Introduction

“We're all connected.”

How many times have you heard, read, or even said that recently? Maybe you've become aware of this truth and have to some degree integrated it into your thinking and living. Maybe you’ve heard or read it, and it seemed like a reasonable statement, but it didn’t affect you much beyond that. Maybe you were exposed to it and just shrugged it off as some nonsensical New Agey thing. Or maybe it’s a completely new concept to you. Two things are certain though: no matter where you are on the spectrum you haven’t heard it for the last time, and you haven’t yet gained full awareness of its impact in your life.

From the moment we arise in the morning to the moment we drift off to sleep, and even in our dreams, connection is a key force in all our lives. Or more specifically, the urge to be, to feel, connected is that key force. Not a moment goes by that most of us aren’t influenced by it in one way or another. Yet most of us also live out our lives seemingly almost completely oblivious to this, acting and reacting in response to the effects of this force without ever seeing or realizing what is truly motivating us. And I believe it's this unconscious reaction that then produces so much of the stress that we end up experiencing throughout our lives. Because living without this awareness is like running blind and deaf through a battlefield. Things push and pull us in all directions, but we often have only the most dull and slight understanding of the true nature of these forces. And so we react to them very ineffectively and childishly much of the time.

How much different then might our lives be if we were better able to understand the true nature of what is driving us?