On fear…

I was on YouTube last night, incidentally to look for a video that my 6th grader had created for a school project and wanted me to see. When the obligatory ads came up, I didn’t think much of it. The first one I don’t even remember, but the second one I do. It was a political candidate ad, and there was so much fear spewing out from the ad in the 5 seconds that I watched it, I was literally stunned. It completely took me out of what I was doing and sent me into fear. Luckily, I’ve been working on my yoga superpower of being present and after a few deep breaths, I was able to come “back.”

But it made me think. I’m really careful about the media that I consume – because it’s easy for me to get hooked into what is going on in the world. There’s a quote in a book from the 1920s, that said (and I paraphrase) with how fast information travels now, we hear about things that are happening all over the world – and as a result, we need to process so much more information. When something happens locally, we can act and support those who need it. When something happens on the other side of the world, our actions to support are much more limited. The book was written almost 100 years ago, and gave me a new perspective on how fast information travels today. Just think about all the information we are bombarded with, and all the sources of information that we literally have at our fingertips.

I realized in the spring of 2020 that if I watched the news, I lived in a constant state of fear. When I was in fear, I couldn’t do anything else. It was impossible for me to be present with my family, show up for my Mighty team, and I couldn’t even sleep. I wasn’t helping anyone, and I was pretty miserable. So, I made a decision to reduce the information I was consuming. Instead, I focused my energy on supporting my family, transitioning Mighty to an online studio, and supporting those in our Mighty community. That was it – I pulled my bubble of awareness way in. And when I did that - something miraculous happened. Despite all that was going on in the world, I felt fulfilled, I felt happy, I felt joy. I was doing the work that I needed to do and was making a difference in the lives that I was touching. A huge difference from living in fear - for me, my loved ones, the Mighty Team, and our entire Mighty community.

It is impossible to be in love and fear at the same time. It’s one or the other. When we move from a place of love, we are so much more powerful. I’m listening to an audiobook right now that says, “you don’t become more of what you want, you become more of what you are.” The more often we choose love and unplug from fear, the more love grows. The more often we choose fear, the more that grows.

 Whenever you can, choose love. Notice how that feels. How you feel. And let that become who you are.