Peace Amidst the Chaos

The world feels chaotic right now. Here is how I am maintaining my peace amidst the chaos. 


My email: gerdungmelinda@gmail.com

Find out more about my work: www.melindagerdungcoaching.com

Book a session with me: https://calendly.com/gerdungmelinda/coaching-session


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Transcript

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Hey, my friends, sometimes when I sit down to think of what I want to talk about on here, I feel this overwhelming sense of like, what do you even say? Like, so much of the problems that people face are either caused by or made worse by systemic issues, and there's nothing I can say that can fix that. There is no thought work that will suddenly solve all of these systemic issues. And it feels so overwhelming. I'll tell you, after this latest election in the US, I felt completely overwhelmed. I felt unsafe. I suddenly found myself wanting to make break glass, worst case scenario plans to try to protect myself. But every time I tried to do that, I became overwhelmed with grief and I just couldn't. It was overwhelming because these large, systemic issues are no one person's responsibility. No one person can single handedly change them. These are things that will be solved by 1000s and 1000s of people over the course of decades. Look at civil rights issues. There have been 1000s upon 1000s of civil rights activists from the 60s through today and will continue into the future. There is no quick fix for a lot of these things. And the thing I find helpful to come back to when faced with these overwhelming things, is to bring it back to what is actually in my control. We talk a lot on here about only taking responsibility for what is in your control, usually in the context of dealing with other people, but it also works with systems and their issues. You might not be able to single handedly stop the planet from boiling alive, but you can focus on doing your part to change things. You can focus on what you are able to do, because that is the only thing in your control. You can't control other people or necessarily policies or any of that stuff, but you can control what you do. I also think it's important to remember that we don't know the future. So even if it feels like we're doomed or nothing will ever change, we don't know that. It's easy for, say, scientists to predict that it's too late to change the course of climate change. But for all we know, 15 years from now, someone could invent something that allows us to do just that. Like, all we can say is that currently, right now, they can't see a way to change the trajectory. That doesn't mean it can't or won't be changed. Because we don't know what we don't know. And there could be a game changer right around the corner. Like if you would have asked people, before the airplane was invented, if people would ever fly, they would have said, No, it's impossible for people to fly. But it wasn't impossible. It was just impossible for them at that time. So for whatever seemingly daunting situation you are facing, whether that is being overwhelmed with systemic issues or just being overwhelmed at the shittiness of your family court policies or whatever, always remind yourself that change is the one constant, and just because something seems stuck one way now doesn't mean that it will always be that way. And you can stay in your power by focusing on what you can do and what is inside of your control and leave the rest alone. The rest, it isn't yours. To get out of my post election overwhelm, that is what I had to do. I had to remind myself that making these worst case scenarios wasn't helpful because they hadn't happened yet, and they might never happen. Because I don't actually know the future. And there are so many factors that I couldn't possibly predict that are and will come into play that to to even try to predict it would be pointless. I had to take it back to what I could control. I had to live my life in the present and focus on things I could do for myself in the now. So that's what I've been focusing on. What can I do right now to live my best life? What does living my best life look like today? What can I do today to make my life easier or better? It's XYZ happened. Now, what am I going to do about it? It's staying in the present and dealing with the things that I can deal with and not worrying about the future. Because there really isn't anything I can do about the future until it arrives. There really only ever is the present. So that is where I need to put my focus. If something happens, I will handle it. But until it does, it is not my concern. It can't be because trying to predict every way that something could go wrong is a one way ticket to crazy town. So that's what I have for you this week, my friends, stay in the present and focus only on what is actually in your control. This is how we find peace admits the chaos. All right, my friends. Until next time, be well.