As a civilization we’ve been here before. History is replete with forebodings of the approaching “end of times”. Most recently it was to happen in 1984 and later at the turn of the century.  It is as though we want something to happen – a new thing – an epic drama in which we are active participants through our own creation and anticipation.  And at a consciousness level, this is true.  It is scientific and mystical fact that individual thought creates one’s personal reality, and so does our collective thought create our collective reality.  We do not have to be aware of it for this creation to take place.  The world is changing because we are changing it. We are in an evolutionary upsurge!  This is driven by our collective imperative for evolution. At some level we recognize that the old systems do not serve our evolving needs and consciousness and therefore they need to change. Government, educational, medical even religious systems are changing – the planet too!  We are actively and collectively re-setting the stage for a changing story!

There have been other periods of marked human evolution:  the religious crusades, the French Revolution, the Renaissance, the fall of the Roman Empire, etc. – all driven by our evolving consciousness.  2012 represents another watershed period of human evolution.

These are indeed amazing times.  What may appear as disastrous upheavals are actually the reshaping of the world, human life and consciousness as we know it.  Einstein said that “you can’t solve a problem with the same consciousness that created it.”  In every life both individually and collectively – there must be change.  And as individual and collective consciousness makes the world what it is, the change must begin here.   It can be forced upon us by calamity or tragedy or we can partner with it and thus, direct it to meet our will.  It is matter of whether we choose to change consciously or be hapless and swept up in the spirals of change letting it take us wherever the wind blows and bring about any kind of outcome or experience .  Do we direct our lives or are we like extras in a story who are given any available and a lesser role to play.  This is the key question we must ask of ourselves and the key decision we must make.  And I do not know of a single person in my world who is not wrestling with this question regardless of their station in life.

Consciousness is the totality of your thoughts, feelings and intentions that direct your actions and thus, shape your life experiences.  Consciousness is formed over time from childhood and adult experiences, as well as through socialization and other indoctrinations.  And the good news is that your consciousness is something that YOU can and do control.

A shift in consciousness is not a difficult thing to do.  If you can think and make decisions, if you can feel things within you, if you can carry on a conversation with yourself in your mind – you can change your consciousness.  And in doing so, you become a partner with change, and not a pawn on the field of your own life.

Things are happening quickly accelerating the rate of change.  The past, present and future seem to blend and blur. Days, weeks and months go by quickly. This is due to planetary movements, technology and the increased busyness and complexities of our lives. If you stop, pause and take a look at what is happening in your life, you will see this.

The process of consciously shifting your consciousness requires you to pause, get balance and to retool.  You can slow things down, become more present and aware of what is happening with you in your life and keep your footing and balance – all of which will enable you to know yourself better, your right path and how to proceed.

The problem with changing consciousness is not that it is a bad thing.  But this very primal act is not registered nor valued as a vital part of what it means to be an effective human in our world and societies.  We are not educated to appreciate this aspect or quality of learning.  We are educated away from and out of ourselves by our social systems.  We are trained to regard this quality of our humanness as soft, un-stablelizing, and untrustworthy.  And that is not true.  Because in this new day and new world, we need ourselves more than anything.

Key things you need to do as you become more conscious are:

1) Self-knowledge and Mastery:  In order to master your life and be equipped to thrive in a constantly changing world you must ‘know’ yourself, and master fear. Self-knowledge feeds our collective will.

2)   Relational Capacity: Despite our brilliant technologies, we need us.  You must develop a fearless capacity to work with and through people to achieve and progress.  This means cultivating and sustaining productive relationships, partnerships and collaborations.

3) Living in Objective and Subjective Worlds: You must be able to explore and become intimately acquainted with your “inner-technology”.  The subjective world of your thoughts, feelings and intentions are what fuels your objective life.  You must increase your understanding and appreciation of the innate relationship between these two worlds and how to consciously navigate them both.

The biggest shift for 2012 is consciousness – the rising realization that we are interconnected and that we are responsible for what we create.  And with this awareness we can create more consciously both in our individual lives and as a civilization of evolving beings!  No singular ‘event’ may occur at a specific moment or day or month this year. It is the spirit and the energy of the times.  2012 may come and go with little or no episode, but what can be certain is that we are, each and every one of use tested to rise to our own occasion. And  I like to think of 2012 as the year when we begin to return to ourselves.

Dr. Elizabeth Taylor

We are born into natural laws.  We live by them whether we are aware of this or not. They govern our thoughts, feelings and behaviors.  They mark our trek here on earth in the physical plane and beyond.  In general we learn about universal laws as part of our education.  We experience them at work in our everyday lives when we fly on an airplane, when we drop something as we watch a flower grow, and when we take a breath.  Because they are ever present and keep life predictable we easily take these essential laws for granted, with little or no awareness of what they do to keep our objective physical world in order.  Well, in the same vein in which physical life is governed by certain laws, there are universal laws, which operate in the subjective world. They are also very specific, very accurate and potent.  They are the universal laws of mind and spirit.

Like other physical laws, universal laws of mind and spirit are absolute, objective and authoritative. Universal laws are very real; they are busily at work in your life without your permission, and with and without your conscious cooperation – working through your thoughts, feelings and expectations.

Universal laws operate with an automatic response to what we concentrate on  – what we feel, what we think, and what we do.  They are exact, impersonal and follow your will for better or worst.  As your will follows the dictates of your consciousness so does universal laws of mind and spirit respond to how you show up and what you put into the world. When we are aware and understand these laws, we are better equipped to master trials that may arise as well as increase our capacity for joy.

What Are Universal Laws of Mind and Spirit?

There are fundamental universal laws of mind and spirit. They govern consciousness and intentional creating.  These are:  The Law of Attraction; The Law of Creation Through Thought; and The Law of Allowing. These laws are interrelated and they extend to other supplemental laws, such as the laws of magnetism, choice, connection, karma, cause and effect, grace, love, change, supply and abundance and personal evolution. Once you know the fundamental laws you will observe these other laws at work in your life.  Understanding these laws and consciously aligning with them in your everyday thoughts and behaviors empowers your life.

How Do Universal Spiritual Laws Work?

Scientific research into subatomic physics reveals that everything is energy – that energy is the fundamental form of matter when viewed under the microscope.  The consciousness that sustains our physical body is energy. Our thoughts are energy, what we feel is energy – which is also consciousness. Universal laws of mind and spirit govern the energy of our consciousness.  Every time we are feeling or thinking anything, we are energetically engaging the universal laws of mind and spirit.  We partner either consciously or unconsciously with universal spiritual laws in the creation of our lives.  It is just that simple.

We humans live in a vibrating universe.  The universe is composed of electricity, magnetism, light, sound and countless other forms of vibratory energies.  The laws of the universe are also vibrations.  They are vibrations that direct the nature of everything that we know as reality – both objective reality and subjective reality.

The laws of the universe are always and immediately responding to oblige you.  According to the law of Attraction and Creation through Thought we live in an attraction-based universe, which means that you invite and pull things, people and experiences to you through thought, belief and expectation. Thought and emotions control all human experiences – both individually and collectively.  Religious doctrines and spiritual precepts reflect this truth. You attract what you want and what you don’t want because this is what you are focusing on. The energy of your thoughts, feelings and focus act as magnets, which pull to you those experiences that match them. The way we experience anything is by focusing attention on it.  The stronger the degree of focus and expectation the more likely you are to attract that thing or experience to you. According to the law of Allowing, we are here to tend to our personal growth and evolution through our will and choice – to manifest that which is in us, as a flower bud manifests the rose that is within it.  In doing so we “allow” ourselves to become, while relaxing into the universal spiritual laws that are always operating to spur and support our growth. We grow and evolve with and through others.  By our own will – not that of others. We can support others, however, we cannot control, interfere with or take care of their journey and what they are here to become.  To do so is in violation of the law. We give others the space to learn and trust in their potential for good.  ‘Seeing’ the good in others supports them to raise it.  And this circles back to us.

Why Are Universal Spiritual Laws Important?

There is a direct correlation between our actions and the results they reap.  According to the laws of physics, if you place your hand in a flame your hand will get burned.  Similarly, accordingly to the law of attraction, when you habitually harbor such mindsets as hate, fear and anger you will attract experiences to you that reflect and feed those mental/emotional habits and bring pain and struggle into your life.  So with this level of impartial response from the universe it becomes a de facto “benefit” to resist negativity and to harbor those thoughts and emotions that support and sustain your wellbeing and progress.

Order that is sustained over time becomes harmony.  When your life is in order you can more easily get the results you want.  Universal spiritual laws support your wellbeing and the goals you set to experience success, happiness and prosperity all through the workings of your consciousness. Understanding and working with these laws is an essential life skill.

The life you are given is wondrous and fragile – easily impacted by the many forces that abound in the world.  You can learn and work with these laws and make them work for you in the same way a carpenter applies the tools of the trade – applying them to what needs fixing in your life – to what you want to grow and sustain in your life.  Aligning and working with spiritual laws is the key to mastering yourself, your life and destiny.

Dr. Elizabeth Taylor

Members of the northern Natal tribes of South African greet one another daily by saying “Sawa bona”, which literally means: “I see you.” The response is “Sikhona” which means: “I am here”. This exchange is important, for it denotes that ‘until you ‘see’ me, I do not exist; and when you ‘see’ me, you bring me into existence. Members of these tribes go about their day with this personal validation from everyone they encounter – seen for who they are.  This speaks to the powerful intrinsic human need for validation, which we all share.  Compared to greetings in American and most western cultures this kind of deep acknowledgement of the ‘other’ on a daily basis is far more humane and vital, and it supports the wellbeing and integrity of the human community.  Our western way of saying “Hello. How are you?” lacks this presence – this depth.  Often we greet in an automatic, and rather perfunctory way, not really paying attention to the other’s response.  Ready to rush on once the greeting leaves our lips.  But the response we get may very well be “Well I’m not doing so great”.  We expect and assume a standard and predictable retort from the ‘other’, such as “I’m fine, and you?” which keeps us comfortable and not requiring any further effort or engagement on our part. Too often our greetings are not meant to go any deeper than superficial pleasantries.  We hear what we want to hear because we don’t want to or have time to engage at deeper levels.  We generally are not comfortable with and avoid those kinds of openings and intrigues.

The use of this greeting: “I see you” in the movie Avatar did not originate from the minds of Hollywood.  However, it is more of a reflection on indigenous cultures and the depth to which they validate one another on a regular basis.  It is more of an example of how indigenous cultures have evolved their practices of human interactions and the manner in which they value and honor ‘the other’.  Western and so-called “modern” cultures have much to learn from such cultures of people whom are historically regarded as “undeveloped or uncivilized.”

What we stand to learn from the South African tribes is the importance of being ‘present’ with every person we greet during each day.  Our presence with them validates their humanity – which in-turn validates our own humanity.  We must watch and manage our tendency to rush through greetings, our tendency to not really ‘see’ or listen to others as they share their points of view or frames of thought.  We must monitor our tendency to get busy formulating assumptions and rebuttals while watching the other person’s lips move; and our tendency to impose criticism or even advice when it is not invited. These are forms of abuse, which often leaves the ‘other’ feeling bereft, assailed or treated in some unseemly way and embodying a vague sense of ‘dis-ease’ from a simple personal exchange. Moreover, these unsound feelings interfere with one’s further interactions, because this leftover ‘hurt’ energy must be relieved and acted out in some way.

The universal laws that govern ‘presence’ and ‘validation’ are at work in all of our everyday encounters.  The ‘future’ we may be rushing off to meet or the past that we fret about do not exist.  We only have the present moment and the life energy that sustains us is only operating in the present moment.  It behooves us to maximize the present moment, especially when we are in contact with others. By fully acknowledging the ‘other’ we energize not only them, but we energize our relationship with them.  And that kind of charge can move mountains!

The words we use in our everyday communications from the moment we rise to the moment we lay down to sleep are energetic tools. They are tools that keep our life running.  They can ignite or deflate our day.  Our words energize or deflect relationships.  We must be careful how we treat others with our words. We must not allow technology, the rush of everyday living or our own personal stresses and preoccupations to turn us into vacant, anxious talking heads.  It’s a good thing to take the full measure of the man, woman, youth and child you meet along the way.  It is noble to make the acknowledgement of the ‘other’ a valued everyday practice, and to exit each human exchange with the full satisfaction of knowing that you brought someone else into existence!

Elizabeth Taylor, Ph.D.

It is doable to flip from being in perpetual fear to profound love as your default state of being.  You can say NO to fear.  You can say YES to something else.

Fear and Its Manifestations   – Fear is the automatic default state for many if not most people. It is where people go when they are uncertain, when they are insecure, when they feel unsafe or unprotected – when they don’t have what they need – they let fear in.  Fear enters when people are presented with a challenge or trying situation.  So much life is spent in fear as a natural state of being. And the moments when we might be graced to step outside the fear are few and far between.  This is not the way it is supposed to be.

Saying NO to fear begins with an awareness of the nature of fear and fear’s ever presence in our lives.  For one thing, fear is humanly manufactured.  It is False Evidence Appearing Real.  Fear is the absence of light.  It enters through the mind, which relays the message of fear to the emotions, which relays the emotion of fear to the body – instructing our entire being to be afraid. Fear obscures our already limited vision to see the connections between things  – making us feel more alone, and vulnerable.  Its grip dominates – making circumstances appear more real and stronger than ourselves.

Once we let fear in and it takes hold, it generates more fears. We adopt fearful habits such as cynicism, panic, hate, doubt, worry, regret, jealousy, and snap judgments.

Fear is self-generating – it feeds and it breeds to survive and stay alive in your life. The more of it you have the more of it you will attract. It will direct your thoughts and influence your emotions and behaviors.  It will heap more stress, anxiety and doubt upon you.  It paralyzes.  Fear interferes with your ability to magnetize what you want. Fear will keep you stuck and unable to move towards possibilities – potential.  Because fear keeps us afraid of that too!

Fear is the most destructive force in the world. It kills life in its thrust to stay alive.  Fear negates the good and the light that is in your life.  It dominates your reality by painting a dark and gloomy picture.  When in its grip you believe in its power and rule over you.

At the root of our fears is the sense that we are ultimately alone and that we will be annihilated.  At the root of our fears is our single-minded focus on “objective reality” as being the only reality – a focus, which leaves us bereft and wanting.  This is because this utter belief in objective reality puts us at a spiritual/soul imbalance in that we lack understanding and faith in “non-objective reality” – which is where spirit and soul reside.  Ultimately true life must be lived and influenced by both realities!

The Social/Cultural State of Fear   – We are a civilization weaned on fear. We are fed fear from early childhood and education as a lesson in obedience, conformity and socialization. The present times in which we live generate much fear.  We are trained to believe that we will be harmed or deprived if we do not subscribe to certain behaviors, mindsets or perspectives.  As employees, fear is the primary form to motivate performance and compliance.  We could lose our jobs or our security could be taken away if we don’t perform or conform to certain mores and standards as might be expected.  The preponderance of fear training estranges and robs us of ourselves, and the right to be accepted for ourselves.  You might ask: Is there security in that?  We fear others; we fear intimacy; we fear being hurt, change, success, and so on. Because we have been so weaned on fear we must be in constant vigilance to correct this imbalance in our lives.

How to Recognize Fear   – Getting to “profound love” is “quitting” fear.  It is letting your mind be a fortress against the onslaughts of fear.  For fear is the invisible and relentless enemy.  Being able to recognize when fear shows up and choosing how to react to it is the first line of defense.  This gives you power over fear.

Fear is there:

• When you are afraid or anxious about an outcome.
• When you are cynical and judging and holding prejudices.
• When you are resentful.
• When you feel regret.
• When you are hating, jealous and panicking.
• When you are doubtful.
• When you are indulging unhealthy stress.
• When your body tenses up.
• When your breathing becomes restricted.
• When you are pre-occupied with the past or future.
• When you feel hopeless, alone, and vulnerable.
• When you are impatient.
• When you are greedy and obsessing.
• When you have the need to control others.

These manifestations are the toxic spawn of fear.  They block you from possibilities.  They stifle progress. They keep you in an unhealthy emotional and psychological state of mind.  Fear will call you out of yourself and cause you to distrust your divine creative spark.  It will steer you away from the joy and peace that is your birthright.  When you recognize these forms of fear as they creep up on you know that you can choose to let them in or not.

With the fear that has already gotten through, target it.  Note its handiwork in your life. See what it is generating. See what it is making you do and what it is making you become!  And ask yourself:  What is the benefit that I gain from harboring these forms of fear?

Saying NO to Fear and YES to Love   – Fear and Love are the two major energies operating in the world. Saying NO to fear begins with your WILL to change your relationship with fear.  Nothing will happen without your WILL to change it.  With this you can develop your AWARENESS of the forms fear takes and RECOGNIZE those forms when they show up. You can then CHOOSE to say NO and look at the situation less driven by the energy of fear.

WILL Fear will always be a part of your life and reality.  Sometimes when you have been under siege by fear so long you get so tired of being afraid, and all you can do is love. Reflect on: What portion of your life you spend in fear?  Were your worst fears ever realized?  How did you get on the other side of those fears? It becomes doable and even an imperative to develop the will to change your relationship with fear when you take this perspective. You can resolve to change your relationship with it – to meet it differently. WILL is acknowledging that you are fully capable, willing and ready to meet everything before you with the power of love and spirit.

AWARENESS A good way to develop your awareness is to spend a day to get acquainted with your fears.  Or designate a few hours doing this on a free day.  Begin the journey of inner work.  Just as you would clean out the closet or scour the pots and pans – you can root out the fear from the corners and crevices of your mind.  Find where it crouches and waits and hides – ready to pounce with the slightest provocation or twitch.  It is important to know these fears, for they are actively generating and attracting new ones. When you target and look at the fear you diminish its power, and your power over fear grows. You shift the control back to YOU when you shine the light on it.  Because fear operates best when it goes undetected.

RECOGNIZE Once you become acquainted with the fears you already harbor, learn to recognize when new fears show up and tempt you to take them on. When you train yourself to recognize fear, in time you develop a sensitivity to fear as unwelcome, uncomfortable and an impediment to your state of being. You can more readily replace it with profound love – because these two energies cannot occupy the same space in your mind, emotions and body.

CHOICE Fear places you in a defensive mode – waiting for the inevitable downturn or upset. This weakens you.  But you can take the offensive role by choosing how to relate to fear and how much it will influence you. When you think about it, what has being in a state of fear gained for you?  Did it change anything? Did it make the bad things go away?  Let this question guide you when fear shows up:  “What is the benefit to me for letting fear in?” Posing this question makes the choice very simple.  Acknowledge that: “There is no benefit to me when I am in a fear state. Therefore, I choose not to go there.”  The more you say NO and quit fear the more space you have to project creative energies into the situation.

Ultimately, you have the choice to meet challenges with more fear or with love energy. With love energy you have an advantage over fear – you have a powerful tool!

Working With Spirit   – Although fear and love are major forces operating in the world.  They are primarily energetic forces.  Love is more powerful than fear.  In fact “love is all there is”.  Love gives and sustains life. When you tune out the fear and dial into love you engage spirit as a powerful partner in the active creation of your life.  Love in this context is not a ‘warm and fuzzy, feel good thing’ to do.  Love has substance and force. Love is joy, confidence, it is the creative spark.  Love is energy that you can wield as a tool to make things happen the way you want.  This energy gives you more emotional and psychological benefit.  And it enhances your capacity to positively influence a situation.

Love is hope, and hope is not something that is far off and away in some future, but it is where you are now and what you are showing up with. It is in who you are now and what you have now. Joy in this context is a feeling of pleasure and happiness in your innate power to create.

Working with spirit is deepening your relationship with joy.  As your relationship with joy becomes a greater part of your reality your relationship with fear becomes an aberration to your very being.

Working with spirit is developing greater awareness, confidence and alignment with the unseen forces that govern and support your life.  The forces are always there to support you.

Working with spirit is keeping good karma, which is a powerful shield and buttress against fear.  It follows that what you put out comes back to you.

Working with spirit means understanding spiritual law -that you are not presented with a challenge beyond your capacity to meet and overcome.  It is knowing that you are not alone and that you are connected to everything and that everything is connected to you.

Working with spirit means honing your intention to prevail and triumph.

Working with spirit means building up your successes at problem solving and meeting challenges.  Your successes are reminders of who you are and what you are capable of doing in the face of adversity.

Working with spirit is seeing yourself as a divine being and fear as an impostor.  It is the knowing that the fear is not you.  But rather it is the state of mind you adopt in reaction to the “thing” you fear. It is knowing that you can choose in the moment when you are confronted with a trying situation to adopt a state of love, hope and joy – not fear – bringing everything that is good and strong about you to bear.  This is confidence that the outcome will be for your highest good.

Of course there are awful thing happening in the world.  There is risk, danger, there is tragedy.  There are people doing horrendous things to one another.  There is evil.  And lets face it, most of our social and cultural systems are based on a “fear model”.  All of which are so very hard to resist and to change.

You can believe in the power of fear or the power of love.  The bottom line is which one gives you the most benefit – what do you gain by indulging fear or radiating love?

The thing that you can do now is to choose to change your relationship with fear now.  You can choose to do what you can and introduce healthy habits that are sustainable to reduce fear’s dominion in your life and to make more room for love, joy, and hope.

Take your time with this.  Go easy.  Stay with it. You can do this!

Dr. Elizabeth Taylor

A case in point:  During lunch with a business colleague I asked her how she was doing with her new boss.  Before I asked her this question our conversation was spirited and inspired. We were laughing and talking lively over our meal.  When I raised the question about her new boss her face dropped and became solemn.  Her energy sank as she talked about her working relationship with him.  And the interesting thing about this change was that she really needed to talk about this.  So we did, but with an entirely different cast of energy.  Even though her boss was not physically present at that moment, her energy was sapped by the thought of him and while discussing him. A few weeks later she moved on from that job to another company. When she and I got together again the energy and liveliness returned.

The quality of the energy exchanges we have every day is just as fundamental to our lives as eating and resting and air.  It is fundamental to sustaining our wellbeing.  This is something so essential to our quality of life, but not something that we learn in our educational acculturation, and it is something that is easy to take for granted.

However, the more complex life becomes the more important it is to hone tools to navigate your way through decisions, challenges and relationships.  And relationships are at the core of all that we do. There is very little that you do that does not involve people.  From the loved one or friend with whom you share your most intimate thoughts, to the co-worker or colleague you engage on work matters, to the clerk behind the counter processing your lunch order or depositing your checks.  Even the person taking a message from you over the telephone is a part of that circle where energy is exchanged.

So why should this matter to you?  Because your life runs on energy:  The energy of health, the energy of sustenance (food, water, rest), the energy of feedback which is life reflecting back to you how you are doing to meet the challenges before you – your successes, failures; and the energy of relationships.  It is the energy of our relationships, which begs our attention and care, largely because it is taken for granted, yet more so, because of its indelible impact on our quality of life.

Ideally, in healthy relationships the exchange of energy is balanced and reciprocal.  Likewise, in relationships where there is a lot of conflict and unhappiness the energy exchange is imbalanced – which is the cause of most problems between people. At a subtle level most conflicts are the struggle to balance energies between parties.  Energetic balances or imbalances occur between lovers, friends, families, couples, work and business associates, customers and merchants, salespeople and clients, even among countries.

You see it all the time – the person who dominates the conversation and sucks up the energy by drawing all the attention to themselves and their needs – not allowing room for others to speak or be heard.  The person who brings a plateful of complaints and negativity to every situation – is sucking away the energy; the person who is in the habit of criticizing, going on the attack and putting people down – fault finding and nitpicking, is taking energy.  Like my friend’s boss – who never found favor with her and was constantly looking for ways to needle and harass her out of her job.  Disrespect is de-energizing.  So is exploitation. There are countless examples of how one person de-energizes another; and you will know what they are when you experience the debilitating effects on your psyche and emotional wellbeing.  And the fact that people do this largely subconsciously does not make it any less deleterious to relationships.  Singer/songwriter Michael Franks wrote a song called: ‘When Sly Calls” that depicts this very well.

Behaviors that energize relationships are those that are affirming, such as listening and giving others space to be heard.  It is connecting and validating other people’s experiences and reality.  It is giving praise, appreciation, and understanding, which is not always and does not have to be ‘acceptance’.  Coming to a situation with ideas, a good word and helpful frame of mind is energizing. Truth telling is energizing.  Following and keeping your word is energizing.  Even criticizing when done from a place of love and respect is energizing.

So here is the question.

Do your encounters with others energize and lift you, leave you neutral, or depleted? Where time, energy and money are resources we need to preserve and manage in order to navigate our lives to success and to the kinds of experiences we want, this is a wise way to determine the health of the relationships that fuel your life.  Being progressive can mean deciding whether you need to engage certain people more often, adjust your response patterns to them, or to step way from them, altogether.

So as you increase your awareness of the energy exchanges that are a necessary part of your daily experience, ask yourself:  Who energizes me, and who depletes me?  And then flip the question: How do I energize others, and how do I deplete others?  The more you can energize others the more energized you become. That is how the energy works.  And likewise, those who are prone to de-energize others by feeding on and sucking away their energy risk becoming addicted to getting energy in this way. Which is ultimately, unsustainable.

Going forward, a wise course of action is to become more present with your relationships and encounters with others to see and understand how the energy is moving between you. Check to know and understand how you are energetically impacted by these exchanges – are you energized, neutral or depleted?  Check to know and understand if you are energizing or depleting others and in what ways – and if you are depleting others, seek to correct this.  Finally, make a decision if necessary, on whether you need to engage certain people more often where the energy exchanges between you are balanced; when you may need to make adjustments in how you interact with them; or step away from them when the energy balances are off and/or harmful.  Stay aware and watch and see the difference in the quality of your relationships and the increased control you have in your life.

Dr. Elizabeth Taylor

As a civilization we’ve been here before. History is replete with forebodings of the approaching “end of times”. Most recently it was to happen in 1984 and later at the turn of the century.  It is as though we want something to happen – a new thing – an epic drama in which we are active participants through our own creation and anticipation.  And at a consciousness level, this is true.  It is scientific and mystical fact that individual thought creates one’s personal reality, and so does our collective thought create our collective reality.  We do not have to be aware of it for this creation to take place.  The world is changing because we are changing it. We are in an evolutionary upsurge!  This is driven by our collective imperative for evolution. At some level we recognize that the old systems do not serve our evolving needs and consciousness and therefore they need to change. Government, educational, medical even religious systems are changing – the planet too!  We are actively and collectively re-setting the stage for a changing story!

Still with me?  These are indeed exciting times.  What may appear as disastrous upheavals can actually be regarded as the reshaping of the world and human life and consciousness as we know it.  In the ever-turning wheel of life something must die in order for something new to be born.  So as systems crumble around us something is being birthed. The song of the new gets drowned out from the calamity of collapsing systems and its reverberations of pain, struggle and woe in countless lives.  But the song is there, being sung with an increasing chorus of voices rising in crescendo to peak at the appointed time of 2012.  Yes, I do believe there is something special in that moment.

There have been other periods of marked human evolution:  the religious crusades, the French Revolution, the Renaissance, the fall of the Roman Empire, etc. – all driven by our evolving consciousness.  2012 represents another watershed period of human evolution.  I will leave the astrological rhythms and planetary trajectory explanations to the specialists in those areas and focus on ‘consciousness’ in this write-up. For me, this is the bottom line.

In terms of evolving consciousness, the 2012 epoch is characterized by:  1) An accelerated process of change; 2) A move towards balance; and  3) The need for deep retooling.

Accelerated Change: The world is changing before our eyes.  Intense energies from planetary movements are in rapid transition in the cosmos.  This is generating new streams of energy moving into the world and re-shaping our rhythms of life.  Patterns of sleep and diets are changing. We are more sensitive and our conduct towards situations and one another is more energized. This is keenly reflected in our rapidly changing technology and how it is ramping up our lifestyles. Time seems cramped, information abounds  – much of it is good. Processes that used to take years to complete now takes months or weeks.  We can’s see or predict beyond a certain point. The standard 5-year goals are now 6-month goals – 2 years max.  And that’s ‘iffy’! Whatever we are now we won’t be a few years from now.

The Move Towards Balance. The move towards balance is a shift in our behavior, which begins with a shift in our consciousness. The connections among things are more apparent. We are moving towards greater realization of our interconnectedness and how the world and circumstances are shaped by our thoughts and intentions, both individually and collectively.  This realization naturally moves us to make choices accordingly.  And the results of our choices cycle back to us quicker.  We are increasingly compelled to access both masculine and feminine attributes on an individual level and to integrate both principles into our systems collectively.  Moving beyond extremes, we need intellect AND heart, business AND service, might AND cooperation – the practical AND insight. The emerging model for success is grounded in balance. And that balance is the new imperative!

The Need for Deep Retooling. The need for deep retooling is the rule of the day. In order to embrace change and work with the new energies in the world we must adopt new perspectives and ways of being with ourselves, with each other and the planet.  The old ways have run their course and no longer serve us.  Ego, greed and competition are interesting for entertainment and the short-term, but cannot right the world and make us progressive and sustainable. We’ve got to collaborate and pool resources, we’ve got to unite under common causes to create wholesome societies, we’ve got to see and create opportunities as the resumé becomes increasingly obsolete!  How we respond to change can ease some of the tensions in the world. Here, the key tools we need to cultivate are:

1)   Self-knowledge and mastery:  In order to master our lives and be equipped to thrive in a constantly changing world we must ‘know’ ourselves, and master fear. Self-knowledge feeds our collective will.

2)   Relational capacity:  Despite our brilliant technologies, we need us.  We must develop a fearless capacity to work with and through people to achieve and progress.  This means cultivating and sustaining productive relationships, partnerships and collaborations.

3)   Creativity and Be-Friending the New:  We must be able to explore and discover that which is not apparent and bring it into existence. The systems that will support life in our changing world are emerging and behind the veil, which must be seen, brought forth and allowed. We must incite, encourage and embrace new ideas, perspectives and approaches no matter how scary, foreign or uncomfortable they may be.

The times call for wisdom and courage, particularly from our leaders.  The progress of humanity now hinges on the choices made by those in leadership and from every individual whose choices contribute to the collective whole.  Waxing poetically here, I see the new energy moving into the world – tearing down, clearing and cleaning up, reshaping and restructuring.  We are part of that energy.  And this energy is building in strength and force.  In our individual lives we may experience being uprooted and shaken up – challenged on many levels all at once!  We may experience things that we never thought could happen to us.  It is like a huge push of energy at our door presenting us with the choice to open the door and spread our arms to embrace it, or to cringe with panic behind the door for fear that we will be consumed.  This energy of change is good.  It is spawned by the maturing soul of our civilization. We’ve communed with it, we’ve summoned and participated in its generation.  It is our collective intent and is ours to embrace, to dance with it, to be included and fed by what is becoming.

The biggest shift for 2012 is in our consciousness – the rising realization that we are interconnected and that we are responsible for what we create.  And with this awareness we can create more consciously both in our individual lives and as a civilization of evolving beings!  No singular ‘event’ may occur at a specific moment or day or month. It is the spirit and the energy of the times.  The dye is caste – the shift is in.  The turn of the year may come and go with little or no episode, but what can be certain is that once crossing that threshold, there is no turning back.

Dr. Elizabeth Taylor

There is a growing concern for an age-old problem – bullying.  Bullying used to be brushed aside with the anecdotal: “Kids being kids” or  “Kids are just cruel”.  Society expected that and accepted that.  And well meaning parents would chide their tormented children to learn to toughen up and fight back.  With me, I was bullied by a big tomboy girl who set out to single-handedly rule my neighborhood, and she was appropriately known as Sammie Ella.  When she came and called me out of my house with her gang of girls, I ran to my mother pleading for her protection.  Instead, mom said:  “If you don’t ‘whip’ her butt, I’ll ‘whip’ yours.”  And that is what I did!  Because I feared mom’s belt far more than anything Sammie Ella could ever do to me.  Sammie Ella never came back – never bothered me again after that. This is my experience, this is how I was raised, and I cannot speak for the millions of young people who experience the dread and the terror of being singled out and harassed this way, and on a regular basis.  It’s a painful experience, which has long-lasting effects.  It is debilitating, humiliating and stifling.  And that is what it is intended to be by the perpetrators.

Bullying mirrors the predatory behavior of the legendary vampires we see in movies, and as depicted in the proceeding video:  “Bully”.  Bullies prey upon the emotional energies and life force of those perceived as weak, vulnerable and afraid.  They operate on programming that feeds on instilling pain.  Like vampires, the bully’s appetite can be insatiable.  But this behavior is not sustainable. That is why bullies come back again and again – like the vampire.  What makes it worse is that this impulse to feed on another person’s pain is largely unconscious. This behavior, by the way is not limited to young people.

Bullying is more often learned behavior.  It comes through the young person who has either witnessed or been the recipient of physical or emotional attacks from parents, siblings or other adults close to them; or they are souls wounded in other ways. They turn to bullying by default to mimic this distorted way of self-nurture; or in attempts to fill the void that has been systemically carved into them.  Again, by feeding on others’ pain.  In this counterproductive way the bully is trying to make his or herself whole and to heal.  But in the process, they become ghoulish – leaving a trail of tattered lives in their wake.

This view surely does not characterize all people who bully. It offers another perspective to add to our understanding of this phenomena of human behavior. And when we consider the fact that all human interactions are energy exchanges – positive and negative, it lends this rather ‘colorful’ example some credibility. Understanding the problem from this perspective can be part of addressing and coming to terms with it. And looking at the problem of bullying from this view begs the question – in what other ways can the would-be bully nurture his and her pain, their low self-esteem, their fear, their anger and their guilt – even shame?

The bully today has a large platform with which to operate.  Not only do they have the school yard or bathroom as their stage, but they have the Internet and social media – they have a global audience.  This large stage no doubt, makes the impact of being bullied far more devastating.  Its done more harm – it has cost more lives.

Statistics reveal that in the US approximately 50% of high school age youth act as bullies at one time or another; and approximately 50% of high school youth have been the target of bullies. These are high numbers, and an increase from previous generations.

Like food and water, we get our energy from one another.  But there are healthy and unhealthy ways to do this. The bully is practicing ‘contractive behavior’ which stunts his and her growth and generates more suffering and pain – usually, for them. When we are growing in healthy ways there is no appetite to prey upon others for their energy and life force – we have our own resources – and work in harmony with laws of self and growth.  From this place we are more moved to nurture others.  And healthy growth is to know that what we do to others we do to ourselves.  This is simply universal law – no way around it.

Educating and teaching forward on the importance of self-knowledge, self-appreciation, compassion and nurture can be part of the solution.  I am a big proponent of this kind of learning for anyone.  And one is never too young or too mature to get to know themselves through examination, reflection and the will to present their best face to the world.

Dr. Elizabeth Taylor