Exemplars by Linda Sechrist
Linda Sechrist has been the Natural Awakenings Senior Staff Writer, Director of Community Outreach, and New Franchise Managing Editor as well as a member of the healthy lifestyle magazine’s national editorial team. Linda has been telling meaningful stories of change agents for 25 years. “From vast research and thousands of interviews, there are 4 things I know for certain—change is the only currency, there is no one answer to any problem, no one knows everything, and Consciousness is nudging each of us to awaken and begin coming together in community now.”
Listed below are some of the exemplars written by Linda that have appeared over the years in various issues of Natural Awakenings magazine. They are listed by category. Just click on the "PDF" icon to view the full article.
Global Awakening
A movement to bring about global awakening has been growing ever since 1968. Quantum physics, the science of yoga and spiritual practices rooted in ancient cultures, disseminated by books, teachings by spiritual luminaries and websites such as Conscious.TV, has exposed millions to the concept of consciously participating in the evolution of humanity to bring about a world that works for all.
New Economy
Is an economy possible that change the rules to benefit the quality of life for America’s people and proposes that the kind of society that makes for health, happiness, true prosperity and sustainability is one with strong local economies and flourishing communities.
Conscious Evolution
Barbara Marx Hubbard’s “first age of conscious evolution” is a worldview of how we are moving from evolution by chance to evolution by choice. This means that we are responsible, and as we accept our part in the responsibility for evolution, we must create structures of cooperation and co-creation, rather than competition
Environmentalism
For author Paul Hawken, a leading environmental entrepreneur working with a coalition of research fellows, advisors and expert reviewers, the climate goal is drawdown, or reversing global warming. In Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming, is a compendium of the 100 most substantive solutions that already exist.
Oneness
Widening the windows of perception to view ourselves as no longer separate, but part of a unified whole can lead to the realization that the organizing principle of the cosmos is agape love, an ultimate form of unconditional love that accepts all things existing in nature without regard to conditions, expectations, shortcomings, flaws or faults.
In the absence of the normal functioning of Jill Bolte Taylor’s left orientation association area, the author of My Stroke of Insight could actually see that her skin was not her physical boundary. As a result of the glorious state Bolte connected to everything and everyone around her, leaving her unable to see herself as a single, separate solid entity.
Societal Conditioning
We are influenced consciously or subconsciously by mainstream media messages. Today’s six media giants—Comcast, The Walt Disney Company, Twenty-First Century Fox, Time Warner, Viacom and DirecTV—control the vast majority of what we watch on TV and in movies, listen to on the radio and read in books, newspapers and magazines. This handful of conglomerates form a cartel that wields enough influence to affect U.S. politics and define social values.
Paradigm Shifts
Stories about how ordinary people are energizing local and online communities of practice to improve intergenerational communication, eliminate monetary influence in politics and restore democracy, and support social justice, community wealth building, independent media, sound health care and clean food and water are frequently missing from mainstream media.
Mainstream media’s focus on the negative aspects of conflict—discord, divisiveness, intolerance, violence, incivility, injustice, chaos and complex problems—hides a counter-movement that is convening constructive conversations where participants are initiating dialogue and deliberations intended to resolve conflicts and create cohesiveness, collaboration, cooperation and compromise among local factions that disagree on how to deal with everything from health care and social justice to environmental protection and climate science.
The emerging paradigm of heart-based feminine leadership is attuning women to their inner strengths, beliefs, each other and our Earth. Women who once longed for a culture that would reflect their highest priorities are now creating one in which they support each other and make a difference.
Evolutionary Processes
How Bruce Lipton’s science of epigenetics awakens us to the fact that we can realize control of our genes by regulating the environment in which we live and our perception of it, making us the master of our own genetics rather than a victim of heredity.
The evolutionary process naturally draws humans together. As an uncertain future emerges, new and more intuitive methods and spiritual practices for developing collective wisdom, human potential and the skills for practicing community are also emerging.
Check back here often as new articles are added on a regular basis