Wave goodbye to your shadow!
Often the world of activism, social justice, environmentalism and many protest movements waste so much time, energy, money and emotion fighting against existing structures.
I understand this approach wholeheartedly. Feeling hopeless people get frustrated, angry and resentful towards things they don’t understand. Acknowledging the enormity of the global challenges we face, brings anxiety, depression, obsession and in some cases mania and breakdown. This was my story. When I studied these global challenges, I propelled myself into self-righteous anger and moral superiority to the “perpetrators” of global injustice. My outrage was fierce. I gravitated towards the majority of the “anti” movements. Anti-poverty, pollution, war, capitalism and so on. I sympathise with the emotion driving these movements, but I’ve come to realize that fighting existing realities is hopeless. This is why so much anger and hostility builds up in people. The level of condemnation, self-righteousness and finger pointing is nauseating. This behaviour climaxes in the horror of violence. So what do we do? Keep fighting? I don’t think it’s working.
To change the world, we must change ourselves and create realities that don’t currently exist. We must stop fighting what is and create what isn’t. Humanity is infinitely creative, yet we’re often stuck in the quicksand of emotion, hostility and righteousness. Albert Einstein said it best “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
So, my friends, I empathise with how hard it is to snap out of a frame of reference that fuels our need for control and empowerment. I’m experiencing the beauty of letting go of control and the need to change others, and to change what exists. Many people in history created revolutionary changes through creating new paradigms, not fighting old ones. Martin Luther King JR started with a vision. “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Yes, he was against injustice, but he motivated people through a vision of what didn’t exist. He showed us through his character that we could love each other. That we can transform the world through our own transformation.
My passion is mental health. I sincerely understand the struggle within our minds. I’m asking people to look inside themselves, to be inspired by people like Martin Luther King JR.
How can you love and empathise with those who you feel are holding you down?
We can’t stop the stigma, we can’t fight stigma, we can’t defeat the societal imprisonment that surrounds us. It’s too exhausting, it holds us back from achieving our greatest potential. We must stop pointing the finger, we must stop obsessing over changing others and things we have no control over. We must change our perspectives and our approaches.
How can you show compassion to someone who’s ignorant to your struggles?
How can you support those who unconsciously fuel the stigmas that perpetuate negative perspectives of people struggling with their mental health?
Let’s get wise and change ourselves. Let’s “stop fighting against what is and create what isn’t.”
peace & love
Sincerely