Navigating a journey of higher intention, purpose, expanding awareness or spiritual awakening can be tricky in the best of times. Not much in contemporary culture supports a personal quest for natural intelligence, esoteric truth, or any motivating impulse deeper than what’s trending on social media.
If we add in today’s overlapping global crises of ecological and cultural collapse, then finding meaning and mapping a life of value and integrity in a changing landscape get more daunting and maybe even frightening. It might be helpful to assess our own location in this journey of unfolding consciousness.
How do we map our way forward in what are really the ‘three journeys’: the motivating search for a source of higher truth and meaning; living a life that fulfills and expresses our true nature and universal potential; and going even deeper in the spiritual mission to serve the ongoing evolution and co-creation of humanity’s future?
Fortunately for all of us, new ideas, perceptions, and creative possibilities are emerging along the path to a better future for humanity and the planet.
In this conversation, Aviv Shahar and Kyriaki Nikandrou are joined by three creative authors with rich and varied experience in many aspects of the personal and collective development journey: Tucker Walsh has connected with intentional communities around the globe to explore new blueprints for collective living; Tim Coats is chronicling the life well lived; and Holly Woods is a catalyst for purposeful transformation.
Their conversation builds on themes and insights in The Three Journeys: The Escape – The Ensoulment – The Spiritualization. The authors and Aviv share perceptions and stories from their own search for greater meaning and value:
- You wake up to the possibility of a journey and realize you don't have to play the game somebody else has shaped for you; you can choose to discover a different game or create your own.
- If I had known there were other communities out there, I probably wouldn't have been so afraid. Being alone is part of the journey, but there'll be infinite people to catch you, and you'll be fine.
- I would invite us to be very clear there is no end, no finishing completion, which the three journeys might indicate if someone didn't know better. What a delicious opportunity that is.
- You’re never free from the human journey because in every stage there is a new entrapment and new challenges. You need to dissolve any new identity you constructed to rebuild yourself.
- It’s ‘the miracle of we’. Our challenge in life is twofold. We're all working to find ourselves. But there's our agency and our communion that search for greater levels of community.
You can find more insights from our three Portals’ friends in other conversations, including The New Intentional Communities, Could Armageddon be an Inner-geddon? and The Emergence of Belonging.
This conversation is part of the continuing Portals discovery into what is emerging on the frontiers of human experience in this time of profound change. Information about upcoming special events can be found on the Events page. Also visit and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
I love the word "escape" because it suggests that transition from the conformity of our childhood contacts and society's social norms and expectations; that requires us to push it away and say, ‘No, that's not who I am.’ So it really truly is an escape from a preconception of self and who we are in the world - and I have to go find it. I don't know what it is. I don't know who I am, what it is, or how it's going to look. So we really do have to throw off the conventions, and that's not just a developmental stage; it's a spiritual journey, and it can look so different for each person.
Holly Woods
Holly Woods, PhD, Founder of Emergence Institute, author, coach and consultant, is a visionary who sees deeply into peoples’ souls. She activates and catalyzes what wants to come alive in people and guides them to manifest their visions through products, business and career transitions. She is the author of the bestseller The Golden Thread: Where to Find Purpose in the Stages of Your Life.
Visit: Emergence Institute
Tucker Walsh
Tucker is a lighthouse for Spirit and travel guide for Soul helping to navigate the miracle of Life through storytelling, ceremony and celebration. He is co-creating transformational communities around the globe while facilitating ancient and emerging ways of Being, Doing and Becoming. In his former life, he was an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker.
Visit: Tucker Walsh
Tim Coats
At age six, while playing with friends in our yard, I was suddenly struck with the thought, I am me!
The thought has never left me. What is the nature of awareness? How do we find joy that transcends circumstance?
I grew up in a devout Christian family, but organized religion never spoke to me. Determined to find a way, I began a thirty-year journey, reading, studying, and journaling.
Ultimately, I found the road to peace, by way of intellect, was impassable. I began a contemplative practice that is integral to my life. I reflect on this life-long journey in a blog titled, “Towards A Life Well-Lived” at Tim-Coats.com
Kyriaki Nikandrou
When I was a child, staring at the starry night skies, I was filled with awe and wonder, about the mysteries of the Universe, Life, Time, the Human and its place in the Cosmos, trying to connect the dots that link everything with everything…
Some years down the line, I still do. I am seeking to be in conversation with others in search for keys, for tools of understanding and application and for the real questions, the ones that become portals to contemplative journeys, leading to uncharted territories that feel like home.
I believe we are on a trajectory of multiple and unpredictable changes; it is up to each one of us to rise to the challenge of our times. Now, more than ever before, is the time to be true to ourselves and fulfill our potential.
Aviv Shahar
Aviv is the Founder of Aviv Consulting, helping leaders unleash strategic innovation, and is the author of Create New Futures: How Leaders Produce Breakthroughs and Transform the World Through Conversation.
Visit: Aviv Consulting
