time for reflection

How many times this year, so far, have you heard the phrase "we're living in unprecedented times", or something similar?

It seems everytime I open an email or turn on social media, someone somewhere is telling me "we're living in unprecedented times". Is it happening to you as well?

And how do you feel about living in these "unprecedented times"?

Are you sick of listening to it all and just wanting to return to normal life?

Or are you excited about the future and the possibilities that may arise as a result of this year?

Can you even envisage a new and better world when you look around you?

There's no doubt that each and every one of us has and is being challenged by the events that are happening around us this year, and we're only halfway through the year.

But why are we being challenged? Why this year? Why now?

In my heart, in my soul, I believe that there is an awakening taking place.

Awakenings aren't something that happen overnight, just like no-one becomes a success overnight (even though it may look to be that way) or, indeed, wars don't start overnight (even though history may suggest that). When change is on the horizon, it doesn't happen in the blink of an eye. It happens gradually, it happens slowly. Because you need to get enough parties onboard to effect that change, to tip the scales in a new and different direction... and that takes time.

This awakening may be gathering some momentum this year, but there have been years, decades, even centuries leading up to it. Separation and competition are millennia-old, ever since man first introduced religion and weapons as a means of control. It's the same for destruction, for greed, for oppression... they date back more than just a few centuries.

However, slowly the tide is turning.

Slowly the more feminine traits of collabortion, support, unity, compassion, respect for all forms of life including all humans, animals and plants; slowly those traits are rising to the surface as people begin to rise up and embrace callings such as black lives matter, LBGT rights, vegetarianism and veganism, environmentalism, plastic pollution, renewable energy... to name but a few.

2020 is playing an important role in this awakening.

In 2020, eyes are being opened, hearts are being touched, change is beginning to take hold...

However, the awakening that is continuing to rise up at the moment, an awakening that seems to have gathered momentum in this year of 2020 vision, will never reach its climax in this year, no matter how unprecedented we may feel this year may be. The full evolution of this awakening and the wave of change it is carrying with it, may not (probably will not) happen in my lifetime nor in yours.

Whilst this awakening may be gathering momentum, don't forget that it didn't start last year or even the year before that. So we're not going to witness and experience the final and beautiful results of a human awakening this year or even next year. It will take longer than that because, like I said, you need enough parties onboard to effect change and we, as humans, are not overly fast in our evolution or overly keen to embrace change.

At the beginning of this blogpost I asked how you feel about living in "unprecendented times" and I gave you three suggestions.

If you are you sick of listening to it all and just wanting to return to normal life, then you're not alone. About 75% of the human population is feeling this way.

If you are excited about the future and the possibilities that may arise as a result of this year, you too are not alone. About 15% of the population is feeling this way.

If you struggle to envisage a new and better world when you look around you and see how little people have changed already this year, if at all, you are not alone. About 10% of the global population is feeling this way.

We are living in extraordinary and unprecedented times, we are riding the wave of change that is being carried by a human awakening and, yet, 75% of the global human race are blind to it, desperate to return to "life as normal", frightened to embrace the challenges that may lie ahead, challenges that will create a better more loving, more compassionate, more respectful human race. Because this is not a walk in a park. Change is tough, change is challenging, change is unknown and uncomfortable and, as humans, we love the comfort of our bubble, we love surviving in our comfort zone.

The changes that we are experiencing this year, and for the years to come, are pushing us to become extraodinary versions of ourselves and, yet, only 15% of the global human race are open to embrace this challenge, excited about the opportunity to change their lifestyle, their way of thinking, their attitudes, their beliefs. Only 15% are open to reflect honestly and with integrity, and, indeed, are doing so right now, so they can determine how they can become better, more compassionate guests on this planet, respecting all forms of life, human, animals, plants.

The changes that are rising up this year and in the years to come are giving us the occasion to become better human beings, to become extraordinary versions of ourselves. And that is daunting, as 10% of the global human race are finding out right now. That 10% feel the desire to change and, yet, when they look around them and see only the 75% who are blind to the invitation to become better humans, they lose hope and effect only a little change, if anything at all, in their lives because, after all, no one individual can change this world, right?

The unprecented times we find ourselves in, is a time for reflection. If we are to rise up and embrace what we are being invited to do, as a global human race, then we need to, each and every one of us, sit down and reflect honestly and deeply on our lives and how we, as individuals, have contributed to the mess and carnage we have inflicted on this planet, on fellow-humans, on animals, over the years, decades, centuries.

!5% of the population are doing that right now, as I speak. Whereas 75% of the population are returning to their old, blinded ways, ignorant of the beauty, ignorant of the opportunity that is being laid before them.

However it's the 10% of the global population where the biggest impact can come, the 10% who want to effect change but look around and feel only disillusioned by the majority of the population who refuse to change.

To anyone who finds themselves in the 10% category, I say look to the 15% for inspiration and close your eyes to the 75%. When the desire for change is in your heart and in your soul, then you need to turn the sound down on the loud and overbearing 75% of the global population and open your hearts and minds to the quietly changing 15%, for together we can gain such great momentum.

To anyone who finds themselves in the 10% category, I say look back in history to the changemakers, the individuals who brought great change in this world and remember: they were but mere individuals. There was nothing super human about Martin Luther King, Jr, about Nelson Mandela, about Mother Theresa... and, yet, because they followed their hearts and their passion, history has revolutionised them as super human. There is nothing super human about Greta Thunberg and, yet, history will revolutionise her as super human.

When you keep focused and are buoyed by those around you, that 15% of changemakers, then you too will move into that category, inspired to change through reflection and listening to your heart and soul. And when the 15% and 10% join forces, then we'll see momentum rise in this beautiful awakening, then we may experience the real beginning of this awakening in our lifetimes. For it is 80% of the results that come from 20% of the efforts. It will be 20% of the population that will effect and bring to a climax, the awakening that we currently find ourselves experiencing.

Viv xx