Living Your Purpose In a Global Pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has often felt like a collective, near-death experience at a global scale. It’s been a wake-up call to our fragile systems and way of life that’s shaken us momentarily awake to the present in every country around the world. A chapter has closed on life as we’ve known it, but this crisis is also unveiling an unprecedented opportunity for planetary transformation. Dickens might as well have written the opening sentence for our new collective story:
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
For so many of us, this truly is the “season of darkness.” This disease has caused immense suffering, physically, emotionally and financially. It can be difficult to envision a new way forward when we’ve been thrust into a heightened sense of fear and despair. But in crisis also comes opportunity, and how we choose to respond to this emergency will change the very course of human history.
Unfortunately, fear tends to be the default reaction to major change. In evolutionary terms, this was a valid response in the midst of day-to-day survival, but even in these present times, our cultural conditioning would have us focus on the worst case scenarios. When we react from a place of fear, however, we stay small, spread so thin in the materialistic paradigm that we lose track of the spiritual essence of ourselves. We’ve become accustomed to the frenetic rat race of trying to pay the bills, buying the groceries, cleaning the house, worrying about our jobs, fixing the car… Of course, these are all very valid concerns. If we aren’t able to meet our basic needs, we aren’t able to thrive and transform. But is this the “normal” we want to return to post-pandemic; an endless number of material tasks we face just to keep life going?
Getting Reacquainted With Purpose During a Pandemic
Immersed in a daily schedule of social obligations, social media, social standards, we get disconnected from our core values and highest purpose. What COVID-19 has gifted us, however, is a chance to pause for inner reflection and get honest with ourselves. Sheltering in place has simplified our lives to the basic essentials. We’ve been shaken to the core and are no longer able to turn to the next social engagement to ignore our sacred connection to Source and the magnitude of our global connection and our responsibility within this intricate fabric of humanity.
There’s a bigger spirit we’re all part of, and that is what we need to preserve and contribute to by getting reacquainted with our authentic selves. Nelson Mandela said, “There’s no passion to be found in playing small – in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.” He certainly manifested that in his own life and all of us can do the same. We have unlimited potential within ourselves if we only realized, believed and nurtured our unique gifts. To follow what calls to us often requires us to ignore what society tells us, but if there’s anything we can take away from these times, it is that we can rewrite the rules.
We can use this time to truly change the world for the better by asking the hard questions required of us to collectively create a new way forward.
- What is the meaning of our life and what is humanity’s purpose beyond replicating our numbers to the point that it is unsustainable?
- What is our true passion that will help us reach our highest potential, as individuals and as a species?
If we are going to find the answers, the first thing to do is to shut off the outside static and influence of social conditioning and get attuned with our true inner self. Then we can explore what really resonates as a loud “YES,” an inner excitement that we can feel, leading us down the path toward purposeful living.
Taking Purposeful Steps Toward Collective Healing
Of course, this is easier said than done in the midst of a pandemic. Living in Madrid during lockdown, and suffering the virus myself, created a real wake-up call to remember what’s important in my own life. Struggling with health and unable to connect with friends, family and nature while having to self-isolate doesn’t support a positive and hopeful state of mind. There have been good and bad days, but despite the challenges of this healing process, it’s been nothing short of transformative. When you feel this kind of alien presence in your physical body, challenging you on your most vulnerable aspect of life, my goodness it really cleans out the petty stuff. My situation is nothing special, but it’s hard not to consider the meaning of life and how to live authentically, when confronted with a serious illness.
We’re all struggling and suffering in different ways, but we can still take important steps toward collective healing. What’s important is to do the best we can, try and be as much help as we can, to empathize, sympathize and be as compassionate as we can. It’s not a perfect process, and a long way from it, but it’s how we begin to build a new way of living in a time of social distancing.
That’s just the first step in how we can positively respond to this momentous time in human history. I do believe this is the “spring of hope” to quote Dickens again. When we feel in tune with our inner purpose we can go on to contribute to the collective purpose. As strange as it seems, this virus, this unseen enemy invading the world, is also a unifying factor. The Institute of Noetic Sciences has done a lot of work with the Global Consciousness Project, researching how a collective, broad-scale, worldwide event influences our collective consciousness. This is a golden opportunity to see and understand and measure just how much that consciousness affects us. If we’re in this together, our collective consciousness can come into focus to create love and joy, the true spirit of humanity.
The wisdom traditions have said there have been three great miracles in the history of humanity: the birth of the universe, the appearance of life and the dawn of human self-reflective consciousness. And now through the course of human history we’re at the cusp of the fourth miracle, making the turn from the materialistic paradigm and into the consciousness paradigm of energy and innovation. It really plants in our minds this idea that we can collectively affirm a new way forward– that we are a healthy and thriving species living in harmony with the most beautiful and abundant planet known to humankind.
The next steps we take as individuals will shape our collective transformation as a planet and species. As Picasso once said: “The meaning in life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
Yes, we’re living in incredibly challenging times, but we’ve also been given the honorable task to be a part of one of the most important moments in human history. While we adapt to new ways of living and interacting, we can also find solace in returning to the higher sense of purpose that connects the fabric of our humanity and find our way to give back to ourselves and our future.
Comments 6
Emanuel,
This is so beautiful and just what I needed to read this morning. It resonates with me at a completely different, and higher vibration.
I am wrestling with ways to authentically release into a non-trauma response to ALL of the challenges of our times. I believe all you described in your blog is traumatizing to society as a whole, hence fear in a very human level.
And you have been helping us see the potential of the New Human which is requiring a more transcendent response that lives within us. We cannot avoid the human reactivity that arises organically and by default first. And then we can put our sites on a new and grander way of being and living as ONE.
Thank you for this inspiring blog,
Hi Ruthie,
Thanks for your kind comments and I am pleased the blog resonates with you. We do, indeed, need to seek a higher vibrational level in our society. I am hoping that the coronavirus will serve as the shock mechanism that pushes us into recognizing this. In my evolutionary wave theory I always point out that when the wave reaches a trough (which we are currently in and hopefully bottoming out), a change of direction to the upside does not come naturally. It often requires an outside input to upset the system enough to wake it up to a potential state of transformation. So, rather than allowing ourselves to be consumed by fear and anxiety, we should try to see this as nature’s way of giving us an opportunity to reconnect on a more authentic level. Even with all the loss of life and human suffering, I know we are a resilient species and we are wise enough to understand that some of our materialistic excesses can be moderated without decreasing the quality of our lives.
Emanuel
Emanuel,
Great messages, very well explained and simple to understand. Thank you for your post!!!
If we really think about everything that we are facing in these turbulent and changing times, we are truly in an unrepeatable opportunity to get back to our roots and look at our inner self.
We are all much more connected between each other than we could expect, and the Global Consciousness is the link that can bring us together.
All big changes in life start within ourselves (as I always say in a more business environment….”you got to believe what you are selling”….in this case there is nothing to sell, just by listening to yourself should be enough) and the connection of thoughts and energies all together have an enormous power of transformation.
This confinement, with all the tragedy that has brought to the world, can be and should be the opportunity to “listen” and create new ways of knowledge.
Let’s do it and let’s play a protagonist role instead of being spectators or observers.
Hi Murat,
Thank you for your thoughtful message. You are so right about taking the lead from our inner selves. I particularly appreciate your reference to the business world, because that is where a huge difference can be made. Businesses are not starting to see that it is good for business to discover and believe in the deeper purpose of their activities. I know you have been so successful in your own business because this comes naturally to you. Hopefully other business leaders can follow your example and put more compassion into the workplace.
Onward and upward,
Emanuel
Dear Emanuel,
This touches me on so many levels. I really appreciate the clarity of your words and also the grounded heart resonance flowing through them. Yes it does feel like a “global near-death” experience (not that I’ve gone through that particular portal mind you!) It feels like we have front row seats to the end of civilization as we know it – the great paradigm shift of the ages. It’s an intense time and it breaks my heart to think of all the suffering that goes on in the world today, particularly the suffering of children and our young people. But this pandemic is bringing to the surface so many inequalities – and reclaiming them in a trial by fire. It seems not without significance that this time is marked by burning flames and riots.
I think we can no longer pretend that things are ok on the outside, when the outside has radically changed beyond recognition and become so divorced from the innate truth, beauty and wisdom that lives in each human soul.
I hope and pray that we don’t return to business as usual. That we are all able to forge deeper connections with others in meaningful ways and to reclaim what it even means to be fully human in the first place.
I agree with you that this is a tremendous opportunity and birthing for a new miracle for humanity, but also appreciate you speaking to the fact that everybody is “struggling and suffering” in their own ways. As I write these words I feel in touch with my own suffering – and the frenetic rat race, of which I’m also a part. A deep feeling grief that is resting in the collective right now too. The grief of thinking about how many children and families die of starvation every, single day. The grief that black and brown bodies in the world are treated with such contempt and difference. The grief I’m still sitting with at my beloved father’s death 2.5 years ago – even though I also often feel him with me too.
On a dreamy day I too can feel into a future time where things feel different, where flourishing, intimacy and connection are placed at the centre of everything we do and all our relations. I pray that I may see it in my lifetime and if not, I long to be a part of the great work that must be done to ensure it is a legacy left for my children and as yet unborn grandchildren and the next 7 generations – for they are the ones who shall inherit our precious earth long after we are gone.
Thank you so much for your words. I’m looking forward to reading more from you in due course.
Many blessings and gratitude, Priya
Dear Priya,
Thank you for such a heartfelt message. Your words have made me think even more deeply about what we are going through as a global society. It seems we are suffering simultaneously from two pandemics: Covid-19 and the general illness of our culture as a whole. While we have always had systemic racism combined with an overdose of materialism, it now seems that these issues are becoming even more ingrained in our thinking. We need to heal on both accounts. We must seek true peace in our communications. I’ll have more to say on that in my next newsletter.
Blessings and deep gratitude,
Emanuel