I always remember feeling passionate about justice, truth and wanting to fight it all. What I have learned now is that you cannot save the world, but you can save yourself. The ripple effect of that is huge. I notice so much blaming and shaming with each other online and real life and I wonder how helpful that really is.
If someone punched you in the face today, your instinct is to punch them back in the face because then you will feel a sense of “justice”, right? An eye for an eye and so on. What if we re-framed this traditional sense of “justice” and instead of gunning for an “eye”, pause, reflect and critically evaluate the situation. Become so evolved that your ego does not need to punch back but instead, make a conscious effort to understand the person that punched you in the face in the first place. Eventually, an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind and what good is that? It is only the ego that cares about punching back, getting the last word and goes out of the way to “prove” the other person wrong.
Do not get me wrong. If people never stood up for what is right and for social justice, we would not have human rights law and freedoms we enjoy today but I am proposing we do this in the most conscious compassionate way possible. Without getting so emotionally involved and ruining our own inner peace in the process. I strongly object to what is going on now and am suspicious of the intent and information we are being fed by the mainstream media. Before I became a Nutritional Therapist, I became obsessed with the corruption, politics and lies that surround public health, medical intervention, attitudes and practices around chronic disease and overall health. I got angry, upset, argued with people, believed it was my duty for them to “see the light” or “save them”. I learned over time that this the worst way to go about things. People do not want to listen to information they did not ask to hear. They do not want to be preached at. There is nothing wrong with challenging someone’s belief and perception in a non-confrontational, non-judgmental way but if you are attached to the outcome and bully people into seeing things your way, you will only hurt yourself and possibly others. Focus on what you can control and think about the healthiest way you can share information that you believe is important.
I have personally encountered some people who are ready to serve and fight for the greater good, who have great intentions, but they are not ready to do that in a healthy way because they have not yet served themselves. They have not prioritized their emotional, physical and spiritual needs which may manifest as ugly, defensive, aggressive and self-righteous behaviour. They are projecting their own traumas and insecurities on to others. This could be very unconscious. There is no judgement with this statement as I too fell into this delusion at one point or another. It is easier to blame others and fight for a cause when it distracts you from your own work. If you are having such an emotional response to a given situation, you have to ask yourself why.
Take for example, the situation we find ourselves in today. Freedoms being taking away, fear rhetoric, manipulation from all sides and agendas. It could really send someone down a spiral of despair, confusion and anxiety.
My solution here is to take personal responsibility for your own health. Stop blaming others for how you feel. Nobody can fix you but you. It is extremely hard to do on your own so reach out for help and support instead of handing the responsibility of your health over to someone like a doctor.
Understand there is nuance to every single situation. Perceptions are vastly different and are present due to personal experiences, belief systems, programming from society, family, friends, media etc. We are all susceptible to these external influences but the more conscious you become, the more you will tune into your own intuition. What I mean by conscious here is to become aware of yourself and your surroundings. Examine and be prepared to face your triggers and traumas. Become open to completely letting go of all programming and limiting beliefs that do not serve you. The more spiritual definition of that is something I will talk about in depth in future writings but for now, I will describe it as connecting to the truest highest self.
Listen and research as many perspectives as possible. Know that every source of information has its own agenda, so you need to figure out what sources are for the greater good and serve values such as truth and honour as opposed to more sinister motives.
There are many ways to become more conscious. You can start by listening to podcasts and reading books, following people that are teachers in the field of self-development, psychotherapy, health or life coaching, spiritual teachers, high performance people etc. Somewhere to start could be Tony Robbins
, Aubrey Marcus, Louise Hay, Abraham Hicks and many more like them. They have tons of free content to work with. Breath work is huge! Learn how to meditate, do what you love, start a self-love journey, go to therapy if you need to, find a coach, eat nourishing food, whatever it is you need to do to heal and live your best life, go and do it! There is not a second to waste!
I believe the goal should be to gain as many perspectives from as many sources possible without overloading yourself. Whatever belief you are so dearly attached to, actively try and prove yourself wrong. Learn the basics on how to analyse a research study. Watch documentaries. I am not going to throw the baby out with the bath water and advise you to completely disregard what mainstream media is telling you but seek out alternative perspectives/news sources. Where does this narrative come from and why? Understand the intent. It is not always for your best interest. The main take home here is to do the inner work, then you will be in a better position to take on any external battles you need you face. I understand you can be bombarded with information and it is difficult to know what the right thing is, but I guarantee the better you feel inside, the easier all this is. Take a break from information overload if needed and do not worry about trying to save the world. Start healing your inner world. It will serve you and others greatly.