I Promise You:  Your Heart Will Speak Beautiful, Magical Things to You.

A Message to the Graduates of 2016

You are precious and beautiful. There is no one on earth like you.  I know what you are going to say.  From where you are  now, you may not be able to fully believe me.  We live in a complicated and loud world.  It will try to tell you who you should be and it will make you feel that who you are is not nearly enough.  Never have these voices been louder, more confusing or more demanding on young people than they are now, and it's just not right.    

You need - you deserve -reinforcements to emphatically tell you that these external messages are false and should not define you.

And if you’ve ingested them and believe them, it is also not your fault.  We all have.  Most of the time adults who would genuinely want to help you to understand this are held back from doing so because they are too busy and distracted trying to deal with their own insecurities.  They may not realize you are struggling with the same questions they have about themselves every day. 

So I ask you to listen to me, because I see you.  I notice the struggle. I feel it as my own.   I am a woman who has walked where you walk now, with the same kinds of hopes, dreams, insecurities, pressures and worries and a lifetime ahead yet to be shaped.

I can tell you that any time I’ve spent conforming to someone else’s idea of who I should be ended up being a waste of time.  It doesn’t matter if the message is coming from someone who loves you, or if it is someone in the media in a position of authority who you assume knows better than you.

 No one knows better than you about this particular topic:  you.  No one is in a better position to know what wonders you contain.  

And in many ways, since you have not yet been buried in the routines of adult life, you are actually in a position of more clarity to notice what is wrong with this world.  And I tell you there is a lot that is not as it should be.   

Your truth about that is a gift to us all. Speaking up about it does not mean you are weak or whiny.  It means you are brave.  It means you are a truth teller.  And the world needs more truth tellers. That is why I am committed to being one right now.  For you. We can be truth tellers together. 

You may not realize it, but it is so easy to skip the step of really getting to know yourself  at this time in your life.  And by getting to know yourself I don’t mean your exterior image - but what really moves you and lights you up from deep inside.  Believe me, because I know:  before you know it, you are an adult consumed with paying the bills, proving yourself, and focused on taking care of the next generation.   It will be harder and harder to find yourself if you haven’t already started to look when you were young. There are a lot of adults walking around who long ago lost the spark of who they really are. They think they are roles.  They think they are achievements.  They think they are the stuff they own. But I can tell you that none of these things are who we are. And it's a good thing, because all these things are fleeting and subject to change at any moment.  Only "who we are" is completely in our control.  Only "who we are" lasts a lifetime.   And because roles, achievements and stuff  are not who we actually are, they can never succeed in making us permanently happy and secure with ourselves.   

So my advice to you is this:  give yourself the permission to get to know what makes you happy and alive now.  Instead of focusing on all the things that aren’t perfect in your life, or all the ways that you may think YOU are not perfect, cultivate a space where you can dream your own dreams without editing of any kind.  You see, I've learned that the most important relationship you can ever cultivate is a relationship with yourself.    The most important life habit you can ever develop is to be able to listen to your heart, then to boldly claim the truth you find as real, valid and important. Because it is real, valid and important.  

And I do mean this quite literally.  Listen.  Focus on that place in your chest where your heart is.  Just linger and listen.  Some people hear these messages more clearly through art, music, movement or journaling.  Walking or sitting quietly in nature is also a way to deepen your heart-listening. You may have to listen for a long time before you hear anything.  But listen.

I promise you, if you do any of these things enough, your heart will speak beautiful, magical things to you.  It will remind you who you really are.  It will fill you up with an endless well of aliveness and connection, and you will suddenly realize that everything you’ve been told about the scarcity of love and acceptance isn’t true.

  

You do not have to earn love.  

You can never lose it. 

It doesn’t come from outside of you.  

Because you ARE love. You can source what you need directly from within; 

by respecting yourself, 

by following your hunches, 

by discovering what you really love to do, 

by saying “no” to anything that does not feel good or right to you.

You've never been a label, a dress size, an accomplishment, a race, a gender, a body, a socioeconomic class, an IQ.  You are far more precious and unique than any label or category could ever portray.  While some people may make you believe you need to be this or that, the much bigger calling is what the universe needed – and intended – you to be. And only you can really know that, from within.  

I’ve learned that the universe is an unfathomably intelligent system, and nothing is created that was not in some cosmic way called forth by some existing need.  YOU were called forth. And that is no accident.  

That is no small thing. 

You matter. 

You were needed.   

Can you feel the monumental pull of that? 

If you are the answer, what was the universe’s question? Now, this is a question worth a lifetime of inquiry. This is a question that gets you somewhere in life.

Every person you touch with your presence is forever changed by you, and this is true worth. This is true power.  This is true meaning and purpose. And this is why you being you is so important to me.  Because if you somehow miss expressing the core of who you are, what makes you come alive, neither I nor anyone else will have the benefit of 

your light, 

your joy, 

your unique expression.    

So your task is actually quite simple.  Be fully you.  And if you think about it, trying to be anybody else for any reason will never lead to showing you how lovable you really are, because you will never really know if people are in love with you or in love with some false image of you that you have created.  Do you see how the pretend self actually creates separation between you and the love you seek; separation between you and YOU? 

I can only tell you that my life didn’t come fully alive until I dared to claim my authentic self, until I believed I was enough to deserve the life I’d dreamed of.  When I chose to align with me, a path of grace and ease unfolded, and I’ve been on it ever since.  

And just in case you think this is selfish,  I want to tell you that love for your authentic self can’t help but spread love out in every direction to others.  Loving oneself isn't narcissism.  It's an investment in the future, not just in your own future, but in the future of people you haven’t yet met or may never directly meet.  This is because Love is a chain reaction, one whose starting point is in each and every one of us. And magical things happen when love is at the center. 

I’ve come to learn that love is a form of activism.  It transforms.  It liberates.  And this is how we co-create the kind of world we really want to live in:  by loving our authentic selves well.   Like the dynamic, evolving universe we live in, we are always evolving and creating something never seen before, something beautiful and magical and one of a kind. Please don’t miss discovering your one of a kind story.  Don’t miss telling your one of a kind story.  Please, dare to be you.

I want you to experience the profound sense of peace, harmony and happiness available to you in this precious life of yours.  You do not need to re-live the "never good enough" messages you’ve ingested in the past by ingesting them in the present or future. We can break the chain of “never enoughness” and set ourselves free forever.    

May you always know that

you were born enough

you have always been enough.

you always will be enough.

May your dream for your life be the one and only map you follow. 

May you know you are none other than 

love, sweet love 

discovering 

itself.

A perfect answer to the universe’s great need.

           

Laurie McCammon is the author of Enough!  How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word (Conari Press - April 1, 2016) and host of The Enough Message blog on Blogspot.  You can connect with Laurie by leaving your comments below or by liking and following her on Facebook at "Laurie McCammon author"  and Twitter @EnoughMessage  Her website is:  http://www.lauriemccammon.com

How I Know for Sure That Scarcity is a Myth

In Enough! How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word, I state that I believe scarcity is a myth. How could this be when we see evidence everywhere of dwindling natural resources, species extinction and global warming?  

I am not saying there are no limits or that everyone presently has enough. What I am saying is that most of the scarcity we see around us is the result of human choices that disrupt what otherwise would be naturally sustaining, self-perpetuating systems. I am also saying that hoarding, waste and greed by the few prevents what could be a more humane and peaceful distribution of the "enough" that actually already exists. 

Nature is organized into ecosystems - systems which have reliably created enough for diverse species in a balanced way for billions of years. As deliberate disruptors of these systems, we as humans have rejected the wisdom of the life-giving Enough systems that would sustain us, instead presupposing that our intelligence is superior and our right is to use resources however we wish. And yet we are the only species of 8.7 million species on Earth to live in defiance of the Enough Story. How intelligent are we to ignore the intricately complex and interdependent systems that sustain life?  

Riane Eisler, in her seminal work, The Chalice and the Blade, divided the human cultures which have made this planet home into two categories - the dominator model and the partnership model. The dominator model has been in place for over 5,000 years and is the predominant world culture in which we now live.   Although we hear so very little about prehistory, there is mounting evidence of a vibrant, intelligent partnership culture in the Neolithic period, with the last surviving of these on the island of Crete.  

Far from being savage or ignorant societies, Eisler concludes that "pratically all the material and social technologies fundamental to civilization were developed (in these partnership societies) before the imposition of a dominator society. " These cultures were peaceful, agrarian, egalitarian, concerned with ensuring the greater good for all (including protecting the vulnerable including women, children and the elderly), and worshiped the life-giving power of mothers, including Mother Earth. In contrast, the dominator culture which would impose itself on Earth thereafter was and continues to be war-loving, hierarchical, authoritarian, male-dominant, and concerned with concentrating power and wealth for the few, and worships the life-taking power of death. Recent advances in carbon dating and further examination of ancient archaeological sites have helped us to peer ever deeper into humanity's past, helping us to realize that our present dominator culture is not the only one that has ever existed - or thrived -  on Earth. Not only did partnership cultures exist, but we already know that they existed in equilibrium and abundance for thousands of years (and perhaps for tens of thousands of years.) 

Most startling to me given my lens of contrasting Enough and Never Enough paradigms,  was the revelation that the dominator tribes who eventually decimated the peace-loving agrarian cultures of the fertile valleys and rivers of Eastern Europe came from two places where food would have been scarce and conditions very difficult - the southern desserts and the northern steppes.  It makes perfect sense that being reared in such harsh conditions, citizens of these nomadic tribes would over time adopt a scarcity "Never Enough" mentality, while those who had more than enough due to agricultural technology and favorable soil and climate would not. Clearly, the standard of living enjoyed by these contrasting cultures was extremely different.  What is unfortunate; however, is that even after the dominator societies took up residence in the fertile river valleys where there would have been plenty, they did not abandon their scarcity mindset.  Instead they went deeper into greed and hoarding. They raped, killed, pillaged, enslaved and imposed their scarcity mentality on the societies they conquered.  

We live in a world in which the collective genius of humanity partnered with nature could provide enough for all forever, and yet we continue to buy into narrow-minded fear-based stories. A recent Koch commercial states that we will need to double the production of crops we produce on present farmland if we are to meet the needs of a growing human population. The solution they put forth, of course, is more and better chemicals. What this approach ignores are our much broader options and our genius - to create urban rooftop gardens, community gardens, to turn useless residential lawns into productive permaculture gardens, and to make different choices regarding human reproduction, including fighting for the rights of women to control their bodies and to gain access to birth control.     

The choice to believe that only a scarcity scenario is possible is out of alignment with the superior intelligence and enduring pattern built into the universe (and in our own DNA) that ensures enough for all.  But rather than wallowing in guilt, fear or shame about this, feeling we are not enough to change things, we should be optimistic about our ability to realign with this greater, wiser and more powerful story. The instructions for how to create enough for everyone is built into the entire cosmos. We are remembering how to look for it now. And this is why I am so hopeful about the future.

When we realize we are actually enough, and inseparable from the universe and its ability to create enough, we realize that a pathway to plentitude has always been available to us as we tap into our own true natures. It’s just that this innate pathway has been obscured by a seriously distorted dominator (Never Enough) worldview that has been narrowly fixated on scarcity and fear. I call this rogue worldview the Never Enough paradigm.  

Our problem isn't a lack of genius or will or technology.  Our problem isn't that Earth is not abundant or big enough to meet our needs. Our problem is one at the level of consciousness itself:  that we cling to a worldview that is not only inaccurate but dangerous, for as we believe, so we create. It is a worldview ruled by fear which creates panic, greed, hoarding and violence, leading to the self-fulfilling prophecy of scarcity. It is a worldview that disregards that we are holons - both individuals and part of a larger interdependent system, a system whose rules and limits we have been choosing to ignore. For what benefit?  Being so far out of reality is not intelligent or practical or advanced. Neither does it create the kind of world we want where we each have the security, peace and abundance we desire. We are being nudged to leave the narcissistic and adolescent phase of our human development behind to step up to be adults - to participate in ensuring a better future for all and not just for our own fleeting pleasure.  

We mustn't be afraid to color outside the Never Enough box. In fact, we must.  Because coloring inside the box has left out far too much of the bigger picture. It is time to awaken to the much larger Enough Story of the universe and to realize that the Enough Story is also within us.   



Laurie is the author of Enough!  How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word, Conari Press, out April 1, 2016. 


You can order the book now at:  http://www.amazon.com/Enough-Liberate-Yourself-Remake-World/dp/1573246832

Website:    www.lauriemccammon.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/laurie.mccammon.author
Twitter: https://twitter.com/EnoughMessage

Healing Time on Earth

John Denver performed a song called “Healing Time on Earth” at the Windstar Symposium in 1995.  He never recorded it, and struggled for five years to write it, though he wanted desperately to in order to honor his friend, the prominent environmentalist, David Brower. David had written an inspiring book entitled, Let the Mountains Speak, Let the Rivers Run. 

Both John and David are no longer with us, but in this only performance of his original song ever, John overcame his concern of not being enough to be in the moment and let the inspiration flow. His deeply moving performance is a testament to trusting our genius which is one and the same with  the genius infused throughout all of nature.  

This video is now  - 21 years later -  going viral on social media.  Could it be he could not bring himself to record and release the song widely then because something told him it was not yet healing time on earth?  And are others finding and sharing it now because now it is HEALING TIME ON EARTH?  
You decide.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKc0wEmwmYc&sns=em


Laurie McCammon is author of Enough!  How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word, to be released by Conari Press April 1, 2016.  Laurie's website:  http://www.LaurieMcCammon.com

What the Choice Between Bernie and Trump is Really About: Enough!

Photo credits below. 

Generally, I do all I can to avoid talking politics.  It always seems to be a quagmire that divides people who otherwise would be faithful friends, allies, neighbors and family members.   However, something happened recently that was just too synchronous to ignore.  A book by Michael D’Antonio about Donald Trump has just come out, entitled, Never Enough.   In general, Never Enough highlights Mr. Trump’s insatiable appetite for wealth, power and fame.  Apparently, he doesn’t feel he has enough of any of these yet.  Throughout his campaign, he promotes as a virtue that he has self-funded his campaign, making him beholding to no one. We are supposed to interpret this as an indication that his values and actions, were he to become President, would align with the common man and woman.  And yet, as Never Enough points out, his past actions are more likely to predict a pattern of loyalty to one man – himself.       

I think the core of Trump’s appeal is that most of us don’t feel we are enough.  To align with someone who oozes wealth, success and fame somehow makes us feel better about ourselves. We get the feeling that by associating ourselves with him, some of his qualities will “rub off” on us.  But I see this as a core misconception of the Never Enough culture in which we live. We’ve been taught that we aren’t enough, so we’ve learned to subsidize ourselves with things outside of ourselves.  We buy or borrow our enoughness through titles, possessions, affiliations and positions of power. When we buy or borrow enoughness, however, we deep down know that this is what we are doing.  It doesn’t really change our inner fear that we are not enough.  So these external affiliations, along with addictions and distractions of all kinds, become short-lived salve, not a cure for what truly ails us at our core.  The danger in believing that Trump will make America great again (and by extrapolation, make us great again) is that we are buying the old snake oil all over again. 

Michael D’Antonio’s book spurred me to ask this:  What does one’s political viewpoint say about where his or her philosophy falls along the Never Enough to Enough spectrum?  I think all could agree that while Trump anchors the "Never Enough" end – building walls and denying entry to Muslims; I take Bernie’s self-identification as a “Democratic Socialist,” his plea for pay equity, universal healthcare and Wall Street Reform as indications that his vision for the world is one in which there is enough for everyone, enough for Earth and enough for future generations.  I think it is fair to say that the other candidates fall somewhere in the middle of this spectrum.  From these two extremes of the spectrum come very different views on “us versus them.”  While Trump is quick to criticize a political rival, stigmatize ethnic groups, and advocate for “bombing the hell” out of Isis, Bernie is openly complimentary of his opponents and speaks of building coalitions, togetherness and citizen engagement. One has the effect of polarizing people against one another, the other, seeking what unites.   

I do not judge a single person for their chosen position along the Trump - Sanders spectrum.  Diversity is healthy.   But what I also know by studying the macro-trends that guide evolution including human consciousness, is that there is a clear and indisputable trend through time towards greater and greater connection across differences.  As Evolutionary Biologist Elisabet Sahtouris, PhD points out, species compete until they hit a crisis point of scarcity or environmental damage. It is those of the species who develop a strategy of cooperation and sharing equitably that go on to thrive. It seems that we are at this very crisis point as a human species.  Indicators such as climate disruption, drought, species extinction, sea level rise, economic austerity, poverty and war are clear data that a strategy shift from competition is required, and fast.  The established political, legal and economic systems do more to block humanity's ability to adapt than to support it. Many are "doubling down" by flaming fear that there is "not enough" security, economic stability or American status or power. Others are pointing out that were it not for hoarding of wealth and careless waste, there actually would be enough for everyone.   I also think many of us are questioning the efficiency and effectiveness of incremental reform - change at the level of symptoms, not root, common cause.  We are told to be more realistic, to work within the broken, competitive system. But where has that gotten us?  Further into climate impacts.  Further into wealth inequity.  This is no longer good enough.  Not for me. I feel certain that we could do much better.  What if instead we spent our time and energy building something we actually want - "build it and they will come"?
  

A change in course cannot happen without a leap of faith - faith in ourselves and in our inherent enoughness to achieve alignment of the outer world with our inner values.  Part of the Never Enough Story has been to intentionally disempower, trip up, bury in red tape, divide and conquer, distract, bait and switch. Any existing power structure will fight to defend itself. No wonder so many of us feel so frustrated! But what if we were to look for what and who is supporting humanity's empowerment right now?  Who is cheering on innovation, community transformation and equality of opportunity for all? Who is making a dent in the "I'm not enough to do anything about it" malaise?  

   

We mustn’t forget that major leaps forward are a part of human history, as evidenced by the "I have a dream" movements of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, and John F. Kennedy's race to the moon.  I'd like us to start believing in big dreams again. We must remember that the Dark Ages led to a Renaissance. I feel that we are on the verge of a renaissance now.  Human spirit, human intention and human genius don’t go away.  We don’t ever lose them.  We are an inseparable part of a universal Enough Story which is 13.7 billion years old, an incredibly creative and intelligent story of self-sustaining ecosystems that predictably create enough for everyone forever.  Nature is our greatest teacher. Its intelligence is literally baked into our DNA.  We need to believe in ourselves again by recovering that Enough Story from within ourselves. From this reinforced core of universal enoughness, we find that we have the strength and the power to say, "Enough is enough" and be heard this time. 

   

There comes a time when it is well worth it to stir the pot, to call attention to a stark and critical difference, a divergence in the road, a choice point. What is at stake for us is not merely Republican versus Democratic values. Those are both structures of the old "Never Enough" paradigm so can only go so far to fix things.   Ours is more a choice between the known entity of “Never Enough” style greed, power, influence and control, and an arising vision that believes in enough for everyone, for Earth and for future generations. How can we do this differently?  How does nature share?  How do we participate in creating the "enough" we know is possible?  Some call sharing socialism. But old labels can be used to mislead and divide. I call it Enough. And Enough is something we can all agree on because it is life itself.

We can embrace an Enough world now, or we can experience more of the painful status quo of the Never Enough Story. It's really up to us.  I choose to leap now. How about you?

To learn more about Laurie McCammon's upcoming book (April, 2016), Enough! How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word, go to http://www.weareenough.com/      

Photo credits:  

Trump:  By Alex Hanson from Ames, Iowa [CC BY 2.0 

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons  

Sanders:  By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America

(Bernie & Jane Sanders) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

What Do the Root Cause of Gun Violence and its Solution Have in Common? One Word: ENOUGH

Banner design a collaboration of Laurie McCammon, Ann Smith and her grandson Sacha

It’s on everyone’s lips these days: Why do such horrible mass shootings keep happening? What can we do about it?  

We assume that fixing the world has to be overwhelmingly complex, otherwise we would have fixed it by now.  Too much damage has been done.  We don’t have enough time, money, will, or genius to change the mega trends destroying our world. Humans aren’t capable of changing or rallying together fast enough.  But what if these are only true because we insist on focusing on symptoms rather than on root cause?  

Through three years of research for my book, Enough!  I discovered that humanity’s skewed orientation toward the word “enough” was responsible at a hidden root cause level for most of what we do not want, including scarcity itself.  Here’s what I learned:

                 1.       Even when we use the word “enough” we are more likely to actually
                experience feelings of deficit associated with “never enough.”  

Enough is such a commonly used word that it has an effect on every aspect our lives, whether our self-concept (Am I enough?), relationships (Does he love me enough?), career (There are never enough jobs.), money (How do I get enough, have enough or keep enough?), business, education, politics, and so on.  Our current global culture reinforces the idea that there is not enough and we are not enough – ever.  If we were perceiving “enough” evenly, the word would just as likely generate feelings and actions associated with satisfaction and abundance as fear and lack.  What we tend to see culturally, however, is that scarcity mentality has become an overarching lens of lack through which we interpret the entire world, including ourselves.   We perceive a world in which we are under constant threat of either not having enough or of losing what little we do have.  If we chase to its root each social ill whether terrorism, gun violence, economic insecurity, addiction, climate change, disease, corruption or debt, I believe we find an underlying core belief that we are not enough and do not have enough  - and never will.

2.        Never Enough physiologically distorts our ability to perceive accurately, selecting for the least sophisticated behaviors available to us.  

Never Enough has a cascade effect on our emotions and behaviors: anger that breeds violence; fear and stress that disempower us; deep insecurity and paranoia that lead to greed, aggression, revenge and tribalism.  It is not a far leap to see how any of these paths could lead to gun violence. 

Brain science tells us that when we feel we are under imminent threat, we tend to revert to the most primitive, "reptilian"parts of the brain, the brain stem and cerebellum which are responsible for quick, and usually polarized decision-making and actions known as “fight or flight.”   We become susceptible to leaders who offer simplistic answers and either-or arguments to further polarize people and issues.  When in scarcity mode, we are less likely to access the more sophisticated reasoning capabilities of the neocortex.  We are fooled into thinking that fast and decisive action are better at ensuring our safety than careful consideration, negotiation, fact-finding, collaboration and listening.   

But the neocortex is what distinguishes us as human.  It is responsible for language, abstract thought, imagination, and consciousness.  We should be highly suspicious of any cultural norm  which causes us to be less than we truly are – less curious, less conscious, less imaginative, less in control of our destinies.  Anything that halts consciousness cannot be part of a viable future.  

3.       Enough is the cure to eliminating every social ill.

What surprised me most while researching for the book was that the shift from Never Enough to Enough is already abundantly evidenced in our world,  in the sharing economy, green solutions, technological advances, new sciences, and in spiritual and storytelling wisdom traditions from all over the world.  You start to notice how a belief in Enough leads to better outcomes: innovation, healing, connection, peace, understanding, compassion, creativity, engagement, genius, resilience and yes, even joy.  Whereas the idea of Never Enough causes us to feel fearful, we become more open, trusting, alive and daring when we believe we are enough.  We ask more questions and seek to understand complexity and nuance. We grow in compassion and wisdom.  We feel compelled to speak up for truth and justice. We occupy our more of our brains and hearts, and by doing so, become bigger and more powerful than we have ever been.

4.        Humanity is the last to know the universe is telling an “Enough” Story.

What does the nature of Earth and the universe have to tell us about Enough and Never Enough?  No creature, no living being or system has ever prevailed by adopting a Never Enough strategy.  Every ecosystem we know of is instead an intimately interdependent delivery system of Enough for all, forever.  I take this to mean that humans, as part of nature, are actually Enough creatures by design. Our DNA contains instructions for how to co-create an Enough world.  We’ve simply forgotten.  We’ve spent too many generations locked in the reptilian brain, too used to the norms, rules and structures that have kept us tightly focused on scarcity, devoid of heart and connection. In such a culture, the anguish which would allow a human being to commit mass murder indicates alienation from one’s own divine enoughness.  

The symbol of the anti-gun movement is the hashtag  #ENOUGH.  Let’s make sure we consciously shift the rage, blame and indignation inherent in the old version of  “Enough is enough!” into the more empowering  “We are enough!” and “We have enough!” of today.  Enough attracts and creates enough while a “war against” always engages us in more war.    I vote for a world in which we and future generations know we are enough, where we feel seen and know we are precious and essential, where we no longer need to hurt others in order to assuage our own deep hurt.  

How about you? Do you see the connections between enough as a root cause and a solution? Share your stories on my Facebook or Twitter. 

To learn more about Laurie McCammon's upcoming book (April, 2016), Enough! How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word, go to www.LaurieMcCammon.com

How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word ( in 5 simple steps)

We've internalized a "Never enough" culture:
Never good enough

Never smart enough

Never attractive enough

Never successful enough

Never rich enough

Never powerful enough

Never safe enough

Notice the fear, shame, hurt and longing contained within these seven common beliefs. Now multiply that by thousands and think about what that does to your spirit on a nearly constant basis.

We're constantly told there isn't enough to go around:

Never enough jobs

Never enough food

Never enough security

Never enough natural resources

Never enough oil

Now imagine what kinds of actions "seem" justified when it "appears" that our need for enough is either under threat or not being met. Imagine the violence, the jealously, the separation, resentment, anger and fear. Imagine the war, exploitation, hoarding and mistrust generated by a single belief of not having enough. Think about the ways we have been lured into horrible deals and trade-offs because of these beliefs - bank bailouts, GMO's, pesticides, fracking, strip mining, wars, dirty energy.

But if we apply a broader, truer lens to reality, we see that "never enough" is not inevitable in nature at all. It is a story we believe and therefore perpetuate on the planet with our choices. But it doesn't have to be this way at all. Enough has always been in our reach. In fact, it is written into our DNA and is present in the patterns and systems that have sustained the entire universe for billions of years. Enough ways of thinking and doing are organically being reclaimed as humanity's consciousness expands past learned ideas and habits that have kept us from seeing the whole or balanced picture and aligning with it. Enough is showing up as permaculture, the sharing economy, unity consciousness, new science and new technology, indigenous wisdom and feminine empowerment. As we embrace these truer versions of who we are and what the world is, old power structures based on Never Enough myths naturally lose their power to contain or control us. The expansion of consciousness cannot be stopped. The hard truths and abuses behind the never Enough facade can no longer be hidden from view. Our hearts are remembering we are and have always been enough to generate Enough. Enough is not a feel good fantasy or hopeful vision. We are not hopeless optimists, but we, who are reclaiming the Enough truth, are humanity's best hope. Enough is the most practical path to human survival and resiliency.

What is naturally emerging is an Enough future where we realize our inherent enoughness and joyfully participate in ensuring enough for ourselves, enough for our community and enough for Earth.

We step into our collective adulthood as co-creators of Enough for all.

The greatest thing? Shifting your life and the world at the same time is simple. It is the very same instruction for everyone on earth: shifting the way you orient yourself toward one single word: Enough.

Here is the Enough Shift in Five Easy Steps:

1. Each time you encounter the word "enough," ask yourself if you are assuming Enough is the truth or "never enough" is the truth. Notice: are you feeling sufficiency or scarcity?

2. Bring consciousness to the effect this one word (enough) has on what you have chosen to do or not do, to believe or not believe in this present context. Has a belief in scarcity made certain responses more likely, routine or habitual?

3. Ask yourself, "What if Enough is the actual truth and scarcity is a myth?"

4. Ask yourself, "What would I do or choose if I believed there was and I was Enough?"

5. Take action aligned with a belief in Enough and see how different your life and the world becomes, one decision at a time. 
 

When you truly embrace the Enough shift within you, here are examples of the types of results you can expect:

You will start to notice the word Enough more, giving you more opportunities to challenge scarcity myths in everyday life.  

You will notice how the belief in lack feels like fear in your body and holds you back from making decisions that are actually in your best interest.

You will experience more freedom and spontaneity as you move out of "fight or flight" mentality and into a more reasoned, mature and expansive lens.

You will feel more optimistic, happy and lighter. By the law of attraction, the amount of time you spend believing in Enough rather than Never Enough will determine your ability to generate enough for you and your family.

You will find codependent patterns and other disempowering relationship patterns less attractive. As a result of not playing old, stuck scripts, you will experience more peace and alignment with your purpose and passion. You will model healthy relating for others.

Your inner critic will become less powerful. As a result, you become more resilient to criticism and pessimism from others.

Knowledge is power. From an Enough perspective, you start to notice patterns that are in place that are designed to disempower people. You become much more aware of the scarcity myths all around you and will have more strength and awareness to avoid them.

You will feel less anxiety, fear and worry, freeing up energy and aliveness for what you do want.

You will feel more tender and compassionate towards Earth and all living creatures, and the illusion of separation and loneliness will fade. Your ability to feel oneness will accelerate.

You will trust yourself more and therefore will project more self-confidence in the world. You will take more risks and speak out more. You will be taken more seriously by others.

You will not fear vulnerability because you will naturally trust your own resilience and your own ability to magnetize enough.

It will be easier to identify and connect with others who are moving into Enough Consciousness, and together you will naturally build new Enough structures, organizations and communities.

You will become a systems thinker, noticing how science, spirituality, indigenous wisdom and new technologies contain the same core messages for what is true and where we are heading as a more conscious and mature species. Seeing these patterns, you can move with confidence into alignment with the most abundant throughline of evolution.

Try it out! Then share your stories on my Facebook or Twitter. 
To learn more about Laurie McCammon's upcoming book (April, 2016), Enough! How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word, go to www.LaurieMcCammon.com

Refuge or Refuse? Which Will it Be? The U.S. Response to the Syrian Refugee Crisis

News of brutal terrorist acts demands an inner reckoning within each and every one of us.  Will you double down on fear or double down on compassion?  Is your heart opening up or closing down? 
   

I remember this feeling well from 9/11, the numbing effect of initial shock.  As we emerge from it this time, what action will we take?   Will we respond from a sense of fear or compassion?  How will our governments respond?  After the 9/11 attacks, a universal feeling of goodwill and compassion swept across the world.  I remember being completely baffled how quickly our government squandered that good will by rushing into war with Iraq.  I feel now as I did then that we are too quick to assuage our fear and pain by inflicting fear and pain on others, even when “others” turn out not even to be the ones who are directly responsible.  Iraq and 9/11, we were told, were linked.  We know now that was not the case.   

As I watch the evolving coverage of the Paris attacks, once again it seems we are being nudged into making what I believe is another false association between two concurrent issues  – the Syrian refugee crisis and the Paris attacks.  It is as if by combining two crises, we can tie a neat little bow around them and get rid of the fear and uncertainty generated by both at the same time.  (Convenient idea, but again, not the truth.)  I investigated more about the refugees, who they are, why they are fleeing Syria, and find it is laughingly implausible that they would pose a threat to our homeland. Half of them are children, for one thing.  (See links to several supporting articles at the end of this blog.)  The numbers and the facts simply do not support the assertion that the refugees are laced with terrorists.  Is it even remotely likely that traumatized refugees who have lost everything and who have endured unspeakable hardship for weeks or months on end would have the will or even the energy for anything beyond scrounging for the basics of life such as food and shelter? I find it highly suspicious that a supposed Syrian passport found at one of the Paris attack sites indicates some kind of link.  It is akin to the elusive “weapons of mass destruction” – used falsely as justification for extreme self-protectionism. 

The problem is, it seems we are so eager to get rid of our psychological pain that we are apt to accept the first simplistic explanation and “solution” in order to feel some sense of relief.  I shudder to think of how many lives – including those of our service men and women and their families – were negatively and permanently impacted by the decision to go into Iraq. (Not to mention the destruction of neighborhoods and the taking of innocent Iraqi lives.)  Going into Iraq seems to me a classic example of addictive behavior − dealing with psychological pain by distracting ourselves.  In other words, “Do something, anything.  I don’t care what! Just don’t go deeply into the pain.” Apparently “doing something” in revenge was psychologically more appealing than taking our time to collect facts and deal with our deep grief.   Tired of mourning?  Wage war.  Depressed?  Have another drink. Feeling hopeless?  Go shopping.  

Since 9/11, we’ve heard the same familiar drumbeat of ramping up the violence in response to a variety of issues including school shootings.  The solution to violence, we’re told, is more violence. The solution to mass murders is more guns; bombs require more bombs.  When will we wake up and realize that we have been drawn into a game which has no other possible outcome than the escalation of violence and suffering? Do we really want to live in a hyper-militarized police state?  

When fear overtakes us it has a dumbing-down effect on our minds and a stress-inducing effect on our bodies, and this makes us vulnerable to simplistic and extreme solutions.   We default to the reptilian brain, discarding subtleties, interconnections and long-term implications, becoming distrusting, impatient and paranoid.  Fear makes us act out impulsively and isolates us from one another emotionally.  Fear ignites a fight or flight response.  Brain science has confirmed that fight or flight is a characteristically masculine response to crisis.  The feminine response, on the other hand, is to tend and befriend.  In a perfect world, our response as a nation would neither be skewed to the masculine nor the feminine, but would combine attributes of both approaches.  And I think this is why, as a woman, I sorely feel the absence of balance in the responses that are being chosen by many of our government officials thus far.   Over 50% of the governors of our United States have chosen a flight response  – declaring that they will refuse to admit Syrian refugees into their states.  Several presidential candidates are advocating fight – more bombs, more attacks on supposed ISIS strongholds. Fight or flight, they have walled off their hearts from the greatest and most powerful and transformative of human qualities – compassion, charity, love, community and kindness. The best of our human strengths, the very attributes which allow us to connect and overcome any crisis together, are not welcome when we choose fight or flight.  We become, in my estimation, less than human; less than whole.

When we make the more courageous choice to dare to open our hearts in time of crisis, we reclaim the wholeness of who we are.  Just because we are in our full hearts does not mean we discard using our brains to discern, defend and protect. The idealism and supposed naiveté of the heart is often used as an argument against responding with compassion and charity in difficult and dangerous times.  But I would argue that the exact opposite is true.  We cannot ever fight fire with fire without ingesting fire.  We cannot respond like our enemy and not become more like our enemy.  Compassion and charity are what define our virtue. We are made more secure when we extend to others the kindness we ourselves would want to receive.  It plays into the narrative of terrorists if Americans reject Syrian refugees.  It adds to the feeling of alienation, shame, and rejection that fuel resentment and hatred.   

To get off the perpetual treadmill of war, I believe we must do something radically different and more bold than ever before.  We must be more loving, more generous, more daringly open, more trusting.  We choose compassion not for the sake of defying evil or proving the enemy wrong, but because when we look deep within ourselves, we realize that the deepest part of who we are is merciful, compassionate and loving. Compassion heals and unites.  It is the stark beauty of an open heart against the dark backdrop of hatred and fear which can and will lead us from the darkness and into the light.

There are those that would say what I describe would make us appear vulnerable and weak.  But would it really?  Isn’t weakness succumbing to fear rather than facing it and being our truest selves anyway?  Haven’t we already lost our freedom when our responses are informed by projections of worse case scenarios and exaggerated risks?  There are no guarantees in life. Life is not inherently safe.   We will all experience some kind of suffering in our lifetimes.  But it is love and compassion that make life worth living, that make suffering bearable, that provide nourishment and replenishment to rise above the difficult times. If we do not fight to cultivate this sustenance, we risk becoming weakened shells of ourselves. This leaves me nothing but to conclude that fear and hatred are the true “foreigners” we should be shutting out of our country and hearts.    

So, instead of walls of red tape for refugees - homes, food, warm blankets, kindness, community. Instead of spewing hatred, doubt, division and retribution – let’s deeply listen to one another to explore our common humanity.  I have faith in our common humanity; trust in the unity that underlies our differences.  It is up to each of us to claim the kind of world we want to live in.  Bombings and shootings are the end product of lifetimes of man-made alienation, shame, resentment and fear, lifetimes of fight or flight responses that find no end.  We may not be able to undo it for those who find themselves so bereft of heart that they become terrorists.   But I do know that the more of us who choose love and compassion, the quicker we spread the kind of world any human being would be happy to live in.  Love evokes a very different response – gratitude, connection, trust, reciprocity, paying it forward. This is the kind of country and world I would be proud to live in.  I am pretty certain that Lady Liberty would feel the same.

Laurie McCammon, MSAEd is the author of the upcoming book published by Conari Press, Enough! How to Liberate Yourself and Remake the World with Just One Word

Laurie's Website:  https://www.lauriemccammon.com

Laurie's FB:  https://www.facebook.com/EnoughLiberateRemake

Laurie's Twitter: https://twitter.com/EnoughMessage

Links to information about the Syrian Refugee Crisis and Paris Attacks: 

What you need to know: Crisis in Syria, refugees, and the impact on children

An overview of the Syria refugee crisis, its impact on children, and how you can help.

November 3, 2015 | By World Vision staff

http://www.worldvision.org/news-stories-videos/syria-war-refugee-crisis

PolitiFact Sheet: 5 questions about Syrian refugees by Lauren Carroll, Linda Qiu on Thursday, November 19th, 2015 at 2:14 p.m.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2015/nov/19/politifact-sheet-5-questions-about-syrian-refugees/

Huffington Post These Groups Have An Idea To Help Syrian Refugees: Let People Sponsor Them It's Working in Canada.  Elise Foley  10/27/15

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syrian-refugee-resettlement_562fc4a1e4b0c66bae59c4c3

These Reactions To The Paris Attacks Will Inspire You -  People Around The World Are Restoring Our Faith in Humanity. Alexandra Ma Editorial Fellow, The Huffington Post Posted: 11/16/2015 01:40 PM EST | Edited: 11/16/2015 02:46 PM EST

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paris-attacks-inspiring-reactions_5649fcbae4b060377349e486

New York Times Opinion Pages The Farce Awakens Paul Krugman Paul Krugman NOV. 20,2015

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/20/opinion/republican-refugee-panic-fits-a-pattern.html?rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=context&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=Blogs&_r=0