How the Pandemic is Helping a Collective Awakening

I pause to take stock, and the feeling remains: Covid-19 is helping a collective awakening. Why is it so?

Corona is bringing on emotions of fear, anxiety, loneliness and disconnectedness to such a level that it is nudging us to seek within. And a collective awakening is about breaking patterns so that the new can emerge, rather than a typical “learning lessons” scenario. We, as humanity, could have “figured” out how to make many positive changes concerning the environment, equality and so on, but on the whole we didn’t.

Corona is forcing change and is making hierarchies crumble. Consider social media, which amplifies individual voices, with all their different takes on the good, the bad and the ugly.

Not only you or I but the entire world is in upheaval, and whether we like it or not, the pandemic affects each and every one of us. We are all learning to deal with an emerging new reality, together.

Overcoming polarisation

We tend to look for proof for our existing views, rather than open our minds to that which challenges them. This year has been no exception. Instead of uniting as humanity, we seem to have further divided.

Mask or no mask?

Vaccine or no vaccine?

Trump or no Trump?

As I write these words, the 46^th US President has just been elected. To the delight of many, Donald Trump was not re-elected. But it is clear that the United States is a divided nation, as is much of the world.

Darkness illuminates our need for compassion, and Trump not being re-elected is a triumph and sign that unity is being embraced, in myriad forms, across the world. All who value humility, empathy, compassion, trust, kindness, inclusivity and love probably agree on this being a victory of sorts. But then we may also acknowledge that the division and toxicity has helped bring us here. After a time of darkness, the breath of fresh air is even more appreciated for its nourishing healing, the return to kindness and love. Perhaps Trump has helped intensify this yearning for a higher consciousness and peace, within and without. So, he has not been “all bad”.

To transition to the new reality, I feel that seeing through the threat of polarisation will be important. This is how lasting, and also practical, change can be achieved.

Polarising wants to eliminate “the enemy”. I wonder if the politics of today are a victim of this notion. I have no simple solution to offer, but I like the view expressed by writer Harry C.Boyte towards “everyday citizen politics” as opposed to “partisan politics”. It is all about people of different views negotiating a shared way of life.

“I am convinced that in our time of bitter polarization, we need a reawakening of nonviolence tied to repair of civic life.”
Harry C.Boyte

Was the virus man-made or not? Was the pandemic planned? Some take this position, vehemently opposed by others. Doctors insist that lockdowns save lives, others say more lives are lost because of the same.

My point here is that no matter which side one takes, choosing will amount to polarisation. If you find yourself getting into heated arguments, do feel free to stop and ask yourself if it is worth it. Could it be that something beyond beliefs is beckoning us, instead? Could there be a way to observe the play of life, as just that -, a play? By that I mean to live life, but also observing it with such a degree of detachment that we don’t get pulled along with the highs or the lows, the goods or the bads or the uglies.

Corona has both augmented and erased the differences between rich and poor. Wealthy people have suffered less, and are unlikely to have experienced hunger during the pandemic, but on the other hand the virus affects the wealthy and the royals as well as the poor. The virus doesn’t know status, money or power.

How to ride the wave of the current Collective Awakening? I think that avoiding falling into the polarisation trap will truly help. This will require a base level understanding of what the trap is and how easy it is to fall into? And a willingness to examine one’s own beliefs will go a long way.

Changing values

Corona has delivered on challenges and cherries on top, both. But to zoom in on practicalities, travel and work are two examples of what I feel nobody any longer takes for granted. That is if they were in a position to rely on them before.

Entire industries, such as aviation and hospitality, will remain impacted, if not forever then for some time to come. Travel corridors or being able to prove that you are virus-free have become the new tickets to travel, but we may be saying good-bye to short weekend trips altogether. Perhaps we are learning to appreciate slow travel instead, to immerse ourselves in the experience rather than collecting Insta-photos.

Right now, we cannot make plans for the Festive Season, something unheard of in the past. Anxiety is running high for many. Allowing the thought of possibly not being able to spend time with family during the upcoming traditional “family time” can be painful.

But looking at the situation in terms of changing values, I wonder if we, as a collective, have not increased our overall capacity for compassion. There are people who never had either work or travel opportunities before Corona hit. And as we, as a collective, learn to take less things for granted, we perhaps also learn to become more compassionate towards ourselves. We exist in a web of relationships, but only when we feel connected to ourselves and value who we are can we love others for who they truly are, rather than for who we want them to be.

Silence & Solitude vs. Busyness & Crowdedness

Two examples of what we may not have asked for, but have perhaps learned to appreciate:

1. More silence, less busyness. If not accustomed to any kind of spiritual practice (choose any alternative word that speaks to you if you prefer), it would have been uncomfortable to no longer have a tonne of things to do, do, do. But I bet many realised that busyness can be a veiled coping mechanism. Busyness can be a way to bury what we don’t want to deal with, see or experience. Remember that what you resist persists, and maybe more silence and less busyness helps you face instead of shun personal issues, for the better.
2. Solitude or crowdedness. Here it will depend on each one’s situation. Many got cut off from loved ones and a full social calendar to mingle with friends. At the other end of the spectrum, others saw a perhaps insufficiently spacious home close in on too many family members. All beloved in regular doses, irritating when together all the time. Either way, we will have come up against many triggers, but hopefully learned to find ways to get to know ourselves better. In my case, solitary walks in the nearby forest provided much rejuvenation. A “cherry” on top of my Corona cake has been having more time to practice, be it meditation, walking, drumming, or all combined.

The bigger picture

This year has brought learning to us like nothing before. Some point out that Corona translates into crown, and in my world, by now, that brings the thought of the highest chakra, the crown chakra. Is it a coincidence?

I know that events have also tickled the first chakra, or energy centre, the root chakra. Linked to our sense of safety and survival, this is also the place where energy awakes and rises.

Astrologers like Heather Ensworth speak of a 26,000 year cycle coming to a close, and of a return to humanity’s unwavering sense of connection to other people – being it your neighbour or a stranger – to nature and the whole. Whether you resonate with such ideas, or not, Corona has most likely been growth inducing. I bet that, one way or another, you can look back at a different version of yourself before lockdown, with much uncertainty around where it will all take us.

The new world

Oh, how I wish to jet off to Auroville, my spiritual soul home in the south of India, right now. England is getting colder and I long to ride the scooter through the magical forest. But I can’t. Instead, teas, Quantum Meditations and Coffee Mornings Live keep me warm, as do musings and reflections such as these on what is next to come.

Why Auroville? The aim of Auroville is to manifest human unity. Becoming aware of polarisation (good vs. bad) and rising above it surely contributes to this goal.

More than ever before, I feel that what has been happening to me up until this weird year, 2020 making a numerological 4 (2+2) which signifies ‘foundation’, has all been pointing in this very direction. And I feel that the spiritual teachings that I have been graced with encountering are worth sharing. They are the red thread that has kept me sane and hopeful, especially in 2020.

It is my mission to keep sharing what I have learned in the best way I can. And I hope you will feel better equipped to fulfill your own purpose as a result of being on this journey too. It starts with non-violence towards self, Corona or not. Call it Self Love!

With Love & Good Wishes for healing humanity and the planet!

Claudia x

More about the Author:

Claudia Roth is the founder of Soul Luxury specialising in the area of personal growth & transformation and healing hospitality. She draws her experience as a global executive in luxury hospitality combined with a lifelong interest in how our energy field influenced by our thoughts, beliefs and emotions influence our lives. She works with individuals, facilitates retreats and offers personal change programmes. Claudia runs a global community which – at its heart – holds conversations exploring a future based on a new and deeper understanding of self.

Her guided journal Your 28 Days to Self Love is available on Amazon and other major book retail platforms.

All original material copyright © 2020 Claudia Roth