When it comes to wanting to change something that we see in the world that we don’t like, the words “fight” and “against” are used a lot.
I’m all about righteous anger. I’m all about the Mama Bear within us all who will protect her young (and others who need protecting) to the death. I’ve felt that part of me bubble up a time or two and honestly, I’m proud of her. I’m so grateful she’s in there, and I feel safer in the world knowing that there’s a part of me (and many others) that would do anything in order to protect my baby girl and the other people I hold dear (including my fellow men and women with whom I don’t share blood, but with whom I do share humanity.)
I’m all about letting our emotions move through us. They’re called emotions for a reason. They’re meant to move.
Moving our bodies, crying tears, and making sounds are the best ways to feel what we’re feeling and allow it to move through our experience rather than getting stuck and festering.
When we’ve taken the time to feel what we’re feeling, it’s important to define what we stand for and put more attention on that than what we’re against.
Why? What we resist persists.
Focusing on what we don’t want is like dumping fertilizer on weeds. {Tweet it.}
There are times to fight, for sure. But when we focus on the fight all day, every day, our nervous system never gets a break to allow our bodies (and hearts and minds) to rest and restore.
Perpetual fight pumps adrenaline through our bodies. Long term it causes elevated cortisol levels. And the excess stress hormones that have no escape valve make us lose sleep, gain weight, throw our hormones out of whack, and impair our ability to think clearly and tap into our inner knowing – which is the place that most deeply needs tapping into because it’s where all the best solutions come from!
Perpetual fighting is violent to our bodies, just like it’s violent to our communities. {Tweet it.}
Adrenaline-soaked societies are not peaceful. Peace begins within your own central nervous system, then within your own home, on your block, at your own grocery store, and then spreads beyond.
Adrenaline soaked societies are not primed for solutions. Because, as Einstein reminded us, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
If you want peace, be peace. And that means unfurling your fists and taking a stand for something instead of against.
What if instead of fighting cancer we were for creating health?
What if instead of being against war we were for peace?
What if instead of fighting racism we were for inclusion and love?
What if instead of being against sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia we were for equality?
I’m not suggesting to take the fire out of your activism. But I am suggesting that choosing violent words to describe your efforts to create peace creates unnecessary friction.
This is not just semantics. Being against war and for peace are the same thing, you may say.
But they’re not. One focuses on war. One focuses on peace.
We get more of what we focus on. {Tweet it.}
When we’re against there will always be something to fight.
When we’re for our every move is toward a solution.
So, I ask you, what are you for? What do you want to see more of in the world? And how can you move toward it peacefully?
If what we seek is peace, we must act in peaceful ways. The world has enough fighting. The world has enough people against. Let’s stand for peace instead and let the violence end within us so it can end around us, too.
OVER TO YOU:
What are you standing for? What do you want to live for (as opposed to fight for)? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below.
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