The Magic within the Madness

Crisis, challenge, fear, anxiety, madness - words regularly used these days to describe the tumult that threatens humanity, it seems, on a daily basis.

Turn on the news and it doesn't take long.  In fact in no time, the "bleed leads" headlines are in our face.  We ingest them, leave home with them, bring them to work, to school - to bed!

The Ft. Hood shooting, the Pennsylvania school stabbing, the missing Malaysia Airlines flight.  The headlines persist and so do our anxieties.

We'll often go to bed with these and other personal crisis on our minds. Rather than waking up refreshed, we can wake up in a panic.  Or maybe we never get to sleep at all!  Nightmares may occur that bleed over into our waking reality.  The tumult seems to be this virtual feedback loop, both in the sleep and waking state.  Therefore they are fed on a regular basis by what appears to be all around us.

But what's within that madness?  As creative beings, with the capacity to see reality through a very personal lens - a subjective one, wouldn't it behoove us to take control of the way we see things?  Now more than ever, we need to sit in a mode of reflection rather than reaction to the stimuli so readily available for our digestion.  If in fact we are to navigate our way out of the tumult and eventually put it to rest, perhaps nothing less will do!

In September of 2013, my husband and I found ourselves in the middle of this "madness."  Not necessarily obtained by just watching the news (we do so very infrequently), but probably triggered by the external circumstances: the people, places and times as they are, that we are almost forced to interact with on a daily basis.  Economic distress, uncooperative and apathetic individuals, the threat of loss of "security" - these are all realities many of the masses are dealing with if they decide to stay in a mode of reaction.

We didn't - we couldn't.  Sure, the madness got us down on occasion, but we made a conscious choice to shift our focus and glean what meaningful messages we could from the madness and crisis we were faced with a few short months ago.

I share this very personal story in my new book, Conscious Musings - Contemplations to Transform Life and Realize Potential.  I highlight a very difficult financial period, a health "challenge," and a world that appeared to be unraveling at the seams.  It was "do or bust" time for us.  We chose to shift the focus, stop the reaction and begin the process of reading the messages of the Universe that we felt intuitively to be embedded within the madness.  

"I took the cues of the Universe, metaphorical as they would come, although I knew it would speak to me if I asked.  And so the dialogue between [us] began.  Some strange things happened during those turbulent, anxiety ridden months....[the messages] came in dreams, in peculiar, beautiful, powerful, and sometimes humorous synchronicities - just enough to keep sane while riding out this storm." - from Conscious Musings, p. 147

 It is absolutely amazing to me - still - that the Universe will comply with our request - meet us halfway, if we are willing to commit to hearing, seeing and feeling its message.

I've always felt that shadow and light both have a purpose.  I've always sensed that opportunity is often masked in challenge, that diamonds are always underneath the dirt.  But we must dig, we must be aware and we must learn the language of the Universe to find these gems.

Fortunately we did.  I don't think that we had much of a choice frankly - nothing else was working - the old ways of attempting to solve problems are disintegrating right in front of our eyes.  An opportunity to try something new was in the offing!

We worked or sensed our way out of the madness.  And as much as I wouldn't invite crisis into our lives at any time, or in anyone else's, I'm loathed to not look back and reflect on how this madness was a gift to us both!  During our journey down this road - throughout this tumult, we discovered things that probably could have never been discovered had we not traveled down this path.  The power of imagination, affirmation, and the art of play all figured prominently in our quest to get ourselves back to equilibrium.

There's no doubt that the twists and turns of life as we understand it, especially during these times have yet to be smoothed out.  Many advise that we should "buckle up," for we are still in for quite the ride as a planet and as a species.

But if we can harness the power of reflection and action, we might just realize that miracles, magic and joy are cleverly disguised as madness, crisis and fear.  And maybe it will take this realization to evolve into the limitless beings that I am convinced we all are!

Alexis Brooks is the #1 best-selling author of Conscious Musings - Contemplations to Transform Life and Realize Potential and host of Conscious Inquiry Radio - An exclusive presentation of consciouslifenews.com.

The Most Important Education is Free!

The other day I was speaking to a friend about the outrageous costs associated with college these days.  She is in the process of college "shopping" with her son, who will graduate from high school this year.  He'd been accepted to several schools and has a preference for where he would like to attend.  The good news - he got accepted to his school of choice.  The BAD news, she may not be able to send him unless she gets some serious financial help!

During our conversation we reminisced about how when we attended college, the annual tuition was merely a fraction of what it is today, and still our parents complained!  If they only knew what they'd be faced with today, we'd probably have to be left to our own devices to figure out how to learn on our own without the luxury of attending college!

I'd recently learned about yet another price hike in college tuition to attend Harvard - nearly $60,000 per year - up almost 4% from the previous year!  Granted, this is an Ivy League learning institution, but I cannot help but wonder if  there's another way to obtain a "good education" without breaking the bank.

Enter the Autodidact 

You might ask, "What on earth is that?"  An autodidact is essentially one who obtains knowledge without the benefit of a formal education - essentially a self learner.

It is interesting to note that we've had many autodidacts in our past who proved to be brilliant thought-leaders, change makers - those who greatly affected the course of history.  They include Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglas, Thomas Edison, The Wright Brothers, Leonardo da Vinci, Frank Lloyd Wright,  and Ernest Hemingway, among many others.

In our recent history and present day, we are still graced with these self motivated and voracious learners...

Musician Frank Zappa, TV's Craig Ferguson of the "Late Late Show," musicians David Bowie and Jimi Hendrix and actor Russell Crowe are all part of the list of those who had the proclivity, the motivation and the In-sight to learn (and learn brilliantly) on their own and without the benefit of a formal education.

Enter Intuition

Whether or not you will find a full-on biographical sketch about these aforementioned "thinkers" that include an admitted acquiescence to something we call intuition, is questionable, although it is well documented that some, including Abraham Lincoln was quite keen toward this inner-aptitude and used it quite frequently.

That said, my absolute surmise is that those who have sought fit to pursue a true education by self-learning and reach the pinnacle of their profession, were inspired by something intangible - they were nudged by an inner knowing that the answers to equations, the science of music, the masterpiece expressed through a paintbrush, or the ability to invent and build the first successful airplane were attainable through the inner sense or intuition.  Whereby intuition and insight are first tapped to inspire the outer expression (that of the right brain), the left brain, that of logic and reason, was also no doubt in play.  These are people that know and knew how to synchronize "left" and "right" and create in ways unimaginable to others.

In fact, I recently interviewed physician and author of "One Mind," Larry Dossey in which we spoke of the possibility that many if not all of these true thought leaders understood that a continuum of consciousness - that which contains all knowledge, whether yet expressed or not, could be tapped.  Inspiration that comes from dreams, waking visions and other inspirations stemming from the "invisible world."  This is the true reservoir of education, of discovery and of invention!

It was in fact Buckminster Fuller, renowned scientist, inventor, and philosopher (and also an autodidact) who said, "...we are facing our final evolutionary exam.  Is the human species fit to survive?  Can we wake up sufficiently so that we can use our prodigious powers for the good of all, and for the many generations to come?"

It is time that we wake up and begin to use our innate prodigious powers as never before.  All knowledge is within.  Let us begin by tapping our IN-tuition and leave the tuition bills behind!

To learn more about how to tap intuition, use dreams, and synchronicity to transform your entire life, read Alexis' new best-selling book, Conscious Musings - Contemplations to Transform Life and Realize Potential!