as above, so below…
“Darwin’s survival of the fittest worked to our benefit when we were living in the wild.”
The sentiment “as above, so below” has been echoing in my life for the past year or more; it takes the macrocosm, our global atmosphere and equates it with the microcosm of our planet. The same can be said when comparing our planet to our own personal body; we exploit the earth and there is no escaping these harmful effects contaminating our own bodies at the genetic level. Lately, I’ve been taking this one step further, and equating the internal self-hate programming to be what is attacking our bodies with the many auto-immune issues that plague our population.
We allow or don’t even notice this destruction because we are too busy beating ourselves up for some silly nothing that embarrassed the hell out of our ego. And if we are bored with complaining about our own bodies, then we tend to lean into my least favorite habit to be around… complaining about someone we love or at least like a lot. I now believe it is our personal responsibility to not listen to mean garbage talk; grow up and look at yourself in the mirror is what I would like to say. Instead, a polite change of conversation seems more appropriate. I now come prepared with conversation changers; I found it makes my friendships remain what they should be, an enriching, amazing part of my life!
Taking this analogy one step further, I developed eczema when I was pregnant with my first child at 33; I never had allergies before and certainly didn’t have skin issues. What shifted for me was fear and shame; I suppose you could say that I enjoyed living in the moment in my twenties. The problem arose when I became truly responsible for another’s life; that was crippling, and I believe my insecurities started within and then expressed themselves on the outside, my skin. I became endlessly sensitive to food, perfumes, and dust… really anything that came in contact with me only added to my itchy, highly volatile skin that met the outside world.
Too busy with work, being a new mom, and listening to everyone complain about our lot in life; which by the way, none of my friends have it bad, we all just shovel the shit around. I took all the shortcuts with food and housework; chemicals were spread all over my homes’ surfaces, and even made it into our food, in one form or another. Too busy to see that my environment could be affecting my body; that is, until my body wouldn’t let me ignore the truth any longer.
So, I cleaned up, got healthy and committed to a daily mindful practice; whether yoga, meditation, walking in nature, writing, painting, music, dancing, whatever gets me calm and centered, I do it regularly.
Lately, I have been diving deep into herbalism, and found an amazing teacher, Sajah Popham, founder of The School of Evolutionary Herbalism. The foundation of his works is about having a relationship with nature, and using the whole plant to heal the whole body. Everything has meaning in his teachings, and I couldn’t agree more with this premise. No one is an island, and our connection will be our salvation.
Just as our bodies turn on ourselves when we are not operating optimally, so does our planet; this is what I feel global warming is creating for our environment currently. Earth is hurting and it has to kill off what is creating the harm; it needs to wash the germs away, only we just happen to be the grime that needs to be cleansed!!
This reality does make one feel small and rather vulnerable, but if you move through the discomfort, this truth will ultimately be what can save us… and that is not insignificant or worthless. In fact, it gives us power… how the small can unite to become a much stronger unit together. This is where the real magic will happen; when we stop with the nonsense busyness, and move into the space of conscious evolution.
Darwin’s survival of the fittest worked to our benefit when we were living in the wild, but in today’s society of immediate gratification, plastics and fast food, we are (very openly) the most destructive being on this planet. Would the fittest creature choose to destroy the very planet it lives on? Would the wisest creature contaminate its’ food and water to gain financial power? We worked so hard to escape living in the wild, but we have created an environment today that is far more dangerous.
The powerful would like to have us believe we have no strength, and that they alone have the wisdom to move mountains. That paradigm is fast dissolving, and I am here to say you do not have to fear change. In fact, change is the one true unavoidable facet of living here on this planet. To grow and to change; this is our true calling now… how will you answer the call?