the swirl

We’ve been flat out hit.

Never in our well-heeled, western-style lifetime have so many factors come crashing together to create a collective sense of helplessness and overwhelming anxiety.

The war. The pandemic. The climate.

I woke up the other morning the same way I woke up when I suffered from untreated depression. Ok in the first moment, and then the flood of darkness and sadness pushed out any sense of normalcy.

Those families. Those babies. Those pets. My God.

My day, save higher gas prices, is not directly impacted by world events, and yet I felt so hit with psychic inertia. The war is far away but it is so very close. The stakes are so unimaginably high that we can’t even fathom them. The skyrocketing covid numbers and a horrendous report on the future of the climate crisis, two things that have literally taken up all of our emotional energy for years, were thrown onto the back page as we watched a monster set about destroying his neighbour. And threatening to nuke the rest of us.

We were already saying “it’s too much” two years ago. Now we’re saying “it’s too much” with dulled speech, while watching a continuous stream of war crimes on TV.

It’s pretty damn awful, friends.

Life feels like the swirl of the drain.

What can we do? How can we cope with all of this in our present situation? After sitting here in the NATO zone and thinking about it all, I’ve come up with this:

Live

Chase away feelings of helplessness the best you can. We as a species would have never survived damp caves and poisonous plants and cold in the winter had we not been able to overcome helplessness. You are not helpless. I am not helpless. We can keep on going even when it all feels incredibly heavy and scary.

Assess

Take a look at what you need and what the people around you need. And decide what’s crucial and what’s expendable. Be ready to give most of it up if necessary. Don’t be married to your stuff. Because, as you’ve seen for yourself on CNN the past three weeks, none of it ends up mattering at all.

Give

If you don’t need stuff, give it away to people who can actually use it. Honestly. It’s such a waste to have stuff you don’t use.

Reduce

Reduce consumption. Stay informed, but reduce your consumption of news in order to protect your overactive brain. Reduce your need to feel better though retail therapy - shopping is just legal addiction. Reduce crap foods in your diet. Reduce alcohol consumption. Reduce debt. Reduce behaviours that leave you numb and feeling out of touch with who you really are.

Learn

Take the lessons from all of the things that the Universe is placing in our collective path right now, and change your resource consumption accordingly. Stop expending more than you have. Stop wasting resources. Think about EVERYTHING. Start helping other people. Work in community with others. Be willing to give of yourself without sacrificing your core needs (because if you do that, you’re not going to be able to help anyone).

Grow

Grow a garden, grow your mind, grow your sense of place and be satisfied with your life. Stop placing importance on accumulating. Reach out for contentment and simple pleasures. Understand how unbelievably lucky you are right up to today. We don’t know about tomorrow. Plant your garden anyway, in whatever form is best for you.

Be Yourself

Don't worry about others' opinions. Just be yourself. Strive for individualism and express how you feel. We’ve been brought up with so many expectations of us and have had so many of those expectations drilled into our psyches. Let them go. See the world through your own eyes and try to take away the prisms of religion, dogma, social norms. And act from that standpoint instead of one of judgment and limited perspective.

Accept

You’re not going to be able to change everything. Maybe you can change one little thing. Perhaps you can give to your favourite charity or mine. Do what you can to make yourself feel good about your effort. And understand that you are giving from a place of intention, which will start the ball rolling in a good way.

Accept that these world events are part of something much larger than any one of us. We must continue to be good people, to strive for good things, to wish good for others, to help in the ways we can, and to continue our paths.

To move forward.

Acceptance is an act of bravery. Being true to yourself is an act of bravery. Moving forward is an act of bravery.

My love and deepest wish for peace is going out to each of you and the world at large.