. It’s a dynamic field, changing with the comings and goings of participants in the group.

When a group has an intention, its energy is focused and amplified.

Because energy is anywhere and everywhere, group members do not need to be in the same physical location in order to have an impact.

Groups in action…

In response to the war in Ukraine, organizations with an understanding of energy and group impact are establishing frameworks that allow individuals anywhere in the world to contribute toward peace in Russia and the Ukraine.

If you’ve been wishing you could do something to help, and haven’t known what to do, here are some no-cost energy-based possibilities to consider…

Institute of Noetic Sciences

IONS was founded by astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell, after his life-changing journey in space, to bring together science and the invisible world. He believed that: We are creating the future. It is not determined. If we get our act together we could have a sustainable, abundant future. 

A Meditation to Elevate the Planetary Field

Saturday, Mar 19, 2022 12:00 PM Pacific

Register to participate in this meditation 

 

Launches Monday, Mar 20, 2022

This is a  new worldwide movement for kindness.

The intention is to create together a coherent energy field of light, kindness and love.

You participate by joining a daily attunement at 6 pm your local time.

Here’s the backstory to this approach: With the help of Churchill, the Big Ben Silent Minute at 9pm was launched. It is said that Hitler described this as “Britain’s secret weapon that he could not overcome”.

Go here for more information and to try the reminder app.

 

Lynne McTaggart’s Intention Experiment  

Lynne McTaggart is an award-winning journalist and the author of seven books, including the worldwide international bestsellers The Power of Eight, The Field, The Intention Experiment and The Bond, all considered influential  books in the development of the New Science. She has run intention experiments for many years,

Lynne McTaggart’s Intention Experiment for Ukraine

On the Edge of the Unknown

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I think most of us are tired of hearing the word unprecedented. Yet it’s an accurate description of the time we are in—one where we’re being confronted by things that we have never known or done before.

That’s an enormous challenge, individually and collectively, because we’ve become used to having things under control. And here we are, facing a pandemic, civil unrest, environmental collapse, and a war like we’ve never seen. Worse yet, efforts to bring them under control are having no more than minimal success.

I suspect that most of us feel this is not what we signed up for.

Imagination isn’t enough…

Often we hear that the solution is to use our imagination to envision the better world that we would like to live in. This used  to work, in the early phases of human evolution. But now that we are on the verge of a big leap, imagination is not enough. That’s because imagination is based on what we know from the past. And we are facing a future that is based on premises and priorities that are different from what has gone before.

Energy is the key. And here I’m referring to our ability to work with the universal energy fields in and around us. This is how we will be able to navigate what comes at us in the next few years.

Following the energy…

These days, I make a lot of my decisions by following the energy. That hasn’t always been the case, though. It changed on my first trip to England, in 1994.

I arrived at Schumacher College knowing little about Britain, except that I intended to visit Stonehenge after my course was over. I had decided it would be easier to figure out the logistics when I was there rather than trying to get details while still at home in Canada. That decision was a departure from my usual nail-down-the-details style. But in this case, it seemed the only practical approach. (No internet back then.)

One day at breakfast, I asked how I could get from Schumacher to Stonehenge. The first reply I heard was, “If you’re going up that way, you must go to Wells Cathedral.” So I did—and had a profound inner experience when I walked around a corner and came upon this view…

In the end, I got to Stonehenge, which didn’t speak to me at all. But Avebury and Glastonbury Tor did. Both of them were on the way to Stonehenge.Neither had been in my sights while I was at home in Canada.

From that experience, I came to appreciate the value of being open to possibilities and paying attention to what presents itself—what I now refer to as following the energy.

What to do now?

If control and  imagination aren’t the answers, how do we navigate this “unprecedented time.”?  What will help us move confidently into and through an unknowable future?

The next phase in human evolution is to graduate from relying on imagination and learn how to follow the energy of the future.

The first step is to learn how to work with your own energy, improving the flow inside you so you are able to be more attuned to the surrounding energy, including that of the future.

That said, there are people who are already tapping into the energy of the future and seeing how life could unfold in unimaginable ways. Stay tuned.

This week’s activation…

Energy activations are designed to enliven (activate) an aspect of your energy field. The words communicate directly with the field, guiding it to a new formation as needed. The one below is set to music and the creators, Sarah McCrum and Gary Malkin, call it a Transformance. Sit quietly and let the energy work for you.

For more free activations and transformances, go to Sarah McCrum’s YouTube channel. You’ll find courses and activations for purchase on Sarah’s website.

Finding the best of ourselves.…

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Perhaps it’s my age… I don’t know… But I find myself longing for the kinder, gentler times—when people understood the meaning of statesmanship, discretion, civility, honour, respect.

Can we recover them? I don’t know. I can only hope that we humans, collectively as well as individually, will find the best of ourselves soon enough.

Relief…

My mother raised four children in a small house in the pre-screens era. We made our own entertainment, which meant there was a lot of noise and activity going on practically under her feet. In moments of exasperation, she was known to say, “Would you kids pleeeease be quiet so I can hear myself think?!“ 

I thought it was an odd thing for her to say. Now I get it.

We all need space, away from outer demands, so we can remember who we are, what we stand for, and how we can contribute to the kind of world we want to live in.

In that vein, today’s post offers a delight and a tool for finding the best in ourselves. First the delight…

When I see something as creative as these sculptures, I’m always intrigued about the kind of mind it takes to conceive of such a thing. And I’m reminded that there’s a world of possibilities far beyond my seeing.

And now the tool for finding the best in ourselves. I mentioned this last week—energy activations. It’s hard to describe them, so I’m going to make it easy for you to try them. Starting today, I’ll attach one of Sarah McCrum’s activations at the end of each post. I’ve found them immensely helpful and I’d like you to have a chance for the experience as well. I’m starting with relaxation because that was an eye-opener for me.

Listen once or twice a day. Sit or lie down comfortably,, close your eyes, and…

To find more free activations, go to Sarah McCrum’s YouTube channel. You’ll find courses and activations for purchase on Sarah’s website.