Are you as worn out from this election season as I am? I am beyond weary from fending off the incoming—all kinds of energetic approaches vying for my mental, psychic and emotional attention, ranging from snail mail, email, print and TV ads, the endless coverage by the media of each side’s daily talking points and the innumerable partisan surrogates appearing on behalf of each agenda, and, most difficult of all to bear, the relentless sniping and small hearted negative attacks that appear to be acceptable terms of engagement in politics. We are all being subjected to energetic fields replete with the signature qualities of combativeness, hostility, and very emotionally charged adversity, in some cases rising to level of hatred. This affects our physical bodies, our minds and psyches, and our sense of spiritual hope and love in ways we may not stop to think about, but we feel. Imagine the overload on our collective consciousness and unconsciousness as we try to sort out the facts and separate the hype from the truth.
All of this has significant impact: it distracts us from our center, our “true north”, our sense of balance and equanimity and authentic self. (You may read about True North at www.innercounsel.com/blog/?p=507.)
So, how do you maintain your center, your truth, in the midst of this? How do you exercise your franchise—that is, your right and duty to participate in the election process– while at the same time remembering what matters? Really matters, in a day-to-day, human-to-human, experience and practice of love and compassion.
Stop. Look. Listen. To your inner self, to that small voice that is you. Find it again.
Don’t underestimate the power of the manipulative intention behind the sales pitch that is retail politics. And the energetic power of the affected mob—the crowd mentality that can sweep us into an emotional wind-up that can distance us, before we even realize it, from our own common sense.
So often in the frenzy of political contest we become polarized and removed from our sense of compassion. Be watchful of this. Make sure that you are not unduly influenced, and that you are critical in your acceptance of information. Be discerning. Take a break, often, and turn off the sources of incoming and settle into yourself; your inner awareness, your true self, is a more reliable indicator of best direction than the external sources that are competing for your loyalty. Trust yourself. Inform yourself from within, not only from without.
Stop and take a quiet moment and go into yourself and be still an instant. Find your way back home to your knowing, your truth, that resonant feeling sense that you have of what is right. Feel the expansiveness of your heart. What do YOU feel? How do you want to express that?
As you move into self trust, it is important to begin from a neutral place. This can be difficult. So be critical and honest with yourself as you approach finding your way. It is human nature that we tend to create circumstances that support what we want to believe—that is what cognitive resonance and dissonance are all about. Be gentle with yourself, but be aware of your own bias, and remove it from the process of going within to the extent you can. In other words, be discerning with yourself.
Most of all, remember what really matters:
Love. Life. Joy. Compassion. Laughter. Giving.
And go out and find your own way of creating and expressing it!
Laura says
Love this blog Susan! Timely for sure. I woke up at 5:30 this morning and did some good old fashion prayer and meditation. The answers truly are within the heart not the clutter of the bombarded mind.
susan says
thanks Laura, and thanks for sharing on Facebook, too!