 2 Jul 2003 @ 23:56, by Alana Tobin
Part II Online - Conscious Community
What an opportunity for us all to learn about communications, as this tool and space allows us this vehicle to really get conscious with the language we use, (we see it in black and white folks ey?) and the communication processes and habits we fall into, even with the editing feature.
Within community, often people shy from or walk away from opportunities to address the issues that arise in groups in real time or in spaces such as NCN, as patterns form that limit or block movement. I believe that is why people come and go here and don’t settle in for long, because their unmet needs and edited voices stand as barrier to progressing relationships and realizing objectives. While a net environment has its limitations, many of are finding out that miraculous connections and communications can and do take place. The possibilities are endless if we truly give ourselves to the possibilities present and commit to do what is necessary in order to manifest our sense of vision or dream. This often involves taking risks putting our thoughts, dreams, feelings and needs out there while also stating or writing in this case, what we would like to have honored as we draw our lines and assert our boundaries.
Somehow in online communities we often have the tendency to jump to conclusions and misread writings, just as we do in person, and react in ways that cause misunderstandings. I believe that the net communications have a higher propensity and track record for misconstruing our intentions and our meanings when limited to visual words. What an opportunity for us all to learn about communications, as this tool and space allows us this vehicle to really get conscious with the language we use, (we see it in black and white folks ey?) and the communication processes and habits we fall into, even with the editing feature. Because in truth, don’t we really use the edit feature in real life too at times? However it also is a breeding ground for not taking responsibility for our emotions and behaviors as they are expressed through words, because at any time we can take greater liberties in the editing function not being in physical space with people. Yet there is such a thing as psychic energy which many of us pick up as we become more consciously attuned. We often pick up from others their thoughts, feelings and the energies they send out to us through the internet and etheric airways. Yet don’t we also do this in person?
It is usually the core active members within any group that set the tone for the group. The actual ones who over time continually show up to nurture the process, sometimes are the midwives of a particular group process or project. They at times even evolve the beginnings of a group sometimes leaving when it starts to emerge and take off. Sometimes their service often goes unacknowledged and their efforts fade as other more current issues and developments arise, as with any evolving group. It is truly important to come to embrace that what we do for others, we do for ourselves, and in and through nurturing any project, we are developing skills, tolerance, patience, compassion and the trust that contribute to conscious relating.
Sometimes things take much longer than many of us anticipate. However, the core often goes through some of the most difficult labor pains in the birth process of any project or group experience simply because they are helping to build the initial foundation. I find that the most powerful reason why relationships fail is because of a lack of commitment to them and an unwillingness to work with the conflicts that emerge which entail working on and with one’s own unconscious material as it surfaces. In a wider community seeing someone less frequently does not necessitate this need as much or maybe never. Maybe just bringing an occasional bowl of soup to an elderly neighbor is enough as a caring gesture that nurtures community in one aspect.
Over the many years of being a part of various groups I have come to see emerging patterns and issues that many groups have in common. Often many of the same blocks and barriers surface as it involves the issue of commitment. **In working through conflicts and coming to terms with what the purpose of the group is, we can address the sense of vision that each of us bring. We are at choice in looking or not looking and attending to the needs of individuals in balance with those of the group. Many people come and go and certain patterns change with new input, while other patterns remain fixed and go unchanged.
Oftentimes the individual that gets magnetized to a particular group will be stuck on some of those very same patterns, so that they themselves have the opportunity to shift something along with the group. When newcomers come to a group, I think it important to take stock of what are the emerging patterns the group is experiencing, and it is important to assess both the strengths and the weaknesses each person brings to the group. An honest appraisal can help us to embrace one another's beauty in balance with dealing with the challenges that emerge.
Until we establish the basics of addressing our objectives and purpose together, how can we expect to create a thriving and optimum level environment? How can genuine caring build any new platforms for new ways of being to be generated? Is this not the premise of building a new civilization? A platform where healing and genuine communications can foster new ways of relating and co-creating? How can the remedies or poisons one brings, come to be seen and embraced in a new light?: --because in truth, I feel that we bring both to every group and experience we come to. How will this material we all carry come to be owned or healed if our communities will not allow a space for such revelation and healing to occur?
I find that this is the most basic premise of creating conscious community, dealing directly with our unconscious material as it surfaces within relationship in balance with the conscious beauty and creativity we bring. The refusal to embrace the balance of this work and play in our personal, work and community relationships, is why I feel we do not see significant progress. I think we assume also that it will always be hard work and it sometimes is, however in community, there is a more accelerated environment where patterns can get busted more quickly, so we can get to the gold. In a group committed to conscious relating, there is a rich and diverse abundance of resources which can help us to better meet our needs so we may establish stability, balance and ongoing growth. Without this, we can quickly become so burdened with the intensities or weariness that comes when we lack the stamina or support necessary for healing in relationships.
If each of us take the time to cultivate an environment where conscious relating can grow, both in NCN in our personal lives, we can evolve our relationships into beautiful expressions. Each of us carries poison no matter how much work we may have done to heal ourselves, and each of us carry profound healing manna. I see that relationship is the highest and most profound initiation we will ever encounter and pass through, and I encourage you to give it the high honor and respect that it deserves. Akin to homeopathy, we each carry the venom and the cure. It is often the very poison another person flings our way that triggers us into a healing crisis and opportunity, and yet in the balance, there are those along the way that support us through these challenges with loving anedotes as well. Do we care how we impact others?
Do others care how they impact us? Is caring even important as a personal or collective value and need? And how each of us define this caring and the nurturance it brings, well isn’t time we each ask these questions and begin exploring together ways we can teach one another what this entails? Surely we do not have all the answers. However, each one of us do, and I invite you to share with me your input and the experiences that have assisted you in conscious relating.
Love and blessings to you all!
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