I met up with a friend of mine today who shared how helpless and overwhelmed she is feeling by events in the world and can barely even watch the news. That sense of helplessness is something we all know well – whether it’s for fellow humans whose lives are being torn apart by war, some aspect of our own current situation, or a loved one dealing with challenging personal circumstances, illness, conflict, loss.
When we are in the midst of the maelstrom, sometimes just hanging on is the best we can do. Grabbing at the slightest source of comfort, like closing our eyes and simply focusing on our breath. In my courses, I always teach easy and accessible ways to consciously calm down our nervous system through breathwork – a great tool, as long as we remember to access it!
But once we have managed to find a moment of calm, then what? The wars, our challenges and the focus of the nightly news remain exactly the same. What good is it to find some measure of calm when nothing ‘out there’ has changed?
Here is where the real pathway to our empowerment lies. Until we take true notice of what our thoughts and energy automatically return to broadcasting, and begin to deliberately cultivate a different setpoint, we never really change our experience. We must turn away from our default thought habits and use our amazing hearts as well as brains to create a potential that nourishes rather than depletes.
“Let peace begin with me.”
“Let me be an instrument of thy peace.”
“She perceives the universal harmony,
even in the midst of great pain,
because she has found peace in her heart.”
These are just a few quotes – from hymns, from my favorite source of wisdom, the Tao te Ching – that instruct me to move beyond just rare moments of calm and with on-going dedication, consciously direct my thoughts and heart-based energy to what I most truly want to embody: peace; love; compassion. For myself, others, the world. Because as long as I hold things ‘out there’ to define whether or not I get on the bandwagon of peace and love, I’m at risk of perpetuating the pain.
Can I do it all the time? I wish! But I keep practising, becoming more attuned to my own moments of inner choice – am I aligning with fear or anger or helplessness, or am I choosing to see through eyes of love? To think, speak and act from my heart?
We can live and express anything. The key is to become mindful of those thoughts we automatically fall into – our automatic pilot of energy frequency, to put it in other terms – and then, like an expert sailor, continue to course-correct, elevating our vision to what we want for ourselves and others.
It’s a good question to ask yourself: what are you radiating out into the world?
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