Resilience in the Age of Aquarius

Wow, what a time we live in. I’m just awaiting news on the alien landings. They probably already have landed and all the rest have been a distraction. Expectations are high at the moment. It really just gets stranger by the day. Even as restrictions seem to be eased worldwide there seems is a new thing popping up somewhere constantly. It almost feels like we as a collective are trying to heal from all our past hurts and frustrations at the moment. Like a frustrated child. I reckon we can do better. We need to find resilience in this Age of Aquarius.

You might think it’s just a bunch of hogwash, all this astrological ‘nonsense’. However, I do think it’s time we realise our place in the universe. Yes, the universe… Of course, it would help us to start by realising our place on earth, but looking at the universe might just put our existence and perceived superiority into a slightly better perspective. This conception that we are separate from everything around us is not constructive in any way. In my humble opinion, this separation from the bigger picture lies at the root of the oh so familiar mental health imbalance in our society.

From an astrological perspective, the Age of Aquarius is seen as either the upcoming or current astrological age. As with most things, there are various theories as to whether we are in this so-called ‘Age of Aquarius’. What I do find interesting is what this age symbolises.

‘A common position expressed by many astrologers sees the Age of Aquarius as that time when humanity takes control of the Earth and its own destiny as its rightful heritage, with the destiny of humanity being the revelation of truth and the expansion of consciousness, and that some people will experience mental enlightenment in advance of others and therefore be recognized as the new leaders in the world.’ — Vera W Reid, Towards Aquarius, 1971, pp. 97–116

Wouldn’t it be nice to have enlightened leaders in the world? Maybe even humble ones.

Each age (as the earth moves through the zodiac signs) lasts a whole 2160 years, so it’s not as fleeting as you may have thought.

Resilience in the Age of Aquarius

As the words to the song to the song from the musical Hair (1967) goes

When the moon is in the Seventh House
And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets
And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
Age of Aquarius
Aquarius

AquariusHarmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind’s true liberation
Aquarius
Aquarius

Song: Aquarius / Let the Sunshine In by the 5th Dimension
Songwriters: James Rado / Gerome Ragni / Galt Mac Dermot

Resilience should be our Main Focus

Resilience is a topic that has come up so much for me over the past few weeks (even years). I do think it is so relevant in current discussions. Surely as a society, we need to rise, as my favourite song at the moment so aptly describes (see full lyrics and video at the end).

To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed
The bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress
The hate of men will pass, and dictators die
And the power they took from the people will return to the people
And so long as men die, liberty will never perish
Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men
Machine men with machine minds and machine hearts!
You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men!
You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful
To make this life a wonderful adventure
Let us use that power!
Let us all unite!)

Iron Sky Songwriters: David Nelson / Charlie Chaplin / Paolo Nutini

Something that we’ve all had to face at some point in our lives. Some of us more often than we would like to admit. I listened to another brilliant Ted Talk on the subject of resilience the other day.

Resilience in the Age of Aquarius

In this talk, Lucy Hone described the three secrets of resilient people. Although she is a resilience expert, her experience makes this talk hit home. It should.

According to her, resilient people:

1. knows shit happens
2. are good at choosing where they put their attention
3. ask themselves regularly ‘Is what I’m doing harming or helping me’

As a collective, we’ve gone through a shift. Almost a shock. What makes this so much different than any other series of events before is that we are so connected through technology and the (previous) ease of travel. When the Spanish Flu happened in 1918, things were a little different. Therefore I feel this time around, the global consciousness took a bit of a knock which could, of course, have been a unifying event. But alas… humans are involved.

This brings me to the next issue, that of ‘divide and conquer’. Is it just me or were we all kind of on the same page when suddenly, BAM….. we find a reason for division. Subsequently, all the frustrations and ugliness came out in the process. Suddenly the love and unity were gone. In fact, I’m not even talking about just one event. Whether it’s the Black Lives Matter movement, economic inequality or the mask debate. Division has been achieved.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not disputing the matters at hand. My perspective of it is just slightly different. For one, I am African. I have watched people of all colours fight this fight and it always comes back to the same thing. It’s not about the colour. It’s about separation and division. The ‘divide and conquer’ mentality.

As Jane Elliot puts it so nicely. ‘I’m not a white woman, I’m a faded black person.’ I hate ‘isms’, but especially racism and I don’t care which colour you are. I choose love.

Through all this craziness I feel my horizons have at least expanded and once again I am a slightly different person than the one that entered the craziness. Unfortunately, the injustices still get me all worked up.

I have now become so picky as to where I put my attention and what I listen to. I don’t watch the news, don’t listen to the radio (unless it’s music in the car) and try not to get upset about the articles I read online. The last bit is a bit trickier than it seems. I often catch myself starting to type a comment, just to stop, delete and scroll on. It might not be the best approach for everyone and sadly these things still flood my social media feeds, but I do feel a bit more grounded.

I think it is imperative that we recognise and affirm what we want in our lives and focus on that. You might like fear as that is a sort of comfort zone, or you can choose to move away from it. In life and business, it should be even more apparent now though that we have choices. All the time. You can choose whether you listen to the news, watch TV programmes you don’t like… You also don’t have to return to the way things used to be.

Its time we change the world to the one we want it to be.

Don’t worry, I know I cannot change the world completely, but you know what, I can affect my immediate environment. My family, my friends, my network and the people that come in contact with me. And they affect me. Not through telling everyone how it should be done, but rather finding a way to show compassion and a lack of fear.

Creating a Tribe within Your Business

Firstly I feel it is so important at this time in space and time to connect with your kind of people. Those people that are engaging in productive conversation. Support them. Read their blogs, engage with their social media content (in a meaningful way) attend the free events, listen to the podcasts and encourage the people in your tribe.

The virtual world is an amazing place to find professionals to help you grow your business. It’s all about knowing where to look or what to look for. Virtual relationships are tricky. To tell you the truth I’ve never met any of my clients or some of the people I collaborate with, in person. I suppose it’s a bit of a toss-up between knowing what to look for and trusting your gut when you go into these relationships. And sometimes you pay school fees.

My psychometric roots are always present and I love to explore personality theories and how different personalities complement each other in a work setting. Definitely a topic to explore in a future post.

Just remember, because you interact and engage with someone’s posts means their content reaches more people. Next time you post something, they might just engage with your post and boost your post again. It’s the ‘social media way’. And you know what, if you ‘love’ it or ‘find it insightful’, that boosts it even a little more as the algorithm acknowledges your effort.

Finding ways of resilience & connection

As we enter a new phase where we are allowed more ‘freedom’, why not find reasons to connect instead of disconnect. If your friend has a different opinion to yours, why not listen to theirs with a bit of an open mind. If they ask questions, see how you can support them with understanding. We can’t all think the same way.

Moving away from the ego-approach and seeing the collective. Without colour or prejudice of any kind. We are more than the bodies we inhabit! So much more…..

Just read these lyrics:

Iron Sky: Paulo Nutini

We are proud individuals living on the city
But the flames couldn’t go much higher
We find gods and religions to
To paint us with salvation
But no one
No nobody
Can give you the power

To rise over love
And over hate
Through this iron sky
That’s fast becoming our minds
Over fear and into freedomOh, that’s life
Left dripping down the walls
Of a dream that cannot breathe
In this harsh reality
Mass confusion spoon fed to the blind
Serves now to define our cold society

From which we’ll rise over love
Over hate
From this iron sky
That’s fast becoming our minds
Over fear and into freedom

You just got to hold on!
You just got to hold on!

Oh oh oh oh

(To those who can hear me, I say, do not despair
The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed
The bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress
The hate of men will pass, and dictators die
And the power they took from the people will return to the people
And so long as men die, liberty will never perish
Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men
Machine men with machine minds and machine hearts!
You are not machines, you are not cattle, you are men!
You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful
To make this life a wonderful adventure
Let us use that power!
Let us all unite!)

And we’ll rise over love
And over hate
Through this iron sky
That’s fast becoming our minds
Over fear
And into freedom
Into freedom!

From which we’ll rise over love
And over hate
Through this iron sky
That’s fast becoming our minds
Over fear and into freedom
Freedom!

Oh, from which we’ll rise over love
And over hate
Through this iron sky
That’s fast becoming our minds
Over fear and into freedom
Freedom!

Freedom!
Rain on me!
Rain on me!

Iron Sky Songwriters: David Nelson / Charlie Chaplin / Paolo Nutini

First published here on 28 June 2020 https://instinctive-living.com/resilience-in-age-of-aquarius/