"Don't ask what the world needs.....

Ask what makes you come alive and go do that.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive".  -  Howard Thurman

As humans we are at an epoch in Earth's history.  Systems and structures are not working.  The economy, governance, ecology, society are all stressed and not doing very well.  I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories and I'm not a doom and gloomer, but I am a realist.  Things either work or they don't and while in the immediate perspective chaos is at bay today (kind of), these systems are not sustainable. I think collectively we have become uncomfortably numb.

For me, to come alive as Dr. Thurman referenced means to thrive.  Too many of us are existing in that numbness which is not very comfortable, but it is numb.  How do we transition from existing to thriving?  Sobriety.  Sobriety in much more than the sense generally attributed to that word meaning "not being drunk", but being drunk or numbed from everything that keeps us from being centered.

Centered for me is being authentic to your Self.  What I have learned and am still learning is that being authentic is not a destination that you will ever get to.  It's a journey that allows you to learn about yourself and others.  I learn every time I have a coaching session with someone.  What I learn is something new about me or something that I need to attend to.  I learn something new every time I get frustrated or even down right pissed off at someone else......as long as I allow myself to learn.

Let me provide an example.  I interact with someone on a regular basis that comes from a thought process that is so diametrically opposed to my way of thinking (and I'm not saying one is better than the other).  This person is very left side brain based and comes from a very black and white, data driven and analytical perspective.  I am very intuitive, love the messiness of life and believe most data is inherently flawed and taken out of context.  This person irritates the shit our of me.  Sorry, I can't articulate it any other way.

It's very easy for me to react and just reside in the irritation I feel for this person, but I know that takes me out of my "A" game, it takes me out of alignment with being centered with my True Self.  I believe that the world is a classroom and every person is an assignment.  So I began looking at this assignment from the perspective of what I can learn.  I also believe to some extent that every person is me as we are all connected, so if they are irritating me, I am irritated with myself.

Without getting into the details through introspection, I learned that I was not being as authentic as I needed to be.  I was playing small and not attending to all aspects of my life.  Rather than fully cultivating my spirit, my emotional, physical and community aspects of myself, I was avoiding them.  In order to not play small I needed to spend more time cultivating a connection with my True Self.  The Self that has never been born and will never die, the self that can be in this world but not of it.  The Self that knows by aligning with life, life aligns with me.

This entails a change in my routines or rituals, physical conditioning, mind conditioning, intuitive conditioning, nourishment and essentially how I spend my time cultivating my true spirit.  More conscious living in every aspect of life to allow my true self to emerge more often.  Being much more discerning about what actions serve me in this endeavor and eliminating the ones that don't move me forward.

From a Heroes Journey perspective, Separation occurred for me when I felt the irritation.  Initiation was when I recognized the irritation and the need for me to look at it.  Return occurred when I realized the changes I needed to make and began acting upon them.  It wasn't the other person that irritated me, it wasn't that they needed to change, it was that I needed to change.  That change in perspective is the miracle, because that is all miracles are.  A change in thought.

What miracles are you creating today?  And maybe more importantly is the question, what lessons in the classroom of life are you ready for?  Set your phone alarm for 3 specific times during the day with a reminder to recognize the lessons that are ready for us to learn when we move out of numbness.  Seriously, the world needs more people that are learning from the lessons of life!!!