Welcome to the Grow Inward Podcast, I am your host Adrian Petrillo.
Today I would like to talk about the connection to community and why that is so important. These past few episodes have been elaborating further on the ideas put forth in the opening episode of this season. I thought it was important to expand on these connections a bit more, because I believe these are some crucially important areas that we can all improve going forward which could make a very significant positive impact in society and our local communities.
It is obvious that there are increasing divisions and arguments brewing around the world today, it seems that we have wedges being purposefully driven between all of us in a myriad of different and damaging ways. Clearly there are many different contributing factors and topics that serve to fan the flames of the fuel being poured onto society by those who would seek to do us harm. The age old saying “divide and conquer” is clearing being taken literally by these very same players, whoever that is in reality. I tend to think it is a relatively small group who are working very diligently to gain the control they need before the masses wake up and take that back from them en masse!
Let’s not bother going too far down the negative side of this conversation, that is all too easy to do and it doesn’t necessarily help us put any real and tangible solutions into play. I would much rather focus on what can be done and why that matters. In this series of conversations we have been very focused on connections and the different types that I believe make a very significant contribution to creating value in our lives and the lives of others.
It is becoming increasingly clear to me that there will need to be a great deal of forgiveness needed as we move forward, and I mean on a full societal level. I think that we are all responsible, at least in part, for the place that we all find ourselves in, and admitting that will be a major hurdle that we must all be willing to leap over first. I feel that we are all guilty of playing into this idea of putting others into all sorts of different boxes, and this very idea is toxic and unsustainable. It is time to step back from all the labels and recognize that we are all human beings who need love, acceptance, and connection. We all share these needs and we all deserve them, and it serves no one by ignoring this universal truth.
I think taking some responsibility and being willing to forgive ourselves and others is a huge step in the right direction, and this is one of connection to our community. We are all human beings in search of these very same things and constant arguing and compartmentalizing of each other will never allow that to even begin, period! We are all wired for connection, just look it up and read about it. I won’t bother going into all the details of that research or psychology here, because it is a topic all on its own. What I want to focus on here is getting past the blocks that are preventing us from doing this, and those are labels which by definition separate us all. It’s time to do away with all the labels and just be the human beings that we are, you know, the ones who need love, acceptance, and connection?
I think that a great deal of solving the divisions we are all experiencing involves disconnecting ourselves more and more from the sources that are parroting those types of messages or topics which lead to their amplification. By first disconnecting ourselves from those messages, we will accomplish two very important things. We are rejecting those who would seek to increase division among us, and we are freeing up our energy to focus elsewhere in a more beneficial manner.
It can be very easy to become energetically drained in our day to day lives if we put too much attention on the all pervasive media landscape we find ourselves in. I won’t pretend that this is difficult if not impossible to remove completely, but you can absolutely stand guard over it in ways that make a tangible and significant impact on your ability to reclaim much more of your energy. That saved energy is precisely what you will need to begin putting towards all of the other frameworks which I have offered up in recent episodes and throughout this podcast.
I know that it can all feel overwhelming when looking at the bigger picture and all that needs to happen before things really shift in a big way, but consider that none of those can happen without the incremental steps required to get us there. Keep your eye on the prize and think of things in simple terms instead, and just do them one at a time as you are able. These small changes will add up in a big way over time, especially if we can get some collective momentum in a direction where we are helping ourselves first and affecting those around us by extension. Extrapolate that effect and you will begin to see how it snowballs and begins to reach ever increasing numbers of people and hearts, it’s a really big deal and not even close to impossible to achieve!
Let’s come back to connections to community, which is the heart of this particular episode. Reclaim some of your energy so that you can put some of that toward this particular effort. Also, remember that the collective efforts of the other framework I have mentioned of mindset, movement, and meditation all serve to support you at all other levels that help you gain momentum in these other areas of connection. These things all work together in an incredible way, it is a positive feedback loop that builds on itself. As you feel better about yourself, your health, your mind, your inner world, your confidence, and all of these different part of you, you become magnetic in your connections to others. People notice and appreciate those of us who can be a positive example and an inspiration to them, it is a deeply important part of connection. We all want to be a part of that, and you are no exception. Be the change you want to see in the world, these words could not be more true in the real world and the position that we all find ourselves in.
All of these things will help you strengthen all areas of connection in your relationships. This includes personal, social, and community and they all affect and influence each other. This is very interesting in the context of a very spiritual concept which we have discussed, and that is the idea that we are all one. This is an important reason to look past our differences and forgive, this very act is a spiritual act and one that is the foundation of healing the division within and without. If we can find the willingness to forgive and accept and find our connections rather than our differences, we can begin to affect real change in ourselves and in others.
We have all been lulled into this sense of division, but it is an illusion. None of it is real! We create these feelings and experiences by putting our energy into the wrong thoughts and feelings. This ability is one of our greatest gifts as humans, this power to create with our thoughts and our beliefs, but when we use this incorrectly or out of our own ignorance it becomes one of our greatest faults. This is where we find ourselves, we have been taught to embrace our ignorance and not our true potential. We are told that these things are not real or possible, that we are not able to create or manifest with our thoughts, but this is wrong. We have been led down the wrong path, but we can connect to what is right and we can do it together as a community. In fact, it is this collective act that will give it the strength needed to overcome much more than we ever thought possible.
When you think about how separated some of us have felt from ourselves, from others, and from our communities in recent years, it is valuable to take a larger view of this dilemma because it could have profound implications in the event that we see things break down in our societies and economies. I think these are distinct possibilities looking forward, and these are simply things that are a result of the unsustainable systems we have built much of our world around. It’s no secret that these systems are finite, they are not all something that can continue indefinitely. It just isn’t very hard to see this, and it is often surprising to me that we have not made larger changes as a result of an inevitable and obvious conclusion?
Here is where I think social capitol is going to be increasingly valuable in the days and years ahead. I think there is a strong case to be made for many of the things I have mentioned so far, that being forgiveness, acceptance, and building bridges now with each other so that we can form the stronger connections we will absolutely need in the future. I hope things don’t go terribly wrong, but if they were to do that having some social capitol and meaningful connections within our communities could prove to be worth their weight in gold. I have noticed in my own community stores that just one or two days without food deliveries and those shelves are emptied out very fast. What happens if that goes on for weeks or months? Maybe we should try building better connections locally now with our communities and preparing to take care of each other in case we can’t rely on others to do the same?
Even if nothing like that happens, isn’t there still some inherent value in getting back to closer connections in our communities? I don’t understand why we ever allowed ourselves to get away from that. I really believe we should seriously rethink that, not only from a resilience standpoint, but from a connection standpoint. It is nice to know your neighbors and community members, it is nice when we can share our many different skills and talents, and it is valuable to actively foster these things in times of peace and abundance. There is no guarantee that it will always be that way, and I don’t know about you but that seems more and more important to me when I look out at the landscape we are in today?
I submit to you that our connections are everything, and they are purposefully being obstructed with the full knowledge that they are serving to divide and conquer for some reason that is still unclear to most of us? Connect to yourself, connect with others, forgive yourself and others with compassion, we are all to blame for our own ignorance, but we don’t have to continue this way. Everything that I have offered so far in the way of frameworks are tools that can help us each to be stronger within so that we can re-establish the connections that we will need to change our world for the better. Do this for yourself, do this for others, do this out of your genuine love for all that you hold dear and care about most in this world. The change you want to see begins with you, consider that we are all like cells in a larger body, all working independently but together affecting the larger organism. When we are complete and healthy we do our best work, when we are complete and healthy we connect in the most effective ways to the whole, find what you need to be complete and healthy and you will contribute most effectively to the whole. Everything is connected, realize this truth and you can affect more than you know!
Until next time, never underestimate the power you have within you, and keep growing inward.
