Hi Open,

Thank you for all the articles you’re posting right now on the Shift. They are very timely for me. Almost everything you’re describing I’m experiencing and witnessing all around me, especially the increasing intensity of the system’s efforts to hook us in. One very revealing example I’d like to share is Facebook.

For quite some time, I’ve been very inactive on FB. It just doesn’t interest me any more. Before when I was active, I’d only receive messages from FB when something of actual interest to me would happen, like if someone commented on something I had written. But when I stopped engaging, I saw how it got increasingly desperate to pull me back in. At first quite mildly, but after a while it grew more aggressive and suddenly my email was bombarded with all kinds of notifications of activity happening on FB that I wasn’t even a part of. It constantly reminded me of all the events I was missing, who had done what (like change their profile picture), who had commented on whose photo, etc. One time I had about 20 messages on my email of this kind. I was a bit shocked at first, and thought maybe I needed to change my settings, but then I decided not to change anything just to see what would happen. When it went to the extent of informing me that someone had pressed ‘like’ on a comment of a person I didn’t even know, I had to laugh out loud at the absurdity. The system had become so desperate it was succumbing to less and less sophisticated methods that it eventually revealed itself as the crude manipulative mechanism that it was.

It has given up on me now.

This experience served as an excellent metaphor, to get me to be more mindful and attentive of this manipulative force around us. I find my greatest challenge right now is to understand how to navigate through it. How to find that light of truth in it. It’s hard when I feel I’m walking through thick grey fog all the time. In fact, I feel more disoriented than ever and my usual breakthrough techniques aren’t working the same way they have been, which is frustrating, especially for the intellect. But even though it feels impossible right now, I know there is a way to master it. It is part of my mission to master it.

Right now however, it’s hitting me from all directions, especially through my kids. That’s where my Achilles heel is.

You said,

It seems there's growing fixation with excessive consumption, excessive entertainment, distraction, denial, deferral and investment in everything physical - especially for the younger generations, even though they're coming in with more awakeness.

I don’t mind much about myself, I can hold my ground, but I feel a huge responsibility towards my kids. To harness that special light that they’ve come with and nurture it rather than let society consume it. Being an ‘awakened’ mother, I’m so acutely aware of how the system is already affecting them. As soon as any amount of time is spent outside of my influence, school, kindergarten, friends etc, the effects are overwhelming. Disconnection, stress, hyperactivity, mental fatigue, increased consumptive behaviour, irritability, discontentment etc etc etc. How does this happen?

I can actually see many of the blind spots where the hooks find a way in, where clear boundaries aren’t set, simply due to unconsciousness on the parents’ part. Even with the kindest, most caring, otherwise conscious and conscientious parents, this energy seeps in, simply because they don’t see or react to that there is something severely distorted and unhealthy with the system and the ‘gadgets’ and rewards it’s supplying. In their world, this is the only option. And that’s the biggest problem, I think. No other obvious options are available or at least visible. Everything is set up in a certain way that you feel you either conform and try to play the game as best you can, or you become an outcast, which most people don’t willingly choose. There is the illusion that within the system you have a lot of options. Surely something will fulfil you, but only as long as you stay within the boundaries of the system. In other words, becoming another brick in the wall.

I feel, as a conscious parent, I have to provide my kids with that other option. Show them something different than what they meet out there. Teach them the value of connecting with nature, encourage them to play alone, set the boundaries no other parents dare to set, and allow things to sometimes (maybe even often) be quiet and boring so they can hear their own inner voice. But most importantly, be the other option myself, as my own inner work continues.

I’m grateful I was an outcast all my life. Without that experience, I probably would not stand as strong as I do today, being able to see the things I see, trust in my own instincts, and most of all, be ‘awesomely ok’ with being the minority of One. I hope my children will come to know that feeling too.

Love to all,

Anastasia,