Vulnerability is the new superpower!
(Global Heart | Kara Johnstad) Connecting? Isn’t that what it’s all about? Whether we are connecting back to ourselves or to our close network of friends, we adore the feeling of being connected; it is a profoundly satisfying experience.
There is a movement happening right now
It is the movement of conscious storytelling.
The greatest connections happen through good storytelling!
Now, storytelling has been around for ages. Everybody loves a good story. So, where is the evolutionary piece in all of this? What is happening out there that is new? Author Daniel Pink brought out a book called “The Whole New Mind” where he talks about us leaving the “Information Age” and entering into the “Conception Age”.
So if the iconic figures of the information age, let’s say, were Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, who are the people that are going to lead us in these new times? Where are all this technology and its ability to connect the world rapidly taking us to?
Well, history is teaching us. Long ago, the emperors and religious leaders had the monopoly on those STORIES that were being publicly performed and shared. Only a few people were given a chance to perform, and only a few stories were told. And, they had to be performed precisely how the powerful aristocracy and clergy wished us to perceive them.
The “information” age
Many centuries later, we entered into the “INFORMATION” age, the age of printed mass media, television, and film. Now, we allow a few select people to feed us their mainstream stories, and by this, we are constantly focused on the “OTHER”.
With its quasi-monopoly in the film and music industry, Hollywood keeps conditioning us with its endless stream of uniform stories. However, there are only a few select recording artists, dominated by four major record labels, which control the market, that keep feeding us the love songs that generations are listening to while making love and the disco hits that we are dancing to.
The owners of the media corporations and their leaders are not even the storytellers, but merely business people exercising the BUY & SELL of a good story (often not good ones, but marketable to the mainstream). Nevertheless, the creators, the artists, and poets behind those stories often remain penniless, although their faces and stories are selling millions and are known far and wide. There are a few rare exceptions to the rule, which many young artists try to follow suit in delusional deception.
This reminds me of a beautiful inscription by an anonymous author on a headstone in Green River Cemetery, Springs, NY, where Jackson Pollack, Elaine de Kooning, and other artists found their resting place. It says:
“Artists and poets are the raw nerve ends of humanity.
By themselves, they can do little to save humanity.
Without them, there would be little worth saving.”
As far as the print media is concerned, the tabloids still thrive on the latest news of the royal family’s newest adventure. Some artists may deliberately ride this wave, while most artists make many personal sacrifices to become publicly recognized. Often artists have the private and intimate parts of their lives exposed and commercially exploited to satiate the masses’ hunger for a story. This serves as a substitute for the audience’s lack of a satisfying relationship, financial well-being, or as a means of securely living out darker aspects of their personality.
Most of us are kept starving intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually due to an (imaginary) lack of true and authentic STORIES. We are willingly ready to swallow anything and everything, just to gossip about those boxed phrases parrotlike without any further reflection.
Few of us realize that our hunger would be stilled if we started valuing our own life experiences and consciously living through them.
So, what is changing now? We – each of us – are changing!
The conception age
We are starting to understand the powerful social media tools offered to us in this day and age. Internet is changing and reshaping our world as we perceive it and live in it. We are beginning to understand that each and every one of us has a voice in this world.
GLOBAL MIND – GLOBAL HEART
starts with YOU owning your story!
Think of this:
“I have permission to fully express myself”
There are 7 billion people on earth, and only ONE of them has walked in your shoes! “So what?” you may ask. “What is so special about this? I am just one of many. How and why should my little story change anything at all?”
WOW, THIS IS HUGE! “I have permission to fully express myself!” It is a big responsibility. We can no longer blame the media or the record labels, or the film industry for producing things we want or do not want to see. We now have the keys to the kingdom in our own hands:
We have the freedom to create and publish our own works!
(Bye-bye, big labels, and publishers.)
We have the freedom to work in any format!
(Hello, seven-minute radio hits.)
We have the freedom to distribute our works worldwide!
(Hurray, Amazon, iTunes, Etsy, CD baby, Lulu, and all you others, we love you!)
We are happily creating and sharing our stories globally
while being on the move!
(Uploading it within the blink of an eye.)
Yes, OK, but why is this so revolutionary?
Because the greatest connections happen through powerful stories, bringing the Global Mind – Global Heart to life!
Yes, in this last decade, we have mastered this “inner-peace” part of the puzzle. Or, at least we know the importance of taking time to REFLECT, taking time to REGENERATE, and making room for some DOWN TIME. We have gone through those health books and switched our mindsets to THINKING POSITIVE. We strive to live that ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE and have worked hard to change our mindsets into moving FROM VICTIM TO VICTORIOUS. We have had a couple of therapies and CLEARED OUR ISSUES, and have filled journals with our reflections and musings.
And now?
Where to turn next after having had those overwhelming moments of DIVINE BLISS and all-engulfing glimpses of DEEP SILENCE? Well, if you ask me, this is a new thrill!
This is the shift!
I am experiencing in my Voice Your Essence™ coaching sessions with my clients that they are SHINING when they tap into their SOURCE. The simple secrets are:
Fall in love with your own story,
find access to your own source of creativity and start owning who you indeed are.
Embrace who you are,
relax with your own stories, be it the good, bad, or ugly ones,
simply celebrate all there is to be experienced.
Say yes to your ups and downs,
then transformation sets in, and power arises, which is unstoppable!
Reflect on this
The ones who dare to put their fingerprint on this world are not afraid of what anyone else is saying. They are often considered the misfits—the ones who stick out. Deep down inside, they are the ones who move us to explore new places. WHY? Because they own it! We all have that misfit part in us, which is actually the magic puzzle piece waiting to be exposed.
Vulnerability is the new superpower
To “find your voice in this world,” dig a bit deeper,
and share a bit more of what really moves you.
Learning the art of giving all of youself
Give it a try! You may want to use the stillness and space of this holiday season
to share your experience with friends, and
to become visible with everything that is touched in you.
Learn the art of embracing your very unique story – remember you are one in 7 BILLION. Just that sheer fact is mind-blowing, and absolutely nobody else is having your unique fingerprint or YOUR STORY – start honoring it.
WRITE IT – SING IT – SPEAK IT – WING IT – BE IT!
Source: Kara Johnstad
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Stop being a sidekick: How to become the hero of your own story
Meaning in life is something we create. May these powerful words inspire your day today.
