I saw Tom Shadyac’s film I AM last night. As the director of films like “Ace Ventura” and “Bruce Almighty”, he’s a man who had “the dream”–the houses, the cars, the private jet and, after an accident, realized that those things are not really what make a person happy. He set out on a quest to understand what is wrong with the world and, as the trailer, says, “ended up discovering what’s right with it.”

The scientists and other great minds in this film talk about how we are all connected. I’ll let you see the film to get the full message but here’s what I want to say about my own take on it:

I have always known that we are all connected like this. I go through life experiencing the miracle of this connection. I feel when the invisible fibers on the Matrix of Life get tapped. It’s gratifying that science has found a way to “prove” it but it’s something that people who live in the realm of mystical experience have always known. As the mystical Persian poet Rumi says,

What happens in the bedroom, the boardroom and in the depths of the jungle is felt by All That Is. Are we individuals? Sure. Are we having a collective experience? Yes. So if we are lying, cheating, stealing or speaking spiteful words, this energy is felt even if we think we are “getting away with it.” Likewise, when we are loving, healing, holding, caring, and creating, that energy is changing the Matrix. This is not airy fairy New Age nonsense, it’s being scientifically proven. I don’t personally need to know the science to know it’s true. I feel it.

I frequently have people ask me how I can be so happy in spite of life circumstances that are less-than-ideal. This hasn’t always been true. For a good chunk of my life–specifically in my twenties and during some of the post-divorce years–I was either not happy or I just pretended to be. What I’ve come to learn is that when I authentically follow my joy and move through life with integrity, it creates waves of miracles in my life. I am more open, I have less pain in my body and more clarity of mind. The biggest area where I notice this is with my kids. There’s a saying, “When mama ain’t happy, nobody happy,” that is so true. When I am happy and fulfilled, my kids seem to be fertilized by my joy.

One thing that the film peripherally touches on is being authentic and staying local with love. That’s such an important thing to realize right now. I am, more and more, looking at what is REAL in my life. Who I consider a friend, where I feel I truly belong and what I believe my true work to be (outside of just being a messenger of truth and love). I know many people, including myself, who can get caught up in saving the world as a way of avoiding the pain or suffering right in front of our faces. I see people avoiding intimacy in real life and having pseudo-intimacy online that they proclaim in the “real thing”. the problem is that these same “intimacies” are pulling us away from our real lives and the people in them including our own hearts and bodies. We avoid difficult conversations to avoid conflict in our actual lives because we’re busy living in the unconscious realm of fantasy that the internet or gaming can so easily bring. It’s a drug that feeds the hungry ghosts but is silently killing us.

Part of why I left Facebook is that I find myself so distracted by other people’s stories or pain, I forget to attend to my own. If we are staring into our electronic devices, we may forget to notice the beauty of the sunrise or feel that our kids need a hug or some loving attention. If we are hungry for more more more–more facebook “friends”, more money, more new experiences–a hunger that will never truly be quenched, we will miss the NOW. The studies at the Heart Math Institute, featured in the film, show that the heart knows before our brain does what is going to happen. I find that when I allow myself silence and grace, I can listen with the ear of my heart and bring more authenticity and wholeness into every situation. That doesn’t mean telling people what they want to hear but being present and listening to the heart rather than the mind.

Their studies also show that what we feel is felt by others. This affirms my decision to focus on self-love, pleasure, joy and wellness and to spend some time really tuning into what that means for me. If my energy system is healthy, happy and whole, I will be bringing that vitality and effervescence into the world. I notice a big difference in the energy field of people who meditate, pray and exercise versus people who smoke, drink to excess, overbook themselves and stay up in their head. I don’t have a moral judgment about these things but I do know what FEELS good to be around. I want to be the person people feel good around, not the one that is filled with static so I keep doing little tests with myself to see what works–what makes me FEEL good.

One thing I know for sure is that taking exquisite care of myself, living simply and with integrity, being truthful, loving fully, creating, and living with devotion to Life is what seems to shift my own energy field. That’s all I can really do but, it turns out, that’s quite a lot.

Please, please see the film. It’s a non-profit and he intends to free a village of slaves with the money he raises. It will change you. It will shift your perspective. Hopefully, it will help you love life more. I didn’t think it was possible for me to love life more than I did but I guess that shows what I know! 😉