The contractions of our lives during Covid—minimizing interactions, working at home or worrying about not being able to work at home, rethinking what we spend, too much time on Zoom—have brought us back to basics.

Home. Family. Food. Land.

And now fires and unhealthy air, hurricanes and floods, and all the other shifts exacerbated by climate change are contracting our lives even more.

I keep receiving messages about opening up and getting bigger. They’ve come enough times so I’ve begun asking “what does this mean for all of us?”

Today, huddled inside because of air quality and listening to the noise of air filters for too long, I got it: the more we contract, the smaller we get, the harder it is to breathe. To feel confident. To believe in ourselves. To make change.

The contracting emotions of fear, anxiety, and worry paralyze us, or send us into hiding. As soon as we can come back into the present moment—the in-breath and out-breath—things aren’t so bad. As soon as we reconnect with our source energy, we feel able to move again.

What Does It Mean to Open Up and Get Bigger?

I was creating sacred space and preparing for a ceremony recently. I invited the elements, my spirit helpers, the four directions, the ancestors & descendants into my ceremonial space.

Feeling the presence of all these allies and friends—my team—I felt bigger. And was surprised: I’d never thought of this shamanic process in terms of expansion, but being in the field of energy of so many, I did feel bigger, more present, more powerful. When I connected with the many others doing this ceremony at the same time, the field expanded even more.

When I’m outside, it’s the same: I am with the trees, butterflies and dragonflies, flowers and tomato plants. I’m no longer my small self.

Even doing yoga, pushing the edges of balance and stretching, there’s a sense of stepping into my strongest and most flexible self, and of being aligned with an ancient practice that’s sustained so many over 5,000 years.

These experiences, and others like them, help us feel present and alive. We expand! In an expanded, open-hearted state, we can bring our love and equanimity to others more easily.

When climate change is bringing another wild disruption to your home, for example:

1. Stay grounded and connected to your source energy. Your calm will radiate to others.

2. If you can, align with the elements causing mayhem. Listen. Bring your groundedness to the chaos.

3. Stay present, in this moment. That means noticing your fear or anxiety, finding where it is in your body, and letting it be OK. Then let it go, and come back to this moment.

(If all this feels too challenging, maybe it’s time to juice up your energy hygiene skills. Using Energy Alchemy to Thriveteaches you potent tools for releasing the weight of the past, being a clear channel, protecting your energy, and activating your vision.)

In these very hard times for everyone—when PTSD is triggered and survival responses are heightened—your love and presence makes a difference.

Expansion Into Infinity

I was interviewing my friend Cynthia Sue Larson for my new book when she said “we’re constantly engaged with the universe.” Wow.

We talked about how our engagement with the universe is most evident when we’re still, or meditating: our hearts naturally expand, our breath helps us align, and our beingness comes home to rest.

We stop doing. And that’s when our boundaries become more and more fluid and soft, as if they are breathing. That’s when our awareness can expand into the field of being together. And that’s a beautiful, healing state.

Building Our Communities and Healing Separation: Seeds for Our Future Dialogues

In this interview for Seeds for Our Future, Meg Beeler Interviews Renee Baribeau about Building Our Communities and Healing Separation. Renee talks about the winter of transformation we are in as we move from the Holocene to the Anthropocene; clearing what’s not important; choosing seeds for our seed banks; finding your space as time bends, realities diverge, and we cross the threshold; healing separation; and replacing the guru model with co-creation and community. #Anthropocene #windwork

Meg Beeler—Author, Shamanic Guide, and Spiritual Mentor—is a lifelong explorer of shamanic, animist, and meditative consciousness who practices Earth-centered, nature-based, ancient wisdom ways, and studied Andean mysticism extensively with the Q’ero in Peru.Meg’s next book is Seeds for Our Future: How to Find Heart, Cultivate Your Radiance, and Create Our World Anew. Author of Weave the Heart of the Universe into Your Life: Aligning with Cosmic Energy, she is a contributing author and photographer to Where the World Begins: Sonoma Mountain Story and Image, and creator and host of the dialogues in “Seeds for Our Future.”Meg is the creator of Energy Alchemy™ and founder of Earth Caretakers Wisdom School. She writes for Elephant Journal, Healers, and Shaman Portal Quarterly. She chairs the non-profit organization Sonoma Mountain Preservation and lives on Sonoma Mountain in the North San Francisco Bay Area. megbeeler.com