My Strategy in a World Gone Crazy

Always remember these 5 things, and you will be okay

Living for a week recently at The Woodstock Fruit Festival, temporarily protected from the current insanity of the world-at-large, I was blessed by the power of people gathering with the expressed intention to create a naturally healthy, joyful environment with each other. Most of us have returned to our regular homes by now, and though we had to leave the relative utopia we had co-created, the positive vibrations live on in our cells. Hopefully, we continue to spread the ripples of joyful living. And this is how we remember who we really are. We are naturally vibrant, peaceful, joyful, creative, generous, compassionate, loving, spiritual beings. We love to catch glimpses of this natural reality, and we dream of a life in which this is our primary experience.

A common conversation at each of our many Woodstock Fruit Festivals over the years has always centered around our desire to bring our healthy dream-lifestyle to full fruition, despite the great resistance we all experience in the many fear-based, media-driven structures we inhabit in today’s world. Many in our Woodstock Family are, like me, busily creating alternative community spaces where we live currently. And a BIG DREAM is that one day our festival will have its own piece of land, on which we can build a fruit-filled longterm home for the many different gatherings we would love to hold throughout each year, and share. We have seen the incredible power of gathering regularly with large numbers of our healthy-living tribe!

While we all dream of a better world in our future, and create what we can in the moment, I will share 5 basic truths that have helped me, perhaps more than anything else.

1. My body has a built-in natural blueprint to thrive

If you don’t believe this, spend time observing an infant and toddler. Or perhaps better yet, observe animals in the wild, who have no pharmaceuticals, no cooked or processed food, and no instant google-answers. They thrive by instinct, and in most cases interdependent bonds with other animals.

Remembering this truth has helped me to honor this built-in blueprint. Whenever I am not thriving, it’s usually because I am in my own way and managing to obstruct my body’s natural, continuous efforts to thrive. I find great relief in knowing that I already automatically came into life with the most important basics of a health-blueprint onboard. The most powerful thing I can do if I am not experiencing the level of health that I desire, is LISTEN to my body, and REMEMBER to allow its awesome intelligence and wisdom to guide me.

2. Nature always heals me

And I really mean ALWAYS. When I feel overly stressed or emotionally imbalanced, maxed-out, bewildered, or in any kind of pain or dis-ease, time in nature will always open my awareness, and nudge me back toward my natural home in the wisdom of my heart-center. Pain may not disappear, but when I am grounded in my heart-center, pain is simply pain (without drama or story attached to it). I can then bring compassion to the situation, and it becomes much more livable.

The other component here is that “Nature’s laws can’t be broken, only proven.” (I heard this first from my colleague Doug Graham.) Spending intentional conscious time immersed in nature reminds us of the natural laws, such as what foods nature intends for us, what kinds of movement or exercise is natural for humans, and what we naturally prefer to focus our eyes and ears upon.

3. Beauty transforms everything

This one is a cousin of spending time in nature, but can encompass nearly every aspect of our daily lives. Create beauty in and around your home, in your workplace, in your conversations and your relationships, and in the beliefs and thoughts you choose to engage with. Bring beauty and grace to your mealtimes (even when you are eating by yourself), to your morning and evening routines, to your movements and exercises.

Presence is beauty. I took a momentary break from writing this blog-post to stand up and step out into the sunshine in my backyard. Our resident mockingbird was sharing its many beautiful songs from up on its favorite corner of our metal shed-roof, and a couple of large monarch butterflies flitted around me in the sunshine. A cool gentle breeze brushed across my face, and brought my neighbor’s melodic chimes to life. What an incredibly beautiful moment to behold! It filled me with pure and simple gratitude, which I brought back to my writing here, to share with you :).

I love these words from one of my favorite movies, “August Rush”:
”Listen. Can you hear it? The music. I can hear it everywhere. In the wind…in the air…in the light. It’s all around us. All you have to do is open yourself up. All you have to do…is listen.”

4. Fear is a mental construct

A couple of acronyms I have heard for FEAR are: “False Evidence Appearing Real,” and “Feel Everything And Rejoice!” Fear is a part of life, and I have yet to meet anyone who has no experience of fear. Fear can guide us in helpful ways, or it can derail or paralyze us in debilitating, self-sabotaging ways. Remembering that it is a mental construct, and that we CHOOSE which mental constructs to focus our attention upon, will guide us to work with fear in helpful ways.

When I am feeling afraid, I lean into the fear and ask myself some questions: What am I afraid of right now? Why am I afraid of this? What’s the worst thing that could come of this? Is there something productive that I can DO about this right now? Is there a fearful part of me (like an ‘inner child’ part) that simply wants my compassion? Am I ‘using’ these fearful thoughts to excuse myself from owning my real power? Is this fear serving me in any useful way, or would it be most helpful to surrender it, shrug it off, let it go, and consciously shift my focus to something that empowers me?

5. Love always wins

In a way, this is the grand ultimate sum of the previous four points. I choose to believe that Love is the creative energy responsible for bringing life, and healing. I know from experience that EVERY time that I manage to surrender to the frequency - the vibrational tone - of love, it feels good, I see beauty, and being alive feels like a precious gift. I think love always wins because love is truth. Love is the energy we are made of, love is what we fundamentally are. When we are “home” in our true nature, we are in the natural frequency of love, and everything beautiful and generous is possible. This is our power, this is our LIGHT, and it triumphs over darkness and fear.

Here are the 5 things to remember, to help you navigate through the craziness of the confusion, deception and fear that is trying to overtake our beautiful world:

1. My body has a built-in natural blueprint to thrive

2. Nature always heals me

3. Beauty transforms everything

4. Fear is a mental construct

5. Love always wins

We have a choice about what we focus on, what we give energy to, and what vibrational point of attraction we create and embody in ourselves. See and know the beauty in and

around you every day, and you will find the strength to take right actions to honor and protect this natural beauty.