Why the election has nothing and everything to do with you
When I stepped into my first journalism class at St. John’s University in 2006 I was greeted by a large looming man who looked like Santa but was way more like the grinch. He was, I would later find out, the product of years and years of living in the news cycle. On the first day of class he told us “you’re all journalists now, get used to only doing stories about the school buses that don’t make it safely to school.” Andddddddd, we were off!
He wasn’t wrong, if you look at the news it is mostly negative and there’s a reason for that. Human beings are hardwired to scan their environments for threats. It is biologically fundamental to the sustenance of our species. So, if you think something poses a threat to your existence, you pay attention to it. News organizations know this and so while millions of school buses do in fact make it safely to school the ones that don’t are the ones you hear about.
I landed a job with Al Jazeera in 2016 that was supposed to be helping to produce a sports show, however after a change in CEO our show got canceled before it began and I was moved to one of the news teams. One of my first assignments was the election. My job was to take segments of the news and put them on the web and then monitor the comment sections on our social media. The things people said to each other was appalling. Not just what they were saying but what really gnawed at me was the time and energy people were investing into being so hateful towards one another.
Nowadays I often think about energy as investments. We do an exercise on our retreats where we do energy “audits” and build an energy investment strategy so folks can see what is worthy of investing in and where spending needs to shift. This includes what I call the “complete diet.” What are you consuming with your eyes, ears, mouth and attention? We get into a bit of quantum mechanics and laws of attraction where there’s so much good data on how what we place our attention on tends to manifest and multiply in our lives.
Even though I didn’t know it, while working at Al Jazeera I was laying the groundwork for this exercise by wondering how much of what people were getting worked up about was actually going to affect them in their day to day. Was what they were investing, and inevitably what it was doing to them, worth it?
On an episode of South Park the school is trying to come up with a new mascot and the two choices that were given were a douche and a turd sandwich. Each side vehemently argues that of course, a douche is better than a turd sandwich and vice versa. That’s mostly how I felt about politics before I even got into spirituality and manifestation. It felt like nothing more than the illusion of choice. I also think back to an impassioned rant by one of my favorite comedians and modern philosopher George Carlin who said “they don’t give a f*ck about you. There’s a big club and you and I ain’t in it.”
I’m not saying that these outcomes do not matter. As an entrepreneur I’ve felt the impact of different leadership and policies. I also have family and support systems that don’t make these outcomes feel as existential which I know is a privilege some don’t have. I also have no clue what it’s like to be someone whose basic safety and security is threatened by these outcomes.
I do know one thing for sure, whether you look at it spiritually or scientifically, the only thing we can ever really control is ourselves. Some of my favorite teachers like Ram Dass, Joe Dispenza and Michael Singer teach that the outside world is really none of your business. Two of my favorite books, man's search for meaning and a long walk to freedom tell stories of Victor Frankl and Nelson Mandela and how even with all of their civil liberties stripped away, they managed to find strength and even compassion.
Michael Singer uses the analogy of weather. It is never good or bad, it just is. Rain on your wedding day feels like a curse, yet to the farmer whose irrigation system isn’t working and his crop and livelihood is being threatened, it is the ultimate blessing. When you’re driving and the person in front of you is going five miles over the speed limit but you like going 10 over, the anger and frustration you feel has nothing to do with that person. They’re probably in there rocking out to Taylor Swift and have no idea you even exist. You are doing that to you.
One of my favorite games to play is to see how in these situations, how kind can I be? Sometimes I use tricks like imagining a baby or dog is driving the car. Sometimes I just stop myself and say out loud “let’s not do this.” This method of stopping ourselves when we get caught in a negative thought has been shown to literally rewire neural pathways and change neurochemistry. This in turn leads to physiological changes and can literally affect the health of our body on a cellular level. Joe Dispenza outlines this in his famous book “breaking the habit of being yourself” with the science to back it up. I can say of all the yoga, meditation and cold plunges I’ve ever done, this is probably the best and most important practice I have.
It’s why on retreats I tell people that all the self help books, all the spiritual and religious texts, they’re all pointing you towards the same thing, becoming a master of yourself – body AND mind. All the practices are to help you become more like you and to not be a victim to the world around you and how it’s unfolding.
In quantum mechanics it's shown that your physical existence is the mere illusion of separation and everything you think and feel is constantly affecting the whole, or the quantum field. You actually emit different electromagnetic frequencies depending on your emotional state and the highest frequency is authenticity! So if we really want to enact change, as Gandhi said, we must be the change we want to see in the world. Put another way, be the person your dog thinks you are or Joe Rogan says be like the person you present on a first date with someone you’re interested in.
The fact is all of our existences are dependent on other people. We were mostly cared for the first two decades of our life. We wake up in houses other people built, on beds that other people built, we drive cars that other people built on roads that other people built. Humans are not the biggest, fastest, strongest or most capable species in any way other than our ability to work together. It’s so funny how we can forget that when someone sees the world differently than we do.
It’s totally valid and necessary to experience your emotions but just like rain they pass. Can you perhaps look at our outside world as an opportunity rather than an oppression? Can you become so masterful at being you that you are freed from the challenges the world has in store? I’m certainly not there yet, but I’m definitely a lot kinder than I used to be and much more patient when my dog pees on the floor.