What are the guiding principles of our time?

Saturday I was hit between the eyes with an acute awareness of a state that some call ' blessed unrest.' I was invited at relatively short notice to co-facilitate a workshop called "Changing the Dream." It's about bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on this planet as the guiding principle of our time. The sobering start graphically outlined where we are now and how we got here, then led us to many extraordinary things we are doing, to an exploration of the possibilities for the future of a world that is fully awake. As one, the group we became aware of this open connected state of unrest where once you have seen some things clearly, you simply cannot ignore them, and must act to make a better world for all.

Joanna Macy from her work in Deep Ecology talks about three things to be done:

Holding Actions: Actions that slow down social or ecological damage such as recycle, reuse, reduce; water tanks, alternative transport, planting trees.

Systems Change: Analysis of the structural causes of crisis of unsustainability and creating alternatives institutions; public transport, relocalisation, building regulations, micro credit, fair trade, community owned power and more.

Shift in Consciousness: This is about making a fundamental shift in world view; a cognitive revolution and spiritual awakening. We need to examine our perceptions to awakening from unexamined assumptions, indoctrinated beliefs and illusions of the western dream. For example: where is 'away' when we dispose of our packaging, when did we shift from being citizens to consumers, why is stimulating more spending (as consumers) imperative, what do we believe we have a 'right' to do?

In all the work I have done across personal, social and organisational change there is a common thread; fix the immediate energy leak, look at how you structure you life, your business, your community and replace with more workable systems, examine the beliefs and thinking that got you there in the first place and change them to align with some more enlightened goals.

Really we need to do all three things. However the one that will ultimately create the most powerful and positive impact is to change at the fulcrum - our inner world of beliefs and values. When we change our own inner consciousness we have the capacity to change world consciousness. Anything that has ever been created starts with a thought, a germ of an idea, an inspiration or a feeling. Unless we change this, then we are at risk of replicating the past. What did Einstein tell us - that we cant create something new with the same level of thinking that created it! We need to evolve.

Harry Palmer from the Avatar world is one of the people who understands this well. Our world of beliefs and deep convictions are the engine room of our actions. When we become aware of these and recognise ourselves as source of these, we can draw on something deeper that drives us to evolve our lives and shape the world into a saner more equitable more caring place.