Seeing through the experience

I’ve been noticing people are finding more and more issues to be divided on lately.

It seems like many of the issues would have once been somewhat insignificant, but now are adding fuel to the fire of bigger controversies.

I had a conversation with a client this week about a post she saw on social media that triggered her. A lady had taken a picture of someone who hadn’t picked up her dog’s poop in a park and posted it on social media, blasting the woman for not cleaning up after her dog.

My client said she usually doesn’t respond to posts, but this one she couldn’t let go. She commented that the world would not end from dog poop left on the ground in the park and wasn’t there more important things to talk about. She was struggling over people making a big controversial deal over everything and we both agreed that it’s gotten much worse since the pandemic started. We started talking about why we thought people were doing that.

It occurred to me that sometimes people are just looking for connection. Many people are more isolated now than they’ve ever been, and social media is a way for them to connect. What if the lady that made the post was just looking for others that feel the same way she does, to feel connection? What if she didn’t have awareness of what she was doing? Many times we don’t, we’re searching for what’s missing and don’t realize what that is.

What if we look inside when we get triggered by what someone else does or says?

That’s where our power is. That’s how we move through life with compassion and empathy no matter what the situation is. This absolutely in no way means that you agree with them or think they are right. It means that you choose to put your energy and focus on compassion and empathy.

We all long for love and belonging; especially when we are struggling with what others are doing or saying. We already have it, we have always had it. We just started looking outside ourselves for it and we won’t find it there without feeling it inside. It starts inside.

We all contribute to the world whether we are conscious of it or not. Being mindful of what I want to contribute has changed the way I show up in my life and in the world.

When we change the world changes.