Monday 30 November 2015

EE Story: The Little Lonely Tree



Image courtesy pizabay.com
There was once a little tree growing in a sparsely populated forest. The axeman had cut down most of the other trees leaving only their stumps behind and the other young trees that remained were so far away that the little tree felt quite lonely.

Then one day, the little tree spotted a little boy. He was with a little dog and they were both playing with a ball. The little tree enjoyed watching the boy and his dog. It was normally so boring in this part of the woods and the boy and his dog brought the tree much excitement.

Day after day the little boy came along with his dog and day after day the little tree watched the boy from afar. Then something strange started happening. One of the little tree's low branches started growing out ever so slightly, bit by bit every day it grew longer until one day the little boy walked right up to tree, climbed the tree and sat on the low branch which was strong enough to support his weight.

The little tree was quite delighted. Within a few more weeks, another branch, higher up, had grown strong enough so that the boy and his father slung a swing on it which the boy and the tree enjoyed immensely.

But then, one day, the little tree's worst fear manifested for the little boy had to move away. The little boy came and told the tree he had to go and he even cried and hugged the trunk of the tree, wrapping his hands around the tree's slender trunk. The tree did not want the boy to go but the boy, his father and his dog never returned after that day.

The little tree was  quite distraught and to make matters even worse, the horrible loggers came along one day and cut off the the tree's two longest, sturdiest branches which the little boy used to sit upon and swing from. The tree heard the loggers speaking amongst themselves. They found it quite strange that the branches from the tree seemed so mature when the tree was still so very young.

The little tree went into a depression.

She pulled all of her remaining branches and wrapped them around her body and drew up all of her roots onto herself. She purposed quite resolutely in her heart to wither up and die.

One night the Moon was out in her glory, shinning full and bright and the tree was sleeping when suddenly she heard a great thundering clap from the skies. Upon awakening the tree could not believe her eyes. She was surrounded by dense foliage and a strange, eerie light from the moon. All the trees that had been cut down, were standing tall around her.

Image courtesy www.glogster.com

What is the meaning of this? How ever could this be? The older trees have all come back! Was she dreaming?

Then with one voice the other trees spoke.

"Yes Little Tree, you are dreaming. In the morning when you rise, you will still only see our stumps. We chose to visit you in dream time because we have a very important message for you."

"Wh-what message is that?" the little tree asked very timidly.

"Life is a gift which you must cherish and you are not doing a good job of that right now" the Great Spirit of the trees responded.

"Why should I? The loggers with their axes are just going to come and cut me down anyway and it's so lonely here. There is no point to life because there is no one to love!" the little tree replied in a frustrated tone.

"You must first learn to love yourself."

This made the tree pause. She had never considered loving herself before. Just then though she remembered the loggers again.

"Ok - fine! I can love me but what's the sense? As soon as I grow big and strong the loggers are going to come and cut me down. I'll still end up dead - just like you!"

Just then a mighty, rushing wind blew and kicked up all the leaves and branches around the little tree and the apparition of the great old trees completely vanished.

The little tree remained quite still, wondering if maybe the Great Spirit of the trees would speak to her again. She remained there waiting and hoping but when she realised they would not return she began to weep mournfully and fell back to sleep.

The next morning, the tree awoke with the rising of the sun and looked around at all the tree stumps around her. Memories of her dream from the night before came back to her mind and an unspeakable sadness threatened to flood her soul but then a persistent wind started to blow. It blew and blew and blew and many of her few remaining leaves jumped off of her and played merrily with the breeze.

Image courtesy http://nature.desktopnexus.com/

In that moment the little tree heard the voice of the Great Spirit of the trees and it asked her,

"Are we truly dead, little tree?"

Finally the little tree understood. 

Death is a choice that is presented to you with every day but you don't have to take it and those who choose to live life fully and truly every single day and in every single moment - never, ever really die. 

And so the little tree purposed to live and she remembered what the Great Spirit of the trees told her - that she must first learn to love herself.

The little tree looked at her drying branches and knew that she needed to spread her roots to find more nourishment. She also knew that she had to dig deeper to find greater reserves of water and so she did that.

Gently, day by day, the little tree began to unfold her branches, reaching them up into the sky so that her leaves could better absorb the life giving powers of the beautiful rays of sunshine.

It was such an ironic thing, for in living life abundantly she actually made herself more and more vulnerable. For at any moment the axeman could come and see her growing big and strong and decide to cut her down!
Yet, the tree knew that her spirit would go on, and resting securely in this knowledge the fear of the axeman eventually disappeared.

http://fineartamerica.com ~ Trude Janssen
There was another thing too in that the more she practised loving herself, the more she yielded herself to the wonderful experiences of life and in so doing received many opportunities to love. Love made a full circle!
Birds started nestling in her branches and little animals came and found rest and shelter around her.
Even random human families trekking their way through the woods would stop to picnic at the base of her trunk, and several children climbed into her branches.
Someone even found the old swing from the first little boy she loved and re-hung it onto one of her many strong branches.

Image courtesy wallpaperup.com
Oh and she never cried when it was time for her visitors to go. She understood truly, that some like the little boy who she loved so long ago, would only be in her life for just a short while and that some she may only ever meet once. So she aimed to appreciate every moment and every encounter and to trust that the Universe will send more her way in time.

She learnt the art of loving fully in the moment, without attachment.

And yet another miracle was slowly manifesting around the tree. Other little trees that were once afraid to grow, were taking encouragement from her and grew mightily so that the once sparsely wooded area was now a beautiful thriving forest again. The tree soon had many friends all around her.

wallpaperswide.com

The tree was happy and her heart was content... but she never forgot the little boy she once loved.



One afternoon, the tree spotted a lovely couple - a man and a woman. There was something familiar about the man even though the tree took a while to understand what it was. The man walked his female companion right up to the tree, and threw his hands around her trunk and laughed heartily when he realised that his arms could no longer encircle the great big tree.

Image courtesy www.pinterest.com
It was the little boy all grown up now! He had never forgotten his favourite tree but was now a conservationist - which is a big word that basically means that he had secured a piece of paper (go figure!) that declared that this region where the tree grew was now protected.

Apparently he had secured this paper several years ago but had only now secured enough of another type of paper to buy a small acre of land quite near to his favourite tree where he intended to raise his family.

The man had a guitar and the woman had a lovely voice and together they would make the most beautiful music beneath the tree to the pure enjoyment and entertainment of the tree.

The tree's heart was so full, it felt like it would burst and yet the tree never forgot the lessons of her ancestors - every time she heard the thunder clap, or saw the leaves playing with the wind or felt a gentle breeze - she remembered her ancestors and she knew that one day she would have to join them but she also knew that she will do so willingly and gladly, without fear.

Image Courtesy the Internet


"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"
~ 1 Corinthians 15:55

Dedicated to my fellow Selena Mooners 

Inspired by the Unity Breath as taught by Drunvalo Melcizedek



In love and light always,

Elizabeth Energy

Monday 23 November 2015

Wings Signal Work!



Wow! We had some pretty intense energies over the last few months and 2015 is certainly living up to all of its predicted hype! Energy sensitive individuals and empaths took a beating emotionally, mentally, physically, financially - ok look! We took a beating on all sides and we still are dealing with some turbulences!
However - all in all - there is a general feeling that things are changing for the better.....because they are!

Sometime around August this year, the energies changed and took on a more grounding vibe. In the earlier months there was a surge in creativity and inspiration and many were engulfed with dreams and visions and generally speaking there was a lot of excitement mixed with fear as change was an important theme at that time. It was a season of transformation which I called the cocoon phase. But then August and the last Super Moon of September 28 came and the energies, which felt more masculine in nature, helped us to balance our euphoria with some logical reality checks.

 Now, equipped with the vision, yet grounded by a balanced perspective - we have entered the season of wings.
Many empaths, including myself, saw butterflies in our visions and dreams or felt particularly drawn to butterflies and that's because wings were distributed in the spiritual realm which means that it is now our time to fly and our time to work.

There is no question that the butterfly's beauty lies within its wings. They allow the butterfly to fly and are often visually appealing.
Yet there is a lot more to a butterfly than its wings. 

Butterflies, fluttering from flower to flower, are doing more than just flying around looking pretty!

They are busy at work, ensuring that one of life's most important processes - that of pollination, takes place.



So yes - it feels awesome to have wings but the mere fact that you have been so endowed means that you have work to do! I can't tell you what your work is...you need to know that for yourself. 

To the rest of us, let's flap those wings and get to work!

Saturday 15 August 2015

Stay Calm - Positive Energy Needed!

Ok guys - this one is short! The energies are all over the place this week and I've barely had a chance to catch a breath. Not to mention the amount of things that seem to be happening specifically to get me irritated and upset!

However I had to remind myself to breathe. I had to remind myself to stay calm. I had to shut it all down and go into my quiet place and tap into the Eternal Source of All and find my center and ground.

Then this morning - oh my word  - visions and dreams with so many messages and all of them so potent. I'll just divulge one...

LUCID RUNNING DREAM

So there I am running and yes of course someone is behind me. This is very much a recurring dream that I've been having for years. However just last week I programmed myself to have a different response to this dream - different to the one I usually have. I told myself last week that I won't run and that I will face my pursuer.
So here I am running, heart pounding, noise of my pursuer behind me - thoughts of demons and other dreadful things threatening to fill my mind when (and guys THIS IS THE POWER OF THE LEFT BRAIN - this is what you are supposed to use lefty to do!) it comes back to me that I had said that I won't run again.

So I stopped.

Just to give you a bit of my history with lucid dreams - as a person who has been lucid dreaming for most of my life, I have well mastered the art of changing my dreams. A few years ago I decided that I will stop using that control and instead see where the dreams go. Shortly after making this decision I had a dream which to date is the scariest experience of my life and then the scary dreams significantly subsided.

Back to current dream - I stopped and I stopped with awareness!

Based on all my spiritual training and growth, I know that I can face this and that I am the one running the show in my dreams.

I then turned around and willed myself to face my pursuer and what I saw blew my mind away even within my dream.

I saw a being who was perfectly transparent and in my dream I remember thinking "this is a shadow" but yet it was not a shadow as I could see through it. Only a humanoid outline was perceptible.
http://wallpaper222.com

The being then raised it's arm and waved at me and smiled - I sensed the smile because I truly could not discern facial features.

It then ran off along a different path from the path I was on leaving me to watch and wonder in amazement.


Guys - the lessons are tremendous. One lesson that I pulled from this experience was this:


"Many times our fears are nothing more than tools that are being used to help us grow."
 Clearly I could see that this being, who probably chased me for most of my life in my dreams, was deliberately chasing me. This "shadow" was actually serving me. Helping me to reach the point where I would summon the courage to turn around and face my fear. Once I did that - it ran off. Why? Because it's job was accomplished!

I know that I personally would not have reached this place without my practice of meditation. We all have shadow issues but the best way to deal with shadow is to turn on the light. The light here could mean many things. It could mean your conscious awareness, or your acceptance, or your ability to love yourself in spite of your flaws.

And here is the really great news - We are the children of the Light! And it's our divine birthright to constantly walk in the knowledge of this light.

Well like I said earlier - this is a short one but there's a lot to chew upon.

So - love, light and blessings everyone!

EE

P.S - Stay positive!





Tuesday 21 July 2015

A Better Question than Love

Reflections For Those In Abusive Relationships

Image Courtesy The News Chronicle
Quite recently I watched what may well be deemed a controversial video within the Awakening and New Age communities. My beautiful soul sister Hope Jemimah shared it on her Facebook page and it caused some great controversy. The video of contention was Matt Kahn's Soul Contracts, Twin Flames and Soul Mates Redifined. Allow me to preface this blog post by saying up front that I have no desire to attempt to define or redefine these terms - this is not what this blog is about.

Now, I truly did not watch the entire video - I find myself doing that a lot of late: buying a book and not finishing it, starting an interesting article and then just skimming it...it's almost as though I go in - take just what I need and then leave. It's just the way Spirit is working with me these days. 

Anyway back to the Matt Kahn video - the one thing that he said that jumped out and grabbed my attention and had it fully for the last few days since watching his video is (and I'm paraphrasing a bit):

"If you stay with someone long enough you will fall in love with them even if you hate them - because your core nature is love."

Now don't we see evidence of this all the time - whether it be the Stockholm syndrome that kidnap victims face or the woman who cries mournfully at the graveside of her abusive husband? Surely the psychologists and psycho-analysts would probably offer a more technical and logical explanation, but I personally believe that our true nature is love and that the Divine is choosing to have a multitude of physical experiences through and in us. 

However the moment that you resonate with this truth that we are all love at our core, the reality of life challenges you to see people - not based on this absolute truth but on their relative truth. 

So the absolute truth is that co-worker who gives you a hard time is an expression of God and that you should love her....but the relative truth- the truth you experience -  is that she is a backstabbing fiend who attempts to undermine you at every opportunity she gets. 

Imagine this scenario now: You are working on an ultra-important project but your co-worker envies the fact that you were chosen for this project. She has even presented herself as a better candidate for the project to your boss! 

You just sent your final report to the printer but when you go to collect it - it's not there. When you look down the corridor you see your good 'friend' or rather fiend walking away with a stack of papers in her hand. You approach her but she denies having your report but your 'spidey' sense aka intuition is shouting to you that your report is in her hands. 

You can't just say "Peace my sister" and walk away. Consider this - God is using this opportunity to challenge you to honour your intuition and speak up for yourself. You have been a doormat for far too long and have stamped down your intuition for far much longer. Yes you can re-print your report but do you really want it in her hands when you know she wants your project?
Image courtesy:
http://kamisulat.blogspot.com
Title: Workplace Backstabbing

Now I'm not advocating that you accuse her forthwith but maybe you can say 

"Oh really, can we just go through the papers you have in your hand because I know that I just sent my report to print and I believe it got mixed up with your print job." 

As your report miraculously jumps out of the stack in her hands, she apologizes and calls it a genuine mistake...let's not judge - maybe the mistake was indeed sincere....in any case, this is the place where you can show love! 
What is vitally important to the universe though, is that you stood up and honoured your intuition!

Now what does this have to do with the Matt Kahn video or abusive relationships. Well believe it or not - you playing the doormat to your co-worker's overt and covert tactics is an abusive relationship and according to Matt, that co-worker is a twin flame sent to meet you on your path and help you to accelerate your soul's evolution!

Now you see why the video is so contentious - because so many of us are just so attached to the idea of a 'one and only love for me'  twin flame romance song! I'm deliberately not getting into that conversation.

However, Matt did make me think about a relationship I walked away from and one of the hardest things for me has been trying to resolve whether I loved enough...or whether there was enough love and then all of a sudden I realised that the question of love is totally irrelevant. 

When at the core of our beings, we are all love for we all possess the Divine spark buried deep within us, we realise that we are all capable of loving. The problem is that we are inconsistent or incomplete in the loving as we suffer from unconsciousness - lacking the full awareness of who we really are!

The grieving wife at the husband's graveside telling everybody how she much she loved the dearly departed is not crying - in that moment - for all the times he hit and abused her but rather for all the good that she beheld in him. She is also grieving for what could have been and all the 'if only's' her marriage faced. If only he did not drink so much...If only they had more money.....

Did he abuse her and make her life miserable? Yes
Did she love him? - Most certainly - she stayed and hoped and prayed for the best.
Did he love her? I would like to suggest that yes he did! In his sober moments when he held her and sobbed and promised to never abuse her again - his agony was birthed from a place of momentary remorse and dare I even say - love as well!

Now we can argue that this is not a good representation of love and that abusive love is not true love and I would agree with you! 

However I will add that the higher perspective, that you are in position to have, is because you know better! The woman who stays - does not know better. This love - that buys her flowers one week and bandages the next - is the only love she knows, which is why you cannot use love to get her to leave!

Should she have stayed with him to live a life of pain and misery? You may say that we cannot go back in the past especially as our imaginary guy is already dead! 
However allow me to superimpose another image into our story - that of their daughter - a child who grew up watching this abuse and has now hand picked a guy who is 'just like daddy'. 
This daughter, based on her home environment, associates love with abuse and has consequently chosen a lover who abuses her.

Let's say you are a friend of this daughter and you try to explain to her that she is repeating a cycle of abuse and that she should walk away from her guy. She looks at you and says "But I love him....and he loves me."

Can you truly deny their love? Can you call her stupid and thereby subject her to verbal and emotional abuse? Especially when you know how her father treated her mother and that she loved both her father and mother?

Do you now see why Matt Kahn's statement was such an epiphany?

If we could all understand that we love - whether in part or in full - because that is what we truly are, then a better question to ask  is not - Is there love? But
Can there be growth?

Real Questions on Growth:


  • Can you truly grow into the full capacity of your God given potential with someone who disrespects you and does not value you? 
  • Do you even have any idea of how much potential you have? 
  • Can your abusive partner grow into all that God has designed for him or her if you stay and facilitate their need to hurt other people by presenting yourself as a willing and submissive target? 
  • Can you truthfully grow together and have a loving and healthy relationship where boundaries are set and respected? 
  • Based on your real experience (as opposed to your fantasized desires) - are you being honest with yourself?
  • Can your partner support and encourage you to pursue your passions - even if those passions are less about making money and more about fulfilling your soul's purpose?
  • Does your partner nurture and support your vision for yourself or your business?
  • Is your partner comfortable with you flourishing even as they don't?


Special Note for Victims of Physical Abuse:
If you experience physical abuse, you cannot effect change and help your partner grow if you stay! Your life is in danger and your life is precious. Please contact the relevant authorities.
It is okay to love your abusive spouse or partner - it is not okay to live with them. 
You guys need separation and external help via counselling etc. if you have to make it work.


To the victims of verbal and emotional abuse - your situation is actually pretty dire because of how sinister and undercover emotional abuse can be. If you truly believe that the two of you can grow together and you are both willing to conscientiously seek therapy and get the help needed...then you guys have a chance of making it.
Image courtesy Examiner

You cannot make it if:

  • Only one of you sees a problem
  • Only one of you is committed to seeking help
  • Only one of you is committed to changing
  • Your partner is treating your therapy as a charade
  • Your partner is narcissistic and does not see his/her narcissism



Let's face it - the only way you could be content in an abusive relationship is if you lower your expectations and kill all the dreams you had for yourself - especially the dream of how you wanted to be loved and treated.

And everyone has dreams on love. You just may have forgotten yours if you think you don't have them. Revisit your inner child...




You may think that you are simply not growing and that you are comfortable with being stagnated and you may even tell yourself that it's a sacrifice you are making...maybe for your children perhaps. 

Here's the problem with that:

Nothing remains the same - not even stagnation.  Eventually, slowly but surely and possibly imperceptibly at first, stagnation gives way to death.

First you kill your long-term dreams, then you kill your day to day expectations, eventually you kill your opinions and by the time you have killed your hope, you have long lost the battle for you. 

If you have to take away only two things from this blog post, take this:

A constantly diminished you cannot truly serve another person - not even your abuser.




The more you grow, the more your understanding of love grows and this places you in a position to love better and be a better YOU!

So you may love and you are free to love, but can you grow? - that is the better question!


In love, light and blessings

EE

Leaving you with this heart stirring song from Chrisette Michele which may help some of you...:)


"Yes I love you but I really got to lose you
Freedom is where I want to be
Yes I'll probably always love you
But I'm moving
I got to do this for me!" 
 ~ Blame It On Me by Chrisette Michele



Saturday 4 July 2015

EE ARTICLES: The Role of Technology in Your Child's Development


Our last blog post and first offering for the EE Article Series explored what many believe is an impending consciousness revolution and I believe that it will actually be activated or driven by technology. The responses to "Conscious Revolution - The Youth Response to Technology" were enormous and sparked many discussions. One off-spin discussion is 'What role (if any) should technology play in our children's lives?' 

To venture to speak of the merits of technology is to allow oneself to sit on a pendulum that can swing between two very extreme trends of thought. And these thoughts are all so much more passionately expressed and felt when one thinks of what is best for one's child.

Parents Who Hate Technology

On one extreme end of the spectrum, are those for whom technology is the tool of the devil or the Illuminati. The thought of introducing technology to their precious child is beyond unthinkable. For these souls, the ideal spiritual approach to life is one where we abandon our concrete jungles and live in the real jungle. Swimming with the dolphins, eating wild berries and sleeping under the stars are for them the hallmarks of true spiritual living. 
These are the ones who who, quite notably, call for us to unplug from the matrix and get out into nature.

To the extremists - electronics and media houses are the tools of the alien reptilian race, which are used to program and monitor us. These folks won’t even own a tablet, far less introduce them to the pure, innocent minds of their star-seed children. 

(For what it is worth, there is something in the very core of my being which finds this lifestyle appealing although quite honestly, I have never truly experienced living in the wild).

Questions for this Parent: This parent needs to consider the following questions - Am I inadvertently teaching my children to be fearful of the unknown? Am I sufficiently open minded and balanced in my thinking? Can I acknowledge that even science can be spiritual? Am I ensuring that my child is well equipped for living in this technological era?

Image courtesy: http://estruda.deviantart.com/art/Living-with-nature-193978709



Image Courtesy Amazon.com - The Watch Over Me Dream Station
Parents Who Love Technology 

On the other extreme end are those who view technology as the pinnacle and ultimate achievement of mankind. Research and studies that electronics invariably emit frequencies which may be harmful and serve in some way to affect the natural frequencies of the brain, mean nothing to them. 

How could it? They live in a fully automated smart house, sleep with their phones and tablets charging within easy reach from their pillows (not a good idea), and cannot imagine making it through the day without checking in to their Outlook calendar, Facebook news feed, Google circles. Twitter updates and other daily notifications. 

Will they introduce technology to their child? Why the baby room is already outfitted with the latest smart gadgets! Who needs mobiles, which are so last decade by the way, when there are sophisticated smart-sensor technology baby monitors? With built in sensors to detect baby’s movements and sleep patterns, one monitor on the market can adjust its display of lights and sounds to create different moods and environment to either soothe baby to sleep or greet them on waking in the morning. 
  
These parents will, quite naturally, gift their one year old baby with a tablet loaded with age appropriate apps and content and they will tell you that it’s to ‘help stimulate baby’s brain’’.

Questions for this Parent:
Am I using technology as a pacifier to avoid the act of parenting my child? Does my child sense that I genuinely want and enjoy spending time with them? Do I responsibly monitor my child's usage of technological devices? Am I sufficiently aware of the real dangers that exist not only with the internet but with the use of electronic devices?

Where should we stand?
Well let's eliminate the passions and just try to objectively consider the well researched and documented pros and cons:

The Pros:

Despite all the naysayers, there is growing support for the actual benefits of technology in childhood development.
      Increased visual-spatial ability - A person’s visual-spatial ability which speaks to their capacity to understand and remember the spatial relations among objects is said to be quite indicative of a person’s adeptness to success in mathematics and science. Several notable bodies including the John Hopkins University recognise this and even recommends the playing of video and computer games to improve this skill within oneself.
      Better Hand-Eye Coordination - The University of Toronto has researched increased sensorimotor skills among video gamers. Sensorimotor control speaks to coordinated vision and hand movement.
      Improved Cognitive Development - There are certain regions of the brain that are engaged in the use of computerized devices which can be said to lead to improved cognitive development.
      Improved Verbal Skills - It is not uncommon for children using these devices to quickly learn the nursery rhymes which can played on repeat to enhance rapid learning. As new words are learnt in the nursery rhymes, they can then start linking these words together in daily conversation.

The Cons:

To develop a more balanced perspective let us consider the research done in this authoritative report from Public Health England which highlights the major detriments to extensive ‘screen time’, a term which encapsulates television viewing time, time spent surfing the internet or playing video games etc.
The main cons are:
      attention deficit problems - switching from the fast stimulation of technology to the slower pace of natural life means that children get bored more easily with the regular pace of life
      Hyperactivity - strongly linked with the problem of attention deficiency. If the child’s natural environment is too slow and boring, children may become hyperactive to assist with giving themselves the heightened stimulation they have come to accept as normal from their computerized environments.
      Socialization problems - most of the technology gadgets and activities can be engaged alone which means that children who spend excessive time playing alone on these gadgets won’t be able to develop crucial social skills which comes from interactions with other people and children
      Lower levels of wellbeing - emotional distress, anxiety and depression are never too far off for kids who possess poor social skills from spending too much time alone.
      Several physical health problems - such as eye strain and underdeveloped muscles from long periods of inactivity.


(NOTE: This article does not quite scratch the surface of other ills such as online predators, hackers who hack into your home camera system etc. but suffice it to be said that there are real dangers inherent with technology use which one must become aware of. This article is simply focused on how technology may affect your child's development.)

Conclusion ~ Technology and Your Child: To Be or Not to Be?
In the same way the pendulum eventually comes to rest in a neutral position after a period of time, so too our passionate thoughts and beliefs eventually find a more neutral and balanced view. And so my position is:

I’m not afraid to expose my child to technology. Technology is a tool which I will manage the usage of, for both myself and my child”.





After starting with a complex mathematical function for our pendulum swing, we end up with a very simple equation:

Love = Time

The most crucial thing you can do to aid your child's development is spend time with them. This is how children interpret love.

So gadget loving mommy or tree hugging daddy (and yes I purposefully switched these from the expected stereotypes) - whatever you do, make sure to spend adequate time with your child. Your love, which comes across in the time you dedicate to them, is the best development tool ever.



Love, Light and Blessings
Elizabeth Energy




Wednesday 24 June 2015

EE Articles: Consciousness Revolution - The Youth Response to Technology



Meme Courtesy the Internet


 In reviewing the definite impact technology is having on our youth, our minds can easily become fixated on the negatives because of how prevalent they are. Sexting, virtual sex, streaming pornography and the easy ability to meet strangers online are all new realities made possible by the technology era.

Yet technology brings positives as well. Remote and online education programs are typically more flexible and more feasible. The large availability of data from various resources leads to more comprehensive research and more conclusive findings.
The exposure to different cultures and ways of thinking leads to greater tolerance and there are countless income generating opportunities for young writers, programmers and online entrepreneurs.

Let us look at the different facets of a teenager’s life and consider technology’s influence and try to identify the picture that is developing.

Home & Family


Children are now requesting laptops, tablets, cell phones and video games at younger ages and the increasing sales of these devices every Christmas shows that their parents are listening.

However children are not the only ones affected. Technology has changed the way of living and working for parents. Thanks to the internet and the many mobile platforms, parents can easily work from home. While this is still highly romanticized and touted as giving parents ‘more time at home with the kids’, what it really translates into is parents who are always working at home.

Even when not working, parents may tend to recreate online, visiting social media sites or playing online games.

What this means is that many people who share a home, very rarely share quality time together. Each person is plugged into their own device.

“Alone Together” is a phenomenon that psychoanalyst Sherry Turkle explores in her book of the same name and she discusses among several things, the sense of community and connection people now derive and expect from technology while expecting less from each other in person.


School & Education


For a long time the book was synonymous with education. That is no longer so. The nails on the coffin for books were firmly secured the minute the advanced search engine was created. Spending hours poring through the pages of various texts is simply archaic and a waste of time.

To make matters worse for the book lovers, the search engine’s results are also not only limited to text. Videos provide visual instruction and present opportunities to easily learn new skills without attending a course or institution of learning.

Education providers therefore are forced to change with the times and provide more visually stimulating computerized environments to engage young minds.

What this means or rather strongly suggests is that the brains of the young have been rewired somewhat. The old linear, sequential manner of processing information as is encouraged by book reading has been retired. Emphasis is now placed on information gathering skills which focus on how to skim large quantities of data from multiple sources and retrieve what is pertinent. Memory retention is also not as important as critical analysis.

Technology writer, Nicholas Carr has greatly supported this notion in his book “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains”. He states:

“...the argument is that online activities—surfing, searching, jumping from e-mail to text—actually change the nature of the brain. The more time we spend online, the more we are incapable of quiet reverie, not because of habits of mind but because of a rewiring of our circuitry.”

Pop Culture and Celebrity Stardom


The effects on this may still be downplayed by a media that does not yet wish to lose their venerated cash cows in Hollywood. However it stands to reason that the ability for anyone to become a star by posting a YouTube video displaying their talent will affect the perception of stardom.
Fullscreen, Inc. is a company which helps to finance videos for young creators, from any part of the world. According to their CEO, George Strompolos, any teenager with a web camera who can connect with an audience can become a millionaire and they have helped to create several. These internet stars, which are generally unknown to those over the age of 30, have their own substantial fan base and following and they can come from any part of the world.

What this means is that firmly rooted into the psyche of the new emerging youth culture is that you don’t need to go to New York or Hollywood to become famous. Literally anyone from anywhere can be a star.

Money and Careers


Online entrepreneurship is booming and even among the young. Almost anyone who has access to a computer can create a blog and again once the content is engaging, once a niche market can be found, money can be made. There’s also money in selling photography, web programming, affiliate marketing, virtual outsourcing to brick and mortar companies and of course these skills can be acquired – online!

What this means is the traditional way of making money, following the path of school, college and ‘5 day a week’ job is being booted out along with books. Anyone can make a lot of money at any age and from anywhere.

Views on Politics


For many people, religion and politics are hallmarks of what define you as an individual and are what gives you a sense of stability and belonging within a community. However a young person’s community is no longer just the people he physically meets in his neighbourhood at church, temple or mosque but rather anyone in cyberspace who share his interests.

In times past, governments attempted to control people’s thinking by controlling the media. Technology has severely compromised this control because for example, it is hard to gobble up the sensational media coverage of terrorism when video footage of serene images pop up for a region reportedly under bomb and gun fire.

2011 is recorded in history as the year of major social media organized uprisings. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube all played roles in the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria and Bahrain as well as the Occupy Movements in the United States. Quite worthy of mention is the sharing of lessons learnt between the different activist groups such as when Tunisian Facebook users advised their Egyptian peers to ‘Put vinegar or onion under your scarf for tear gas’.

Image courtesy: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Essam_Sharaf



The London rioters used another telecommunications channel - the Blackberry Messenger service.

What this means is that young people are aware of the potential that technology offers and have been exposed to the power it can wield to influence political events. Various governments have responded by limiting and controlling internet usage and have even at times blocked cell phone connectivity. This response however has only pushed the younger innovative minds to go underground as there are talks of a new ‘off-the-grid’ network.

Views on Religion and God


I am from the Caribbean and most everyone I know attends church, mosque or temple and practice some fundamental religion but yet here I am belonging to the Light Body Travelers community, exploring energy work and practising meditation. I may not belong to the age bracket defined by William May when he introduced our focus on Youth Culture but I can see how the expansion of my views was partially affected by technology.

It is relatively hard to simply accept that those who don’t believe in God the way you do are doomed to hell’s fire when you have the opportunity to meet and interact with so many different people across various cultures.

The internet also provides easy accessibility to many holy books and teachings online, and discussion forums where one can be exposed to different dissecting views.

What this means is that young people have a unique opportunity to develop more comprehensive world views and are abandoning old dogmas and prejudices. Consider Will Smith’s children who are reading quantum physics and books such as “The Ancient Secret of the Flower of Life”.
In fact I believe that religion is slowly but surely being replaced by a more all-inclusive, earth conscious spirituality.
                     

Views on Love


The children growing up in smart homes and heavily computerized environments are also the children of an alarmingly growing percentage of divorced parents. For many of those whose parents are still together, they watch them argue and fight and spend little to no time having meaningful interactions. And these are people who fell in love after growing up in the same neighbourhood or attending the same college.

On the other hand, these young people go online and can find someone they can connect with. This person shares similar world views and likes the same things they do. Thanks to video calling capabilities, they can see each other and fall in love from half way across the world.

For many, the hours spent texting and chatting long distance strengthens their sense of a soul connection and their belief in a ‘one true soul-mate’ or twin flame. The reality however is sometimes painfully disastrous.

What this means is that young people no longer see themselves as limited to only finding love or casual friendships in their physical location. Some of these ‘too good to be true’ relationships unfortunately are exactly that, which means that there is also a growing dissatisfaction with love regardless of where is found. They yearn for something deeper, something more real, truer even. Something connected to spirit perhaps?

So What Does This All Mean?


There are many articles that speak to the real psychological problems of depression and narcissism among young people who feel the need to constantly check how many likes their latest ‘selfie’ photo has garnered. Cyber-bullying has been directly linked to some teenage suicides and suicide attempts, and online sexual predators do prey on the gullible young.

However there are those who hold more optimistic views as far as technology and the young are concerned. Carr believes that there is an ‘incipient Net backlash’ which will be led by the idealistic young. Blogger Manel Blanco adds a spiritual element and sees the internet as ‘a platform in which we can create energetic webs’ that can help to raise consciousness. My view embraces these two.

I believe that a consciousness revolution is imminent and its rumblings are already starting.  I believe that this consciousness revolution will look a lot like Adam Bucko’s and Matthew Fox’s Occupy Spirituality and I believe that it will eventually lead to us discarding the internet. We simply won’t need it, not when telepathy, soul travel, acute intuition and psychic abilities all become available to us at higher levels of consciousness.
 
The off grid network that people currently seek has always existed and technology is nothing but a prelude to all this. We have arrived at the ‘the technological simulation of consciousness’ that Marshall McLuhan spoke of and it is only a matter of time before we recognize that the simulation is nothing but a poor imitation.

I believe too that it is the young - the ones who recognise the archaic uselessness of our current systems; the ones who are breaking down mental, religious and financial barriers; the ones whose brains are being trained for higher analytical thinking; the ones who have felt the pinch of being ‘together and yet alone’ and who are looking for a love that is real and spiritual - will be the ones leading the way.

What do you think?

Image courtesy: http://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/book-review-occupy-spirituality


As originally submitted to Spiritualist International Magazine for their Youth Culture focus under the title - 'How Technology is Shaping Youth Culture'. Apologies to all those who had problems accessing it on their site. Their techies are busy working to resolve the Chrome compatibility issues!


Love, light & blessings,
Elizabeth Energy