HIGH ALERT vs HIGHER AWARENESS: Choosing Love, Not Fear As I write, we’re approaching the third anniversary of 9-11. And what a three years it has been! Within this time span, I have witnessed and experienced mind-boggling changes on so many fronts – in my own personal life, in the lives of friends, family, students and clients, as well as the massive changes occurring with ever-increasing intensity on global levels. The changes have been challenging, frightening, exciting, foundation-shaking, awe-inspiring……..and always, they have been great catalysts for growth and awakening. Stress Response: Relaxation Response: -Heart rate speeds up -Heart rate slows down -Blood pressure increases -Blood pressure decreases -Breathing rate increases and becomes shallow -Breathing rate decreasesand becomes deeper -Circulation draws inward -Blood flow to the brain increases -Fats, cholesterol and sugar in the blood increase -Electrical activity (brain waves)become more synchronized -Stomach secretes more acid -Alpha waves, associated with feelings of peace and well-being increase -Immune system slows down   When I think back to the fateful day in 2001, the most powerful images that remain, along with the catastrophic images of the planes hitting the towers, are the many, many subsequent images of people coming together in countless ways to help and to heal. As a nation still in shock, our immediate response was an heroic marshalling of forces, an instinctive response that ignited a sense of common purpose, causing us to unite our energies to do what needed to be done – from the superhuman efforts of the firefighters to the grassroots expressions of support that were evident across the entire country. We had a powerful energetic response, and directed it appropriately. We might compare this to what happens when, say, a child is trapped under the wheel of an automobile: the rescuer suddenly is able to marshal unseen forces, and with an intense sense of purpose, rallies behind the immediate cause of lifting the otherwise unliftable 4500 pounds of metal off of the victim. Both of these examples exemplify the classic “stress-response” mechanism, which has been hard-wired into our systems since pre-historic days. Fight or flight. Adrenalin at its finest. (Think cave man and large, 4-legged creature.) Fortunately, the way our internal wiring system was designed, once the perceived danger is dealt with, either by fighting or fleeing, the system naturally returns to normal: the adrenaline rush abates, the heart rate slows down, the blood pressure decreases, the breathing slows and deepens, the immune system returns to full function…to name but a few of the built-in features of the “relaxation response”, which allows the body to quickly reestablish equilibrium. But what happens when your government advocates maintaining that state of “high alert” - constantly?! In essence, it is asking us to live in a constant “stress response mode” - to continually create, in our minds, a “perceived danger”: Terrorists…potentially lurking everywhere. A grown-up version of the boogeyman. Who doesn’t remember how, as a child, the very thought of that boogeyman hiding under your bed or in your closet would send your heart racing, make your palms sweat, your breathing become rapid and shallow, your blood pressure soar… Was the boogeyman real? Certainly in the child’s mind, he was. Are terrorists real? Certainly, in this present-day world, they are. Yet are they a real and present danger in this moment, in this situation? Is one hiding in your closet right now? Or even in your airport? And, even if he or she were, would your having been on “high alert”, in “fight-or-flight” mode, 24/7 for months on end, help or hinder you when or if the danger became real and immediate? And, more importantly, is it worth the havoc it would have wreaked in your system in the meantime? Let’s look again at the boogeyman example. The important concept here is that, whether that boogeyman was real or not, simply imagining the “perceived danger” was enough to trigger and sustain the stress response. The same is true regarding terrorism. By continually choosing to create fear-based images of “what-if” scenarios, the symptoms of the stress response (see sidebar) are continually re-triggered, sustaining a chronic, highly-aroused state of the parasympathetic nervous system. This, at best, is a terrible waste of energy. At worst, it can be life-threatening. How much better to spend that emotional/mental energy creating states of inner peace and harmony, of holding the image (no matter how it contrary to current out-picturing it may seem) of the world as a safe place for the children of future generations. How much better to take physical steps, even if small ones, to begin to create that peace in the outer world, however you may be inspired to do so. I’m reminded of Gandhi’s words: “You must become the change you seek.” Think back to the hours and days immediately following the news of 9/11. Remember how it felt to have your heart open, to feel a compelling need to contribute to the healing of the greater whole? Remember how it felt to be suddenly transported beyond your personal daily survival concerns, to really feel a part of that greater whole? How easily it slips away. And yet, how easily it can be recreated. We do not always have control over events in the outer world. We do, however, always have the choice of how to respond to those events. I think one of the greatest blessings that has occurred in the aftermath of 9-11, and the series of catalytic events that followed, is the call to action that so many of us felt, and continue to feel. Many “product-of-the-sixties baby-boomers” have been shaken out of their semi-narcissistic cocoons. The urgency factor has increased exponentially. Of course, we all have our own paths. There are as many ways to contribute to the Greater Good as there are individual contributors. But I believe many of us have felt a calling to come together in a deeper, more effective way. It is time to do what we came here to do -. whether we feel one hundred percent ready or not. As Will Rogers said, “If you wait until you are ready, you will wait forever.” This is a time, perhaps like no other in history, when I believe we are being called upon to move beyond our personal ego-based fears and concerns, and offer ourselves – our gifts, our talents, our time, our energy – as vehicles for healing the greater whole. And as altruistic as this may sound, it really comes down to moment-to-moment choices: Choosing to exercise your right to vote, choosing to attend that neighborhood meeting, even though you’re really tired, choosing to make that phone call to someone in need, even though you’ve had a rough day, choosing to hold thoughts of peace, instead of fear or blame… It all comes down to awareness…and choice. So I invite you to choose peace….daily…in each moment…. to open your heart in love and compassion, not to close it in fear. By making time in your daily schedule to simply be quiet, to go within, to find, through meditation or prayer, a walk in the woods, a hot bath……..whatever does it for you…..that place of peace that is always within you. By making these simple but profound choices, you are, indeed, choosing to become the change you seek. You are refusing to live in a state of fear-based “high alert”. Instead, you are cultivating a state of higher awareness. It is from this state, and only from this state, that peace, harmony and healing may occur, both on a personal and planetary level. So next time you hear yourself arguing that “I’m too busy to relax!” or “I don’t have time to meditate today”, perhaps the question to ask yourself is, “If not now, when?” And can you, our planet, our future generations, really afford to wait?