Trent RhodesThe fall season is near. Also called autumn. We can observe the changes. Cooler temperatures. The trees lose their leaves. General energetic quietude. It’s a contemplative season that invites us to go inward. Intensified thinking. More acute sensing.
It’s a harvest season. Like every season, each carries particular energies and patterns we can flow with once recognized. Living in relationship with these energies amplifies our life experience. No opposition.
Considering harvests, I’m thinking of pumpkin or apple, locales where the fruit is abundant. There’s more than enough for everyone to have. So we can carry a basket, and add them to the basket for future use. The whole experience reinforcing the appreciation of having and pleasure of giving.
Metaphysically, harvesting isn’t just about accumulation for the sake of, but to cultivate, to nurture and mature what was accumulated. To refine it. Essentially to civilize wild energies.
We can ride this season’s wave by understanding these patterns and embracing how autumn is a wonderful time for storing up and focusing inward so we can express more powerfully in the world.
There is a time for heightened activity and time for observation. Within a single day, we shift between these yin and yang energies, pushing and pulling, thinking and acting. To know when one is optimal is the wisdom.
To do this effectively, we require our gates to be disciplined so as to not waste life force or Qi. Letting the Qi seep out through the gates is one of the quickest ways to deplete. More on this in another post.
To appreciate what I’m describing here, it’s important to understand that we’re constantly sensing in our environment. This sensing doesn’t turn “off,” but we can tone it down or quiet it by where we direct our attention.
The attention is how we focus consciousness, and by extension our life force. Like a vehicle taking directions from the driver, consciousness mobilizes the life force, which then performs what’s necessary to realize the consciousness’s intent. This is largely why we can end up self-sabotaging without realizing.
A self-sabotage happens when the actual program [intent] we have in the subconscious is in opposition to what we thought we intended.
A career development example: if we thought we really wanted that promotion when the real program was, “I don’t deserve it. I can’t handle it,” we have confusion between the true program and what we stated consciously. With the real program, we end up manifesting behaviors that cause us to fail or miss the opportunity. Then we play an excuse game for why it didn’t happen to bring some closure that’s safe.
A social example: If we recognize we continue developing connections with personalities we say we don’t want, we’d eventually realize there was some true program running in the subconscious saying, “This is the kind of personality I know I deserve so let’s keep accepting it.” When someone arrives who embodies what we may consciously want, we could push that person away if we don’t change the program.
Harvesting creates an opportunity to reconnect with your spirit so you can understand what’s there, remove what you don’t want there, and reprogram for what you do want.
To have that kind of influence within your spirit vehicle requires more than just beautiful affirmations.
You need energy. Power. That’s the Qi.
Harvesting & The Prime Directive
If you’re familiar with Star Trek, you know there’s a prime directive in place for more advanced species. This rule states that a more advanced species should not interfere with the evolutionary development of a less-developed species.
An example would be if you landed on a planet and observed humanoids who were operating with tools, perhaps like Neanderthals. You would not do anything drastic enough to alter their growth path.
You wouldn’t give them access to handguns and bullets and let them go around shooting each other without also teaching them the technologies’ do’s and don’t’s. Perhaps you’d also teach them philosophy and some ethics so they develop a compass to make these decisions in your absence. And you wouldn’t introduce these technologies unless you recognized some consciousness capability of being able to handle them.
Another example: if you recognized a species was struggling with a societal issue, you wouldn’t just show up and solve the problem for them. In both examples you would run the risk of “doing the work” for that species, removing the necessary evolutionary leaps they’d need to mature to a level to properly handle the technologies. As we can see in our world today, material technological progress doesn’t guarantee spiritual technological progress; in most cases the physical tech leaps beyond the spiritual. And we can see the consequences of this with deploying technologies in self-destructive ways.
A non-interference policy for another being’s development can be a tough pill to swallow; our society seems to value imposing wills on others to get things done to prove one is right. But if you’re serious about harvesting and evolving yourself, you take a longer-term approach.
It means you don’t act in unsolicited ways to directly solve people’s major issues. This is different from creating a product for the market that solves problems. I’m talking about in personal life.
There’s a way to support people that avoids telling someone exactly what to do, finishing the inside job for them. When you do take on this job, you rob that being of the important learning moments necessary to not end up in the same situation again. Instead of tactfully introducing the spoon so they connect the dots for the cereal and milk, you simply hold the spoon to the person’s mouth with cereal and milk in it already. Only those who cannot hold their own spoon may need this kind of micromanaging assistance.
If there’s no invitation to assist, the prime directive asks that you hold a healthy distance and be supportive from that position. When receiving the invitation, it also doesn’t mean to do it for them.
At a local level, people you know may represent this evolutionary leaping need and you can see ways to directly assist, or solve their problems. I encourage you to hold off on that especially during your harvesting.
Harvesting Health
Health would be the second most important resource we have, next to time. Without it, all of our activities are put on pause. Health challenges can also make us consider existential ideas, reasons for living, even change course in life. Health can be likened to harmony or synergy with all of the systems operating to sustain our life. This season would be an advantageous time to take inventory of our health matrix:
- Emotions
- Thought Quality
- Bodily Flexibility
- Physical Strength
- Endurance / Heart Health
- Food Intake
- Social Connections
Accumulating health is more a long-term investment needing long-term commitment than a quick-fix activity. The term I like to use is “tonifying,” which means gradual, consistent strengthening.
When you go to the gym to tone your legs, you’re strengthening them with the wonderful side effect of sculpting. They feel and look better. It may take weeks to accomplish. When you tonify your health, you’re nourishing consistently such that your health raises levels with the effort.
This can be done with food, herbs, fresh air, breathing practices, various physical training forms. Design the combination based on your interests while ensuring you maintain the principle of consistency.
Harvest Right Knowledge
Special emphasis on accumulating right knowledge here over just knowledge. There is such a thing as false knowledge meaning…knowing something but that information is incorrect or tainted.
Seeking and finding right knowledge requires your discernment to separate illusion from the true. Commit yourself to some form of study during this time. As you’re in accumulation mode, ask questions that challenge what you consume. View it from various angles. Can it withstand questioning and remain true? It’s possible this is right knowledge.
Harvest Your Time
Guard your time.
At one level, time may feel linear. The way we set this gig set up on the planet is by seconds, minutes and hours. To retain a logical perception order here, we count these times with seconds, minutes and hours and allow them to restart.
At another level, time isn’t linear but subjective. Based on perception. We can detect this by how fast this time seems to move when we’re fully engaged in an activity, and how slow it appears when in an un-motivating experience.
At another level, time as we know it isn’t real but a fictional tool, while actual time is the continuous present. Looking from this perspective, everything exists simultaneously. All that did exist, is existing now and can exist in the future is occurring, and what we experience in these various timelines depends on where we direct our focus. There’s a timeline where we passed an exam and one where we failed it, for example. A timeline where you bumped into that person who became your spouse while you just ignored each other in another. The one we remember experiencing is the one we chose to focus on and directly manifested.
Your perception level, how many layers you can see depends on cultivation and talent. Ultimately, it’s important to acknowledge that time is the most valuable resource to harvest because, unless you have the ability to go backwards physically in time, you’re not going to get what you used back.
Consider time as a potential investment, one that can bring you returns from whatever you allocate it towards. Time invested in quality: quality is returned. Time invested in foolishness: foolishness is returned.
Integrating this understanding about time may empower you to not be so hesitant to cut people off who you find to be wasting yours.
Notes, Progress & Plans
In career development, you have key performance indicators (KPI’s) to know when you’re on track. They’re also used to evaluate if improvements are needed. They’re one way to make a performance plan. I encourage you to take this personal harvesting as serious as you would for your professional life if not more. Make notes, find a way to track your progress. Have a plan. If curious about how to do this, reach out.
