Yesterday we visited a Mayan ruins site, Altun Ha in Belize. This marker was at the entrance. Made me proud, then ashamed, to be an American. That's my word. Ashamed.
@lovendures Thank you for checking in. I felt such relief reading your post. We are all in this together and it is important to keep checking on one another. I, like you and @tybin , am horrified about Ukraine and cannot believe this is where we find the U.S. -- siding with Putin. It is sickening. My family on both sides (grandparents on one and great-grandparents on the other) immigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine, so I feel this. Like you and @liln22 mentioned, I spiral, climb back up, spiral again, etc. The relentlessness of what is happening, combined with how it is affecting not just the U.S., but the world, makes it really hard to find some relief in my mind. I do focus on my daily routine, work (my work is connected to the federal government, so the chaos is front and center in this part of my life), my family. My husband and I try to get out and walk as often as we can -- fresh air and movement helps dissipate that anxious energy. I also do various forms of art, so I am finding that have a project, any project (a little crochet, some drawing, etc.) that I can pick up and put down easily helps. It gets me out of my head and into creating in the moment. We also have two cats and two teenagers. The cats help all of us :) and keeping the teens on their routines helps. Though I cycle back to being concerned for their futures as well. One day at a time, indeed. I try to lay off the news and that helps. I have to do more of that, but also struggle with wanting/needing to be informed. Like @liln22 said, I hope for all of us to find those little moments in each day that help us weather the rollercoaster of emotions.
Wow!
It would be great to have people traveling anywhere around the world to take photos of markers like this and sharing them. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.
It is helpful to know others are feeling similar emotions. I am working on reinventing how to have news and inner peace balance. I am the type of person who really wants to stay informed but realize there is just too much out there and I need to spend part of my day disengaged.
Planning what I can actually "plan" in life also helps. Planning new creative meals, activities, new projects, organizing my home ( it definitely needs it)...it is a way to have some control and stability in an out of control world.
CC21, I am so sorry you have the uncertainty of your career connected to the federal government. I imagine that to be incredibly stressful right now. It is an intentionally harmful act and those keep repeating every day.
Wow!
It would be great to have people traveling anywhere around the world to take photos of markers like this and sharing them. Thank you so much for sharing it with us.
Yeah and if anyone asks why it benefits the US to help Belize build up its tourist sites, tell them that having a prosperous tourist industry is one reason why you don't see huge numbers of Belizeans desperately trying to leave their country. (I visited Belize in the late 90's and was impressed. The contrast with Guatemala and neighboring Mexico was shocking. )
So much has happened since @lovendures posted this wellness checkin thread last Wednesday. So I am reposting her post to see how you are all doing right now.
"I am doing a community wellness check in.
A lot has happened within the past 5 weeks to our country and it's affecting us all. Some directly with career or business losses, some with family member and friend job losses. That doesn't even account for other normal life losses and just the feeling of being lost in life right now. The understandable fear of the unknown as well.
We are all dealing grief in one form or another and each day brings more heartache.
So I thought perhaps some of us might like to check-in with a word, sentence or more on how we're doing or how you have been impacted.
Do you have "people" which whom you can share your grief and observations ? Do you have any coping strategies that are working?
Nobody has to respond, but you are welcome to do so in this thread." -- Lovendures
@jeanne-mayell re: wellness check.
I'm pretty grounded and stable. I can maintain stability with the political situation even though it is horrible-- probably because I don't have to make any major decisions in order to do what I can to mitigate it in my own small way, and have faith that the Powers That Be will take care of the rest
What is harder is the personal stuff. Having a BF who is having panic attacks and mood instability to the point where I had to move out 3 weeks ago is much more difficult. How to manage it? Decisions are personal and difficult- and I'm a Libra. He's a fundamentally kind and loving person, but he's got a lot of recent and old trauma to process and sometimes he takes his frustrations out on me (verbally). I am not a punching bag. Nor am I a psychiatric nurse. This is not my skill or my job. I refuse to be yelled at. But I want to help.
I think the generally insane global vibes make everything harder to deal with at this time. (/end vent)
@ana Thank you for sharing that. For all of us, the stuff is all mixed in with how we are navigating the world, which is why we have to begin with taking care of our selves. Your statement that you are not a psychiatric nurse or a punching bag is a sign you are carrying on with courage, and doing so many things well at this time. When someone behaves as he has been behaving, it is best to protect yourself and from abuse, even when his abusive behavior is coming from his traumas, as abuse invariably does.
Taking care of yourself at this time might just be the best way to care for him. Sending healing to you both.
In a way, your response to his behavior is an appropriate response to what is happening in the country. It is time for us to take care of ourselves and each other.
Updated my Sunflowers for Ukraine artwork that I made when the war started.
New brighter background made on computer. This is how I cope.
I read this post this morning and it helps to buoy hope for some semblance of recovery via resistance. D.L. Mayfield, “Healing is My Special Interest” offers this:
Here’s my pep talk after studying authoritarianism.
1. They never truly expect a long-term resistance movement bc they people are a collection of trauma triggers who are easily controlled thru terror.
2. If they can’t terrorize you 25/7 in your mind, they already lost the war.
3. The single best way you can beat fascism is to not let them terrorize you constantly. Protect your mental health to ensure you aren’t in a constant terrorized state.
4. Keep connecting to who you are at your core. Your values, preferences, ethics, and beliefs. Build up capacity to resist.
5. Remember they are like abusive parents: they only see us as extensions of them. They have no clue how powerful joy and community and self-expression can be. We can use this to our advantage—we can be the strong-willed child they never saw coming.
Spend time connecting to your true self is not selfish in these times—it’s intricately connected to a resistance movement that is tied to honoring our bodies, our communities, and to the land. We have to build capacity to resist by being exactly who we are!
Just a little levity to the situation 😀 I hope there will be new predictions soon.
@averylegacy People have been very clever conveying important messages with fun signs. The protest this weekend feels different though. The government is destroying America, and kidnapping people to take them to El Savador. Fun signs just don’t feel right anymore. For those attending, please be aware of your surroundings and stay safe.
Good morning psychic warriors, healers, and peacemakers,
I’ve been thinking about how we’ve been fractured, some permanently, from others in these tragic yrs of growing authoritarianism and helplessness and can’t help but think that despite the sadness or relief, empaths perhaps have been prepared better than most for these trying times.
I’ve been experiencing an odd knowing calm that feels obviously out-of-place amid so much suffering. I do feel angst and anxiety, sadness and tears for the atrocities towards innocents especially. My heart breaks. And yet, I also empathically feel an acceptance, so to speak, of what’s befalling the country and the world. It’s as if I know in my soul that this reckoning is the end result of all the hatred that’s boiling over since the country was formed. We in Mass are supposed to be celebrating 250 yrs since Paul Revere’s ride and rallying cry to defeat kings and imperialism. Ironically, here we are w the astrology to match that vulnerable and combative time.
I have no idea, despite my seat of white/some wealth privilege, wth is going to befall me personally. I’m vocal in posting my opposition and perhaps that makes me a target, but I won’t shut up now. And this morning, I was nudged by spirit to recognize that I’ve been preparing for this my entire life. Often, empaths feel like misfits within families and peer groups. We also can be the scapegoats bc others sense our ability to know things and what people are feeling or thinking. They sometimes fear us and pull away. Or they ostracize and punish us. It all makes sense to me now as former friends, acquaintances, and even extended family members unfriend or block me on social media.
My point is I’ve never felt more attuned to my core self and more assured in who I am. And so these rejections across all walks of my life feel like a homecoming of sorts. Coming home to myself, my individual resilience, my natural surroundings, my giving nature, my ability to say no or not now, my old friends and new friends, my aloneness and serenity despite the swirling chaos.
Most importantly, and especially as a woman, I recognize the young girl in my aging self who always knew feeling different was a cool and empowering way to be. I always knew in my heart that I was no better or lesser than others. Yet, I did absorb some of my parents’ prejudicial ego beliefs after yrs of conditioning and it took a college degree in Multicultural and Humanistic Ed to analyze and reject these distorted opinions and reactions.
It’s not easy to be cut out or to cut away from lifelong relationships. My family is huge. 28 first cousins on one side alone. But I recognize now that I’ve always been a psychic empath. I always knew I was different in how I perceived people. I always knew the motivation behind many peoples’ behaviors. Thus, in knowing the deeply buried pain and heartache that hateful personalities hide behind, I also know that we all decide when we want to heal our agonies. And also as a former educator, all the care, compassion, training, and expertise couldn’t get through to the adolescent who refused to choose Plan B in life and discover an alternative to endless suffering.
As empaths, we can see the light at the end of this long harrowing tunnel. We also can attune into our own guidance system and call all angels and guides to help us through, pick us up off the floor, and send the light of grace through our bodies.
My guides have been reassuring me lately that, indeed, we are made for these tougher and toughest times. Our ability to feel and see and touch what too many others can’t is a gift and a purpose to share light and loving kindness to the world. Heap a whole bunch daily onto yourselves too. Keep going… we are so blessed in so many ways, especially in that we have each other. Namaste
I'm not sure where to put this post. I feel it connects with the US Election and the global situation as a whole, so I'm going to put this here. But if this isn't the correct thread then please move it.
Jeanne made a really great topic called 'Facing Our Collective Shadow' and this is a post that continues that subject.
I have felt this for a long time, but I haven't felt ready to post this until now.
This may go a little deeper than usual, but I think it's important that we have open and honest conversations about this, especially with everything that's going on in the world right now.
There is a kind of energy that I've personally experienced, especially at the lowest points of my life. In moments of deep emotional pain and inner struggle, I've seen it with my own eyes. It feeds on anger, hatred, despair and division. When it manifests, it appears as a dark cloud. It can enter any room, affect any person and move through whole groups.
The first time I encountered it, I instinctively prayed to my archangels and it disappeared. That moment confirmed to me that this energy is real. And if you're someone who is sensitive to energy or the spiritual realm, there's a chance you may have felt or seen it too.
I want to be clear: I'm not sharing this to spread fear. I usually avoid fear-based narratives because I believe in focusing on love, healing and positivity. But not everything in life is light, and ignoring the darker aspects only keeps us unprepared. Awareness is not fear. Awareness gives us strength, clarity and the tools to respond consciously.
This energy doesn't just appear in individual lives. It is moving through the collective. When we look at the current state of the world - political division, economic stress, violence, war, destruction of nature - it feels like something more is happening beneath the surface. Something feeding on all this suffering and conflict.
I feel like this force has been with us for a long time. Throughout human history it seems to rise during periods of great turmoil, such as the world wars, when fear and violence dominate the global atmosphere. Then it quiets down and seems to go dormant, only to reappear when conditions are right again. I believe we are now in one of these cycles.
A good way to visualise it is through the ancient dark entity in the movie Ferngully. That character fed on pollution and destruction, and its goal was to consume nature and life. While fictional, it captures the essence of what this energy feels like. It does not take sides. It only thrives on destruction and division. And it grows stronger when we give in to the fear, anger, and hatred that fuel it.
So now, more than ever, we need to stay aware. We need to check in with our emotions, be mindful of our words and be careful of the energy we invite into our homes, our minds and our communities. And this is something I am working on through my own personal pain and struggles.
@earthangel and @luminous Your messages have given me much-needed perspective and relief for the glum mood I've been in. The sector I work in has the potential to be very badly impacted by the government's actions and it's been weighing on me and affecting the way I view the world.
Your words encourage me to not ignore the problems all around us, but to take care of myself so that the light and buoyant life force can run through me and radiate out into the world. Thank you.
@luminous thank you for your insightful discussion of what I also perceive as dark energy.
For me, however, that dark energy seems heightened these days…no longer simply invading and surrounding people without their knowledge…
Now I perceive the dark energy as violent, churning, whirling energy. I see it in my mind’s eye as a tornado. Often I feel as if I’m in the center watching its force impacting the people around me. Increasingly it appears oversized on a map of the US.
Dear brothers and sisters of light in the USA,
I can see the continent of North America as a feminine being of light. SHE is a sister to the continents of Europe, Asia and Australia, for example. SHE is loved beyond measure. Some of you are describing how dark energies are currently affecting people, and I can see that too, not only in the USA but also on the other sister continents. Yet from my view, the light of our beloved sister North America is not only being obscured by dark tornado clouds at the moment. SHE was the sister that was energetically abducted a few months ago, by the same forces that are now, without HER energetic presence on Mother Earth, moving around as storm clouds and can greatly plague you as humans, but also the animals living there. Please recognise that each and everyone of you can please assist to bring HER back home, especially energetically with all your love. You as HER human children living in North America can for example please inwardly insist to the Universe that SHE is present back in HER rightful place here on Mother Earth because you love HER.
For only HER return will end the dark tornado clouds. I can see that brothers and sisters of light all over the world are connected to you in their hearts and support you inwardly in bringing HER back into HER rightful place. We love you very much and we bow down to all the people and energies that will hopefully bring HER back to Mother Earth as soon as possible.
@luminous I am aware of , and have felt, this dark energy. I asked Creator to give me AA Michael to watch over and protect me and mine as a child when I grew up with/in a family that had that energy. A A Michael has shielded me many times in my 70 years... and continues to do so. The Light is there to protect us if we but ask.
The north side of Central Park, a beloved, beautiful hidden gem (most people don't visit it, preferring the south and west sides) that has been under construction literally for years, is now almost fully reopened. The conservatory gardens are fully open and in full bloom, and soon the walkway around the Harlem Meer (a lake) will open as well, along with a brand new swimming pool and community center. If you're planning to visit NYC don't miss it. It is the most beautiful part of the park. It's going to be one of my coping mechanisms. :)
Btw, if you like talking to trees, the trees there have a lot to say.
@lynn I love being with the trees, all trees, they have such a benign and enduring presence. Once while sitting in my car meditating, I opened my eyes and look out at the forest and noticed that all the trees were waving at me. It was glorious.