In Response to Chaos
It feels like every month some intense headline blows up the news, media spaces and even the conversations of friends and families. And recently it feels as though we are going mad with opinions, perspectives and ideas on the tragedies and crimes we see presented there. I thought maybe I should respond to this, give some spiritual insight on this topic. People are hurting. But what to say…
As I tuned in, I heard this message, which relates to a conversation I had recently with a friend, the response is to not respond.
Now hear me out. Your opinion and perspectives on life are valid, everyones’ are but it is not our job to formulate opinions, perspectives or even advocacy debates for world events or other peoples lives. In a world that lives for the commentary meant to make you emotional and frozen while scrolling, it feels like we must respond to so many things. But I am here to liberate you, you are not wrong for not expressing a stance or take on something that you do not feel confident in understanding.
The amount of messages I hear about “how anyone can stay silent while xyz is going on” and using shame to motivate you to post online about something is astonishing. But it really is okay if you do not know what to think about something you could scarcely validate information about as factual.
My truth is, I am not a political strategist, an economist, or an expert in foreign policy. Outside of playing battleship board game as a child, I have no experience plotting or understanding war and military strategy ( I also mostly lost this game). And I am sure many of you are the same. Its okay to not know, and to not spend time figuring it all out especially with mixed and confusing information.
You have a choice of not only how to respond but what to respond to in life. And now more than ever, we must choose where to give our energy and time. The external world is feeling more chaotic than usual and it is our job to learn to navigate the turbulance by finding our own center.
This is not to say you ignore everything and become withdrawn and no longer choose to help your fellow man. It is to invite in the ideas that living your fullest life, is always the answer and doing what you can to feel whole is the first step. I invite you to see the ways you do impact others and continue to do that positively, and if a certain broader cause tugs at you, see if there is a way to actively support it.
But spending too much energy on the world’s problems and formulating responses and opinions does not have to be your role, (unless you enjoy it, than go for it) you can surrender thing bigger than your reach and come back in to the creation of your own life.
Right now, while tragedies occur, a baby is laughing at the silly faces her mother makes leaning over her crib, a blade of grass has pushed through the soil and experienced sunlight for the first time, a dogs tail slaps hard wood floor as he hears the keys of his beloved owner coming in the door from work, a cat has found the perfect sunbeam to lay in, a woman gives birth after years of trying for a child, a family makes peace from an old wound, young people are dancing their ass off at an amazing party, two friends laughed so hard they both fell to the floor, an athlete broke a world record and feels exuberant… and so on and so on.
In conversations that have come up this week about the difficult current events, I responded with my own limited perspectives (even though I could have tuned in and shared a more spiritual perspective) and if I could go back and edit those moments, I would either share what spirit has to say or I would say this instead: “How are you in all this, how does it make you feel not think?” Respond to the humanity of others, respond to the tired emotions of your children and partners and respond to yourself with kindness and permission to do what feels true and good to who you are.
We need light right now, and that could just come from your own bright little life that is never diminished by the clouds of the world (at least not for long). If more people created and lived their own lives and impacted their own sphere with as much love, kindness and joy as they could muster the world would be a different place. If people applied the same fervent assessment to their own inner limiting beliefs and woundings as the did to the moral failings of complete strangers and approached the healing of those things with the same passion as they wrote a post, comment or rant with, our world would be much more whole.
So I invite you to do this.
Surrender the mental arguments and responses and open your heart to your life’s divine flow.
-Avery