José Stevens 3-15-17..."Our Response To Massive Change"

Here is a new article by José Stevens, PhD, about “Our Response To Massive Change.” It describes how different soul ages cope with change in very different ways.

“Our Response To Massive Change”

Reprinted from: Our Response To Massive Change – The Power Path by José Stevens

“It can be helpful to understand the typical responses to change that are demonstrated by the people of different soul stages. This can help to clarify what is happening in the world at this time.

The infant soul’s response to change: Intense fear resulting in paralysis or complete autistic withdrawal. Here you might see an isolated tribal person, faced with a move to a big city, simply curl up in a corner and die. Violent, panicky resistance is also a typical response as is savage overwhelming attack totally out of proportion to the situation; for example an infant soul, threatened with having to evacuate their home due to fire or flooding, might fend off authorities with guns and try to kill them. Many infant souls are responding to this time of stress by engaging in violent terrorist attacks or simply senseless massacres in schools, nightclubs, and public arenas. They usually destroy themselves in the process. If they live they demonstrate no remorse.

A toddler soul’s response to change: Overwhelmed, confused, thrown off balance, disoriented, de-compensating, disorganized, stupefied, resistant. When toddlers are faced with change that they are unprepared for it and they come apart. Their careful civilized demeanor fragments and they either become insane, unbalanced, and confused or they react with belligerence and irrational resistance. This is the kind of response you might see when certain peoples are forced to desegregate, give up their guns, or whose traditional religious beliefs are challenged. They are typically the most fundamentalist in their beliefs. They are also quite noisy in their complaints.

A child or young soul response to change: They enjoy change but only with conditions and requirements. For example, the change must be a personal win or must represent a shift to a higher status for them, better conditions, or must have the appearance of upward mobility. At this stage change tends to be based on external conditions, a change in life-style, or environment. The current executive branch of the US government is not advocating innovative change but looking more to turn back the clock to the “good old days” of absolute rule and control. They will achieve limited temporary success but it is really too late for this strategy to work for the long run.

Mature or adolescent soul’s response to change: Mature souls actively initiate change and accelerate it. They get bored unless there is a great deal of change that might include travel, many different jobs, relationships, growth opportunities and so on. Sometimes adolescents like change just for its own sake. They begin to value internal changes within their personality, their perspective, attitude, and belief systems. Adolescent/young adult souls are only interested in innovative change, something that represents evolution, not turning back the clock.

Old or adult souls response to change: Old souls initiate change and accelerate it but are more interested in personal transformation at the deepest levels. They seek to change their outlook rather than trying to change outside conditions. Old souls are interested in the foundations of change, where its source actually is, and they try to learn how to alter life from intention and desire rather than by external means. They are not interested in the outside appearances of change but rather in the reality of it. For example an old soul is not interested in a face-lift to appear younger. They are more interested in having an outlook that is more filled with vitality like that of a youthful person.

Now that you have the basic pattern of how different soul ages approach change, you will be able to understand a great many responses to change that you will see in people all around you during the next few years. You will understand news articles that describe massacres, standoffs, belligerence, riots, as well as opportunism and success stories of how people coped with the big changes in their lives.

Now I will introduce to you the seven basic steps to the change process for you to use to promote your own ability to cope with change.

Basic Steps to Change

1. The fixed pattern is no longer working: Here you recognize that the old way no longer serves the situation. You have maximized your returns and have reached a plateau or a no-growth situation. You may even find that the old method you have been using or your old outlook is actually becoming detrimental to you. An example would be that your old habitual way of approaching your spouse is no longer bringing the loving response that it once did. You realize that change is needed but you might not like the idea.

2. You desire change: Now you see that not only is change needed but you wish for it and actively seek it out. You investigate the kind of changes that you need or the ones that have come about and you learn from these observations. You actively seek advice and consultation about what would work. You plan your strategy or create your battle plan for the future.

3. You activate your change plan: You initiate new behavior and a new strategy even though it feels unfamiliar and uncomfortable and you aren’t quite sure it is going to work for you. This is like following the advice of a consultant or therapist but you feel insecure about the new approach and do it with some anxiety or trepidation.

4. The change is now in progress: Now you are actively in the midst of the change process and have been trying out new behaviors. You are beginning to align your attitudes and beliefs with the new behaviors in an attempt to justify them. Here you create new habits, patterns, and attitudes that create a whole new context for you.

5. You stretch, expand, and grow: As a result of the new approach you begin to feel a great momentum forward. Results are coming in and everything is beginning to shift rapidly. The experience feels unstable and out of control and you may feel like you are on a roller coaster ride. Maybe you would even like to apply the brakes and slow it down a bit so you can get used to it more slowly. Life does not often accommodate this strategy of convenience.

6. You experience the rewards of change: You have a tendency to grow excited about the benefits resulting from your changes. You are sold on the new approach and tend to become preachy about it, trying to get others to join your bandwagon. You become a good sales person for the program you have been following but watch out, you could become sloppy with your own program and experience setbacks.

7. You master this change and become flexible and adaptive: You are experiencing harmony, balance, and flow. You are like a surfer that rides the wave of change but with fluidity and adaptability. If you rigidify, you fall off the surfboard and are in the drink again. Mastery requires that you be prepared to change again at a moments notice so you cannot necessarily sit back on your laurels. Change tends to beget more change, even in other areas.

All of the points I have made about change apply to both you as an individual and organizations of every size. On the organizational level, change requires the cooperation of a great many individuals who make up the membership. To the extent that individuals cannot cope with the changes of the overall structure, they either cannot come along or will hold that community back.

Since baby souls are the ones most resistant to change, they are the ones who rigidify and calcify in place. They are the ones most prone to losing their jobs in the corporate world. Since they are the ones who make up most of the everyday staff of government employment, the government bureaucracy is least likely to make any changes in a timely fashion and may fall seriously behind what is happening in the world of ideas, the arts, business, science, education, spiritual expansion, and society at large. This will mean several things.

The stress on government will mount to the breaking point and baby souls will be the ones to suffer the most from the massive changes beginning to occur now. Despite promises to the contrary by elected officials seeking their votes, they will constitute a large jobless group who may end up at the lowest levels of poverty and social status. They will also be the ones most vulnerable to the many opportunistic diseases that thrive in poor and squalid conditions.

Older souls will be required to make sure that the changes don’t just benefit the young souls of society. They will have a heavy load as they play the mediators, attempting to bring along the baby souls as well as getting the young souls to reach out and include everyone on the playing field. Think medical coverage here.

Global Change

I have already discussed with you the dramatic scale of events that you could expect during these times. You have been able to witness for yourselves intensely emotionally charged international events such as the war in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan; the struggles in Sudan, the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the North Korean nuclear ambitions, the migrations of refugees, deportations and closed doors for immigration, and on and on. Likewise you have seen deeply emotional domestic issues such as abortion rights, civil rights, Black Lives Matter, climate change and the evisceration of environmental protections erupt onto the public arena.

Without question massive change is occurring on a personal, regional, and global scale at an extremely rapid and spontaneous pace.

This is a time of massive destabilization and chaos. This is the kind of change that you can expect to continue to occur during these next dynamic years.

Those parts of the world reflecting the most extreme states of imbalance are the ones that will massively change first. Then, changes will begin to occur in those places where there is slightly more integrity. Dramatic changes in your own political, social and economic structures are imminent. These changes are already beginning to occur at the foundation level.

As has always happened in times of overwhelming change, there are those who wish to deny that fundamental change is taking place. Baby souls tend to use denial as a defense mechanism and deliberately attempt to roll back the clock to earlier times when black and white laws and taboos spelled out the do’s and don’ts of living. Under the inspiration of highly vocal exalted roles who invoke a punitive male god as their authority, they desperately and obediently attempt to preserve a bygone world. This behavior comes from fear of the unknown of course, and can only be ameliorated through benevolent and wise, yet firm guidance and leadership from older, more experienced souls.

Some young souls embrace the changes, seeing opportunity to rise to leadership and profit from the chaos. Others who are currently in power deliberately use cover-up techniques to continue the status quo. They say, “Don’t worry, everything is under control, there is no problem, vote for me and let me run things for you”. This behavior is based on ambition. Ambition is often based on the conviction that life is accidental and there is no life after death.

Mature souls tend to deal with the changes in many ways. Some are doomsayers, saying “I told you so, now there will be hell to pay, and there is no way out.” Others emotionally charge into demonstrations and efforts to reform structures while there is still hope. Others seek guidance to cope with the overwhelm that they feel.

Old souls, to the extent that they are free of their imprinting, largely seek guidance from within and attempt to stay clear of the chaos. In general, mature and old souls know that changes are inevitable and seek to bring them about in as bloodless a fashion as possible.

Overall, to the extent that people resist the changes, the process will be more painful and dramatic. To the extent that people see through the fears of the different levels of society and the machinations that follow, the changes will be more manageable.

The adage that “When the people lead, the leaders follow”, has truth. The question is, which people? That is for us to decide.

Personal Change

As many of you have noticed, changes in your own lives have been occurring faster than you can logically understand them. In fact, there is often no way that you can anticipate them. You will notice that one change leads to another and then to another until suddenly it is as if an avalanche has taken place in your life and everything looks different. If you are experiencing this, you are truly a person of your times because that is the nature of the times in which you live.

Again if you are in resistance to change, you will tend to suffer.

Why? Because resistance is based on fear and fear is what feeds your fear patterns (remember: self destruction-greed, self deprecation-arrogance, martyrdom-impatience, and stubbornness). Your fear pattern or obstacle is what shifts you into the negative poles of your personality traits (overleaves). When you and everyone around you is being run by fear patterns, your world becomes unpleasant indeed. So, when change accelerates, stress accelerates, and when stress accelerates, the fear patterns take advantage because fear is their food. Therefore you have an excellent opportunity to see what runs you in times of change. You can see your fears blatantly for what they are. You can also choose to override them.

Even though fears often anticipate the future, they always indicate that you are running off of past time information. Your fears are always based on something that your instinctive center associates with a past pain or trauma. Your best ally then, in rapidly changing times, is your ability to stay as present as possible and enjoy the ride as you might on a roller coaster. You may still be afraid but it does not have to interfere with the choices that you make.

There are many tried and true ways to help you stay present.

For example, do simple meditation that helps you to still your mind even if only for ten minutes. Pay attention to your body and find out what it wants. Your senses are always in the present moment and can help you stay at home in your body. Keeping your chakras clear and balanced helps you to stay pain free and therefore more inclined to be present. Singing from the heart and seeing beauty is very important in this process. Telling the truth, frees up energy, allowing you to be more present. Emotional clearing of childhood or past life pain, with or without guidance, can help you be more adaptable and spontaneous.

I will speak with you more about change as the pace continues to accelerate. Be assured that in ten years time you will not recognize the world as you know it today. That should be obvious. The question is, will you recognize yourself. You have a major say-so in what you will be like and how you will cope. That future you, is being decided today, right now, by you. It is your decision now whether you make room for the power of essence to direct your life or for fear based false personality to steer your course. Many blessings.”

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José Stevens PhD is an international lecturer, corporate team builder and organizational coach, consultant and trainer. A psychologist, licensed clinical social worker and author of more than twenty books and numerous articles, he is also co-editor for A Journal of Contemporary Shamanism and a board member of the Society for Shamanic Practitioners. He is the founder, with his wife Lena, of the Power Path School of Shamanism and The Center for Shamanic Education and Exchange, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating youth in indigenous cultures. He has completed a ten-year apprenticeship with a Huichol Maracame in Mexico and has studied with the Shipibos of the Amazon and the Paqos of the Andes for the last thirty years.