Election Results are a Call to WAKE Up and Grow Up!

How to stay SANE post election….

 

So the world is in a political spin. The recent election results are perhaps shocking proof. 

 

That sentence could apply to almost any year, couldn’t it? Globalism is not going to stop, because the old world is ending. And this wake up call creates a push-back for many people, sending them towards a feeling of national ownership—the “we belong here, they don’t” story. So, lots of chaos and divisive sentiment, not just in the USA of course; we have similar movements happening in Europe, Asia, South America, etc.

So where do we go? How do we humans start to grow up? 

I think it’s worth pointing out that in the unknown space leading up to Trump taking office on January 20th, we will have a strong lure in our system to gravitate to fear. The unknown is the edge that fear uses—it’s the main stronghold of fear.

And so how do we personally deal with the unknown?

Lets notice how we are indulging and projecting stories of fear and despair, and how we might be lured into those stories by the media, our communities, and our culture. We might stop using clarity and start to get influenced by these fears. 

I noticed this myself. On the day of the election, before the results were in, I spoke to a senior political operator for a moment, and got an insider’s view of how the election was going to unfold, she was 100% accurate, and she offered a clear view of the next few years rollout. However, over the course of the next couple of days, I noticed myself starting to default to my preset stories about this government, and away from this clear expert point of view. Which by the way was uplifted and addressed how this result will cause so many more brilliant and innovative solutions from the NGO and private sector, and mentioned how many minorities will get elected seats in smaller offices.  But my presets are colored by my Canadian background, and my liberal leanings, among other references of my culture and community. Even I was veering towards fear filled projections, and needed to check my story! 

 

But what we really need right now is clarity, not stories.  And clarity can dawn for each of us uniquely.

What is your clarity?

For myself, I notice we as a human race have never yet been able to stop genocide. We have a terrible track record. And I deeply wish we could. I wish we could stop it at this moment. But in order to do that, we need to stop ACTING from our internal deep fears. So many votes for this new US government were actions of FEAR. 

 

As we move ahead, we need to allow the unknown to be a place of inspirational potential unfolding in front of us. A place where you loud and proud support your community. Love all over the LBGT family, friends and influencers.  Love up the women you admire and especially the women of color you admire. Shop at their businesses, eat at the local restaurants you adore, like social media pages, etc. In the unknown space we can honor our own intentions. We can see our own personal values unfold. A place of more personal freedom. Checking ourselves when we linger in projections of despair and worst case scenarios. Indulging in the news and/or obsessively reading articles that uphold your own biases is not how this happens. Expanding into love and clarity is how it happens.

 

Very practically, it means finding the places in our bodies where that fear is clenching. Your gut? Your head? Your heart? Bring that grip into your awareness. Now imagine relaxing that, softening that, loving all over that.  Now imagine letting that relaxed and softer tension open up instead of contracting. Meditation is a great place for all of this—so is a walk in nature, or hiking up a mountain, or a quiet sit on your couch. The silence can soften it, and your intention for clarity can let it open. Listen for your own values, your own intentions, how you want to live.

We have a tremendous opportunity here. In the face of chaos and fear, can you rise up and refuse to be confused and act out of fear?  In the face of chaos, can you be free? If the government will not pay for women’s reproductive health, it means planned parenthood needs a new funding system, and perhaps a much more efficient administration. It means you can value it regardless. Today there has been a wave of private donations to Planned Parenthood. The big money in Silicon Valley is going towards innovation and clean energy, even if the government pulls out of the climate deals. Nobody thinks investing in fossil fuels is the future. People want a Tesla, regardless of what the republicans promised the lobbyists. We live in a world that does not require government assistance. That is the personal freedom we actually have. And the opportunity you have.

May all beings know clarity.

May we swiftly become a race of beings that is very capable of ending genocide.