These days just getting a new e-mail account comes with reams of terms, which realistically, most of us in our exhaustion, apathy and acceptance of how ridiculous it has become, just sign without reading it all: but recently, I had a different experience. We just got a new insurance company to cover our new-to-us car.

I set up the coverage and paid for six months on the phone. Two weeks later I got the official ’application package’ where I was to put my signature in all the right places – but there was a clause in there which had not been mentioned before I started the policy with the payment.

The Small Print

I was to sign to allow myself to be a target for the worst kind of telemarketing. It said I did not have to sign but “…in order to complete the purchase and ensure the rate and effectiveness of the client’s desired insurance coverage…” they would need permission for the telemarketing… so basically, they were saying that if I did not sign, my premium would increase (as much as they wanted to increase it) and there would be no guarantee that they would take care of me if anything happened which is not a clause I wanted to accept, so I took a moment to consider my choices and feel what to do.

The Choice

I could do the easy thing and choose to compromise my own sense of what is right in order to sign it, keep my cheap rate and go about my life – but in doing so knowing I was allowing another big company to get away with ‘business-as-usual,’ in other words – bullying, blackmail and the oppression and abuse of many people for the profit of a few – or I could just deal with it and say “No.”

I was tired and I had lots of other things that felt important for me to take care of, but I could not sign (agree) to this and let accountability ‘slide’.

In my cancellation letter, I included my reason why. They still wanted to charge a $50 cancellation fee but I explained that when I agreed to the policy, they had not disclosed this stipulation. Six phone calls and over an hour of being on hold later, they waived the fee. The fourth representative was genuinely caring – she got me to an advisor and she made sure the fee was waived.

Throughout those phone calls I kept coming back to who I am by breathing gently and bringing my awareness to my body (so I would not slip into my old patterns of frustration) and I actually felt how lovely it was to be me and to be on the line with other human beings and that was beautiful. I found another company, more expensive, but worth every penny.

The Big Picture

Through the teachings of Universal Medicine, and as a result of being inspired to develop more and more self-care and love for myself and to take responsibility for all my choices, I have realised that everything is an opportunity to learn, understand and connect with myself and others.

Had I not had the role models and the support of people who are walking the talk, I’m sure I would still be missing these beautiful opportunities to deepen this love for myself, others and life on the whole and would still be struggling in an existence that previously made little sense to all that I feel inside. Had I not known people who are truly adhering to the deepest integrity found within us all (living in accordance to our inner most essence), I know I would still be contributing to my own un-wellness and to that which does not feel right to me about how we live in the world.

If we think we are safe or protected because we don’t live under a dictatorship, we need to look around. If we think we can sit back and expect to be treated with respect and fairness, because ‘we have democracy’ or money or a job or whatever… we need to look again and ask ourselves “What if life is about learning to take deeper levels of individual responsibility than what we have been doing?”

Corruption and oppression will continue to reign from corporations to the people and between people on personal levels all around the world for as long as we go along with it.

I am not advocating any mission, agenda or revolt, however I feel a responsibility to not allow abuse that I am aware of (including self abuse) to go un-named. I feel that when I accept less than respect, it is a loss for everyone, as this gives the world the message that we can do business or ‘get by’ at the expense of our humanity.

Coldness, separatism, oppression and harm will continue between people unabated until we claim that there is another way and live to show this other way by not leaving what we truly feel out of the equation in anything we do. In other words we can and will make a True difference when we no longer compromise on what we know is true for us all in order to stay in a form of social comfort.

I have drawn immense inspiration and support from Serge Benhayon and my practitioner Bina Pattel, who are living this other way by openly being and expressing from the fullness of who they are.

By Jo Elmer- Concord, CA USA

Further Reading:
The Importance of Expressing Truth
What Happens When We Do Not Speak Up?