How can you adopt the mindset of positivity, of unconditional love, in an angry world that wants to fight? It’s not easy, that’s for sure, but maybe this illustration will help.
Imagine you are traveling along and you come across a caravan of people that has overturned on the highway. People are afraid and injured, some are trapped under the vehicle. What do you do?
Most people would be moved by compassion and would attempt to help them. Would it matter what color their skin is? Would it matter how old they are or what their religious beliefs are or what their political stance is? Probably not, for in that moment you would understand that these are human beings and they are experiencing a crisis.
Perhaps some of the people are so fearful that they are delirious. Perhaps they are grabbing onto you and crying or yelling and freaking out. How will you talk to them? Would you fight with them? Probably not. You would likely control your emotions because you would understand that they are in crisis and they don’t know what they are doing.
An emergency situation is what the world is experiencing right now. People are confused and afraid. They don’t know what to do about the things they see happening and the only way they feel like they have any control over their lives is to lash out at the people who they think represent their fears. Even if it’s not your fault, you may be attacked by them just because you are the closest thing to them at the moment. It’s not personal, it’s just what happens when someone is traumatized and afraid.
What can you do to help or at least to not make matters worse? First of all, avoid contributing to the drama. You may have an opinion about the situation in the world, but is it really necessary to express it? Maybe you feel like you know what may happen or you feel have insight into what is going on, but if you aren’t being asked for your input, can you refrain from giving it? Even in an emergency situation, a first responder is obliged to ask permission before treating a victim’s injuries. It is called consent and if you don’t have consent from a person before you enter their space, you are violating their boundaries and their free will. Doing this will result in karma for you until you learn to respect the other person and yourself.
Social media is one place where we could benefit from respecting each other’s boundaries. On social media it seems that everyone feels like they have the right to just say what’s on their mind without thinking about how their words might affect other people. Words are very powerful and they have the potential to help or hurt. It seems like we have forgotten about how to be considerate to one another because social media has enabled us to be anonymous and impersonal behind our screens. This anonymity has enabled many of us to forget we are dealing with human beings and has made some of us feel like we can just say what’s on our mind without a filter and think that abusive words and attitudes are acceptable.
We have created world where a “Keyboard Warrior” is a thing. A “keyboard warrior” is someone who manifests their emotions through the text-based medium of the internet, usually in the form of aggressive writing that the they would not be able to give form to in real life. We have created a world where “Road Rage” is a thing. People feel like they are anonymous, invisible and invincible inside their vehicles on the road. I would have to write a separate blog post about why and how we have created this world. This article is about how to deal with it, how to uncreate or recreate it, starting with ourselves.
I think we can probably agree that none of us truly prefer to be as disconnected from one another as we have become. Many people say they hate social media, they hate crowds, and even hate people in general. Some people prefer the company of animals over people because animals behave better than humans. Would we still feel this way if people were more loving? Probably not. We probably say we hate people because we people have been treated like animals and we have forgotten who we really are. We have forgotten how powerful we are and our power has been used against us to create the world we see now. Again, a topic for another blog post.
We can use the same power we used to create this angry world to create a better world. One that is more loving and nurturing for all the beings that live in it. We can do this within ourselves, one person at a time. It starts with you, reading this right now.
A movement begins with a single step. Step one is to become conscious of your own feelings.
Step two is to refrain from engaging in drama.
Step three is to accept everything and unconditionally love whatever shows up in your reality. No matter what it is, don’t judge it, just accept it. If step three is too difficult, revisit step one.
Remember, our power has been used against us. We are in an emergency situation. In order to make ourselves collectively better, we have to see, recognize, understand, acknowledge, admit we are sick and just how sick we are. We all need help. We all need compassion. Now more than ever, we need to love, support and empower ourselves as a human family.
