How to Handle an Unconscious Society

Sometimes It's Hard to Find the Right Direction in Society

It's very easy to blame society and the collective unconsciousness of humanity for a lot of things. However, blaming others is one of the ego's most used avoidance techniques, and none of us can wait around for some global spiritual awakening to wipe out all of the suffering humans cause. Each of us must do his/her own work.

In clearing our issues, we come face-to-face with a lot of social unconsciousness and social expectations. This social resistance is often a big hurdle as people come to stages where they have to let go of certain social patterns and beliefs while others around them continue to believe in those patterns and beliefs and act them out.

So I felt like taking a moment to discuss stepping outside of social rules.

Seeing Social Unconsciousness

Social unconsciousness is easy to find, particularly when you're not a part of the society. It's one gift that traveling to other countries can bestow upon you. Getting out of your country allows you to see different ways people can think and live.

In Western culture, a lot of emphasis is placed upon ideals around family, hard work, competition, having relationships, accepting common holidays, more hard work, working even harder, burning out and continuing to work, and much more. Most Westerners accept these things so implicitly they have forgotten that these beliefs are all made up.

Some of these beliefs as well as many others aren't a big deal; others are.

But as you drop into greater freedom inside yourself, you'll find where parts of you are still attached to old customs, beliefs, and suffering. To continue you on, you have to step outside the cultural norm.

Finding Space Outside the Norm

When you are stuck in any issue, stepping outside it can be scary because it is so unknown. Plus, you may have no support from the people in your life. However, when you take that leap of faith, you now have the freedom to do whatever feels true. So you don't lose the ability to follow a custom or social standard. You gain the flexibility to do those things and much, much more.

Certainly, some people won't like the changes you make. But there's always going to be someone who doesn't like something you do. Choose freedom instead of being enslaved to other people's opinion.

Dealing Wisely With Deep Unconsciousness

With that said, some of you may be in more oppressive living situations than others. How you respond to those situations should be in alignment with your intuition and with the wisdom to appreciate what unconscious people may do in response. Be mindful of the changes you make and the nature of the cultural illusion you are immersed in.This isn't an excuse to stay small and oppress yourself. This is an encouragement to appreciate the power of unconsciousness in others.

However...

Most of you probably don't have to worry about being stoned to death for stepping outside a social norm. So don't be afraid to change.

Being afraid of change is precisely why a lot of societies stay stuck in unconsciousness. The unconsciousness is familiar, and people often prefer familiarity to freedom.

Making Social Changes

In time, some of you may be called to help change society and to help heal some of the unconsciousness. Do this when you are clear on who you are and what you want. There is so much pain in the world that it is important to know ourselves first so that we engage in creating the positive change that is most true to us.

If we get into a struggle to fix society too soon, it is often our own egos just trying to make the world "safe" and bend it to our deeper false beliefs.

And we have a lot of false beliefs. We need to be humble and address our deeper issues before presuming to know what a society should or should not look like/be like.

So, we learn to go inwards to free ourselves of attachments. When we truly know what is real, then it is possible to help others find the truth within themselves.

For some more thoughts about social unconsciousness, you can check out these blog posts:

Bullied, Beaten, and Abused: The Prevalence of Physical Violence in Western Culture

How to Create Conscious Change

Getting Out of the Rat Race and the End of Competition

How to Be Spiritually Conscious with Unconscious People

7 Ego Tricks to Watch Out for