“The earth and myself are of one mind.”
—Chief Joseph
“Hey, Dad, what’s wrong?” one of our daughters asks.
Whenever I’m asked that question, I’m a tad disappointed (in myself), and yet fascinated by the intuition of the person who has spotted what I was trying to conceal.
We’re together as a family, so I’m happy! Yet parallel to that reality on this occasion, something else has a piece of my mind. As a result, I’m a bit distracted, not fully present. I don’t want anyone to know this, so I try to conceal the mood. Yet I still get caught and called out, almost every time, without fail. Ha!
They know me too well, I say to myself. It’s like they can feel my energy.
As it turns out, we can actually feel the energy of others, and if you contemplate this reality, you know it’s true.
How is that possible? Aren’t we each completely separate organisms with no physical or energetic connection to any other person, plant, or animal except ourselves?
Feeling the emotional and spiritual state of another happens by virtue of our oneness, our connectivity.
***
In recent decades modern physicists, particularly those working at the subatomic level, have uncovered the edge of a dramatic truth that was known thousands of years ago by most ancient indigenous societies. The universe (everything) is a single unified field of energy (“universe” = “unified”). In the space between the objects—say, between you and the nearest wall—you can see that there’s a force—a web or matrix, if you will—and it links us to all that has and shall exist.
This single field of energy contains all the learning, loss, laughter, tears, and emotions of all humanity across all human time. Therefore, every individual experience adds to the collective understanding of the whole. It’s what the Sioux tribes of the northern plains have referred to for generations as Mitakuye Oyasin, which translates as “All things are one thing.” Separateness, as we have come to perceive it, is an illusion. Recognizing this is the awareness that changes everything.
Emotional energy is not only detectable, but contagious and transferable.
I coached basketball for many years and made this understanding a priority in my approach. If I was nervous, I knew the team would reflect that emotion. If I lacked confidence, so would they. Conversely, if I was enthusiastic and having fun, they would follow suit. Our energy as a team was interconnected. In fact, I’ve never been on a team that didn’t share a common energy bond during any given moment in a game or practice.
I’ve seen this in business as well. Our company operates out of sixteen locations, and every one of them takes on the personality of the management team on-site.
All the energy of the universe is interconnected, including your own.
But here’s the most unexpected and transformational part of this story: When it comes to emotions, you get what you feel. Although we may perceive that we feel (or experience) what we get, it’s actually the other way around. Your mood, perception, and expectations become your reality. Earth is a place where humans project their emotions onto a canvas that then becomes your view of the world.
I saw this as an athlete as well. I made my living as a college basketball player shooting three-point jump shots. My junior year I shot 50 percent from behind that line (still a school record), yet I doubt there was a single game that year in which I made 50 percent. It was more like some nights I shot 70 percent and other nights, 30 percent—most of which was triggered by my own internal perception of my shot on that evening. In other words, I selected my confidence level and then it became real. In this way I created what I experienced. I created what became my reality.
Have you ever had a sudden mood shift—in the snap of a finger, something sets you off? In that instant your entire view changes, darkens.
The same is true in reverse. Someone or something triggers a great burst of joy, happiness, or optimism, and boom—the entire world lightens.
But what’s different? The only variable is the emotion you select.
Ours is a world designed to give us what we feel. The energy of the universe that connects us all is a mirror through which we experience that which we select. It’s a paradigm-altering awakening to realize that when it comes to emotions, you project on the outside what you choose on the inside.
So, remember—the world you’re seeing right now is the one you’ve chosen to see.
“Through the reality makers of imagination, expectations, judgment, passion, and prayer, we galvanize each possibility into existence.”
—Gregg Braden, The Divine Matrix
Thank you for considering my thoughts. In return I honor yours.
Every voice matters. Nestled between our differences lies our future.
