Moving from Anger to Compassion and fear to love
I initially felt like shouting my frustration from the rooftops! I then stopped, paused, meditated and prayed. And decided to use my energy in a more constructive way and created a peace mandala on the rooftop instead and prayed for peace.
‘We can not achieve world peace until we find peace within ourselves, inner peace. In an atmosphere of anger, hatred and violence, we must overcome these destructive forces with love, peace and compassion’ ~ Dalai Lama
There was a shooting in San Cristobal a couple of weeks ago, thankfully nobody was killed! It seemed to be more of an expression of anger and frustration. With the shooting, three-day protests and high crime rate here, I nearly didn’t come.
But, I’m so glad I did!
Something that the news doesn’t share with us, is all of the goodness of people and the places. And all of the days in the year, when no bad things happen and all of the helpers that leap into action to support, when there is adversity. I was reminded of this quote by Fred Rogers:
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news,” Rogers said to his television neighbours, “my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
I made a conscious decision to stop watching the news 10 years ago. Not from a place of ignorance, but from a place of self-care and to protect my mental health. I found it was cultivating a lot of fear, sadness and anger in me and affecting my state of mind on a regular basis.
I have an upset tummy at the moment, as the tap water here is toxic and we have been warned to not even wash our face or hands with it. Which is near impossible when you are in the shower! So the chances of getting under the weather are quite high. So I had a day of ‘beditation’ (somewhere between meditation and napping!). I also bought myself a bunch of flowers from one of the locals, to brighten up my room.
Walking home, I must have dropped one of the flowers. A moment later, I could sense somebody coming after me! Eeeek! It was an elderly man running after me (as fast as he could) to give me my fallen flower. He handed me my flower and wished me a good day, with a warm smile. It really warmed our hearts. These small acts of kindness can really make all the difference in people's days.
The news painted a very different and highly dangerous picture of San Cristobal. And I feel grateful to have experienced nothing but human kindness from everybody I've come into contact with here. Which was a great reminder to not cast judgment of people and places too quickly - and to make my own mind up.
Although I stopped watching the news many years ago, we did do a fair bit of research before coming here, to feel into our intuition if it felt safe enough to come here or not. I’m glad we made the decision to be street-smart, mindful and not be put off!
Researching the troubles of this beautiful mountain town, brought me to tears! I have so much compassion for the local people and I understand why many people are angry.
There is a very well known corporation with a factory here that supplies sugary drinks to the world. They use up 300,000 gallons of the freshwater supply a day, as part of a decades-old deal with the federal government. This has caused a multi-layered crisis here in the town; the chronic water shortage and diabetes epidemic. As the factory uses up the clean water supply, what comes out of the tap here is highly toxic, so everybody has to buy bottled water from the multi-billion dollar corporation. The inequality, discord and poverty, has resulted in many people resorting to crime. As well as violent outbursts of anger and frustration.
I was reminded of the Gandhi quote 'There is enough for every man's need, just not every man's greed’.
Mother Teresa talked about ignorance being a form of poverty. Taking inspiration from her messages, helped me to cultivate more compassion for the people causing the suffering. And to see greed as a kind of disease of the heart. Compassionate, kind-hearted people aren't able to cause this level of suffering to their fellow brothers and sisters and the planet in this way. There is clearly a huge disconnect, and this is sad.
I am so inspired by the way Bhutan operates, they are truly pioneering a new way for the world! Bhutan’s decisions are based on many factors, including how it will impact the mental and physical health of the people, nature, the planet, the culture and also the financial benefit. The whole world would benefit greatly with this approach. Moving us from the world ruled by GDP to a world based on GNH - Gross National Happiness. I pray that the rest of the world will start to wake-up and follow a more heart-centred way of making their country’s decisions.
We all have the capacity for anger, fear, hatred and greed within us. And we all have the capacity for love, peace, compassion, forgiveness and kindness. We have to be so mindful which qualities we are cultivating inside of ourselves.
I very rarely feel angry, however if I feel there is a sense of injustice, particularly towards innocent people or animals, this is usually the time I feel the fire in my belly. The more I read, the more sadness and anger I could feel growing inside of me.
Then I realised, my anger and sadness is not going to help this situation or the world...There is enough of that already!
I knew I needed to return back to love!
This was my process of moving from fear, sadness and anger, to returning back to a place of love, compassion and peacefulness.
It’s easy to feel totally powerless in these situations…So I asked myself… ‘What is in my power’?
As Rumi says 'Yesterday I was clever and I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself'.
✨ So, I decided to work through the difficult emotions of sadness and anger I was carrying (I will share a video and model about befriending difficult emotions shortly). The Monks and Nuns in Plum Village would say ‘Hello my anger/sadness/fear…how can I best take care of you? What do you need my friend?
✨ I asked myself…’What do I need to best take care of myself right now?’ I stopped crying and took myself for a walk and got some nice food.
✨ I had then transformed my state and I felt called to use my energy for good, somehow. So I felt called to create a peace mandala from my flowers and prayed for peace.
✨ I also sent loving kindness to San Cristobal, the people suffering and also to the people causing the suffering. ‘May we all be happy, healthy, have compassion, be at peace and be free from our suffering’. I unfortunately don't have a magic wand to solve this issue, but something that I can always do is cultivate love and kindness and put it out to the world.
Something in our power also, is to look more deeply into the brands we use, and if they are causing suffering to the world. I had no idea of the suffering this company was causing to a part of the world I hadn't heard about.
Please know that the intention of my writing this is to share my journey of moving from anger to compassion and from fear to love. As opposed to spreading more anger.
There may always be both the light and the dark in any place. And even in all of us as humans. Whatever we put energy towards grows! So let's keep being as mindful as possible, to keep growing the qualities of love, peace and compassion inside of ourselves and for the world.
“Love and compassion are the pillars of world peace.” — Dalai Lama
