We might want to stop and consider if a slightly different approach could help us unlock the core question this conversation is posing: Why develop yourself? Wouldn’t it be more accurate to wonder that since we will develop, one way or another, why not choose with intention and awareness what will fill our lives and help shape our future?

The human is designed to develop. We know from earlier Current Openings, such as The Addiction Trap, that the open-ended potential of the brain and mind can be programmed by high-intensity, repetitive impressions and activity. Toxic or healthy; healing or harming: the choice is ours. There is no inner void.

We can consciously direct our natural creative potential to the process of converting physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual energy into real impacts and results in our inner and outer worlds. Actually shaping our personal and planetary ecology, and the new universal possibility now emerging.

The more finely we develop, the greater our inner conductivity and effectiveness in the life we choose. Maybe a beginning answer to our core question.

Of course, there are many paths and possibilities to discover. In the latest edition of the Portals series “Current Openings: What the World Doesn’t Quite Get Yet”, Aviv Shahar and David Price Francis explore why human development shouldn’t be left to chance. Among their observations:

• It comes down to what we process: how we think, use our emotion, use our life, and apply ourselves. Why develop? At one level we help humanity, at the same time helping the planet and the cosmos.
• Could we partner with the planet to facilitate the mutual development and evolution of this sacred ecology we call Earth? What about an even broader perspective, where we think about the human as a universal being?
• Development is the incantation of tomorrow, and how that future reveals itself, through our living process. To develop is to emancipate the universal possibility that can transform our lives.
• What’s coming into focus is that development expands our perspective from the personal to the human, to the planetary, to the cosmic, to the future. We are evolving who we see ourselves to be.
• A curious part of development is surrender. We can't just say to the universe “take me as I am.” What's our surrender value? What have we assembled in ourselves that has helped the universe move on to a viable future?

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.