Those early diving suits. Wow. Just imagine the weight. And now imagine how our institutions like our political systems, our judiciary, our media, our education, health and infrastructure systems all assume a great weight of complexity is needed to keep our societies functioning.

The reality is, this way of being is as out moded as those vintage diving suits. It’s usefulness to us as a species has run its course. The human-created suffering we see in the world is evidence this way of being does not create the societies we dream of.

More and more of us are realising the heavy suit, helmet and breathing apparatus are not required and in fact just get in the way of creating the world we want to live in. With this cumbersome suit on, all we are ever going to do is come up with a million different theories and a million different solutions for the problems we see in the world. We try to re-arrange the pieces over here only to find a different set of problems emerges or the problem moves elsewhere.

It is the suit that is the problem. While we try to tackle human created suffering with the heavy diving suit on, so to speak, we are operating from a separate sense of self that experiences the world as fundamentally threatening and hostile, unaware, as it is, that it is part of a divine energy that flows through all sentient and non sentient form.

It’s time to speak up.

It’s time we had a serious conversation about the lightness of being

I feel moved to write this article because I have a sense of things converging. People are waking up.

At this moment I have a fresh and vivid memory of how I have mostly operated: getting to work on life and being rather earnest about it. Of seeing seriousness as the best way forward. Things that mattered to me were educating myself, understanding more about the world I lived in. Understanding where injustice was perpetrated and how and why.

I saw those who cared more about nail varnish than human suffering as lightweight and lacking the seriousness that was surely necessary to tackle the myriad problems in the world. You were allowed a little light entertainment now and then but only as a break before getting back to the serious business of living.

In recent times, my view has expanded. Seriousness now seems very much a liability in creating change in the world. The role of light heartedness, something I so easily dismissed, now looks fundamental to the shift in consciousness which is happening in villages, towns and cities like mine and yours.

A light heart, is an open heart. An open heart connects with others.

Through an open heart, come fresh ideas, fresh connections, fresh insights, shifts in perspective, shifts in our experience and out of that we create a new world.

I’ve seen this.

I spent most of my life trying to create change in myself and the world through effort, trying to impose my ‘will’ on the chaotic inner and outer landscape I often inhabited. My causes were varied: overseas development work, organic farming, micro enterprises, my children, myself. Without a doubt I scored A* for effort but the experience left me depleted and exhausted.

It is clear as day to me now, there is another path and it is one many have sought and many have quietly found throughout human history. As a person’s consciousness expands, truly remarkable things happen.

Healing first, inner and outer. Compassion necessarily expands as we move from operating from fear to realising what lies at the core of our being human. And then I observe the desire to serve can arise. But what is so transformative is the lightness of being experienced. The opening of the heart allows profound shifts to occur, on and on, in a beautiful dance with no end.

What is this expanded consciousness?

Expanded consciousness is a gift, a waking up to who and what we truly are. When, how and if it happens is not driven by our will and yet paradoxically getting curious seems to lead to waking up more and more. Moments when our hearts are filled with love, compassion and quiet wonder and gratitude whether in the midst of beauty or heart wrenching destruction. Most everyone has experienced these moments but we dismiss them. A distraction from the serious business of life.

What if we got curious about what lies beyond open heartedness and what happens when acting from open heartedness? What could that look like?

As our consciousness expands we understand deeper and deeper the fact that our unique experience of the world, moment to moment is an inside job. The world is not a separate other out there but is created via our consciousness. As our consciousness expands the world we experience changes.

Sounds a bit ‘Beam me up Scotty’. It is.

You may scoff.

But how’s the current approach working for us? Really?

But here’s the rub.

Smelling the roses is not a distraction from life. It is the stuff of life.

For when our hearts are open, we invite the hearts of those we move among to open too.

Open hearts connect with family members, neighbours, other human beings. Open hearts see people in need and respond. Open hearts create loving families, robust communities, structures, laws and policies that promote human dignity and creativity. Open hearts realise the deep connectedness between all life, that it all comes from the same source and is a precious gift in all its forms from gnarled tree stump to newborn baby. Open hearts lead to actions that nourish life in all its forms.

I have witnessed remarkable and profound change in myself and those around me. As people look away from the thought created problems we experience and towards the lightness of being that has always been there but gets lost from sight, their consciousness expands and their experience of the world gets newly created. Those stuck in anxiety have discovered renewed ease and good will in relationships, new ease and flow in their work, more humour, more love and more lightness through the ups and downs of life and work. And the impact of this touches their families, their communities and so it goes on.

Time to speak up and call it what it is. A rise in consciousness is happening.

The call to serve is touching people all over the world. It has always been there. Time to reach out and connect with those who are searching, those who are lost but have an inkling it isn’t supposed to be like this.

There’s a call to action for us. A call to extend love and understanding. To reach out to every human being who crosses your path each day. To extend that open heart and act on what arises in that moment. How that looks is for you to explore.

To strive for change without first opening your heart and experiencing the lightness of being is like living in this world with one of those heavy vintage diving suits. It’s all effort, struggle and you live in perpetual fear your air line might get caught.

It’s not indulgent or idealistic to look to expanding our consciousness, for from that place comes inspired action in service of self and others. And it is the only hope for a peaceful world.

Being in service. Being curious about the wonders of the world. Allowing, simply allowing our hearts to expand transforms us and as each individual is transformed the impact ripples across our communities creating things we cannot yet imagine.

I’d love to hear how this lands for you.