As someone on an awakening path, I am fully aware of what seems to be a battle between good and evil. This is clearly a spiritual battle. I see the drama taking place all around me, in our society, in our government and institutions. I witness people following the leader and doing what they are told and suffering horribly as a result.

But there is another issue that has always been right under my nose, causing me to take a deeper look and ask the question. “If I observe the drama and even participate in it in any way, am I part of the problem?”

Is the very act of observing the evil, talking about it with close friends, and sharing our stories of how we are being affected it, sending us down the wrong path? Should we instead adopt the belief that “we are all one, and there really is no duality?” Should we adopt the belief that “there is only love, and anything else is just an illusion?” Or would this be a spiritual bypass?

It is said that what we focus on we create. So, by focusing on the evils looming over us as self-appointed world leaders decide the fate of humanity, are we somehow bringing this reality into being?

Would it be better to ignore what is going on around us and focus exclusively on love? Instead of asking what can we do to help humanity in its shift to a higher reality, should we simply visualize humanity as already being in a higher reality?

If I am questioning how to best interact with the changing world, I wonder how many other awakening souls are battling with this same dilemma. How many others feel invalidated or shamed when they talk about their pain, or fear and some spiritual authority shuts them down; perhaps accusing them of adding to the problem, or being fear-based, or problem oriented?

If we can’t be open with how we feel or what our needs are or even feel free to talk about our fears, then aren’t we disconnecting ourselves from each other? If we are afraid of being judged for being human, doesn’t this separate us?

Perhaps it isn’t our talking about the separation or the duality we are witnessing that is the issue. Perhaps it is believing that we should feel differently than how we feel. Perhaps this is what separates us.

We are living in a time where half the world is going one way and the other half is going another. We are living in a time of multiple realities. We are living in a time where many of us have lost our friends, family members and social groups because we held different ideals or beliefs. Many of us have experienced being judged or condemned because we didn’t do what someone else thought we should.

Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, there has been a pretty extreme polarization. And if we are not of the sector that tows the line and follows the mainstream agenda, we have likely experienced discord, judgement, and painful rejection from those we loved, admired, and cared about. We ended up feeling we weren’t free to have a separate opinion, or belief.

Many of us experienced being blamed, shamed and persecuted for our beliefs. So perhaps the last thing we need is a spiritual bypass. Perhaps the last thing we need is to be told we are on the wrong path for talking about our pain, our sadness and our feelings of separation. If we can’t talk to each other about how we feel and ask the right kinds of questions, it would only serve to separate us further. It would only serve to isolate us more from each other, because the new “spiritual rule” is “see no evil, speak no evil.”

As the world falls apart around us, should we just sit in a lotus position in the eye of the storm and sing kumbaya? Should we ignore what is happening around us and focus only on our oneness. Should we ignore the pain and the suffering in the world around us and simply envision a world where there is no pain or suffering?

For myself, I choose to be there for those I work with and those I call friends. I choose to be there for them in the deepest, most authentic way I can. I choose to hold space for them to talk about whatever is on their mind or their heart. I choose to hold the space for them to talk about their fears, to cry about their losses and express their grief. I choose to hold space for people to navigate through their emotional challenges and be authentic with where they are.

The days of pretending to be something we are not, or somewhere we are not, are over. Spiritual warfare is painful. We are taken to the depths of our shadow to face those parts of ourselves that we need to love and bring into the light. And this is a process. This takes time. When our desire to appear more enlightened than we actually are causes us to pretend to be something we are not, the result is separation.

So we can walk around with honey glazed eyes and a Cheshire grin and ignore all the emotions we are forced to stuff down every day in order to live the enlightened life; or we can delve deeply into our shadows and bring what lies there into the light of awareness. And this is where we truly become enlightened. It is not in pretending the darkness doesn’t exist, except for in our own mind. It is in embracing both the darkness and the light within and outside of us.

It is great to envision a world we want to live in, but we can only create that world when we can meet ourselves and each other exactly where we are.

Kaleah LaRoche

Kaleah is a Visionary, Spiritual Counselor, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Author and Musician, who has dedicated her life to inspiring and healing others. Her role is to help to guide humanity through its current metamorphosis while offering a positive vision for humanity and the emerging New Earth!