Most of us have experienced some form of rebooted relationship with time this year. Having a forced interruption of our routines, our distractions, and our mundane vices that keep us firmly in the grip of a measurable physical reality has temporarily jolted us out of a concrete experience of time (based on evidence of one thing happening after another) and into our own internal, personal experiences of time. This version of time seems to be more complex and includes all the overlays of our past and future emotional preoccupations. In this version of time memories of long gone loved ones sneak up to us to whisper to us in quieter moments; months pass as days and moments as years. Even those individuals who lived life from a very fixed view got to experience their time with more elasticity than they were ever aware of before. The suddenness of the change was big enough to move the needle, and they could see for three first time how March felt like an eternity, or July simply disappeared.
I can’t tell you what dimension this is that I’m personally experiencing, but I’m frequently lacking in language to describe how my perception of time has fundamentally changed this year, in such a way that it has broken some concepts I used to hold dear. The idea of past lives or karma seems quaint. The past is everywhere and nowhere. I see the cells of my ancestors and the atoms of ancient stars reconstituted in my hands. How can the past even be the past when we are all so deeply locked in the vibrational memory of what came many millennia before? Habits of our ancestors are carved into our bodies. All consciousness is so connected that if we are quiet enough we can hear the voices of those that came before guiding us. Real and fictional people blend together in our memory with the same weight, all supporting characters in our story. All events are now, all times are now, and all consciousness is now, whether it exists in a measurable reality or in the collective consciousness goo behind all our conscious mind, because it all already exists now, even if we’re not experiencing it now.
So with this open heart and mind, where all places and times are in the present, how can you continue with a life plan?
Since surrendering fully to the path in front of me, the illusion of choice has seemed to totally disappear. I used to be so preoccupied with life choices. Should I live here or there? Work with one career or another? Invest in my prosperity or my creativity? These choices are based on the assumption that you can’t have it all, that your time is limited, and you lack enough time to feel to do all the things that you need to feel complete without struggle. It’s a series of flawed assumptions that have completely crumbled in fifth dimensional consciousness. You are whole and complete no matter your life circumstances, so you can’t make the wrong choice and you don’t need to be experiencing all the good things at the same time in order to enjoy them. It’s almost like by striving for the perfect life we are trying to avoid having ANY undesirable experience, rather than just giving our minds enough good discipline not to focus on the undesirable aspect of our experience. It’s not even that you have new options opening up all the time based on your choice, or that options are infinite (as I used to believe). It’s that the very idea that we must consciously make choices on a macro level, about our lifestyle and identity, is an illusion based in your ego’s limited perception of self. You simply are. Life falls around you gracefully. You get shunted into situations all the time despite your attempts to plan. And when all paths are love you suddenly feel empowered to do whatever you feel is best in the moment, regardless of how your ego feels about it or how that fits into the “plan”. Without the nagging, judgemental voice of ego behind you, haranguing you with questions such as “is this who you are?” “is this the right decision?” “will this pull me away from my desired path?”, it is far easier to fall into the flow of who you are and what you want to do in each moment. Your life is an experience broader and richer than a film script and isn’t required to make sense.
The recent preoccupation amongst many of us with timelines is starting to seem like another illusion. When we radically change our perception, we are able to weave a new story for ourselves. We create a new sense of purpose. If that story isn’t flexible to accommodate your expansion, if it forces you to choose between two linear paths, it still feels like duality. We can radically shift our perspective so that we are able to see the multilayered dimensions of life, and we can change our behaviours by letting go of what no longer serves us. It may even feel like a new story. That’s just our ego’s way of trying to apply linear thinking onto your perspective shift, and if you’re not deliberate about letting go of ego stories, it may box you back in.
Shifting onto the “highest” timeline is just enough of a value judgment to keep your ego excited, but really, who is to say what is your highest timeline? Could you ever even plan it? It doesn’t mean getting everything that you want. It means being the best possible version of yourself. Being your best self may not even mean being the healthiest physically, or being the most successful in your chosen path. It may mean quietly inspiring the most people to thrive that you can, many you may never even know about. Sometimes our highest paths give the ego the least evidence to brag about. Being our best selves requires a great degree of selflessness that many of us are unprepared for, and it’s important to be honest with ourselves about that. Genuinely, there is no higher or lower path. There is only the plain and simple truth that we’re all one consciousness, ever-present, costumed and playing the roles of individuals.
Sometimes I see spiritual teachers or astrologers nudge people into the future and away from the past. This is also a duality, an illusion. If you change careers, you carry with you the valuable experiences that have shaped who you are into your new life. Given enough time and attention, we don’t “switch” from one life condition to another, we expand. Our old life is still within us, our heart and our memory, as we take on the new. To expand and experience the fullness within us we must embody many roles and experiences in life. To others trapped in duality consciousness, it looks like we are aimlessly flitting around. But in truth, a diversity of experience rapidly expands our consciousness. We synthesise information from different parts and create something new. We become like a prism : depending on the position of the viewer we appear differently. From this standpoint the future and the past look much the same, and all critical crossroads look like mirror images. Without judgment you see how clearly these illusory choices all lead to the same zero point.
This is all beautiful, but integrating this shift in consciousness into your life can be confusingly dull. What’s the point of making choices when you see all paths lead you home?
Yet, as we breathe and live in a body, we still need to make choices. We still need to meet responsibilities and often dance to the drum of a pace that now feels frantic to us, no longer addicted to fascinating distraction. Before, you eagerly rose with the sun each day for your early morning yoga practice with a sense of passion and commitment. Now, that sense of commitment to your spiritual practice is challenged when you realise that very little will stop you from experiencing what you need to experience to learn in life, and sometimes it’s far more meaningful to stop seeking a connection to the divine in spiritual practice, because you already ARE that connection.
All paths are love. All experiences lead back to love. Knowing this, feeling it deep in your heart, what then would you choose to do? What does your heart say?
Grounding and self nurturing become key in this state. It is the difference between transcendent revelation and schizophrenic disassociation. Feeling safe in your body and looking after yourself can be a comforting rest point to feel safe when your mind experiences burnout from all the new information and challenges to your perception. Mother earth is here to help you expand through simplicity when the mind stresses itself out trying to analyse this multifaceted multidimensional and Post-Time understanding of reality. It will pass. Taking a moment, in the present, to breathe and eat something, will make a world of difference.
