What IS Enough Anyway? Isn’t it time to ask the hard questions?
Do you remember a video going around in the early days of the covid pandemic that showed amazing images of pollution decreasing in cities around the world… of seeing fish swimming in the clear canals of Venice? When I recently watched the new movie, Planet of the Humans, produced by Michael Moore and directed by Jeff Gibbs, I truly was stopped dead in my tracks. I had to wonder, what is enough?
I urge you to see the movie – freely available on YouTube (it was taken down once by YouTube and then reinstated.)
Yes, it is controversial and is meant to spark discussion.
Briefly, both Moore and Gibbs were at the first Earth Day 50 years ago and have been active in the environmental movement ever since. Over the last 10 years they began to question where the movement was headed and if we’ve actually made any progress.
The movie is extremely disturbing, thought provoking, and challenging to many cherished beliefs about how we can move away from fossil fuels—particularly when it comes to something called Biomass.
While that sounds innocent enough, it turns out this is the process of clear cutting vast swaths of forest around the globe, grinding those trees up into wood chips and burning them as fuel!
This is touted as the solution to the climate crisis by many top level environmentalists and organizations that people put their trust in. And no, It’s not a joke.
So, I urge you to watch the film. (See end of this article for more info.)
My point here though is not to go into depth about the movie but to talk about the underlying issues the film brought up for me.
First of all, I asked…
What is “enough” in a world of all possibilities?
Our entire system—no matter what form of government, education, child rearing, or economy—aside from perhaps the indigenous societies around the world—is built on the idea of lack and scarcity. It’s the victim model.
The world is seen as a big finite pie that gets divvied up into pieces according to certain standards. There’s not really enough to go around so you’d better grab your share while you can. Unlimited growth and the pursuit of money is held up as the way to outrun the problem.
On the other end of the spectrum, scientists and spiritual teachers say the universe it limitless—it’s a place of all possibilities. The Law of Attraction and opening to Abundance are viewed as the answer, the solution, to scarcity mindset. Go for it! Whatever the it is you desire.
Are there truly no constraints that we need to place on our growth, our consumer society, our utterly imbalanced world of haves and have-nots?
Having lived lifetimes under the pain of that scarcity path, why wouldn’t we want to break free and go all out? To HAVE IT ALL as the saying goes?
Isn’t It Time To Stop and Ask What Is Enough?
According to Michael Moore the whole point of the film is getting us to do just that.
What do we really need to live a comfortable, sustainable life that works for everyone?
What does enough look like for you?
Is there a broader way to look at enough that does not equate it with scarcity…with just getting by…with always feeling a painful sense of lack?
Thinking we will swap out so-called renewable energy sources like wind and solar for fossil fuels without reevaluating our priorities will change nothing.
Am I saying making a million dollars is bad? No.
The questions come in terms of how are you making that money? What are you doing with it once you get it?
And when we dig deeper,
we come to the most important question of all…
Where do you think that you, yourself, are “not enough?”
Because here’s the thing…
Unless and until we come into a new relationship with ourselves, most of us are operating from a place of wounding that has to do with feeling like, “I’m not enough because________I’m a loser, I’m helpless, I’m worthless, I’m just not lovable. (fill in the blank)”.
So it feels great to look around and say, “Hey, guess what? The universe is limitless—just ask for anything you want and it’s yours.”
But what if that keeps perpetuating the vicious cycle of looking for something to fill up the hole in our souls.
For me, everything comes back to us as individuals.
Each one of us creates the outer world as a reflection of what’s going on inside us. We create our own life experiences through our thoughts, beliefs, feelings and behaviors and collectively we’re doing that together.
Yes lots of people are starting to wake up to a higher consciousness. Personal growth / awareness is a multi-billion dollar industry.
But since the vast majority of us are still operating at some level from our wounded stories, that is what we project out to the world.
The tricky thing is, getting and achieving more things can never fill up the hole we think is in our soul. And, thinking we are a blight on the planet will only make the “hole” bigger.
Tending to our inner world and coming into a healthy, balanced relationship with all the parts of ourselves brings us to that place of self-love and self-awareness.
We can trust that we are already whole, complete, and surely good enough. There is nothing to prove to anybody. It’s inside us now. So we turn from trying to find it outside of us—whatever it might be—love, money, career, health, respect and begin sharing it from inside us.
Out of that sense of Self we can make strong, clear decisions about what we really need and desire.
And, yes, that includes a rich, abundant life as we define it.
But it also includes a sense of making decisions taking into account the consequences of our actions.
Is there another path we might follow?
Can we invite in the wisdom of indigenous peoples all over the planet who know to only take what’s needed? To know the planet and everything in and on it as a living web, an entity that’s alive with consciousness?
A natural constraint comes into play not from a sense of lack but from the wisdom of the heart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RESOURCES:
Planet of the Humans- video documentary- view on YouTube
Planet of the Humans website with much more information & interviews
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Are you ready to open up to those parts of you that say you’re not enough?
Come and Meet Your Imaginal Self
This is a part of you already. It’s there to bring you a new level of self-awareness with inspiring energy and a fresh perspective on your life.
Click the button below for access to my free 45 min self-guided video workshop.
I would love to be your guide.
Click the button to access your free self-directed video workshop with Inner-Leadership Coach, Linda Kaun
0 Comments