How does the stock market affect me on a daily basis?

Does our AA rating influence your life?

How does the fact that our government and economy are in relative disarray and disharmony affect all of us, from here to there?

I know there are many among us, including many close to me, who are extremely concerned about the hurting economy. I have a lot of compassion for those of us who are struggling financially, those who are unemployed and those whose sense of peace and stability are hanging on every percentage point the DOW drops.

I understand that it is incredibly challenging, even frightening and anxiety provoking as we watch our retirement funds, savings accounts and home values disappear before our eyes. I watch bobble heads on TV point fingers and place blame on our president, Congress, this or that political persuasion, and on and on. Scapegoating is a really old human behavior so it isn’t all that surprising.

And yet, how real is this situation? How vital is the Dow Jones Average to our development as a species and the evolution of human consciousness?

I look to my own life for answers. I even look to my track record regarding my investments. Not my investment strategies in the “market” per se, but my history of relationships and how I have dealt with decisions that have been less than supportive to my overall well being. When I have chosen certain paths, chosen people with which to engage in relationships, I haven’t always seen great outcomes on the balance sheet. In fact, there have been a few of you that pushed me toward reconsidering my adamancy that there are no mistakes. But, I haven’t reconsidered that position. And here’s why:

I have learned far more from my challenges than my successes. I have learned about what I don’t want to recreate and what I need to do in order to create positive, supportive, harmonious results from my relationships.

Money is literally referred to as currency. Not a coincidence that currency is also a term used to describe energy. Energy is currently coursing through us every instant of our lives just as money and wealth is running through us, pulsing from behind and shooting right through and out towards the next person. When I am blocked, however, that energy/ currency gets clogged and stuck and I end up affecting the revolving circuit of the whole system. When we hold on tight, when we limit the flow of energy because we are scared and feel like we need to hoard the wealth in order to keep us safe, we affect the flow for everyone.

It makes a lot of sense that we get scared and want to stockpile money. Think about this in terms of love. What often happens when we are truly, deeply adored and loved by another is that we get scared someone out there will take it away or limit our wonderful supply! We then typically become very protective and limit the flow in and through us to others, creating a blockage for the entire system. Yikes.

There are a number of “Currency Exchange” centers throughout the Chicago area. I pass them all the time and they are constant reminders of the basic premise of our economy. You give me something and I’ll give you something. It’s a fairly old concept that harkens back to the old barter system. Ancient history. Transactional economy. You give me something and I’ll give you something back. Kind of the way we often run our relationships. You love me first then I’ll love you back. You get vulnerable first and then I’ll consider opening to you. Transactional. Rooted in that fascinating paradigm of success/failure, positive/negative, black and white to the core.

What would our financial AND emotional economy look like if our currency was not an exchange and more of a love offering? What if we embraced the notion that money is just energy as is love, food, compassion, etc.? Some might yell, “Communists! Socialists! Crazy Liberals!” Some would argue that it’s all real and that if we don’t really buckle down and get serious then we’ll have nothing. Much like: “You had better find someone to love you before you get too old otherwise you’ll die alone.”

I don’t profess to know a whole lot about economics and I’m sure there are some very challenging things happening to our global balance. I do understand energy, however, so I know this: When we hold on too tightly to energy, especially out of fear, we derail the natural circuit of currency.

Human evolution, or anthropogeny, is the origin and evolution of Homo sapiens as a distinct species from other hominids, great apes and placental mammals. I have always appreciated the commonly known horizontal illustration of the evolution of “man” from stooped over simians to almost vertical sapiens. I believe we humans were brilliantly engineered as a species to adapt, grow and survive and while it is incomprehensible that our species could develop into anything but what we have become today, there is no logical reason to believe that we are done growing!

However… I also believe that our evolution continues to occur not only as a developing species but also as a developing consciousness. Indeed, the fact that we dream is one of the strongest supports for this belief. Dreaming is non-essential when it comes to survival as a body but I believe it is essential with regard to our development and evolution as thinking, feeling, consciously metaphysical beings.

Dreaming is the process whereby the unconscious mind communicates with the conscious mind in an attempt to create wholeness in our beings. Dreams are the bridges that allow movement back and forth between what we think we know and what we deeply, unconsciously, even metaphysically know.

Dreams also allow us to transport information or events that may be painful or confusing to an environment that is at once emotionally real but physically unreal; we inject these confusing or challenging thoughts and feelings into a psychic Petri dish where we experiment and observe ourselves in a safe container.

Dream analysis is a key component in the process of becoming whole as a person. While interpretation and input from a book, a psychotherapist or one of Oprah’s guests can be extremely beneficial, it can never be as meaningful or profound as it is when we figure something out on our own. Our desire to make peace with or establish an understanding of something that occurs in the dream world is truly a movement toward deeper awareness of ourselves. It speaks volumes about our evolution as an intelligent consciousness.

In addition, dreams often involve the vast array of human experiences from our deepest desires to our deepest wounds. Therefore, analyzing these emotional places within ourselves helps us make peace with both extremes and steers us back toward the center, fashioning a baseline of peace and balance.

One need only observe a (rapidly diminishing) animal of prey to see the level of calm and equilibrium they exhibit when moving through the world. It would be unusual indeed to witness a panther (theroretically) who can’t execute dinner because of too much strain and stress, fear of failure or residual childhood trauma. Yet, for all of our development, knowledge and understanding about the world, we humans seem far less at peace with our essential selves than those animals who are arguably less “evolved.”

Personally, I’d rather be chased by wolves, stalked by a panther or shot at by crazy gunmen in my dreams then in my waking life in order to learn something about myself and expand my conscious awareness of life. Still a scary experience, but far less life threatening!