This week I’ve been triggered by a politician. His decisions and words angered me, because he’s hurting a group of people on purpose. I watched my body get ready to fight or flee, my mind fill up with hurtful thoughts, I even saw myself wishing that he’d get hurt, so he couldn’t go on with his campaign. This reaction filled up all my being and I had a hard time focusing on anything else.
It broke my heart, because when you hurt a group of people, you inevitably harm the whole of society and even yourself. The hurt happens on different levels, but even if you’re only looking at the physiological processes that occur when you feel active hate, you can measure the damage. Hate makes you feel on edge, not being able to access peace and calm. It consumes your energy, fills your head, hijacks your mood and tenses your body. It leads you away from doing what you long to do, because it eats up all your resources: time, energy and attention. The politician – or anyone else for that matter – who’s spreading hate, won’t only hurt the people he wants to hurt. He’ll hurt us all.
A little later I finally saw that his actions and words come from a deep fear of his own and I was able to somewhat let it go. And when this morning I still woke up with an eerie feeling, him still popping into my mind, I decided to do a loving-kindness meditation. It may not be your cup of tea, but this morning, this is what I had 😉 The meditation helped me find my peace, my center. It helped me let go of my inner drama, so I could go on with my day, doing the things that matter to me most. I needed to find my peace, so I could get back to being truly productive.
I know there are people who’d argue that conflict and anger can be fuel for you to act. It can be. But if it’s used without conscious awareness, it can turn into just another mindless act. Like a violent riot against violence, which solves nothing, but fuels more violence in return. Anger can show you what you care about. But it’s always peace and love that will fuel an act that comes from your soul – however cheesy this may sound.
I’m not suggesting that we forgive and forget all the real problems in the world and just sit passively, hoping that all will be well. Not at all! I could have let this incident pass, not mentioning it at all. No one would have known about it, except maybe my family who saw that I was tense. But the practice I was able to do with the help of this conflict, inspired me to share the lessons I’ve learned and the tiny steps of growth that took place in me. This is my act of love for the world this specific morning. Your talents and experiences may differ, so your acts of love may take an entirely different shape.
Ultimately, we all long to create positive change in the world, in whatever way we can.
Just imagine how much more we could get done, if we could drop the conflicts in our lives. Not just the big-scale ones, like the worldwide division around Covid at the moment, but also the smaller ones, like arguing with our partner about their habit of leaving their dirty socks in the living room.
Finding peace will enable us to really hear what we yearn to do. Our deep desires are always in service of healing and thriving, for everyone involved. This is true not only on a big scale, like our life’s purpose – which can shapeshift in my opinion – but also on a moment-to-moment basis. When all the mental and physical tension from conflict falls away, we are left with an incredible amount of extra time and energy, not to mention the joy! And if we can listen to that inner compass and act on it, we are living the most wonderful life we could ever imagine, hardships and all.
So go and spread the love in your unique way!
Hugs,
Our True Nature 