I had hit rock bottom. Hard. Gave birth to my first child and sank into a deep depression…

Why

…. I felt alone, abandoned (which I was far from, just couldn’t feel it) and anxious. Right there, at the bottom of a deep steep well, I realized what I had needed so much during my life. Ideas and ideals started to form in my heart. The more I thought about it, the more it became clear. This is what the world needs. This will make it better. This will heal the world. 

I finally admitted to myself I couldn’t do it alone and once I could let go of all the shame (well, maybe not all of it) that had built up inside of me over the years, it dawned upon me that no-one really could. Do it alone. Life. Strangely that is exactly what we are trying to do these days. We are living our lives more and more individually and that is what is dispersing us humans. Every day we are drifting farther from what makes us human beings: real and meaningful, volatile or profound, human contact and living in connection with one another. Ironically, as we are more connected (in the narrow sense) than ever, we are actually losing the vital connection. With ourselves and with others.

I started thinking about old fashioned neighborhoods, about tribes and about a sense of community. About looking after each other and about being looked after. About being curious and interested in what friends and strangers have to tell you, what moves them, genuinely interested. About listening without judgement and being able to speak your heart and mind without being judged. About respect for all things living. About looking out for your neighbor, about being kind to ourselves and others.

If we tried, just made an effort every day, stepping into the world with this attitude, the world would be a better place, wouldn’t it? 

Right there, my bum still sealed to the bottom rocks, I think I felt what the essence of being human should be. A sentence came to mind, I must have read it somewhere: ‘I am because we are’. It is derived from the Ubuntu philosophy. This is a vast ancient African philosophy about which I could not begin to say anything sensible because it’s beyond my comprehension. The sentence, though, isn’t. I feel that. If you realize you can only be who you are or want to be because others are exactly that, all hate diminishes. All there really can be is love. Love for yourself, for all others and for the earth.

Take a minute and let that sink in. Can you feel it? 

It helped me and I started to slowly climb out of the darkness. My work was far from finished though, because I kept feeling the urge to bring this into the world. To help heal the world. I tried to let it go, believe me. I wasn’t able to. 

My ideology needed hands and feet to put it out there. So I worked on it, religiously. This is where ‘share, care, connect’ was created. Practicing ‘I am because we are’, for me anyway, is being able to share ourselves and our resources with others, caring for ourselves, others and the world genuinely and through that being able to live in connection with ourselves and one another. 

Time has come now. Time to counter individualism and hate and to start living more lovingly, to start a community built on this beautiful base. A community, a tribe, not instigated on where you are geographically but on where you are with your heart. People all over the world, sharing, caring and connecting. This community will heal the world. It will break individualism, fear and hatred. It will sow love. And that is what we are in such need of. 

No rules, no regulations. But feeling the need and acting the part. Being conscious about your life and that of others.

With the help of great people the I EM brand was created. I EM because WE ARE. In I EM, me and we are inseparably united. Living the I EM life means that you’re open, honest, with genuine attention, respectful, interested and connected. Think of what would happen if this was the basic attitude human beings would apply to life? 

Let’s emerge from the lonely wells we find ourselves in and reconnect. Are you ready? Let’s go!