Withholding our most valuable resource
Why love and compassion is critical in healing our world, mindful living, productivity, and finding happiness
Hi friend,
During last week’s VP debate with Pence and Harris, the night came to a close with a question submitted by a concerned eighth-grader:
When I watch the news, all I see is arguing between Democrats and Republicans. When I watch the news, all I see is citizen fighting against citizen. When I watch the news, all I see are two candidates from opposing parties trying to tear each other down. If our leaders can’t get along, how are the citizens supposed to get along?
How is your presidency going to unite and heal our country?
In my opinion, instead of focusing our attention on arguments and cancellations, we need to practice more love and compassion for one another, especially for those we struggle to see eye-to-eye with. We are so quick to dismiss and delete people from our lives - as if prejudice and intolerance were that easy to solve.
After a deep inquiry of my activism over the past few months, I’ve realized that the things angering me most were byproducts of a larger broken system. Even the most intolerant rhetorics.
The people fighting to save hetero-normative values are also products of the conservative systems themselves. The world of sexual and gender identities are foreign, and these systems prey on the natural doubt and fear responses we have to new concepts. Especially for those struggling to accept their own sexual and gender identities, the outward expression of anger may be masking their own feelings of grief and sadness within.
While having children may be one of the greatest miracles of human biology, the freedom to decide the fate of our reproductive system is an even more novel idea. The fight for pro-life is a very limited sense of empowerment born out of extremely misogynistic cultures.
Having full autonomy over our money, especially when it comes to healthcare, provides a false sense of control within a fractured community. Money is a finite resource, and the overt success of personal wealth comes at a sacrifice to the health of the broader community. As the rich accrue more wealth and stash it away at an alarming rate, we are left scrambling to profit off of each other with the little pool of money that's left. Without an efficient economic structure set in place to protect the community, it becomes extremely difficult and inefficient to help raise each other up. Autonomy only benefits those already equipped with the tools to succeed.
These broken systems we face continue to thrive when devoid of love. The lack of love for oneself, family, partner, or community induces pains masked in anger, intolerance, fear, and judgment. We yearn to mend these pains but have forgotten how to do so.
Love is the most valuable resource that we are seeking, yet it costs nothing.
Love is the ultimate antidote, yet we continue to engage each other poisonously.
Love is abundantly available, yet we treat it with scarcity like money. We hoard it, fearing that we will run out someday, and we barter with it, thinking that it will earn us more. “How can I love you, if you won’t love me first?”
The healing has to start with each and every one of us first. Otherwise, we continue to perpetuate the pain and continue building into these systems of intolerance.
And so, prompts for this week:
Is there somebody you don’t see eye-to-eye with, that you can start to practice love and compassion?
Can you adjust your outward messaging to come from a loving place?
If there is an aversion to love, what are we actually struggling with deep down? It is never about the difficulty to love (as we still love others), but what it represents and reflects about ourselves.
As you show up with more love and compassion, see if anything shifts around you.
Sending you so much love and hope you have a beautiful rest of your week.
Mindful living
These Buddhist guidelines for living offer six methods of mindfulness including mindful eating and practicing gratitude.
Slow down and find compassion in your everyday.
Productivity is not the way
I've followed Tim Ferriss for quite some time now, and recently I've noticed a huge shift in his persona as he’s coming into his own skin. This medium article captures Tim’s shift toward becoming much more mindful.
(TLDR: Unworthiness cannot be remedied with productivity or other external measures with success. It has to come from within.)
On finding happiness
As always, thanks for reading!
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Anything else? You can always hit "reply" to email me directly. 💌
Have a beautiful day!
Metta (loving-kindness),
Steven
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