I have been working in the root chakra…which is the chakra of community, loyalty, family and trust.  Why have our families been broken apart? Why have our communities been separated? Why don’t we trust each other, our governments and leaders? These are the questions I have been asking myself? I believe that over the years it seems our own morals and values have degenerated. We have become incredibly selfish, following our own personal desires, no matter who it hurts, or how many people we have to step on to find your own fulfillment.  Don’t get me wrong, I think desires are good, but when you are following your desires and they are made up of fear, addiction or feelings of lack, we cannot see clearly and our need to fulfill the perceived lack or addiction over runs any reflection or thought as to how your action to achieve that desire will affect others. It takes a lot of strength to control your desires because, oftentimes, those desires come from strong addictions, and when you are addicted to something, for example, money, love, sex, alcohol, drugs etc… you are not thinking about anything else other than getting that object of your desire.  How many times have we lied or cheated to receive that extra money? Or have pursued a married man or woman, or someone whom you know is in a relationship? Or have taken advantage of someone sexually knowing that is your only desire, never even thinking twice about who you may be hurting in the process?  Can you control yourself long enough to make a better decision? Can you sit still long enough and be patient and reflect and resist acting on those impulsive feelings in the moment?  Can you sit through those totally uncomfortable and impatient urges? What if you took the time to reflect on your decisions before making them, to reflect on how your decision was going to affect the community, family, or group? Would you make different decisions?  Can you think back on some of the selfish decisions you have made in the past and reflect on the consequences of those actions and how others were affected by your actions? This would be a great way to start practicing what is called enlightened self-interest.  Enlightened self-interest is a philosophy in ethics which states that persons who act to further the interests of others (or the interests of the group or groups to which they belong), ultimately serve their own self-interest. It has often been simply expressed by the belief that an individual, group, or even a commercial entity will “do well by doing good.” Un-enlightened self-interest, in contrast to enlightened self-interest, is simple greed or the concept of “unenlightened self-interest,” in which it is argued that when most or all persons act according to their own myopic selfishness, that the group suffers loss as a result. Unenlightened self-interest can result in the tragedy of the commons. It takes practice, cultivation and a whole lot of control.  Believe me, I am practicing now and it takes effort and time, and most importantly, being conscious of every action you take and not rushing into anything.  It takes sitting with the uncomfortable feelings that arise within you and feeling them in the moment instead of running out to your addiction, or something else to cover up the underlying cause of the need to fill a perceived hole that is in you. Can we do it? Can we work on breaking our addictions for our communities and families? Can we start thinking more about each other and how every action we take has a ripple that affects everyone involved? If we were able to break our addictions, control our impulses, and our often selfish desires, we would be able to bring back these values. Then we would have much more trust amongst each other, our families, communities and governments.

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