You open your facebook, newspaper, webpage and are met with new cataclysms at every turn. Between the ongoing threats of nuclear winter, financial ruin, planetary destruction and dishonest fearmongering political schemes and scandals, its hard to keep our sunny sides up these days. A lot of us opt out by assuming the ostrich method of coping, which is to turn off their tvs and computers but what if you are like me and wish to stay in the loop without letting it get to you?
A few friends on my fb have lately been inundating the news feed with posts that reflect hideous atrocities that are occuring all over the world. I know that I have been guilty of sharing vicious injustice information as well, and I'm beginning to realize that this is counter to my own core beliefs. As a result, today I have decided that if I am not a part of the problem, then let me be a part of the solution. Instead of promoting fear and adding to the huge amount of fearmongering that is happening out in the world of commercial media and news by just posting tragic information, I have made a deal with myself that every bit of negative information I share from now on, must be framed differently.
As a follower of 'Non violent communication' (start HERE if you would like to know more about NVC) I am going to start talking my walk in my Facebook news feed. If there is some information of a negative nature that I want to share, I am going to look at it in a way that is in keeping with my personal philosophy. All through university, I wrote paper after paper from a solution based perspective. I left the problem oriented focus to others and ran with the ball to present information that not only would address what I perceived a problem to be, but also accompanied this information with some positive options for how to manage the information or how to make a change in our lives or world that helped to counter the problem in some way. This walking my talk is also positive role modelling for those who may not have had the same good fortune to have learned about affirmative processes like 'Non violent communication'.
Why aren't I talking that walk in my FB? Well, frankly, I tend to be unedited in my FB and I'm half asleep before my morning wake up coffee when I post and share, and these tend to be kneejerk reactions that simply put alerts and bulletins out there for my friends to see.
Today, all that starts to change. I intend to accompany whatever I post with as much of the facts as I can summon from trusted sources to counter the right wing rhetoric, and then I also promise to bring up whatever positive solutions that I can offer regarding helping us cope with the magnitude of the problem, or how to deal with being constantly exposed to these fear based news flashes that drain our psychic energy without our knowledge and certainly without our permission.
I was inspired by a posting from a friend about the radioactive rain in Japan these days and it was like a straw on the camel's back that turned on a light bulb in my mind. Why am I just sharing this disastrous information without taking the time to offer some coping skills if I have them?
My spirituality is 360. I worship life in it's universal entirety. The bad/dark is as sacred as the light/good and we have no way of wrapping our little temporary mortal brains around the motives of something that has an enormous, eternal intellect and agenda. Let me be a cog in the wheel that helps that agenda in as loving, nurturing and least invasive way as I can. I can't just love the light and banish the dark as without the dark as contrast, then light would not exist either.
That's not to say that I don't mourn the losses of Japan and indirectly, our sustainably strained planet, because I do, but on my terms and in my own time. I mourn the loss of our soldiers, I mourn the tragedies in the fuel racket that kill and displace millions in our greedy search for more and cheaper fuel. But I choose to do it when I know my own strengths are emotionally able to withstand and counter the information, not at dinner time with a plate in front of me between a tv screen and my heart, so that I'm eating disaster with my supper.
In so saying, this article is setting out to provide you with insights and perhaps, a new skill that will help you find some sort of peace or balance in the midst of all the chaos around us.
When you are inundated with the horrors of the world, have a prayer handy so that you can address the problem, give yourself a precious set amount of time to think /pray about it, or to help disseminate truthful information in the face of lies, and then agree with yourself to switch 'off'' the focus from the vague 'out there' to the 'immediate NOW' there where you are. Take back the focus and place it deliberately where you want it. You've done what you can, you have sent positive energy where it is needed and now you can return to your regularily scheduled programming, your own precious life.
Light a candle, set aside some quiet time when you feel strong enough and warrant the shedding of tears for the injustice/unfairness that you are witnessing, but set time so that you will have a parameter in which to operate so that when that time is up, you can refocus to your own concerns of a more immediate nature.
What is a prayer that you use to give yourself strength during the hard times? Here's a little video of my power song, a little ditty I wrote during my shamanic initiation that is one example of what one can use to restore personal energy when one has noticed its being leached off by circumstances beyond our control. Please share in our comments what provides you with a quick shot of strength, backbone, grounding or any other techniques that you might have to facilitate our staying clear in the midst of the muddle.
Remember, this isn't professional video, this is me on my couch, done in one take, no editing. So don't expect polished. Expect raw. Credit goes to Deanna Knight for the words, which I may have taken some liberty with, considering my memory being more of a swiss cheese consistency these years.
I'm not sharing my melodious (not)singing voice to garner acceptance or kudos, lord knows, if that was the case there would have been production values and I would have taken the time to comb my hair and get out of my housedress... LOL... but its an example of a grounding exercise that can help when we are inundated with negativity that serves to psychically drain us of the energy we need to keep on keepin on.
CLICK HERE for example A of how not to go viral on Youtube. :P
great timely piece- thanks for sharing
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