Yesterday, I read a major newspaper for the first time in ages. I don’t normally read the newspaper anymore. Sometime, I’ll talk more about that.
But the top headlines – about stock markets plunging,
fears about the health of the economy, instability around the drop in oil
prices, etc. – seemed so perfectly conducive to creating a public ripple effect
of anxiety, I had to take notice.
One of the main messages of all the law of attraction
reading I have done, by a variety of authors, is that the only way to achieve
happiness, ease, and contentment is to focus on (and encourage) their existence within
ourselves. Outer conditions do not
“cause” our happiness, sadness or anxiety – it works the other way around. If we are inwardly unhappy, we draw to us
events or situations that reflect that.
How that happens globally, I can barely get my head around, except that
I suspect that when enough people experience personal dis-ease, events with
that same energy do seem to materialize in communities, in nations or globally.
This is the kind of moment to be very aware of when and
how we allow an outside condition to have the power over our happiness. In two recent blogs, I wrote about letting
other people’s opinions influence our sense of self, or expecting other people
to conform to our opinions, two sides
of an ultimately very unsatisfying coin.
Well, hinging our happiness on world events (economic or otherwise) is a
second cousin to this. If we are happy when the stock market goes up, and sad
when it goes down, we are really allowing something outside of us to control
our emotions. We become puppets. Such powerlessness is a
breeding ground for fear, and a vicious cycle ensues.
I have come to believe that the only power I have in this world is over my own
inner self. Indeed, in moments of global stress,
the best way I can help is to stand firm in my alignment to the
divine energy of the Universe, and be as joyful, love-filled, and full of exuberant
passion for life as I possibly can be.
Even if I see the system as deeply flawed, and can envision the gaping
hole in the ice that the Dutch child is happily skating toward, I must just take
a deep breath, and try to be a source of love, not fear or criticism. I can also just try to envision the skater happily navigating around, not into, the
chasm.
What most people fear the most when they read these
headlines is homelessness, joblessness, instability, lack of financial and
health safety nets – and hey, that has been my life for several decades. It hasn’t been pretty, and there have been
moments when I couldn’t have survived without at least one friend encouraging
me or reaching out to me at the moment I was most scared. Yet I have survived with my body and spirit
intact (another topic for another day!) Finally, I “get” that things out of kilter within were creating things out of
kilter without. Scary life scenarios can be "survived," even “thrived,” if eventually we dig deep enough to shift the core energy we are sending out. Ripple effects go both ways; the moment we
feel ripples of fear gaining momentum around us, we can join the growing
tsunami – or choose to love even beyond our comfort zone, and see if we can
observe any ripples spreading out from us.
