[ Hey there! If you just made it to this here rodeo (The ‘Collapse’ Series), you may want to check out where it all began: Part I … Part II and even Part III… ]
I bet you thought I forgot about you. You may have even thought I found my way out and left you behind. Nope! I’m still here… digging around for jewels in the trenches, learning all that I can from this moment. I don’t like to waste my time.
Speaking of time – it’s hard to find, some say. Even harder to create. But time is a concept, a construct of humankind in order to function in an increasingly complex world. 
Instead of seeing it for the tool that it is (a facilitator of organization), we get stuck in a blame and game process, making it our scapegoat for all the troubles and woes we’re slogging through. And usually, underneath the process of blamin’ + gamin’, there on the belly of that scapegoat is a desire to not deal with the life we’ve created. To not deal with how we have mismanaged our energy and time, or the choices that we’ve made. To not have to not be responsible for what is happening. After all, if it’s happening TO you, it’s not your fault, right?
Wrong. Look, if it’s happening, it’s happening. You can get knocked down again and again, but it’s all about how you rise up. Pretty soon you’ll realize it’s all a dance. You may be a pawn in the karma of another, or it may be your direct karma being handled in the moment, but nonetheless if you’re involved it involves you.
When you try to remove yourself from the equation of your life, all you are really doing is reacting, pulling away from and disengaging from the dance due to external events. So I’m talking about the way we remove possibility from our life and blame time, other people or events, for what is truly our own (un-)doing.
This is all really just a lot of fancy talk for the hidden truth: you are contracting.
And the more you contract in response to events in your life, the more time will seemingly contract in response to your perception. The more you will find that you are not present in the moment, because your energy is still back there somewhere holding on. Suddenly, you feel trapped. Boxed into a corner, never having enough and always wanting more. (Time, that is. And everything else you can’t seem to ‘have’ or ‘get.’) And by now you are hopefully seeing how this breeds even more instances of the blame + game, and keeps you not only in the trenches we’ve talked about previously, but starts to affect your overall well-being.
How do you get around this? We do this not by fighting or pushing against it, but by cultivating our strengths and deeper needs – our inner wisdom – which always serves our Best Possible Outcome. We trick our monkey mind. So we come in through the back door with actions and behaviors that support you, making room for your Highest Potential (your unshakable soul) to slide into the driver’s seat before the ego can figure out what happened. Here are a few tools from my Wise Woman medicine bag:
First, adjust your attitude. Constantly check yourself. Use the situation you’re in for everything it’s worth. No matter how much the events suck, you must also suck them dry – every single-dingle one of them – and learn everything you can. Always. If you have to, pretend you’re doing research for an amazing book. Pretend this is your chance to win the Tony by giving the best performance ever. Better yet, expand your sense of soul and consider that you’re gathering intel for God Herself. You were sent here on a Very Important Mission, and you’ve got a big ol’ training manual to turn in all about Here on Earth: How to Thrive for Divine Humans. You wouldn’t want to let the Great Source of All down, would you?
Second, know what your Core 4 are. They’re based on what I call your Root Needs™.
Remember Post III in our series? That was a listing of things that are vital and important for your well-being during the Testing Times (aka “The Gauntlet” or “The Quickening”). Obviously, you may not be able to pull off all those details each and every day – and it’s very important that you start where you are – but you can focus on these vital elements for your Root Needs™ to thrive
(Note: the term ‘Root Needs’ doesn’t refer to the very basic needs outlined by Maslow. If your base needs such as food, water and shelter are not being met, then it is difficult for anything else to take root in your life. Please, seek out support and assistance from your local shelters, missions or friends and family! Then, once you have found solid ground begin to look towards your Root Needs. Root Needs are the foundational elements we require in our lives to expand and thrive, not just survive. And they always involve some form of interaction or communication with the Universe, our greater community. When we cultivate these, we then are able to move into greater expression and empowerment…)
So, to support yourself strongly every day, check out that list once more, and pick four items that really speak to you. These items are the basic elements that you must 
have in your life every day in order to meet your root needs. I have found that if my Core 4 are being met regularly, other elements on that Big Ol’ list automatically fall into place (for instance, I sleep better, and I choose healthier foods, without having to think about it).
Here are my Core 4 and why I picked them:
Meditation : Crucial to personal well-being, this calms the body systems down as well as helps maintain a powerful sense of grounding and what I call passionate equanimity. 
Meditation supports your perspective moving beyond the limiting (and constricting!) ego-self. As you rest in the timelessness and awareness of Space you experience Time’s creation point, and this loosens our dependency on Time and his shenanigans. The trick here is to make sure you are clear what you want to fill that extra space up with. Otherwise, you’re back in that corner playing games with Time. I can’t urge you enough to have daily practice of meditation, as it will trump the contraction of ego and time again and again.
Energetics: Kung Fu Woo! Those who work with me know I’m a huge advocate for grounding and charging every single day. Science is finally ‘proving’ what shamans and healers have known for millenia: that we are made of energy, and that stress and constant challenge deplete your energy resources tremendously (much as it does vitamin C in the body, I’ve seen estimates of up to 1000 mg’s an hour during acute stress). Even if you have only 5 minutes a day, it is crucial that people who are aware and present, ready and willing to evolve and grow, be surefooted AND able to fly (um, that means you if you are reading this). When you have a strong grounding + flow energetically in your body you create a magical threshold through which your Divine Will can step through. Your soul now has a highly functioning system, a portal, through which it can flow and manifest the dance you claim to want. Being grounded gives your soul the circuit it needs to light up the world.
Mindfulness: This is all about empowered, skillful perspective. It includes going through your day being acutely aware of your hidden agendas, like how you treat others and how you expect to be treated. I’m not talking about being self-conscious, which is an obvious and very easy trap. I’m speaking of the focused effort to consistently dive in whenever you have a response or reaction to the world or others around you, so that you are able to create – and dance – in the reality you say you want. I also find that Mindfulness includes forms of creative self-expression, because when we are present we naturally flow into creative expression (in my case currently, it’s writing. What is yours?). And yes, mindfulness includes being present wholly in the moment, because that’s where the magic is. It’s a powerful discipline that takes practice. Muse over the effort and discipline it takes to learn how to play guitar… once you’ve truly got it down, creating music becomes a part of Who You Are. You can create music anywhere you and your instrument find yourselves.
Fitness: For my own well-being, I’ve found that I must have a regular practice of fitness. I listed this last because I struggle with it the most! So I’m calling myself out by putting it here. This has everything to do with self-care and self-love. Your body is your temple – it has to carry you through life. In recent years, while pushing hard and flailing in the trenches, I’ve struggled with some serious health issues and even found my body pushed into a severe cortisol reaction. It became painfully clear that I don’t cherish my body enough… and it was rebelling. You need your body while here on Earth. Worship it. Care for it. Treat it as precious. You do this by engaging with fitness on a regular basis as part of taking care of yourself, whatever that is for you. (And yay! It raises endorphins also, so it’s just a win-win Core to have!)
By cultivating these Root Needs™, you are defining the threshold for your unshakable soul 
to rise up to and empower your life every day. When you do this, you will find you contract less and less, you will realize that you have all you need: and you will create the dance you want no matter where you find yourself.
What are your Core 4, and why? And what stops you or causes you to contract in life? Are you feeling able to address your Root Needs™? I’d love hear from you in the comments below!
Are you struggling to find your Root Needs, let alone nurture them in your life? Are you feeling like you’ve got coal in your pocket but just know there’s a diamond hidden within? Do you need some clarity and support? I’ve got a big ol’ torch in hand to help illuminate your highest potential. Let’s work together.
