Can this Election Help Us Heal?

I imagine some of you may relate to this, I am noticing fear showing up inside of me most every time I hear one of President-Elect Trump’s choices for his cabinet. It is fear for our immigrant families, for our beloved Earth, for our health system, for the Palestinian’s right to their own state, for the Ukrainians, and for our judicial system.

My heart also aches at the amount of divisiveness in our country. After the election, one-half of the country is celebrating, and the other half is grieving. Are human beings destined to be caught in this much heartache, and fear?  Are we destined to think that it’s okay to govern from domination, whether it is in a family, a country or in politics?  Are we destined to live in the kind of mind that does not realize the Earth is our mother and it is our privilege to care for her rather than just take from her; the kind of mind that feels it is right to bomb innocent civilians in order to try to make yourself feel safe?

I do not believe that is our destiny. Come sit on the moon with me and see our beautiful home before you. Recognize that Mother Earth is a living process that at one time was molten lava and toxic gases. Over the eons, she has evolved into this exquisite creation before you. In that process, around 300,000 years ago, a new thing showed on our planet called Home Sapiens. They carried something that the Earth had never known before, the kind of mind that could think about life, feel it, and express the absolute wonder of it through poetry, art, literature, and symphonies.

This kind of mind also learned to share ideas, and we gradually moved from living in caves to many people in the world living in houses that keep them cool when it’s hot and warm when it is cold.

But we got caught in a dualistic kind of mind that perceives the world through opposites: Them and us; I am right. You are wrong; I am better than you because of the color of my skin, or my religion, or my culture, or my gender, or my sexual orientation. If you step back and look at history, you will see how much heartache has been created by this kind of mind.

And most of the time, most of us perceive life from this dualistic perspective. If you watch your mind, you will see it sets up what it likes against what it doesn’t like, always wanting life to be better or different than what it is. That is the world of struggle, and it cuts you off from the alive joy you truly are.

So, for me, this time of such heartache on our planet is an invitation to become responsible for your own mind, which means learning the ability to respond to your mind rather than react to it. You can either be at the mercy of the fear and the polarization that is happening all over the world or, when you notice your mind is getting caught in struggle, you can bring your attention back to, what science has now shown is our main brain, your wise and beautiful heart. Place your hand over your heart and meet whatever you are experiencing with kindness and compassion. This may not seem very powerful, but as Goethe said, “There is nothing so strong as gentleness. Nothing so gentle as real strength.”

Then ask your heart to show you how you can respond from its wisdom rather than the reactions of your mind, whether it is with your friends and family, co-workers, or people you see on the news.

It may not seem that these moments of responding to what is going on inside and outside of you (rather than reacting) will make much difference, but it builds up to make all the difference. Which drop of water was not essential in creating the oceans? Life is asking us to mature beyond this dualistic kind of mind and come home to the wisdom of our hearts. Every time you do, it is another drop of heart in the ocean of the collective mind/heart we all share.

So, thank you for working towards response rather than reaction; for meeting all the complex feelings as they come up for you; and for still choosing to be compassionate, kind and patient, both with yourself and the rest of humanity, even if you feel betrayed or hurt. Heartache means we care, and caring people is all that is needed to help humans heal and grow.

If this blog resonated with you and want to explore more of my work, I invite you to listen to my upcoming radio show on Dreamvisions 7 Radio: Your Amazingly Wonderful Beautiful Heart, It will air on Thursday, November 28th and December 5th at 5am and 5pm HERE. After the 5th, it will be available on demand, along with every other radio show I’ve ever done HERE. Please feel free to explore my catalog and listen to topics that call to you.

Offerings:

You are invited to join us for the next Free Live Call: Does Pain have to be so Painful? We will be meeting on Tuesday, December 3rd at 5:30 pm PST for an hour and a half. We will continue to meet every two months, so keep an eye out for future events!

We all experience pain.  And we all experience all levels of pain – physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.

But we are living in an exciting time where we are changing our relationship to pain.  Join Mary in exploring how, rather than resisting the pains in your life, you can befriend them so that you receive the gifts that always come with them.

Don’t forget if you can’t make it on the day, you can still participate by sending your questions and enjoying the recording after the call at your convenience. I hope to see you there!

Click HERE to learn more and register!