Do I Consider Myself Awake? At Moments, Yes

Image credit Kasima F Gruder

This post is an attempt to explain why I called my coaching practice Awaken with Aly. So bear with me, because it’s going to take a few minutes. 

Since watching The Social Dilemma (vital viewing if you haven’t seen it), I’ve been reducing my time spent on personal social media, trying to use it more consciously as a sacred platform for my vocation as a Change Catalyst. I use the word ‘vocation’ deliberately and I’ll go on to explain why in a moment.  

Today I logged onto Facebook briefly for a work related post, and saw a report of the next huge oil spill which seems to be fast approaching off the coast of Venezuela. For 3 months this boat has been tilting and neither the Venezuelan government nor the oil company has done anything to prevent it. The spill is predicted to be 5 times worse than the Exxon Valdez oil spill (from which the ocean and sea life still haven't fully recovered). 

You may be wondering why I mention this? Because those of us that benefit from the rapacious policies of western governments and big business (that's most of us by the way) are silently and often-times unknowingly complicit in these terrible crimes against the Earth. Consumerism and mass commodification is killing our biosphere and therefore represents a tangible existential threat to all humanity.

I named my coaching practice ‘Awaken with Aly’ not because I consider myself to be some enlightened being (far from it), but because I’m deeply called to support you in your journey of becoming increasingly more awake, as I myself walk the same path. 

Human beings are so powerful. Powerful enough to destroy that which sustains them, when they are out of balance with the natural order. And powerful enough to dream up and manifest what philosopher Charles Eisenstein calls ‘the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible’. But humanity is largely asleep. We have reached a peak of apathy, division, and maniacal, suicidal destruction of our only home - because we’ve forgotten what we really are.  

The ego’s drive for control, for securing itself above and beyond the needs of all others, and its pathological addiction to comfort is anathema to awakening to the truth that we are not separate. We need to rediscover the value that inconvenience brings. 

As long as we believe in a separate self that must be defended at all costs, we will never undertake the hard work of taking a stand, loving hard no matter what our perceived differences are, dreaming, innovating and building an equitable future for all beings, human and non-human.

So I am called to this vocation not because I want to make you rich, or help you achieve that prestigious job. Not to get the fast car, or the taught body, or the handsome husband. I’m not that kind of coach. I do this because I'm passionate about your awakening as an individual - as it relates to the consciousness of the whole. 

When someone is fully awake, their consciousness is utilized by something greater than their ego, which contributes to the upleveling of collective consciousness. And now more than ever, this is of vital importance to humanity's survival and the health of the planet. As environmentalist David Suzuki wrote, “we're in a giant car heading towards a brick wall and everyone’s arguing over where they're going to sit”.

Awakening is when the whole becomes aware of itself and awakens through the individual. So ‘you’ don't really awaken, but your consciousness becomes awake to itself and the impulse towards increasing self-awareness grows ever stronger.  

The more individuals that awaken, the more conscious the collective becomes. The hour is late my friends. There is no time to waste on frivolous and selfish desires or petty grievances. The world needs us all to step forward in our greatness and fiery passion, fuelled by love, not anger and hate. 

Understanding the 3Ps is not an excuse for cowardly inaction. Nor does it negate or render sacred anger inappropriate. With an understanding of the 3p's we are best placed to contribute to a better world - but not by pretending that injustice, inequality & cruelty doesn't exist, that's just insulting to those that suffer so greatly. 

Waking up doesn’t mean that you suddenly have to quit your job in finance and go do something altruistic or grandiose in the world by the way. Quantum mechanics demonstrates that the smallest changes to one thing affects absolutely everything else. We are not separate. 

But who else will take a stand for the kind of world we all want to enjoy if not you? No-one is coming to save us.  Do we have the courage to wonder together? What if consumerism wasn't the engine of this culture? What does a culture rally around, if not consumption and a monetary based consumer economy? If giving back was far more valued than hoarding, what kind of culture could we co-create? Can we resist the dynamics of the consumerist system’s steamrolling of our nobler impulses? 

The system is driven by scarcity panic, but the system is made of individuals. As long as we fear not having enough; ergo not being enough, the system will continue to destroy everything in its path. We serve the system when we come from a place of unworthiness. And this is the greatest lie of all. Who, or rather, what you truly are, can never be unworthy, can never be harmed, broken or deceived. 

So let’s awaken together. For the sake of ourselves and our children and all sentient beings including this beautiful Earth home. 

This is why I consider this to be the most wonderful calling in the world. People come to me in various stages of sleep. And I get to accompany them as they wake up to the full magnificence of life and their innate wholeness and power, to their reciprocal relationships with the rest of the living world. We need to literally fall in love with the beauty of everything - enough that it impacts our thoughts and our actions. The solutions will not be national or international. They will first take place inside our own hearts, and then ripple out to our families, friends, and local level of community. 

Recommended reading:

David Suzuki, The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature

Charles Eisenstein - The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible

Robin Wall Kimmerer - Braiding Sweetgrass