The Invincible Revolution of Kindness
Tags: Compassion, Kindness, Gun Violence, Trump, Awarenes

When the news gets you down, fight back!

The Invincible Revolution of Kindness

Three things we can do to rebalance our state of being

One man killed twenty-two people yesterday in a shooting spree in Nova Scotia. Last year, within two days, a man killed ten people (his sister among them) in Dayton, Ohio, and another man killed twenty-two people in El Paso, TX. We have a president who says with pride, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters, okay?” No, Mr. President, that’s not okay.

It seems like up is down and down is up these days.

But I’ve always held that the same amount of insanity exists no matter what epoch you’re in. It just seems worse for us because it’s happening on our watch. Keep in mind, though, that thousands of years ago, a popular form of entertainment was to watch a man get eaten by a lion.

There was the Spanish Inquisition.

The Salem Witch Trials.

The Holocaust.

We are no further from our moral compass than we ever were. And no closer to awakening than we were in Jesus’ time. Or Gandhi’s. Or the Buddha’s. But when we find ourselves overwhelmed by the violence and desperation that surround us, there are three things we can do that will rebalance our state of being and nudge us toward kindness and awakening. None of the three are easy. But all of them work.

1. Actively Scan for Good News

The horrific gets all the air time, but it’s not the only thing going on out there. Kindnesses, acts of profound compassion, inspiring creativity, bravery, and honor — they are unfolding all the time, everywhere in the world. But they’re quieter by nature, and less jazzy for the headlines. Scan for them.

One of the gems I found while scanning was SGN (Some Good News a fantastic little 20-minute YouTube show hosted and conceived by John Krasinski, from The Office). I encourage you to click on the link in this paragraph and watch it. Heart balm of the highest order. There’s so much more great stuff out there. Let’s find it together.

2. Remember: Point One Finger, Three Are Pointing Back

It’s useful to keep in mind that we can’t actually see anything out there that doesn’t also exist within us. Until we come to terms with all the violence we carry in our own minds — against ourselves and others — we will never eradicate it from the outside world.

Sit still and spend some time looking inward. Whatever we judge ‘out there,’ we can open the mind and look for examples of that very thing in ourselves. Whatever shows up, that is something we can work with. So let’s work with it. Let’s identify what’s not serving us in our own habits and behaviors, and make the effort to change. It’s the only way to save the world. We do it one personal failing at a time, acknowledged, embraced, and transcended.

3. Pay Attention to What We Consume

We care that our food isn’t rotten, right? We wouldn’t eat it no matter who told us it was delicious. But what are we feeding our consciousness? Some of what we shovel into our eyeballs and our minds is hyper toxic. A lot of it is just food for what Eckart Tölle calls the “pain body.”

Everything we watch, indulge in, give our attention to affects us biochemically. It feeds the world we perceive. What kind of world do you want your grandchildren to live in? Feed your consciousness with those images, those stories. Feed your consciousness responsibly.