How to heal the world (and yourself)? Get into the flow. Do what Life moves you to do. Get in alignment with how life is already moving through you. That is what the flow is—how life is already moving. Life—this life force and consciousness that we are—is moving in everyone. It is moving us to do and speak, create, learn, use our intelligence, discover, and just be. How is it moving you now? Apparently, you are moved to read this. Then what? You don’t know until you do. That’s one of the things that’s fun about being in the flow. It is spontaneous and surprising—and that’s fun and exciting, unless you listen to the egoic mind, which is the fear and doubt-producing machinery we are endowed with as humans. This aspect of mind—the voice in our head—is our challenge, the dragon we are meant to slay or, rather, see through in order to be free and happy.

There is a natural and spontaneous quality to our Being that is experienced as responding to life in an uncomplicated (by thought) way. When we are aligned with our Being and in the flow, the intellect is used when it is needed, but the egoic mind—that noisy voice in our head—is seen for what it is: an ineffectual and hollow voice, a voice without wisdom. Meanwhile, we move naturally and wisely in the world. What most interferes with experiencing our natural state and this natural movement of being in the flow are thoughts about what “I” should do, what others think or will think about “me,” what “I” did in the past, and what “I” believe “I” need to do in the future. Each of us has an ongoing story we tell about ourselves. This story is revealed through our “I” thoughts and by the things we tell others about ourselves. The story is created by these “I” thoughts, but this story is a mental overlay on life, while life is happening simply and naturally through us and through everyone else.

When we make a choice, sometimes it’s spontaneous and not thought about, like when we jump out of bed in the morning. At other times, the options are laid out, examined, and decided on. These are two different experiences of choosing: One just happens, and one is a decision.

A decision is the result of making up our mind (an interesting turn of phrase). To the ego, questions feel like problems that need to be solved by making a decision. There’s a feeling of needing to make a decision, and almost any decision will do. To the ego, making a decision is important because that ends the discomfort of not knowing. You make up your mind. You make it up!

I don’t usually talk or write a lot about Oneness, since so many already do this so brilliantly. But I have a few musings today to offer on this subject just because Oneness has especially been in my awareness recently. I’ve been noticing how beautifully everyone plays their role in this life we are all living out on planet earth. It amazes me how I’m provided with roads, food, the internet, someone to cut my hair and fix my computer, giant trucks to pick up my trash and keep up my city, dogs to keep me company and make me smile, a husband who loves me, information that comes to me from various places. Everything that happens is support for my life and supports other people’s lives too. Isn’t it a miracle that what you and I offer the world also seems to be enough to provide us with this support? We are all contributing and we are all receiving.

We are all moved to contribute, and we are moved by something very mysterious. How is it possible for this immensely complex existence we are part of to function and actually support us? Isn’t this such a miracle! What good fortune to be born into a world that provides for us. Some would argue that it doesn’t do this very well, but truly, isn’t it amazing that it does it to the extent that it does!

The problem with having beliefs that cause us to distrust life is that fearful beliefs keep us stuck in the ego and oriented toward the ego’s guidance instead of Essence’s. Then we end up trusting life even less because following the ego’s guidance doesn’t lead to a very satisfying life. Living solely according to our beliefs and other conditioning results in a life the ego or other people’s egos think we should live, not the life we were meant to live. Fortunately, it’s a rare individual who isn’t guided at least some of the time by the Heart. 

The ego bases its advice and guidance on conditioning. The ego makes up advice based on our knowledge, what’s happened before, and conclusions we’ve come to from our experience and other people’s. There’s some value in this information, but information alone has no inherent wisdom. Information when misapplied or applied at the wrong time turns out to be bad advice. Moreover, much of the information the ego draws from for its advice is inaccurate, contradictory, and outdated, and many of the conclusions are erroneous and therefore can’t be counted on to be helpful.

Why do so many people make choices they later regret? Because they’re listening to the counsel of their ego—they’re listening to their thoughts or other people’s thoughts, beliefs, and opinions. But how useful are those beliefs and opinions for knowing how to live your life in this moment? What’s the guidance or advice that’s right for you right now? This moment is absolutely unique, and it requires advice that fits you now, not advice that fit some other time or that might fit in the future or that fit someone else at some point.