In today’s current world, it would seem that there are no longer any typical environments. This includes our workplaces, the way we socialize, the leisure activities we partake in, the establishments we frequent, the masks we have to wear in them, and so forth. We could say, then, that the interactions within our environments have—in some way, shape, or form—been eliminated through our social isolation and the convenience of technology. What we're left with are two-dimensional interactions. The questions then become:

• If normalized congregation has been altered, what is it that would sustain a culture when the environment around them is falling apart?
• What is it that sustains a culture when there are threats, danger, hostility, pain, sickness, and suffering—all things that cause division and separation?

The universal traits that not only strengthen a culture but allow it to survive and thrive are the human traits of support, connection, cooperation, communication, collaboration, and caring. The commonalties these traits share are that they all involve reaching out to others, which in turn takes attention off ourselves.

Putting all of our attention on ourselves is normal when we are in living in stress, survival, fear, anger, competition, frustration, resentment, pain, suffering, or anxiety (to name a few emotions). Obviously, in survival we need to take care of our body, pay attention to the environment, and think about time. In these situations, it’s all about putting the self-first. The thing is that, in our current culture, the majority of our threats are not life-threatening, but rather, they are an assault on our mental, psychological, and emotional well-being. All of this is to say that we have to lay down the very thing that keeps us creating the same life in order to create a new reality.

As the new sciences tell us, it’s not about survival of the fittest, but survival of the community. One of the key elements, then, becomes the concept of emergence. Like a group of fish all swimming together in unison as one mind, or a huge population of birds flying in a beautiful array of changing patterns and formations, this is when the collective behavior of a community is qualitatively different than the behaviors of the individuals. As such, new properties emerge when the individuals interact in a wider whole (or in a community).  Thus, the collective community of individuals synchronized as one gives an appearance of a larger organism.

In this context, we could say that, when individuals in the culture reach out and check in with one another—when they support one another, communicate with one another, collaborate with one another, cooperate with one another, and so forth—these elements of connection help encourage people to raise their energy when they are having moments of weakness. And as we all know, when we raise our energy, we raise our consciousness, and if a collective of individuals raises their consciousness, the culture evolves.

For those who currently feel that they are in balance and/or thriving, what a great time to reach out to your community. This means that we have to do more than just our coherence healings or remote coherence healings. We have to truly connect with one another, support one another, inform one another, honor one another, respect one another, and shine for one another so that others can shine in our reflection. This also means that we need to inspire one another to cause the collective to see a new vision of the future for all.

To bring this full circle, I gave a talk the other day about “a new you and a new future.” The premise was that we can’t wait for our future to change in order for us to become someone new. We have to actually change ourselves in the present moment in order to change our future.

What you will find is that when you do this—when you start opening your heart and start feeling those elevated emotions—the side effect of that consciousness is selflessness. Thus, kindness, care, connection, support, generosity, and taking care of one another become the natural outcomes of that heart-centered consciousness. That's when the culture unifies and gives the appearance of something larger, and that’s when we reach a new level of consciousness. When each of us moves into a higher consciousness, the collective consciousness  rises, and when the collective consciousness rises, the individual consciousness rises as well. In a very real sense, we are changing the culture because we are contributing to that culture, and remember—humans are social creatures connected to environments, and cultures are created by the environment.

All of this is to say that, from a place of love, reach out to one another and check in with one another—not to complain about how terrible the world is—but to encourage each other to see a vision that everyone can remember as part of their future. In a thriving culture, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole, and your contribution to our community in some way will strengthen all of us.

Change individuals, change a culture.

Read Part l