May 02, 2010
We are over a week into the oil spill in the Gulf and we are beginning to see images of dead sea turtles washing up on shore soaked in gasoline. Standing with my daughter tears came to my eyes. She hugged me tight.
“Is there any part of this experience I am resisting, making it worst case in my mind ?” I asked myself.
This is a common question I’ll ask myself anytime I feel a strong negative emotion.
Have you ever noticed how negative emotion will distort your perception of an event and influence the way in which you speak or behave towards someone in the present? It can also lead to brooding, stewing, and inaction.
The problem here is not located in the Gulf of Mexico but in the human mind.
Because since the beginning of time there has always been a situation like disaster, human error, greed and conflict .
The real question is what do we do about it in our minds.
As my coach, Steve Chandler (www.clubfearless.net) of Club Fearless reminds me…Opportunities to help others are exciting unless we put them in our mind and brood about them and then start to ADD all the depressing language to the situation like UNFAIR and UNJUST and SUFFERING and all that. That pulls us down into gloom and worry and despair and we can’t help.
Happy people are a bigger help to others than worried people.
Happy people help more people than “concerned” “caring” “sensitive” people who over-emphasize “feeling empathy” instead of actually rolling up their sleeves, getting their hands dirty and HELPING.
So when you find your mind tugging at your sleeve trying to get you all depressed about something, change your STATE of mind to ACTION and HOW CAN I HELP? You can’t be depressed while you are in action.
Being “upset” over the news can only happen to me when I am feeling my own passivity, my own sense of inner helplessness, and those things can only happen when I am not taking action.
So “What am I to think about this?” can be immediately converted to “What can I DO? Who can I TALK TO right now? What actions can I take?” And then do something.
Love, Kendall
