Tuesday was a cliff hanger for most of us. There were elections that we took very seriously. We voted in a way to support what we believed was important for ourselves, our families, our island, and nation. But many of
Tuesday was a cliff hanger for most of us. There were elections that we took very seriously. We voted in a way to support what we believed was important for ourselves, our families, our island, and nation. But many of us will be disappointed. What do we do now? I’d like to suggest that first we take the time to be still, to be in the present, to clear out the monkey mind’s ever-present, anxiety-producing chatter.
Start by breathing deeply in, maybe to a count of seven, hold it for five counts and breathe out for another seven counts. Focus on the breath, and try to still your mind from all the thoughts. Keep breathing until you can actually feel your whole body begin to relax, and your mind gets mostly clear. Some thoughts will intrude, but you’re in charge, and it’s important to be still right now. Get to know this still place in your mind. From this stillness original ideas can generate from your greater mind, once it’s freed from the usual bombardment of chatter.
If the chatter comes back, breathe again, until you feel more peaceful. You want your ideas to come from your higher mind. Our very highest minds are our spirit minds, the eternal divine part of us that the psalmist was referring to when he penned, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” Psalm 46:10, or Jesus, referred to this when He said, “Ye are gods.” He was quoting Psalm 82:6, “I said, ‘You are “gods;” You are all sons of the Most High.”
At our true spiritual level, what use does our spirit have of power in the world? We are all linked together, and equally powerful. We already want the same things, to love and be loved, because we are love and want what is best for all. We know that we are strong when we come from unity, and that separation weakens all of us.
We don’t need food, cars, fuel, homes, clothing, patches on earth to claim for our bodies, entertainment of our senses, etc. We are free to be our highest expression.
Money is needed to purchase the above items, or to impress others, which leads us to the desire for fame. It is the ego’s thought system which says that success is measured by money, things or approval. The world is coming around to that more and more. People are living in communal settings that share common areas and leave some private areas. These can be retirement centers, centers for the expression of the arts, religious centers, or just folks getting together to pool their money to buy more land so that they all can upgrade their living styles. Approval ratings can be manipulated.
I’ve just spent some time perusing the “Big Religion Chart: Comparison Chart” at http://www.religionfacts.com/big-religion-chart. It studies and compares many religions and spiritual systems, but from my 12 years with the Interfaith Roundtable, I know that not all of the religions were represented.
Many God-believing ones, such as Unity Church, Divine Thought, A Course in Miracles, the Quaker religion, and more, were left out. In spite of that, the chart numbers accounted for about 4.8 billion people. Four billion two million people all believed in some form of single supreme diety. Some gave Him helper gods. If our world population is currently 7.5 billion, then over half of them believe in God, maybe called by another name. This God is known as a merciful, compassionate, loving, all-powerful, forgiving father, who answers prayers that are in alignment with the highest good for all. We’re all His kids, even if we don’t know it.
People all over the world prayed for God to be involved in this election. Do we have faith? If we do then let’s accept that what happened is for the highest good. Now we act from there, with a peaceful mind. This election will take us forward to where we need to go.
If you journal, open it. For others, take a piece of paper. Write down something that you are happy about in the election and a brief explanation of why. Now write down your greatest concern, and why. In my special-education training, I was taught that to teach a child something new, we had to perform a task analysis. Knowing the end result, I had to decide what steps needed to be done in which order so that the whole task could be completed. I use this all the time with my own goals.
Choosing the solution of your concern as your goal, take time, and maybe it will take research to even decide if this concern is actually valid. If you still believe it is, decide what tasks are needed to be done to reach your goal, and help your concern. Get help. Find others who believe the way you do. Then you can share the tasks among the greater number.
If your goal supports the greater good for all, then you are swimming with the current of our human evolution to our highest expression.
If your goal only helps a few, you’ll have to have more resources to swim against the main current. And always seek to do no harm. Leave that to God or nature to work out. I heard that before Hurricane Iniki there was a lot of quarreling among different factions living on Kauai, but that after Iniki, people unified to help rebuild Kauai, our shared home. People came together.
One of my goals is that we would come together to remove what creates so much of our man-made distress: the drug problem. If we all wanted it to go away, it would, in a surprisingly short amount of time. Who gains from this? Let’s find them. How many families are wounded? I salute KPD, and the prosecutor’s office. We must come forward, and help find the perpetrators. Help them change. Again from Psalm 82: 3-4 “Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.”
As we help others, we help ourselves.
Questions?
Hale `Opio Kaua’i convened a support group of adults in our Kauai community to “step into the corner” for our teens, to answer questions and give support to youth and their families on a wide variety of issues. Please email your questions or concerns facing our youth and families today to Annaleah Atkinson at aatkinson@haleopio.org. For more information about Hale ‘Opio Kaua’i, please go to www.haleopio.org
