Intellect + Empathy

Sharing Your Strengths for a Better World

Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
-The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

We live in an increasingly stressful world where change is palpable, unavoidable and the only certainty we seem to have is uncertainty. These feel like some strange days indeed marked by extremes so volatile in their polarization with breaking points around the environment, our collective health and social unrest feel painfully and hopelessly inevitable.

This “big picture” polarizing energy plays out in much the same way as we go about our daily lives because we literally download the volatility into every fiber of our being, physically, emotionally and spiritually. The result is that many of us are feel untethered and profoundly uncomfortable. If you are feeling this way, know you are not alone. We are all in this together.

So let’s muster the fortitude to show up, be present and proactive in making a positive difference in a world that surely, now more than ever, needs us to be our best selves.

Let’s start by looking at the big picture. What’s makes us feel this unsettled and uncomfortable? Primarily, our intellects don’t do well with uncertainty because in the last one hundred years or so we’ve relied heavily on critical thinking to survive; many even thrive in the material sense of the word.

We’re hard-wired to make plans, create goals, strategize and systematically execute. Indeed, it’s expected and highly prized in many areas of life. These days of uncertainty, when it’s often impossible to know what’s going to happen next, are increasingly showing us that such reliance has some serious limitations.

When we dig a bit deeper it also becomes more and more apparent that this focus, often to the exclusion of all else, created the world as it is today with its imbalance and resultant volatility. It’s my belief that this very real sense of discomfort and disturbance is no accident. It comes with a purpose - to squeeze the last droplets of complacency from us. For, in truth, we have an extraordinary capacity to be so much more, so much better than this.

It’s no coincidence that today’s major disrupters carry the same core message. Climate, social unrest and pandemics clearly show that we can no longer operate effectively from a position of “I’m alright Jack” individuality. How much more evidence do we need that we, and our planet, are all connected? Clearly what affects one of us, affects all of us.

This is a make-or-break transformational moment in our evolution, when “oneness” needs to be replaced with “wholeness”. This requires a radical shift in how we see the world and one another. We need to shake off these overwhelming feelings of aloneness, helplessness and anxiety and embrace our connectivity because together we are stronger as divided we are weakened.

We have hearts, souls and spirits brimming with potent creativity, imagination, intuition, empathy, kindness and understanding, all just waiting to be shared. Let’s pick ourselves up and encourage one another to combine these exquisite traits with our powerful intellect. Let’s put caring for one another, and our planet, on top of our collective to do list. With this common goal, just think what a beautiful world of collaboration and community we can co-create. Now that’s what I call a plan!