Has the world gone to shit? Or is it just your thoughts?
If you’d rather hear the world is going to shit, than read a blog post, listen to the episode here!
The world is going to shit…
Do you ever feel like the world has gone to shit or maybe you felt like, what’s going on in the world is going on in your own backyard? Or where you make the world’s problems your problems? If so, I feel ya. I do that sometimes too. Matter of fact it happened recently!
I had this sense that all was wrong in the world—Coronavirus, racism, social injustice. I was feeling anxious and upset. As you may do sometimes, I took on the global problems as my own.
A Life Coach, I talked to said “okay, let’s break it down and bring it back to you.” She asked, what’s happening to you directly? I was thinking, well, what’s happening to the world is happening to me! I was so adamant. But is it really? I thought, I dunno.
I can tell ya that at one point, it felt like it was happening directly to me.
As I spoke to that Life Coach, I told her about the thought I kept having that the world was going to shit.
She asked how I could tweak that thought to make me feel better. I still couldn’t come up with anything. The Life Coach suggested, “The world is going to shit, but that’s okay.” That felt better to me because I believed it was okay!
That statement also felt like it was accurate.
Is there a negative statement that you’re saying to yourself that you can tweak it to make yourself feel better? Can you add, but that’s okay? Try it.
For example, you could say I’m depressed, and that’s okay. The conflict often comes up when we try to argue with our reality. If you attempted to tell yourself, you weren’t depressed when you were.
How Byron Katie’s “Loving What is” helped me stop thinking the world has gone to shit!
I believe I may have talked about this book, “Loving what is,” before. Man, I felt resistant to this book, and it took me forever to read. The first 50-100 pages I hated. You know when you hear someone rave about a book and you read it, and you’re like what the hell? This book isn’t great. Why is everyone saying such great things about this book?
I kept slowly reading it, amongst several other books. But sometimes you gotta buckle down, and get through it! On vacation, I did that and as a result, I ended up loving it. It helped the anxiety and with putting things into perspective.
One of the things Byron tells you to ask yourself, “is it true?” Is the thought your thinking true? I reflected on the idea, the world is going to shit, and to me, at the time I felt it was true.
Her next question is, Do you absolutely know it’s true? Nope I thought, I can’t know that for sure. It may feel like it, but there are other possibilities.
The third question is, how do you feel when you think that thought. Well, when I thought the world is going to shit, quite frankly, I felt like shit. I felt horrible and kept thinking of all the horrible things going on everywhere in the world. In addition to that, I added all of the awful things that were going on in my life. It made me feel pretty lousy, actually. It made me feel anxious and out of control.
What problem are you globalizing?
Now, I ask you, what are you, globalizing? Similar to the world is going to shit, what do you say to yourself? Is there are a problem that’s going on in the world that you are making personal? I’m not saying that’s wrong, but what is going on in your world to you personally?
The last question this book asks is, is there a pain-free reason to get rid of that thought (and you’re not being asked to get rid of the thought). For me, the motivation to drop the thought was that it would give me less anxiety if I could stop thinking that thought. I was tired of feeling anxious and taking on the world’s problems.
A change in perspective.
Who says what’s going on in the world is wrong? Who says that we don’t need a change? It’s possible, that this is the very thing that is going to bring changes forward. Perhaps we are exactly where we need to be! Maybe, all of this is going to lead to something amazing. Those are calming thoughts, yah? Possibly, you and I should be thinking those thoughts instead!
Consider this, every time you think something like the world has gone to shit, you follow it up with the positive thoughts or questions; like I just mentioned but are worth repeating.
Who says the world is bad?
Who says we don’t need a change?
Maybe this is the very thing that is going to bring changes forward.
Is it possible, that you are exactly where you need to be!
Possibly, all of this is going to lead to something amazing.
What can you do?
Friend, I know life isn’t all gumdrops and lollipops. I m not even suggesting that you have a Pollyanna view on everything. All I want for you is to have peace in your own life.
To not feel so much anger, hate, or anxiety. You may find that you hate feeling that way and want to make a change!
If you haven’t tried “the work,” which is what Byron Katie calls her questions for any problem you might have, then why not try it? If it doesn’t help, then at least you tried. It may not solve all your problems, but it’s possible it may solve some.
My proposal to you.
Now to get to this great idea that I had and how you can be a part of it!
I was on a mastermind phone call, and the leader of the call, Jeff Goins, commented, “It’s hard to argue with someone’s experience.” that made me think. It led me to write a newsletter and to create this podcast episode to ask for your help and get your feedback.
So, I wrote this newsletter to my audience. I think it sums it up pretty well. I will read it to you now!
The newsletter that I sent out!
Hey You!!!
How are you holdin’ up?
2020 has been a crazy ride! There has been so much explosiveness.
Events and opinions that are running rampant and are right there in your face.
You talk about it at work, at home, and hear about it on the news and social media.
How do you catch a break from the intensity of what’s going on in the world? Not to mention how you can learn from it!
How do you share your voice and experiences without offending someone?
Ya know what’s rarely offensive? Your experiences!
I want to know your experience in the past few months with Coronavirus, wearing masks or not wearing masks, racism, or injustice.
What’s been going on with you? How have you dealt with it?
I would love to hear about your experiences.
I was also considering doing a blog post. Amplifying your voice from whatever corner of the world you’re in.
I wanna know what people are going through and how they are handling it. I also want you to hear what others are going through.
You don’t know it all, and neither do I. There is value when you can at least understand someone else experiences, even if you don’t agree with their stance.
If we could learn just a smidge of what someone else was going through, wouldn’t it be interesting?!
Can we do a community blog post, where your experience is shared?
Hit reply and share your experiences. If you don’t want me to share, I won’t. I would still like to hear from you though so that I can learn from you!
I would love it if your voice and experience(s) were heard.
You are a vital part of this community. Thank you for showing up and for being willing to have these conversations with me.
It can feel kinda vulnerable sometimes, yah?! Vulnerability is hard, but so appreciated!
Marie
PS just hit reply and share your experiences from 2020!
Your experiences are powerful!
That was it. What you just read above, that was the newsletter.
Friend, your experiences are so powerful. When you hear someone’s experience, it makes it personal; it’s not a nameless face or person. It also can change your perspective when you hear another experience.
I want to hear from you. Who can argue with your experience? How can I be mad that you experienced something? Okay, well, maybe that’s not entirely true. I can be upset that you experienced racism, but I wouldn’t be mad at you personally for sharing that experience.
That should be the point, right? You respond and what you went through, and hopefully, I could understand better where you are coming from. You and I, we don’t even have to agree with each other, but hopefully we can understand a little bit better!
I am not so ethnocentric or egocentric to think that I have all the answers. I also can’t assume that how I feel is how you should feel. Nope, my experiences are different than yours.
For instance, I would love to hear from a firefighter, a police officer, a victim of social injustice, someone who has experienced racism, an older person (who is now referred to as “elderly”). People who wear masks and people who don’t.
The goal here is not to state political opinions.
You don’t need to state your political opinion. Let’s not go there right now! The goal is to hear about other people’s experiences and learn and grow from them.
I urge you to participate, even if you’re not a writer. The world needs your voice! We need to hear your experiences. How will we ever learn from you if you don’t speak up?
If you’re anything like I was, you’re a wallflower or a lurker. You consume content and enjoy it, but you don’t chip in to be a part of it, or you don’t comment. You probably assume that it doesn’t matter except for one thing. It does.
Your statement about your experience only has to be a paragraph to three paragraphs or so. Now is your time to step up and contribute. If it feels scary, that’s okay. In short, that’s good! It means you are growing. Do it scared!
Remember, you are a BADASS!
Wake up! The light is about to come!
Now I want to leave you with some wise words, based on a video I saw on Instagram from Cathy Heller. Cathy is Jewish and said in Jewish tradition they say prayers in the morning and one of the prayers you are told to be a Rooster. Sounds funny right? Be a rooster? I was thinking, where the heck is she going with this!
Cathy went to Jerusalem and learned about the Rooster and the ancient prayer.
Cathy said to imagine being on a farm; the first being to wake up is a rooster.
The Rooster wakes up when it’s still so dark out, and he can’t even see the light. Cathy said “It looks as though it’s gonna be the darkest, darkest, darkest moment. The Rooster crows and says wake up everyone, because the light is about to break, and the dawn is coming. Right now.”
Our job is to know it’s the beginning and not the end.
Wake up the light is about to come.
Watch Cathy’s video here. What Cathy had to say was so powerful. I didn’t do it justice. It had an amazing point none the less. In other words, go watch the dang video already!
If you are struggling….
If you are struggling like I was, if you feel like the world is going to shit, that’s okay! The light is coming. How can you run toward the light, you might ask? By understanding others and what they have gone through! Share your experience, friend. Someone needs to hear what you have gone through.
That’s your challenge for today. Comment below or send me an email at ordinarytobadass@gmail.com and tell me what’s going on with you. Share your experience so we can learn from you and others.
If not you, then who?
Marie
PS Comment below and share your experience!