This morning as I let the idea of “What Shapes Us” waft around my emotional landscape, my mind kept going to an episode in the original Star Trek series, called “This Side of Paradise” – the crew lands on a planet where inhabitants exist in a mental state of utopia. I wondered, “would we be happier and healthier if our daily baseline feeling was utopia?” I don’t think so.
The colonists in the Star Trek episode are “happy” due to flower spores that fill the air they breathe. Essentially, they are drugged. Their state of utopia isn’t real, it’s induced. The spores they breathe “cover up” their true emotions – everyone becomes the same.
When the colonists are provoked their anger breaks the spore spell. Similar to what happens when humans are pushed to the edge emotionally – we crack the illusion of safety and the light of who we really are begins to seep in. This is something I learned the hard way often feeling “if this was that way, or that was this way, I’d be better.” Nothing changed, until I changed.
The word Ubuntu, a Nguni Bantu term meaning “humanity” is often translated as “I am because we are.” To change direction of humanity and our planet – The Shape of Us, begins with you. We are, because you are, I am, because we are. Ever weaving, intertwined, connected.
Our culture is spewing spores that lead many people to believing that happiness comes from being busy, possessing material items, thinking positively all the time, achieving a certain level of success and ‘being’ a certain way. We are modeling for each other; stress, overwhelm, busyness, addictive habits – plus a need to be more, have more and achieve more. I am, because we are…
What part are you playing in the Shape of Us?
Many years ago, I took my son to see a Seattle Children’s Theater play called “When I Grow up, I Want to Do Something Big.” A story about Martin Luther King as a child. I’ve been carrying this question around with me for over twenty years…what can I do to affect change?
My answer is this (as written in Part 1, The Shape of You) –
“Reconciliation with self, the releasing of the unconscious agreements and rules unwittingly adopted brings forth clarity with ‘self’ and with others. It’s from this place we’re able to access empathy, understanding and clear vision that fosters a higher level of engagement, leadership and ability to make healthy connections with ourselves and with others.”
What you do, who you are—becoming ‘you’…nothing matters more.
The more clarity you have about what outside influences are leading you, what is getting in your way of flourishing and what matters most to you—the more “Ubuntu” you bring into everything you do and everyone you are connected to.
Namaste, (I bow to the divine in you)
Suzy
PS Please join me December 10th for my free introductory training: “Calling in Clarity” because the shape of us, begins with you!
Click here to register.
