A Time for Personal Reflection on Current Affairs

The last few weeks there has been a lot happening here in Australia politically. Our government has recently escalated national security alert levels to 'high' and there has much talk of conflict in the news. Of course this is by no means limited to Australia, as the same theme is being repeated around the rest of world. This really seems to be bringing out the worst in people unfortunately. I am not going to go into detail about the conflict (the media does enough), but what I do want to quickly cover is how it emotionally affects all of us and hopefully some advice to help you through it if you are feeling a little overwhelmed.

Let's break it all down...

There are always going to be things that happen outside of our control. This is just life. If we can't personally change the possibility of something happening, then really there is no logical reason why we should let it affect how we personally live our life. Very simple yet also very true. Stressing and worrying over things shifts our focus away from enjoying the present which is what life is all about. Instead, it is better to shift our focus into the 'now' and make sure we are doing something positive and enjoyable rather than stewing on what possibly could happen.
Secondly, fear is a very powerful emotion. It makes people become blinded and irrational. This being said, fear can be (and has been) used to achieve certain outcomes amongst large groups of people. It is important to look for truth and reasoning behind anything which potentially affects our lives so significantly. Being aware of how fear can be used to achieve ulterior motives can go a long way to become empowered and relinquishing its effect. By removing fear we essentially embrace the decision to be free. This means that each day we find all the reasons why it is great to be alive rather than being afraid of why not.

Thirdly, on a holistic level it is what we do in our own small circles which creates momentum amongst the larger circles. This is very much the ripple effect. When people get caught up in times like these it often breeds hatred, violence, and negative emotions. These never play any sort of positive purpose. By making the choice to be level-headed and not play into these emotions, you will become part of the solution and not the cause. The old trap of following the 'sheep' mentality when things become a little rough actually exacerbates these problems.

Life is a wonderful journey and way too precious to worry about all the bad things can happen. I do realise this is very much simple advice, but I feel very important for everyone to contemplate at the present moment. If we all focused on this the world would be a better place. No point letting a few bad apples ruin it for the rest of us.

- Giovanni

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