6- H4H News - How Do We Know We're Waking Up?

Synopsis: Hope for Humanity News is a series of three to five-minute weekly podcasts designed to educate, inspire, and comfort listeners during these challenging, but hopeful times. 

Hi everyone! Welcome to Hope for Humanity News! I’m Reverend Joan Kistler.

Last week, we talked about how planetary shifts, other changes in the cosmos, and the end of many long cycles of time are giving humanity a golden opportunity to wake up.

How do we know we’re waking up?

Well, do you currently feel or have you ever felt that life is meaningless? If you have, congratulations! You’re waking up! Life is not meaningless; it’s just that many of the ways in which we have been living our lives have virtually stripped it of its true meaning.

That’s what you, and many others, are beginning to realize.

We have been taught that a meaningful life is a successful life and that the definition of success is the accumulation of wealth and material possessions. Unfortunately, this kind of “success” doesn’t make us happy. In fact, making the accumulation of wealth and material possessions the main focus of our lives ultimately makes us and everyone else miserable. That’s because this kind of “success” makes only the ego happy – until it decides that it’s not enough.

If this kind of success doesn’t make us happy, then what good is it? Life is meaningful when we are happy, so we could say that success equals happiness. We’re successful at life when we’re happy.

So, another sign that we’re waking up is the loss of the desire to work just to make money and to buy more stuff. We might find ourselves choosing to leave a well-paid but joyless job and getting rid of stuff we don’t need.

We may also become aware of some changes in how we experience this world. As we wake up, we become more focused on the present moment and less on the dreamlike past and future. Living in the present moment allows us to experience the world more fully and directly, so we may find ourselves awestruck by the beauty of a sunrise or a flower or fluffy white clouds in a clear blue sky.

And we may experience some changes in how we perceive ourselves. Rather than feeling like islands, we may begin feeling a sense of connection to people, animals, or even all of nature. We may begin to sense our unity with all living things. This awareness naturally inspires empathy, compassion, gratitude, and contentment within us.

It all sounds so pleasant, right? Yes, it is, but it can also be painful. How can it be both pleasant and painful?

Tune in next week.