Spiritual Lessons of 2020

I think we all agree it has been a challenging year so far. Between the COVID-19 pandemic that shut down the world, protests against racial injustice in all 50 states, unprecedented unemployment, and the threat of economic collapse, our world is changing. It’s left me thinking deeply about the spiritual lessons of 2020.

To be honest, it feels like a karmic reckoning – served to wake us up because it is time heal, grow, and evolve. Of course, that may trigger some of you. That theory will not make sense from victim consciousness.

However, when we hold the perspective that life happens for us and through us, we gain the power to create something new. Therefore, I invite you to consider how the spiritual lessons of 2020 can help you. And, to support that process, let’s look through the lens of COVID-19 and racism, perhaps the two most triggering issues we’re currently facing.

Chaos and Uncertainty

Back in March, I wrote about How to Deal with Chaos and Uncertainty, as both have a purpose…to create something new. Chaos dismantles what no longer serves us, so we can step into new potential. However, chaos creates uncertainty, which our primal survival brains hate. Yet, uncertainty is innovative; it’s the place where the new gets created. So, although it can be scary, it’s also full of possibility. When we try to bypass uncertainty, we just recreate the past.

What gets created from the current chaos will be up to us. However, I believe we have a spiritual invitation to create a new paradigm that is more aligned with wholeness, both personally and collectively.  

The truth is, it’s time for something new because the path we’ve been on is a one of collective self-destruction in many ways. It’s a path that’s prioritized individual short-term gratification, at the determent of collective long-term health and sustainability. Climate change is a perfect example of this, and by the way, so is the great mask debate. Refusing to wear a mask may feel personally satisfying, but it’s detrimental to the collective…including your own loved ones. It’s prioritizing the individual ME at the cost of the collective WE.

Yet, this is our cultural conditioning. We perpetuate a paradigm of separation, disconnection, and division…the “us versus them” thinking that’s based on inequality, fear, scarcity and lack. And, unfortunately, this divorces us from our own souls. In addition, both racism and COVID-19 have highlighted the pathological psychic viruses of fear and hate that stunt our evolution, power, and potential.

Spiritual Invitation

The spiritual lessons of 2020 show us where we are out of alignment with our souls, wholeness, and the spiritual principle of oneness. The invitation is to confront how and where we live out of integrity with ourselves, each other, the Earth, and God. Because we simply cannot evolve, or create a better world, if we remain separated and fragmented.

You see, the whole always has greater power, strength, resiliency and resources than any individual fragment. This is true both personally and collectively.

The spiritual invitation we’ve been given is to transition from competition to cooperation and collaboration, separation to wholeness, divide and conquer, to unite and rise.

Personal and Collective

It’s important to understand that what happens in the collective, happens in the personal. The collective issues we are confronting, like COVID-19 and racism in America, are a karmic mirror of issues that are happening in each us personally in the shadow of our own psyches.  

The question to sit with is…where have you been out of alignment with your soul, wholeness, and the spiritual principle that all is one?

What parts of yourself do you deny, disconnect from, or reject out of shame, guilt, fear or self-loathing?  If you’re not sure, just take a look at what you judge, hate, reject or get triggered by in others, because the truth is, we tend to project our own issues of self-rejection on to others.  

Karmic Mirror

Here’s the uncomfortable truth…if you hate others, there is some part of you that you also hate. When your actions disrespect others, there is a part of you that you also disrespect. And, when you disempower others, it tells me that you are disempowered and you hate it.  So, rather than address your own insecurities and disempowerment, you try to hide it by projecting it on to others.

And…when you act from a place of fear, hate, guilt or shame, you disconnect from your own soul and from Source or God. This creates the energy of lack in your life, and it greatly limits your energy and resources. Further, you perpetuate those karmic patterns, essentially creating more fear, hate, guilt and shame in your life and in our world.

What we put out into the world is a karmic mirror; it is generated from deep within, and it gets reflected back to us as an energetic consequence.

Perfect Storm

The COVID-19 pandemic set the stage for a perfect storm. Quarantine forced us to spend more time at home with ourselves and our families. Further, it made us think about how our individual actions impact the lives of others. It felt like a Universal time out, asking us to re-evaluate our lives, what’s really important, and how to care for one another.

With months of quarantine and millions of people out of work, we started spending a lot more time online. As a result, we witnessed the brutal deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, among others. Although these racists acts are not new, finally, the world was watching. It was traumatic and disturbing, and it created a perfect storm of anger, frustration, fear, despair, and powerlessness that fueled a movement that’s needed our support for far too long.

Wake Up Call

There is no doubt it’s been an emotionally charged year so far. Yet, perhaps that’s what was required to wake us up….to do the necessary work of questioning and dismantling our values, beliefs, and systems of power. Sure, it may feel easier to hunker down in hiding and wait for the storm to pass, but to do so is to bypass a powerful opportunity for growth, evolution and creation.  

Here’s the hard truth…you simply cannot step into greater power and potential in your own life, or create anything new, when you bypass the spiritual invitation for growth. Further…when you ignore the invitation, the karmic reckoning will only get louder and louder. Denial and avoidance won’t save you. Rather, it will only make the process more painful. (Trust me on this, I’ve tried the bypass and it doesn’t work!) 

Bottom line…we are being asked to evolve.  Will you embrace the invitation or wait for things to get more painful?  Because they can get more painful. 

Creating Wholeness

What do I mean by wholeness? The very nature of wholeness is complete integrity of the whole; the all. By nature it eliminates, and heals, separation, fragmentation and division.  

Individual

Wholeness is our true nature.  We are all innately whole. However, fragmentation happens through trauma, wounding, and/or any experience that makes us feel unsafe, rejected or abandoned.  In psychosynthesis, we call it the Primal Wound.

As a result, our psyches begin to divide and separate into good/bad and right/wrong, and we hide the parts of ourselves we deem to be bad, wrong, shameful or not good enough. This is how the shadow is created. This fragmentation greatly diminishes our energy and inner resources, limits resiliency, and creates disempowerment and internal conflict. We literally become a divided self. 

Healing the issues that created this fracturing of self brings us back into wholeness. In the process, we reclaim and reintegrate these divided aspects of ourselves through self-love and self-acceptance. As we become more whole within ourselves, we tap into greater resiliency, strength and power.  

This is why healing is so necessary if you want to activate new power and potential in your life to create something better. Further, when you heal, you naturally develop greater compassion and acceptance of others…which cultivates collective wholeness.

Collective

Wholeness at the collective level works the same way – it realigns us to the spiritual principle of oneness – that we are all one. No matter what beliefs you hold – spiritual, religious or metaphysical – most can agree that the creative force of the Universe or God lives in us all. It’s the one thing that unites us.

Yet, trauma and wounding separate, divide, and disconnect us. As do our cultural, political, social and religious conditionings. Often we are taught to separate others into groups of good/bad, right/wrong, us/them. And in that division we lose power and limit our collective potential. We end up fighting against each other out of competition and lack, rather than working together to become stronger.

Both COVID-19 and racism invite us to think about the collective, because like it or not, we are a WE. What you do to one, you do to the collective, including yourself, because we are all connected.  

Remember what I said…the whole always has more power than any individual fragment. Together we have more power, resources, and resiliency than any one person individually. We also have the power to create something new that supports the ALL, and frankly our survival may depend on it. 

This is not to ignore the reality that we all have unique perspectives, often with vastly different opinions. Further, there are some people we will never agree with, like, or want in our lives. And, that’s ok. However, when your words and actions are harmful to others, you perpetuate negative karmic patterns that ultimately harm both you and the collective.  It’s an energetic boomerang.

Now let’s explore how this is happening today through the spiritual lessons of COVID-19 and racism in America…

Spiritual Lessons of COVID-19

We cannot talk about the spiritual lessons of 2020 without addressing COVID-19. The COVID pandemic has forced us to consider how our personal actions impact the lives of others. In fact, it’s a life and death lesson. When we fail to do what is necessary to slow the spread of infection, like wearing a mask or social distancing, we literally put the lives of others at risk.

In addition, on a personal level, the stress of the pandemic has activated our primary coping strategies for dealing with feelings of fear, overwhelm and powerlessness.  

How many of you found yourself binge watching Netflix, or numbing out with food or alcohol? How has quarantine brought to light the unhealthy ways in which you seek instant gratification and comfort, (wine anyone?), at the determinant of long-term health, (gaining 10 pounds and weakening your immune system)? Or, did your time in lock down force you to confront the toxic unhealthy relationship patterns that no longer serve you?

Either way, I invite you to consider that these may be the very things that need to be healed and transformed in your life, so you can create something better.

The spiritual lessons of COVID-19 ask us to re-evaluate how we care for ourselves and each other. This includes tending to our mental and emotional health as much as our physical health, because COVID has surely tested that too. The opportunity is to develop new strategies that support our health, and empower us over the long-term. It’s a lesson in evaluating the long-term consequence of our actions.  

Spiritual Lessons of Racism

Now let’s address an even bigger issue…racism and racial injustice in America. As a white woman of privilege I cannot speak on behalf of the black community, and I will not try to educate anyone on being an antiracist, (although I am deeply committed to being one personally). However, I can speak to the karmic backlash of perpetuating racism and racial injustice.

Although this issue is not new by any means, the karmic storm of 2020 has shined a much needed spotlight on the systems of oppression, injustice, discrimination, and inequality that cost the lives of BIPOC every single day in America.  

Collectively, it’s clear we are being called to dismantle racism and injustice, in all its forms. Racism is based on separation, inequality, hate, and oppression. It does not honor the spiritual principle that all is one. Further, it doesn’t even honor human life, or the soul of humanity.

The energetic consequence of racism is greater division, fear and lack. And complacency perpetuates this karma as well. In addition, it severely disconnects us from our own souls, and from God or Source. Further, it greatly diminishes our collective and personal power.  

Remember what I said, what you do to others you also do to yourself. This creates a vicious cycle of fragmentation that stunts our ability to evolve and expand into our next level of potential.

Dismantling Racism

However, dismantling racism has to begin at the personal level. The truth is, it is so deeply ingrained in our history, and collective consciousness, that it resides in all of us to some degree.

Even if you consider yourself a black ally, have black friends, or support the black community, I can assure you that it’s in you too. If you live in America, and especially if you are white, racism has taken root deep in your subconscious. I don’t say that to offend, but rather to take all shame and judgment off the table. We cannot heal and transform what we don’t first acknowledge and accept.

I also want to be clear – that’s not to say you are a bad person. Those of us that are white have to stop seeing racism as a good/bad person issue. This is one of the reasons we have a hard time seeing it in ourselves. We don’t want to be considered a “bad” person.

Instead, I encourage you to see racism as a psychic virus that’s infected us all, and it’s our responsibility to root it out. We must stop perpetuating it, and make new choices that support BIPOC. And, doing so will bring us into greater wholeness, within ourselves and collectively.  

Healing to Wholeness

The etymology of the word heal is “to make whole”. The path to wholeness always starts within. However, when you heal the fragmentation of your divided self, you naturally bring healing and wholeness into the world.  

I’ve learned that the more I practice unconditional self-love, self-compassion and self-acceptance, the more love, compassion and acceptance I have for others. It’s been a natural (karmic) consequence of reclaiming my own wholeness.  

Now you may be thinking…if the spiritual lessons of 2020 are about honoring the collective as much as the personal, isn’t it selfish to focus on my own healing?

NO, it’s not! Because your level of healing (or lack of it) directly influences how you treat others, and the energy you contribute to the collective. It’s time we all take responsibility for what we are creating, and that starts with healing our own stuff.

Start with YOU

So, where to begin? Start by observing your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, stories, and patterns without judgment. This requires a willingness to be radically honest and present with yourself.

In order for healing and wholeness to happen, we have to learn to love and accept ourselves with compassion – faults and all. That doesn’t mean you have to like what you discover, but you do have to love yourself no matter what. Any form of self-rejection will only create more fragmentation and wounding. 

Please remember that we are all human and flawed, and no one is perfect. Further, we all have trauma and wounding, and we have all been conditioned by our environment and the world we grew up in. We cannot change the past or how we were raised, however, we can make a new choice to heal. Further, we get to decide how we will grow through our experiences.  

And last, it’s essential that we all practice radical self-responsibility for our beliefs, attitude, actions and behavior. It is the only way to reclaim wholeness and activate new power and potential in our lives, and in our world.  

Self-Reflection Questions

Following are some self-reflections questions to help you begin to integrate the spiritual lessons of 2020. I invite you to get out a journal and explore what comes up for you.  

Please be advised, the questions alone may trigger you, but that’s a good thing. Emotional triggers are often the doorway to our wounds, and our healing and growth! 

What do you judge, hate, reject or get most triggered by in others?  In what way do these issues show up within you?  Are you willing to reclaim your projections?

What strategies do you engage in to deal with anxiety, overwhelm, fear and uncertainty? Are those strategies serving you in a healthy and sustainable way over the long-term? If not, what are you willing to do differently?

What stories do you tell about COVID-19? Write them all out, and then go deeper…what beliefs and assumptions are you making about yourself, others and our world? Do those beliefs really serve you?

What stories do you tell about racism and racial injustice? Now go deeper…what beliefs and assumptions are you making about yourself, others, and our world? Do those beliefs really serve you?

How do you participate in patterns of separation, disconnection, and division, (us vs them thinking, good/bad, survival of the fittest)? What karmic energetic patterns do you perpetuate as a result?

In what areas of your life do you currently feel powerless? How do you cope, and how do you respond? Do you lash out, rebel, ignore, shut down, numb, or check out? Is your response healthy for you and others, particularly your loved ones?

If you’d love some support on this journey, please apply for a Complimentary Breakthrough Session!  In addition, please check out the blog for additional resources.  

And, if there are any topics you’d like me to address, please let me know in the comments.