5 things you must do immediately to survive and thrive in 2012

8/3/2019 5 Things You Must Do Immediately to Survive and Thrive in 2012

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By JazzmYn*, CreativeCommons

5 Things You Must Do Immediately to Survive and

Thrive in the 2012


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5 Things You Must Do Immediately to Survive and Thrive

in the 2012

Jed Diamond, Ph.D. has been a health-care professional for more than 40 years. He is the

author of 9 books, including Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places, Male Menopause, The

Irritable Male Syndrome,andMr. Mean: Saving Your Relationship from the Irritable Male

Syndrome. I offer counseling to men, women, and couples in his office in California or by phone

with people throughout the U.S. and around the world. To receive a Free E-book on Mens

Health and a free subscription to my e-newsletter go tohttp://facebook.com/menalivenow. If

you enjoy my articles, please subscribe. I write to everyone who joins my tribe of followers. My

new book, MenAlive: Stop Killer Stress with Simple Energy Healing Toolsis due for

publication in May 2012.

On May 30, 2011, a leader in theSpanish Indignantsmovement, inspired by the

Arab Springmade a call for world-wide protests to draw attention to economic

inequalities and human rights violations. I still have a vivid image of being in Madrid,

Spain, in June 2011 and seeing 40,000 men, women, and children, marching for a

better world.

The protest received additional attention when the internet groupAnonymous

encouraged its followers to take part in the protests, calling protesters to "flood lower

Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades andOccupy Wall Street". They

promoted the protest with a poster featuring a dancer atop Wall Street's iconic ChargingBull. The first protest in the U.S. was held at Zuccotti Park in New York City on

September 17, 2011. TheOccupy Movementcontinues to spread throughout the world.

Two Responses: Love vs. Fear

The phrase we are the 99% is a political slogan used by protesters of the Occupy

movement. It refers to the concentration of wealth among the top 1% of income earners

compared to the other 99 percent. Like all grass-roots protests, the media at first

ridiculed the movement. Not surprising since major media are owned by large

corporations that are run by the 1%. As writer Jack Etkin says, Occupy went after

The Corporations... so the Corporate-owned-media are attacking Occupy.

Police response has been mixed. Those reacting from fear often use violence.

Those who are more secure find peaceful means to deal with protests. In Oakland,

California, riot-gear clad police officers cleared demonstrators from their encampment

using rubber bullets and tear gas grenades, gravely wounding an Iraq war veteran in the

process. The violent raid, authorized by Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, was harshly
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criticized by Dan Siegel, the mayor's top legal adviser. He called the raid "tragically

unnecessary" in a press conference announcing his resignation. Siegel, a civil rights

attorney, followed up the press conference with a sharply-worded Twitter post. "Support

Occupy Oakland, not the 1 percent and its government facilitators," Siegel wrote.

Other cities have taken a different approach. In Albany, N.Y., a planned move by themayor -- with the support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo -- to oust Occupy demonstrators from

a city park near the capitol was quashed after the city's police chief and district attorney

aired reservations.

"So long as we have no violence that is being perpetrated against law enforcement

and no damage to state property, there's room for peaceful coexistence here," the

district attorney, P. David Soares, said in a recent interview with the Associated Press.

"I support the right of all parties to assemble peacefully and express their points of

view."

2012: Shift Happens Everywhere

Although the Occupy Movement seems to have emerged out of nowhere and

surprised many people, others have seen the change coming for some time. As Richard

Heinberg goes said in his prophetic 2003 book, The Partys Over: Oil, War and the Fate of

Industrial Societies, Industrial societies have been flourishing for roughly 150 years now, using

fossil energy resources to build far-flung trade empires, to fuel the invention of spectacular new

technologies, and to fund a way of life that is opulent and fast-paced.

But the opulent life-style of the 1%, which many in the 99% tried to emulate, could not

continue. It is as if part of the human race has been given a sudden windfall of wealth anddecided to spend that wealth by throwing an extravagant party, says Heinberg. The party has

not been without its discontents or costs. From time to time, a lone voice issuing from here or

there has called for the party to quiet down or cease altogether. The partiers have paid no

attention. But soon the party itself will be a fading memorynot because anyone decided to

heed the voice of moderation, but because the wine and food are gone and the harsh light of

morning has come.

John Peter is President and founder of The Arlington Institute and is considered by many to

be one of the most informed futurists in the world. In his 2008 book A Vision for 2012: Planning

for Extraordinary Change, he says, I believe we are entering one of those punctuation points in

the evolution of our species that will rapidly propel us into an unimaginable new era. This newworld wont be at all like what we currently find familiar. Because this shift is so fundamental

and acute, the most positive option will not make sense at all from this vantage so early in the

transition. In the face of almost certain uncertainty, our job is to rise to the occasion, to evolve

in our thinking, our perceptions, and in our commitment to make this transition as positive as

possible.


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As we get ready to move into 2012, there are two ways we can do it. We can look around us

and see that more and more people inhabit the planet(now approaching 7 billion)that has

limited resources. We can feed our fears, hoard what we have, and maintain an apocalyptic

vision of billions of people dying so the 1% can continue to live their opulent lifestyle. The other

vision is to feed our love and compassion, share the limited resources of the planet, and find joy

in living more simply so that others can simply live. Two films describe these approaches: The2009 disaster film2012and the 2011 filmThe Economics of Happiness.

Heres the poster for the film 2012.
http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.htmlhttp://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.htmlhttp://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_%28film%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_%28film%29http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_%28film%29http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/http://www.theeconomicsofhappiness.org/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_%28film%29http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html


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Heres the poster forThe Economics of Happiness.


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Heres What You Can Do to Survive and Thrive in 2012

1. Understand that there are real stresses we face in the world and they wont

end in 2012.

The changes that we are in the midst of are real and serious, but they areongoing. There wont be a simple fix and no hero will save us. The changes

result from a combination of factors including the following:

Economic stress--From instabilities in the global economic system due to

increasing debt and ever-widening income gaps between rich and poor

people.

Emotional stressFrom fear of losing resources and increasing violence from

those who wish to control the critical supplies of oil, coal, water, and land.

Climate stressFrom changes in the makeup of our atmosphere.

Population stressArising from differences in the population growth rates

between rich and poor societies, and from the spiraling growth of megacities

in poor countries.

Environmental stressFrom worsening damage to our land, water, forests,

and fisheries.

Energy stressFrom the increasing scarcity of conventional petroleum

products.

2. Recognize that we each can influence the future by focusing on what we

want.

Many of us feel that we have no control over events in the world, that we are pawns

in a game that someone else is playing. That is not the case. There are an increasing

number of studies that show that focusing our attention and intention on the future we

desire can help to bring it about.

ResearcherLynn McTaggarthas demonstrated that people can actually impact

whether there is war or peace in an area based on our collective intention. She says,

An entirely new scientific story is emerging that challenges many of our Newtonian and

Darwinian assumptions including our most basic premise: the sense of things as
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separate entities in competition for survival. She concludes, The latest evidence from

quantum physics offers the extraordinary possibility that all of life exists in a dynamic

relationship of cooperation.

We can choose what kinds of books and blogs we read, movies we watch, or T.V.

programs we view. Do you want a disaster world or a happiness world? What focusour attention on expands. I suggest you check out the Economics of Happiness. It

offers the kind of world I want to focus my heart and soul on achieving.

3. Stop looking for good guys and bad guys. We are all in this together.

Whether you are on the left, the right, or somewhere in the middle, there is a

tendency to see the world as peopled by good guys and bad guys (and of course, they

are not just men who are good or bad). Research scientistRebecca Costacalls this

irrational opposition.

In her excellent book, The Watchmans Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction

Costa says, Irrational opposition occurs when the act of rejecting, criticizing,

suppressing, ignoring, misrepresenting, marginalizing, and resisting rational solutions

becomes the accepted norm.

We live in an increasingly complex world. One way to make things simpler is simply

to find some bad guys to oppose and get passionate about getting rid of them. Whether

the them are Republicans or Democrats, rich people or rabble rousers, the upper class

or the middle class, its easy to demonize the opposition and lionize the people on our

side. But the truth is we are all human beings on a very small planet in a big universe.

We will either survive together or not at all.

4. Understand that we have a good wolf and a bad wolf inside each of us.

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. "A fight is going on inside me,"

he says to the boy.

"It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy,

sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride,

superiority, and ego." He continued, "The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope,

serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and

faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which

wolf will win?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."
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There is no good group and bad group. There is only each of us with our own

excesses and deficits. We need to be kind to ourselves and others. Whether the love

inside us is able to win over the fear depends on which side we put our energy on,

which side we feed. The more we tell ourselves stories that are driven by fear, the more

we will feel threatened and look for others to attack. The more we remind ourselves of

all the good we have received and the love that surrounds us, the more we will work

together with others to solve our collective problems.

5. Accept that lasting solutions must occur on the energy level not the

material level.

When we try and figure out how to deal with all the stresses noted in #1 above

economic, emotional, climate, population, environmental, and energyits easy to get

discouraged. The problems just seem too complex to solve. How do we feed everyone

in the world? How do we protect ourselves from those who would do us harm? How do

we find ways to use the resources of our finite planet in ways that supports life?

The great physicist Albert Einstein said, Problems cannot be solved by the same

level of thinking that created them. The problems we face today are all material

problemstoo many people, too few resources, wasting the resources we have, etc.

But there is another level to problem solving that occurs in the realm of energy.

The picture most people call scientific is obsolete, says Ervin Lazlo, arguably

the worlds greatest systems theorist and interdisciplinary scientist and philosopher. He

tells us that science is in the midst of a shift from matter to energy as the primary

reality and that, In the emerging concept of the new science there is no categoricaldivide between the physical world, the living world, and the world of mind and

consciousness. That is a very radical and transformative statement from a scientist

with solid credentials.

The new field of Energy Healing can help us solve problems that seem insolvable,

whether they are chronic pain and never seems to go away or chronic conflict going on

in the world. In my new book,MenAlive: Stop Killer Stress with Simple Energy Healing

Tools,I give you the information you need to use these tools in 2012 and beyond.

Its true we live in turbulent times. We will be buffeted by the seas of change.

Individually we are likely to be swept away. Working together we can create tribes that

nurture and sustain us. We can join our tribes together to create a more joyful and

sustainable world than the one we are living in today. I invite you to join the tribe at

www.MenAlive.com.
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5 things you must do immediately to survive and thrive in 2012

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