The Supply Chain of our Ignorance: Privilege & disconnect, the ripple effect of being a bystander

This is an excerpt of an article I wrote a few months ago, I felt called to share it as it is feeling more & more significant as time progresses.

Contents:

Reflections at the start of the outbreak of Covid

Climate, the need for connection to the Earth & awareness of our inherent individual & Collective responsibilities

Making the connection ~ supply chain of our actions, lifestyles & the power/importance of where we spend our money

Moving from our unfortunately inherent role of bystander to Activist

"For me, when this crisis first occured I actually felt a sense of relief. You see, I and I’m sure the same goes for many of you too, knew that something had to change. For the last two years I’ve been in a deep struggle with the knowing of our Earth suffering and dying. All the while we go about our lives as normal, like nothing is wrong or at least it looks and feels this way. Knowing this coincides with many others suffering also; normally the most vulnerable in the world and in society. But also I’ve realised that even those of us who may not be seen to be suffering as obviously, actually are. The struggles that people in this capitalist world have to keep up with; the disharmony and disconnect from the Self it creates. This creates a disconnect from others, the Collective and the Earth causing inherent pain and suffering. This is often and mostly unrecognised; we have a widespread undiagnosed mental health/emotional denial crisis. How could we be emotionally well in the way we live? This disconnect to others, to Self, to the Earth, to being completely (unknowingly) reliant on a system ~ this creates inherent dis-empowerment made evident through the reactions in supermarkets at the start of Covid.

Now I know that this form of suffering is nowhere near that of people living without privilege but I strongly believe that in order for there to be equality and for the healing that is needed to take place we must understand the unknowing bystanders who uphold it, why they do and how they do. The reality is that most of us grow up with this way of living and so we need to unlearn & reconnect to heal. In this way we can start to ask for the necessary change needed within the system & through our own healing of these ignorances within.

To me, the answer is that people do not realise that they are in fact bystanders. The majority of privilege people are so wrapped up in their busy lifestyles, trying to keep up with this capitalist system that they do not look far outside of themselves, let alone looking to or even questioning..themselves.

Why?

As they are running on programmes that tell them they are not enough, they need to work harder, be better, do more. But more in the sense of material goods, aesthetics - this capitalist world's empty values focuses on how things look over the truth beneath. Once everything looks acceptable on the outside. I believe that the rhetoric of 'not enoughness' continues to work as we as a society do not heal, we do not talk about healing or even admit to the fact that we need to. And so we perpetuate (unknowingly) the pain & patterns of our ancestors, continuing the cycles of ignorance.

This can be seen in all avenues of our society - one example that stands out as it is extremely obvious to me is our approach to health & beauty, for example, extreme protocols such as beauty regimes & products made with chemicals, steroids, extreme diets (to name a few) are favoured over looking at how to heal the body from the inside out. Little regard is taken in looking at how this will affect the body on the inside - namely your organs, systems & hormones - this then has a chain reaction of affecting your hormonal, emotional & physical health which then affects health, decisions, clarity of mind, sense of being. This can also be seen in our quick fix mentality of taking a pill rather than changing our lifestyles, living cyclically, diets or emotional healing. We can go a step further to look at how this mentality/way of living is disconnected from the Earth, its rhythms, eating seasonally & locally, or even understanding where our products, the food we eat, the water we drink comes from.

The products we buy also tend to come from a supply chain where our priviledged money is not paying the total price, in fact generally if there is no visibility in a product & its supply chain or if we do not know where the products we buy are from, someone else is paying the price for it. There is also a reason this particular product's supply chain is not visible. The chemical beauty products may be tested on animals, created with ingredients that harm the Earth & ecosystems within it (including you), the fast fashion items you buy that are 'cheap' are extremely costly to another - the maker of that item - their pain, their maltreatment is stitched into the fabric, into these products. Only 2% of fashion workers around the world are paid a living wage.* Further again normally the materials that these 'cheap' products are made from cause further harm: to the Earth as their dyes & fibres enter our water systems and pollute our oceans; affecting the ecosystems & living creatures, our soil and so on.

• You get the idea; the choices we make, the businesses we support, the money we spend, our lack of awareness, our lack of healing has consequences that ripple & effect a much larger ocean of existence. These all seem like small, maybe even minute things but they are actually Grand. This is our social responsibility & our inherent responsibility of living & sharing this planet with all beings & ecosystems.

I believe this is only possible due to a deep state of disconnect to Self, others, the Collective & the Earth. This disconnect is harmful to us & all as it goes against our true state of be~ing.

Of harmony, of Oneness & the imperative nature of Sovereignty of Self.

We are meant to be living in a deep state of connection, of knowing & harmony. This is an area where we can look to healing systems such as yoga, Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Taoism, ancient civilisations & indigenous people to understand & learn how we can live in alignment. When I say living in alignment I mean living in alignment with the natural laws of living on the Earth ~ this is not certain people's jobs; it is all of our job ~ knowing how to live, treat & respect her, the inherent Oneness of living, sharing this Land, Air & Water with all who live & breathe on this planet.

We can start to cultivate this beautiful sense of reciprocity through meditation, self awareness practices & finding our own ways of connecting to the Earth and giving thanks such as sitting quietly and connecting to her, asking for guidance, placing your feet & hands in the dirt. Slowly her medicine integrates into your system & you realise how deeply it had been missing.

So when Covid first started putting a stop to this capitalist world, I felt uneasy yes of course but probably less uneasy than I did before. Sounds contradictory but with the current events taking place it makes so much sense. At the time I felt as though this was it; this was the opportunity for real change. This was going to stop us running on the busy treadmill and make us uncomfortable enough to stimulate more of us to question what it is that we are doing, the part we play and ultimately to bring awareness to our actions.

I believe real change starts with you and me. I believe we are all Activists; we just haven’t realised it yet. This is due to our being too busy, disconnected from the Self, the Collective and the Earth or knowing you want to speak up and embody something but suppressing it because of being afraid to show your true self in fear of being rejected for going against the ‘accepted’ norm or narrative. Once again the term bystander comes to mind. This can be a conscious or unconscious process and it takes great courage to follow. But guess what.. You are made of this Courage.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

~ Rumi.

I strongly feel and believe that for our world to change we must change as individuals. Only from this place can we start to work in co-creation and in harmony with ourselves, our communities and the Earth. Otherwise we are acting from pain, lack and limitations and of course...the ego. Sadly, the majority of our world is acting from this state and that is why we see so much disharmony & dis-ease, so much separation & fear.

“That which is injurious loses its capacity to harm when it is brought into light, and we attract to us that which we emanate.”

~ David R. Hawkins

And that which is injurious to ourselves is injurious to all. We are the Collective, we are all connected, every choice we make moves towards harmony or disharmony; it has an effect and ripples outwards. This is true for our pain and also the physical choices we make in our lives such as the products we buy and the food we eat. For the sake of integration I am going to repeat my example of buying fast fashion: this is participating and hurting (of course unknowingly) another, the cheap price of that piece of clothing - somewhere along the way has a cost - normally the cost is burdened by the person who made it, this in turn hurts us, energetically, and it can also be seen through the physical - normally these types of clothing are also made from cheap material and dyes that are unhealthy for our skin or our body and also bad for the Earth. The dyes, the material then enter our water system through our washing machines and harm our oceans, wildlife and our soil too. It is deeply important to note that this cycle is also possible to emanate in ways of harmony also ~ when we feel full of love and share it as our cup is full, we feel immense connection; it is then reciprocated where we share it. When we support and buy from a local natural creator, this is better for us, as the products are made in harmony with our bodies, better for the planet and we are supporting someone doing their part so that they can continue."

The examples above are focused on health, lifestyle, climate & consumerism ~ seeing the link of cause & effect of our actions, our role of bystander & how this relates to our widespread disconnection. However, I believe that the same framework of awareness & move towards healing can be applied to our way of healing other societal issues.

I hope everyone is doing okay out there ~ the reality is if you are here reading this, wanting to learn & understand it means you are taking action - this is Activism, this is healing. Now, lets all keep going.

with Love

*statistic sourced from @sustainablefashiondublin - please find their page for a more in depth look at the fashion industry & to support the wonderful work they do

- another of my favourite fashion activists and the person that first opened my awareness to the truth of this industry is @jeannedekroon

The beautiful thing is that we can look at any form of healing, activism, movement or uprooting of injustice & apply these ideas/templates to any areas of society we are called to activate as a return to a way of living that supports all beings ~ people & planet ♥