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LifeQuake™ - July 2007
Ask the LifeQuake Doctor The Paradox of Chaos: Are You in a Lifequake?
Dr. Toni Galardi
"The times they are a-changin'." Looking back now, Bob Dylan's lyric is remarkable for its sense of understatement. Not only are the times a-changin,' but they are doing so with increased speed, greater force, and deeper magnitude. Look at the world we live inor most of us, there is a constant demand to learn new technology just to live and work at the most basic level. Travel has become a security-driven nightmare, and climactic changes are arguably reaching startling levels. Is there an aspect of your life that isn't subject to wholesale change with all its attendant chaos? Given the current state of things, I find chaos a relevant topic and one worth examining more fully.
In ancient Greek mythology, chaos was the primordial womb from which the first gods and goddesses were born. Gaia, the first deity, emerged from this dark void space. Symbolically, she would come to represent Mother Earth, the very stuff from which we evolved. So, in a manner of speaking, you could say that chaos is in our DNA. In the world of quantum physics, once organisms reach their maximum structural potential they burst into chaos in order to reorganize at a higher level. A more readily visible example of this actually comes by way of the cycle of the four seasons: things that come to life in the spring flourish in the summer, only to die in the autumn. After falling to the ground, they decompose, fertilizing the very ground they came from. Yet when cycles end in our own lives and things start to deconstruct, we resist the change and resultant chaoseven though it is every bit a natural part of life as the passing seasons.
So, what is the impact of that resistance? More importantly, how is it manifesting for you?
Maybe you've recently noticed a distinct shift in the nature of your relationships with others. Or perhaps you've become aware of a loss of passion and fire in your lifea feeling that, come to think of it, has been around a lot longer than you care to remember. Even more difficult, maybe what you've been feeling lately isn't even that discernible. You might say it's like a spiritual itch you can't quite scratch.
These can all be early signs of what I call a LifeQuake.
My name is Dr. Toni Galardi. I coined the term 'LifeQuake' to describe a phenomenon I have witnessed in the both the lives of my clients and seminar attendees, as well as in my own personal life. I began to see symptoms that looked like clinical depression, anxiety, and addiction but were actually paradoxical signs of spiritual awakening - an awakening to a life led by your intuition with a career that's a calling not just a job.
So, what exactly is a LifeQuake, and how does it show up? If we see ourselves as microcosms of the planet, then we too each have a core encased in layers. Your Wholy Self is in your core being, the highest manifestation of the person you really are. However, it is typically buried under layers of societal programs, familial indoctrination, and even religious beliefs, which keeps it from reaching full expression at the surface of your consciousness. When your Wholy Self begins to emerge, your core starts to rumble, softly at first, but if left unattended, it does so with ever-deepening intensity through numerous wake up calls. If you resist the messages by ignoring them, pressure builds where there are fault lines in your psyche. As in an earthquake, so it goes with a LifeQuakethe longer the quaking, the more devastating the fallout. When left to reach its most intense level of resistance, the tremors within you will bring catastrophe into your life from which there is no retreatnow you have to change, like it or not.
This is where this column comes in. Because of my expertise, Vision Magazine has invited me to become their advice columnist. This publication is a beacon for a lifestyle I wholeheartedly embracepractical spiritualitythat is to say, consciousness that connects you to the world you function in, day-to-day, moment-to-moment.
I believe that each of us are microcosmic versions of Gaia. The journey is to find your own mother goddess, the inner oracle who can direct you through this radical transition to your Wholy Self. Although she lives within each and every one of us, sometimes we need a guide. It is the express purpose of this column to help you access Her with me in a public forum where everyone reading it benefits when you submit questions from your life. If you aren't sure if you're in a LifeQuake, write anyway and together we will catalyze conscious living all over the planet. I think Gaia would be pleased.
Dr. Toni Galardi is a psychotherapist, career coach, futurist, public speaker and writer. To submit questions for Ask the LifeQuake Doctor, contact Dr. Toni Galardi through DrToni@LifeQuake.net (no period after the Dr). For those seeking private consultation, Dr. Toni can be reached at 310/712-2600 or through her website, www.LifeQuake.net. LifeQuake is a registered trademark.