Occupy and embody are interchangeable words that can both mean "to inhabit."  I've been teaching and counseling embodied personal change for nearly 20 years.  Since diving into progressive politics and #Occupy, I've been noticing all of the ways that changing the larger patterns in one's life are precisely like making systemic changes in our world at large.

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They both require those desiring the change, to think, act and "be" different.  Thinking and acting differently will get you in the door, but if you want, for example, a relationship that will actually give you a different experience for the long term,you're going to have to make some significant changes on the inside.  If you don't respect yourself, there's little chance you'll go from a man or woman that constantly wishes you were someone else, to the perfect person who adores you for who you are.  At least not for long.

Same with the things we don't like about our government, the economy, industrialized food and medicine, etc.  All the ways people experience being on the short end of the stick (if you even have a stick), feeling less than, or devalued, won't change without discovering your value outside all the things that money, prestige, gainful employment or even a loved one, can provide.  We need a certain amount of these things of course.  In fact, I'm not going to say you need more or less of anything.

You'll notice from the diagram above,  deep changes outside begin with some deep shifts inside.  Because your body influences ALL perception, the journey to radical social change starts right where you're standing (or sitting) right now.

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The Taoists remind us to relish the journey.  A difficult principle to grasp in the west, is how important our frame of mind is in the larger scheme of planning tactics and setting goals for change.  I fact, one might say that frame of mind is the entire journey.  Is it not true, that if a million people out of 7 billion had an awakening into what a new economy actually felt like from the inside, that we might likely see a rapid transformation in our economic systems. 

All of our human systems are a product of agreement.  When enough people agree or disagree, then we see systems rise and fall.  This takes time. 

An awareness I bring forth each week, is how the present moment is where our power lies to perform any action most powerfully and effectively.  This is why Taoist warriors also practiced art and meditation as an integral part of their training.  The ALOHA Practice we engage each week, is a highly effective way to quickly realign one's nervous system in Love Mode to be an open channel for essence and what we are calling the evolutionary impulse.

The path to wherever you want to go starts and continues right here, right now.  My wish is that you realize ALOHA need not take up any space or time in your life.  It dissolves as it supports. 

Inspiration for today's call from the GroupWorks card deck:

"What is the possibility that as we connect more deeply with ourselves and learn how to remain in contact with ourselves as a collective, the outer system will shift or change in response?

Scribing harvest of first breakout...

  • trading life energy instead of money... we don't need money any more--it's just an old fashioned intermediary
  • "subtle energy" idea.. money and value are NOT synonymous
  • how I am internally connected (love vs. fear) makes all the difference in how I bring my message into the world and whether or not it is heard and welcomed
  • disconnection is so present.  from the reality of the human economy, from the places we occupy.  "the trees are confused by us because our food comes from all over the world!"
  • i don't want to turn our humanity into an economy
  • What we VALUE is at the core... economy as transacting value. so what we place value on and how we value ourselves is key to the kind of economy we create.  so we need to evolve our consciousness and our awareness to fundamentally change our economy.  changes rules and regulations isn't enough.
  • economy as something that turns and cycles and spins around... our own little levers are connected to the bigger outer wheel and one turns the other.  does "valuing"mean paying attention to something and respecting it?  is it about awareness?  does valuing things more equal expanding our consciousness?
  • we desire what we value and we value what we desire.  so what i think i want or should want matte4rs, and the degree to which I want things that aren't really what i value deeply, that's an internal disconnect and that gap is the place we need to do our work and represents the degree to which our economy is out of whack.
  • currency is what we collectively agree that it will be.  right now, it's all ones and zeroes in computers.  and we are accepting and agreeing to that.
  • idea of "field of agreement:" how does the collective make decisions and reach agreements?  how does that connect to our oWn consciousness and values?  boil it down to the basic ones...  TRUST is one that keeps coming up.  Of one another and also OURSELVES.
  • Trust can be unwieldy/overwhelming as a "problem."  challenged by its absence so often.  see diagram/mandala above... our relationship with our physical selves is at the very center.  that's where our issues with trust also emerge--with our relationship to the impulses emerging from our bodies.  shifting into "love mode" of open presence and trust, inside my own body, leads to amazing shifts in the rest of the world.
  • Trust, cont... can we trust ourselves?   good reasons not to!  even when we've done something "wrong," can we also trust that there is something "right" about it too?  we've all taken a huge it in the trust department. politicians, corporations, money, that we'll be OK?  no guarantees or certainties in life.  we can make plans, but still... Trust that life is fundamentally benevolent.  use our tech not to isolate but to connect in deeply human ways.  Trust that we are equal to the demands being placed on us and that we have more potential than we imagine if we can only be brave enough to step out and live into our power.
  • the physical body... book: Becoming Animal by David Abram.  stunning descriptions of a body in the physical world.  shadows, sunrise, etc.  image of the world in space... every day at dawn birds sing to greet the dawn... and again at dusk.  two edges of dawn and sunset that travel continually around the world, so the line of birdsong travels around the world, with gaps over the oceans...  idea that we're separated from the world and what it might be like to be totally connected instead.  heart breakingly beautiful.
  • if the fundamental currency of our economy were loving awareness... given that we value what our attention lands on... put our loving, open, accepting attention on things... currently we discount most of what's on offer, exiling it and only valuing a very small range of interactions and transactions that we sense are acceptable to those around us, collectively agreeing to discount most of our experience.  a reflection of the 99%/1% dynamic.  that's what we do all the time internally, in valuing so little and discounting so much.

Scribing Jitendra's final comment...

"What would it be like for each of us to become exponentially fascinated with what our our being was putting on offer and we could receive that unconditionally, without prejudice or rejecting most of what comes through?  when we soften our bodies, our breath,m our field, we open and expand... what if expanded our capacity to receive and value all of ourselves.  not just the 1% we are all agreeing to value, but all of us, even the parts we don;t have names and words for.  like all those nameless people out in the world.  

what is the possibility that this core relationship with ourselves, with our conscious awareness, if opened to all this information coming directly out of the earth, is no longer discounted?  If you could trust this exchange with yourself, could you expand your direct connection to the unseen as well?

Final harvest:

  • trading hours of labor as equal (time banking) ignores the amount of time a doctor spent learning his craft compared to someone who cleans a toilet
  • listening and taking it in... busy working with Occupy and things are coming to fruition... a New Economy/Gift Economy... takes more than just me... need a great convergence and hopeful that #NatGat will shift something externally and also internally for many people
  • Nirvana is the goal, but we're dealing with residue remaining and a sense of scarcity.  evolving beyond the residue.  education and taking care of our earthly home with the New Economy
  • capitalist system is so HUGE and booming, but fails at a human level... billions whose needs are not being met... New Economy defined as a way to meet ALL our needs... Need convergence.  good learning experience.  Great possibility and great challenge.  How can we expose more people to what we are talking about today?  Occupy has brought strangers together in trust, but that needs to be recreated now.
  • Thinking about loopholes and our lack of trust... Embodying the movement means I feel that I'm a part of what is moving... Seeing trust and currency connection... Stretching towards the New World based on heart energy.  It begins in my own heart.  Love it and the world opens up and I pop out into it as a "loved heart."  We're sharing by being here, paying attention, sharing and offering.  This matters and is substantial!
  • Big smile!

Ben, I have a strong reaction to this item:

trading hours of labor as equal (time banking) ignores the amount of time a doctor spent learning his craft compared to someone who cleans a toilet

My best friend is dying. I'm in excellent health. We both had similar symptoms at about the same time. We both went to doctors. I refused to allow tests or treatment, and since the doctors didn't know what I had, I turned to alternative therapies like diet and herbal supplements. My friend allowed both tests and treatment. Since the results of the tests were unclear, my friend agreed to exploratory surgery. They must have missed a bleeder when they sewed him up, as he bled out internally after he went home and was returned to the hospital where he was in a coma for three days. The doctors then diagnosed him with liver cancer. As many people may know, the liver plays a major role in detoxification of the body. My friend's doctor suggested chemotherapy and he agreed. It almost killed him. He lost 35 lbs. in 9 days before he stopped the chemo and he still can't eat. I had unsuccessfully tried to persuade my friend to avoid western medicine and use alternative health practices as I did. Putting toxic chemicals into a body with reduced liver function is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. Personally, I think that doctor's time would have been spent more productively scrubbing toilets instead of going to med school. Since the med schools, the medical textbooks, and the research are all heavily funded by the pharmaceutical industry, they are geared to selling drugs, not to healing disease. Properly prescribed medications, taken exactly as prescribed, are one of the leading causes of death in the United States. I've never heard of anyone being killed by people who clean toilets. If an alternative economy like time banking was to place a higher value on one type of work than another, I'd place the higher value on the work that kills fewer people.

One thing missing from your diagram - think universal love - include also our relationship with nature and with mother earth, humanity does not exist in isolation but is interdependent within a whole

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