For many years now, a lot of people have been talking about “The Shift,” this mysterious transformation of human consciousness that is supposedly underway. Ever since the end of the Mayan calendar in December of 2012, New Age types tend to twitter away about the evolution of the species, the revolution of love, and other hopeful but fuzzy seeming changes in what it means to be human. I want to take a minute to help us all ground this floaty notion a bit.
See if any of this sounds familiar:
Do you have a vision of some aspect of a more beautiful world, and you know it’s your sacred purpose to help bring it into being?
Do you sense that something is out of alignment in the world, and you want to be a part of the solution?
Have you experienced a life-altering event that changed everything for you, and now you want to use that experience to help others?
Do you have an innovative idea that might make the world a better place?
Do you feel called to help others heal, transform, connect, love, create, succeed, and thrive?
Yeah, I thought so. I had a feeling you were one of us! Welcome to what my friend Martha Beck calls “The Team.” In her book Finding Your Way In A Wild New World,Martha Beck defines Team members by the following characteristics. You may not recognize every single attribute, but if you’re a Team member, you’re likely to be nodding your head a lot as you read through these characteristics of those whose souls incarnated here on this planet right now to facilitate this mystical shift in human consciousness. See if any of these Team traits resonate with who you are and how you feel.
- A sense of having a specific mission or purpose involving a major transformation in human experience, but being unable to articulate what this change might be.
- A strong sense that the mission, whatever it is, is getting closer in time.
- A compulsion to master certain fields, skills, or professions, not only for career advancement but in preparation for this half-understood personal mission.
- High levels of empathy; a sense of feeling what others feel.
- An urgent desire to lessen or prevent suffering for humans, animals, or even plants.
- Loneliness stemming from a sense of difference, despite generally high levels of social activity. One woman summed up this feeling perfectly when she said, “Everybody likes me, but nobody’s like me.
- High levels of creativity; passion for music, poetry, performance, or visual arts.
- An intense love of animals, sometimes a desire to communicate with them.
- Difficult early life, often with a history of abuse or childhood trauma.
- Intense connection to certain types of natural environment, such as the ocean, mountains, or forest.
- Resistance to orthodox religiosity, paradoxically accompanied by a strong sense of either spiritual purpose or spiritual yearning.
- Love of plants and gardening, to the point of feeling empty or depressed without the chance to be among green things and/or help them grow.
- Very high emotional sensitivity, often leading to predilections for anxiety, addictions, or eating disorders.
- Sense of intense connection with certain cultures, languages, or geographic regions.
- Disability, often brain-centered (dyslexia, retardation, autism) in oneself or a loved one. Fascination with people who have intellectual disabilities or mental illness.
- Apparently gregarious personality contrasting with a deep need for periods of solitude; a sense of being drained by social contact and withdrawing to “power up” again.
- Persistent or recurring physical illness, often severe, with symptoms that fluctuate inexplicably.
- Daydreams (or night dreams) about healing damaged people, creatures, or places.
You!
If you read that list (like I did) thinking “Check, check, check,” you’re definitely one of us visionary healer mender way-finders on The Team. And the world needs you to fulfill your sacred purpose — pronto!
As Martha wrote, “If enough people start mending their true nature in the incredibly interconnected world we’re creating, the cumulative effect really could begin healing the true nature of, well, everything.”
Author: Lissa Rankin
