Contribute to the World in Significant Ways - How? Self-Awareness, Exploring Options & Taking Action

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A devastating earthquake in Haiti. Sexual abuse of thousands of women and girls throughout our war-torn world. American families forced from their foreclosed homes - homelessness on the rise. Smog-filled skies and polluted rivers. Shuttered businesses - 12.3% unemployment nationwide, and growing. Under-funded schools, unconscionable dropout rates. Drug-gang violence....

As the world's woes bombard us from every direction, and appeals for help flood our email and mail boxes, so is it natural for each of us to feel both overwhelmed and anxious to do something significant to help, somehow.

This is when the suffocating questions begin to suffuse our thoughts about taking action. 'Where do I begin? What is the most pressing problem? I am just one person; how can my limited resources make a dent in all that needs to be done? Where can I make the biggest impact?' While each of these questions is valid, rather than helping us take focused action, they often have the opposite effect; they force us into knee-jerk responses at best, and an utter standstill at worst.

How can we move from this unsatisfying place to one where we consciously commit ourselves and our resources to causes that matter both to the world and to us?

Yes, both components - positively impacting the world and ourselves - are key. Why? Because sharing our resources from a win-win place means that we are expressing our authentic selves in response to the world's needs. Finding and sticking with these matches enables us to give freely and joyfully. As important, saying 'Yes' from our authentic selves to specific causes and organizations frees us from guilt about saying 'No, thank you' to others.

I propose 3 steps towards commitment that may be repeated yearly, biannually, or whenever there's a change in your life warranting review of your current choices:

SELF-AWARENESS--EXPLORING THE OPTIONS--TAKING ACTION Step 1: SELF-AWARENESS 1. Ask yourself, "What do I care about right now?"

For example: the environment; women's issues; animal rights; domestic and international poverty alleviation; healthcare; literacy...

Prioritize your top 2-6 choices. Save the others for the future (or for others who have them at the top of their lists).

2. Then ask yourself, "What are my specific, realistic, available resources that I'd like to share?"

(see categories below with examples)

a. special skills and/or hobbies - personal finance how-tos, athletics

b. financial contributions - amount quarterly, semi-annually, annually

c. volunteering/pro bono work - what type, how often, duration

d. other donations - clothing, books, food, giving blood

e. providing connections - government officials, educators, business leaders...

f. other -...

Once you've identified types/amounts/times above...

3. Merge 1 and 2 - what matters to you now + the resources you can and want to contribute. *At this point you may not know the specific organization(s) you'll be volunteering for, or contributing to, but you will know the cause(s) you're enthusiastically and realistically ready to put your resources behind.

Step 2: EXPLORING THE OPTIONS

Now that you've merged your whats with your hows, you're ready to move to exploration. It's a great way to connect with others and discover what resonates with YOU.

1. Ask: friends and colleagues via email, facebook, linkedin, twitter, face to face

2. Research the Web: key terms/organizations serving your causes

3. Visit/Interview: an organization and others who've committed to organizations you're targeting

4. Check-in with yourself. 'Am I excited about being involved in this cause? Is this organization where I want to put my time and/or resources?' If so, move to Step 3. If not, move to the next cause or organization on your list until you find the 'right' fit for YOU.

Step 3: TAKE ACTION

1. Say 'Yes' to causes and organizations that resonate with YOU.

2. Enjoy the commitment(s) you've made to make a positive difference in the world

P.S. If you're interested in viewing the commitments I've made to assist Haiti, please visit my blog:

dewhitaker blog-Helping Haiti

Dana E. Whitaker is president of Opening Eyes, LLC, a business committed to helping individuals reach their personal and professional goals with courage, clarity and (self-) compassion. As a coach, Dana helps her clients become more self-aware so that in expanding who they are, they may expand both what they want to, and believe they can do including: following a passion from start to finish, successfully navigating significant life and career transitions, creating healthy boundaries, developing effective communication strategies and satisfactorily managing work/life commitments and priorities. Dana offers individual and group coaching options. She graduated from Newfield Network, an International Coach Federation (ICF) certified coaching program.
Additionally, as an author, Dana's stories and accompanying color photographs in her book, Transforming Lives $40 at a Time, Women + Microfinance: Upending the Status Quo, bring readers face-to-face and heart-to heart with the dreams, fears, and successes of some of the world's poorest women from five continents who, having harnessed their profound courage and resourcefulness, are using microfinance loans and business training to transform both their lives and those of their families - inside and out. Dana speaks to groups around the country - businesses, universities, churches, schools, bookstores, women's and philanthropy groups - sharing not only these women's inspiring stories, but also her own passion-to-publish-to-coaching transformation.
To learn more about Dana and Opening Eyes, LLC, please visit: http://www.openingeyes.net

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Humanity Unite Brilliance (HUB) - Love in Action

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I was fortunate to attend the recent Humanity Unites Brilliance (HUB) Actioning Your Brilliance live event. As words are inadequate to describe our experience, here is a more poetic expression that may offer you a taste of what was real for us.

We have been called out by master teacher and Social Artist Jean Houston to be the "Evokoters" - the mid-wives of the soul. More than just another "how to" session, we learned evolutionary practices for creating a world that works for everyone. Through archetypal embodiment, we were invited to be a part of the story and recognize the characters as ourselves. We scored our own music, dancing the dream awake, meeting our Inteleky (higher self) and allowing our brilliance to be received from it's reflection. Moving away of linear left brain into creative right brain expression, we used the language of Glasarania (Gibberish) to awaken our creativity and become the Sacred Actor and Holy Fool, discovering a whole new way of communicating and creating.

We have shaken off the "gunk" of ego with Dr. Sue Morter. We cried tears of joy when we felt the density dissolve, and the lightness of Unconditional Love flowing more freely inwards and outwards through the layers of our being. We have felt even the fear of death drop away when we really knew the indestructibility of the beings of love and light that we really are. We giggled when we saw that our challenges, like an obstacle course we have designed for ourselves, now allow us to become who we were born to be. We laughed when we knew that "it's hard, until it isn't"

And we have seen through the evolutionary eyes of Barbara Marx Hubbard, that we ARE the imaginal cells in the caterpillar that envisions the butterfly it will become. We have experienced, in spite of the old and difficult "evolutionary drivers", the hope and excitement of being among the early forms of a new species of human emerging that is moving, like the Universe itself, towards greater synergy and greater intelligence. And we were pleased to know that it's not that we are bad or wrong, but just mistaken. We have been using a faulty operating manual and we now have the opportunity to use a new one, in greater alignment with Truth.

And we have cried tears of grief with the "Angels in the Dust" film, confronting the worlds most unconscious, darkest shadow reflected in the AIDS crisis in Africa. And with Lynne Twist, Jack Canfield and the Pachamama Alliance we have squarely faced the environmental crisis facing our fragile planet. And we have felt the sadness of our own participation in the unconsciousness of our consumer culture. We have been humbled to see our own myopic focus on ourselves, while ignoring our roles as stewards of the earth. We have recommitted to living more responsibly as those planetary stewards. We have come through the darkness to see the light of what is possible for our planet and have seen the emerging vision of a world in balance and harmony. We have been called to being "hospice to the old", while being "midwife to the new", both requiring our loving attention. Later, we raised $280,000 for Pachamama with a generous $100,000 matching pledge from Jack Canfield. Wow!

We have celebrated the national launch of HUB in the US AND Canada with moving words from Charlie Gay and good news from Brandon Barnum. And we have danced until we were drenched in sweat, (especially Brandon). And spun and leaped and shook off the last remaining hard edges.

We learned from Fen Shui master Marie Diamond how important our working and living environment is in supporting our vision. And while action is important, more important is stating clearly what we want and asking for it, and then opening to receive.

Lastly, we learned from master learner Paul Scheele how our mind works and does not work to process and store information. We learned how the reptilian and mammalian minds work better when relaxed and content than when stressed out and fearful. And how the simple act of breathing can help. We found through a profound exercise in perception and refection, how easy it is to completely miss the beauty all around us and how equally easy it is to take it in when we stop and pay attention.

Throughout the event, we have known and felt our Oneness, not as a concept or metaphor but as the actual truth of our experience. We have looked into each others eyes and seen our own sweet divine selves smiling back at us. We have felt the inseparable connection of being individual cells in the body of God. We have held the hand of the being next to us and known that we were touching Spirit. And we have polished each others mirrors so that our brilliance is more clearly reflected in the world.

We have come to see that HUB is so much more than humanitarian aid or personal development. It is absolutely at the center (hub) of the multi-faceted 12 sided wheel that is allowing the new social and spiritual vehicle to roll down the road to the emerging New World. And as we develop, strengthen and lubricate that wheel, we will go faster and farther down that road. HUB will be a pivotal convergence of new thought and environmental and humanitarian efforts for the evolutionary leap into the next phase of the human journey. We can all be pleased and proud to be among the founding members and to be evangelists for the message of true hope and love and sustained abundance for all peoples that HUB represents.

Humanity Unites Brilliance is rocking my world and THE world in a powerful and positive way. I am grateful to be onboard. For a taste of HUB's Love in Action, watch the video linked below.

Wayne Marshall

Wayne runs a web consulting and internet marketing business from his beautiful home in Santa Barbara, CA. He is proud to be a founding member of HUB. You can watch a moving and beautiful video on HUB by visiting Humanity Unites Brilliance.

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