Fearless Thinking: Moving Past the Obstacles to Personal & Social Evolution

By Carol Aubrey

It is transition time on planet Earth, and we are the transition team. Our job is nothing less than to break from millenniums of fear-based thinking and the human imperative to dominate and control, and move toward our divine connection. The domination/subservient paradigm under which we have toiled has kept us in a hamster wheel of shame, blame, and guilt, with the perpetual need to judge, condemn and punish ourselves and each other. It is time to break free, and Fearless Thinking shows us how.

Carol Aubrey destroys the myths that are destroying us and halts old-age thinking in its tracks. Shining the light on the path to authenticity in our lives, she inspires us to think and act fearlessly. The great shift or evolutionary leap that we are on the brink of making is spiritual in nature, happening inside each of us as we consciously free ourselves from the prison of old mindsets. We ourselves embody the shift to a world beyond fear.

Sparking our imaginative and co-creative powers by providing new languaging and a new outlook, Carol Aubrey invites us to discern the remarkable and challenging gameboard of life and to view ourselves as powerful, purposeful and intentional players on this gameboard.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 11, 2009
• ISBN: 9780595615735

Carol Aubrey

Carol Aubrey is an educator, activist, and inspirational speaker. She has taught at Brooklyn College, Florida Atlantic University, and Lesley University in Cambridge, MA. She gives workshops on how to transform our personal and business lives and act fearlessly in a changing world. Carol spends her time between Santa Fe, NM and Santa Barbara, CA.

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Copyright © 2009 by Carol Aubrey

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ISBN: 978-0-595-50594-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-0-595-61573-5 (ebk)

Cover design painting © Susan ‘SusieQ’ Wood, Environmental Event Artist,

www.SusieQwebsite.com

Back cover photograph of the author © www.danawaldon.com

iUniverse rev. date: 02/06/2009

Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PREFACE

CHAPTER 1

THE CALL: CLAIMING YOUR INNER POWER

CHAPTER 2

DISSOLVING THE

SHAME/BLAME MYTH

CHAPTER 3

DISSOLVING JUDGMENT

AND THE PUNISHMENT MYTH

CHAPTER 4

DISSOLVING DIVISIONS IN RELIGION

AND THE MYTH OF SEPARATION

CHAPTER 5

DISSOLVING THE BAN ON EMOTIONS

AND THE MYTH OF SUFFERING

CHAPTER 6

DISSOLVING THE

DOMINATOR SYNDROME

CHAPTER 7

CLAIMING RESPONSIBILITY

CHAPTER 8

THE SHADOWS OF AMERICA: DOMESTIC

CHAPTER 9

THE SHADOWS OF AMERICA: INTERNATIONAL

CHAPTER 10

CLAIMING PEACE

CHAPTER 11

CLAIMING IMAGINATION

CHAPTER 12

CLAIMING THE 21ST CENTURY

CHAPTER 13

HOW GREAT CAN YOU TAKE IT?

END NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

This book is dedicated to my sons, Julian and Jason, two remarkable young men who are travelling down powerful paths. I am honored to be your Mom. Thank you for the gift of your support, humor, wisdom, encouragement, confidence, and continual lessons. I will always love you.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Writing my first book has been a long odyssey, and there are many who helped along the way. My heartfelt thanks go to the following: Darnella Cordier for her editorial midwifery during the early stages of this book and for her confidence in my writing; my good friends Susan Wood and Dawn Preuss, who listened to each chapter after I wrote it and kept cheering me on; Danielle Dorman for her editorial skills during the final reshaping of the book; Janet Cook and the Friday night Boca ACIM group for their encouragement, faith and fun; my online friends at the Artist’s Circle, birthed on the Oprah message boards—especially Karen Brown in Canada for her wisdom and feedback; Marie for her psychic guidance and encouragement; my long-time friends Lesley Rogers Hand and Scottie Rhodes for always being there; and spirit guide Spotted Eagle and channel Jennie Marlow, who entered my life near the end of this book and opened up a new chapter in my spiritual journey.

Finally, my deep gratitude to my former husband, Edgard Quiroga, for his wisdom, love, and kindness, and to our terrific sons Julian and Jason, to whom this book is dedicated.

PREFACE

We have chosen an auspicious and courageous time to be alive. More than merely the witnesses for the emergence of a new world, we embody the change in our own lives. We have a deep desire to navigate change fearlessly because the times in which we live require radical change. The journey to find our own power, inner peace and courage is essential for the peaceful unfolding of the 21st century and the urgent shift to a new age.

As we participate in this evolutionary awakening, we are transitioning from reliance on a power outside of ourselves to relying on our own power within. We are leaving behind millenniums of patriarchal patterns of domination and control based upon fear, and waking up to our own inner divinity and authority. This monumental shift in power is opening us up to the recognition that what held true for the last 200,000 years no longer holds true for the next 200,000 years. The greatest danger for us right now is to become afraid of the uncertainty brought on by this shift and attempt to run backwards by seeking to control and dominate, yet again. More than anything, this is a time for embracing the unknown and learning to dance with not knowing. The more clearly we understand the forces that are swirling around us, the more successful we will be in riding this evolutionary wave to new shores.

The game-board we are playing on is spectacular and infallible. It is a gift given to us by our Creator, and it is completely our choice whether we play or not. That means that if we are here on Earth at this moment in time, it is because we have chosen to be here. We have chosen to participate in this evolutionary shift, and we have an important role to play. Our success lies in our growing ability to look with clarity at this magnificent game-board of life on earth and to realize our power as co-creators. The perfection of the design and the genius of the game as I have come to understand it leave me in awe. As we remove the barriers and learn to play fearlessly, we can become master players in a world that is truly wondrous and filled with profound meaning and potential.

My hope is that you become master players on this game-board; that you choose to become fearless and become champions of your own evolution. The following chapters will clear the obstacles that threaten to block your move forward, and bring you awareness of the destructive and illusionary myths that have brought our world to the edge. As you see how these myths play out in the world, you will also recognize how they have played out in your own life. The more you understand their distortion and the thoughts they feed on, the less you will consent to their existence. When you withdraw your consent from the destructive premises that have ruled the past, you open yourself to receiving new ways of living and thinking that benefit you, the Earth, and all of her people. Creating new ways of living and actualizing creative and harmonious responses to life are the missions that are before us.

As we witness old social structures falling apart, it is vital that we look with new eyes at our basic assumptions and beliefs-only then can we be assured that we will not bring regressive patterns forward. You will find a reshuffling of thought cards that have previously defined our existence on earth and some new cards as well. In this reshuffling many old assumptions and ideas will be challenged. Allow these familiar ideas to fall away. You may find you will keep a few new cards; you may find you change your whole deck. If you keep in mind that the goal is empowerment, you will know what to keep and what to change.

Our individual and collective thought forms and belief systems have sweeping ramifications on all levels of our lives. We can no longer separate into isolated boxes our personal and spiritual growth from our interactions with our world community and the world’s social and political journey. We will therefore look at the bigger picture to understand the underlying influences that have shaped us and our world. We will look at the interconnection between spiritual, emotional and political aspects. Once we have cleared away the obstacles in our individual and collective paths, we can clean off the lens in our mind and refocus our eyes. What do we envision? What, exactly, are we birthing? In the final chapters we will look at some possibilities as well as our infinite capacity to imagine and create from our visions.

I share some of my own experiences and struggles knowing that our struggles may wear a different face, but at heart they are similar. Our own individual journeys provide the answers to worldwide problems facing us today. That is why you and I are so important. Our success in arriving at the other side of our struggles signals the potential success of our world arriving at a place of peace and harmony.

In my travels around the U.S. teaching diversity and creativity, I have been struck by how fearful many Americans have become. Afraid to express their deepest convictions for fear they may offend others, become less secure, or get in trouble with the powers that be, they have subdued their spirits and kept the best part of themselves in hiding. Democracy suffers when we keep our views to ourselves. We have spent many years exploring the terrain inside ourselves as part of the human potential, spiritual and self-help movements. Now it is time to cast our eyes and energy outward and use these same principles to shape our world. It is time to emerge from our retreat centers and meditation rooms, roll out our mats across the continents, and practice world yoga.

While I write as an American, the global community of which America is a part has remained in my consciousness throughout the writing of this book. It is my hope that this book will feed the spirit of progressive people everywhere and inspire fearlessness, for we all share common desires on this small, blue planet we temporarily call home.

Carol Aubrey

Chapter 1

THE CALL: Claiming Your Inner Power

As millions of people all over the globe

become powerful in their own right

and connected to their inner Self,

the equation for governing our

world community changes.

Chapter 1

THE CALL: Claiming Your Inner Power

Whether we label this dynamic period as the end of the age of Pisces and the beginning of the age of Aquarius, whether we call it an evolutionary planetary awakening and birth requiring a quantum leap, a tremendous shift is indeed happening. Our world is emerging from centuries of limiting and destructive thought systems that have produced violence, confrontation, divisions among people and disrespect for the planet that sustains us. These thought patterns have brought us to the edge of our known world, and here we stand. Globally, people are recognizing that to continue with past mindsets can lead only to mass destruction. Poised at the edge, the next step for us is either conscious evolution or planetary destruction.

As if internally programmed for the immense task at hand, millions of people around the globe are no longer choosing to accept the thought patterns of past generations. In the Americas, in Europe, in Africa and India, in Asia, Russia, and the Middle East, literally from one end of the globe to the other, people are re-writing the rules under which we live as a world community. Awakening to their inner power, many are going through their own quantum leap in consciousness. We are transforming the whining dictates of our fearful, egoic selves and identifying more and more with a powerful and divine sense of self. We are emerging as universal humans, humans motivated by compassion and creativity who have an intuitive understanding of the interconnectedness and unity of all beings on our planet, and who further recognize our planet as an integral part of a vast, expanding, loving and very alive universe. We are awakening to our capacity to co-create and self-organize, and we have become aware that we are responsible for what happens on our planet. It is indeed an awesome responsibility.

While it can be exciting to be the bridge, the link, the point of change between the old and the new, it can sometimes feel like a tug of war. With our feet still immersed in 20th century soil and our bodies stretching across a sea of often turbulent and violent change, we are sinking our hands into the terrain of a new land. In spite of the intense discomfort that can arise, we carry within us an awareness of the magnitude of this time. When you look back on your life you will find you have been preparing for the part you are about to play, even though you may still be uncertain as to the nature of your role. You are ready to take risks because it is the time to take risks. You may have even come to the point where to continue living within the parameters of your past frames of reference has become not only unacceptable but intolerable. Many communities and nations have come to the same edge.

As you take the last steps to your own emergence and find the courage to seek and accomplish the work your heart is yearning to do, you will evolve surely and steadily toward a new world. The sheer exhilarating nearness of it quickens our final steps toward it.

What will this new world look like? We will find there are thousands of ways people can express themselves and challenge themselves other than through confrontation, attack, and the control of others. Using our inherent genius and brilliance, and with our immense energies freed from the drain of defense, oppression and attack, our possibilities for personal and collective creative expression are exciting to imagine.

Where We Are Now

The world is signaling for new directions, and authorship of the 21st century is yours to claim. Consciousness is at the highest level it has ever been. It is no longer limited to a handful of people, as in past centuries, but is the growing achievement of millions. As people all over the globe become powerful in their own right and connected to their inner Self, the equation for governing our world community changes. The oppression of life by dominating others is no longer possible. Collectively we are becoming, as author Jonathan Schell so aptly titled one of his books, The Unconquerable World. That we have finally arrived at this point is cause for great rejoicing.

Our arrival has not been a coincidence. For the past few decades our highly charged planet has been evolving at ever quickening speeds. We have taken this energy and explored the terrain inside us with as much daring and determination as the early discoverers explored the world outside. This inward journey has brought millions of people into direct contact with the divine without any filters or anyone intervening. People are authenticating their truths by their own personal experience and inner knowing. They understand it is a solo trip, this journey inward, and they are not afraid to claim the freedom to experience it as they choose. They carry within them their own validation and the sure knowledge of the divine purpose of their journey. As they awaken to their divinity and power, they validate and strengthen the divinity and power in each individual on the planet.

We are at many different stages in our empowerment, yet collectively our transformation is like a wave moving across the continents. Shining the light for each other so that together we can find our way out of the old world, our helping hands are taking many forms. Every positive, life affirming action that takes place is a helping hand. We are light workers for each other regardless of what stage we are at in our empowerment.

Empowerment is an essential step in our evolution. After thousands of years of consistent, disempowering myths and dogma, it is no wonder that stepping into our authentic power has become a central focus for people worldwide. We are learning that empowerment grows the more we connect and identify with our highest self. We realize answers are found within, not on the outside, and we have become eager listeners to our own inner voice.

What does empowerment look like? On the road to empowerment you understand the power of conscious choice, and you now decide for yourself what you will believe. You realize your happiness is up to you, and so you explore what happiness means to you. In this process, you re-claim hidden feelings and emotions, welcoming them as essential guides to your current state of being. As trust in your emotions grows, so does your ability to heal old wounds and make choices aligned with your heart’s desire for joy, creativity, and peace. The outer world holds less and less power over you. You rely less on other people’s guidelines, and you begin to use your own inner guide to sort through answers. This guide has many names. You may call it your inner voice, your instincts or intuition, your sixth sense, your essential or highest self. The more you call on it, the stronger it gets.

You begin to get the feeling that you are not alone. A divine source is within you, nudging you in all the right directions. You recognize that this divine source within you is interconnected to the creative energy that flows throughout the universe. Synchronistic signs and occurrences happen in your outside world, and you have faith that the Creation signals the way. You allow yourself to act quickly on these signs, and when you do you find you have entered a cosmic flow, the jet stream of the Creation. You recognize that your inner guide speaks in the language of desire and often speaks first, while the voice of fear or your smaller self speaks second and tries to sabotage your desires through doubt. Ever more able to distinguish between these two voices, you listen more and more to the voice of your inner desires.

One fine moment it dawns on you that you’re a lot closer to your authentic power than you thought. You begin to follow your intuition in earnest, realizing you are a light worker for others, just as others are light workers for you. You recognize that you carry important messages, and that the Creation is constantly seeking your attention so that you can hear the messages you are to bring: the event you are to organize, the phone call you are to make, the idea you are to share, the gift of flowers you are to bring. It does not matter if you are not perfect. When you listen and respond to your inner messages, your actions influence others and the course of events in ways you may not realize. The more you connect with your inner guide, listen and act, the more light you bring to the world.

The wisdom we have acquired during the past few decades has been crucial to our growth. It is important to understand