If you’re tuned into the news or social media, it may feel like things are chaotic and spinning out of control.
The experience may feel similar to being in a ship at sea that is barreling into a tumultuous storm. Your body’s natural instincts take over as you are tossed about. You may feel overwhelmed, frightened, and unsure about what to do next.
I could delve into my own take on how we got to this point, and why certain elements of our human world are behaving in the ways that they are. I could cast blame onto this or that person or party or way of thinking. I could try to offer up things you could buy or add to your arsenal for self protection.
All of those things continue to point to perceived problems outside of yourself. After all, that is where the storm is coming from, right? Outside of you?
Before diving into the choices you have in how you move through these times, let’s take a quick look at this collective human storm through the lens of the Hegelian Dialectic.
Problem Reaction Solution & the Hegelian Dialectic
David Icke has popularized one understanding of the “problem-reaction-solution” version of the Hegelian Dialectic:
Create the problem, encourage the reaction "something must be done", and then offer the solution. It is summed up by the Freemason motto 'Ordo Ab Chao' -order out of chaos. Create the chaos and then offer the way to restore order. Your order. The masses are herded and directed by many and various forms of emotional and mental control. It is the only way it could be done.”
― David Icke
But there’s actually a lot more to the philosophical and historical implications of Hegel’s dialectic. This short video helps explain a broader and relevant perspective here:
You see, while the events unfolding all around us feel out of control and overwhelming, there are numerous ways to understand that what is happening now is in some ways, an inevitability… balance does not just occur in isolation, it is the result of an endless push and pull. Peace on earth occurs between the in-breath and out-breath of human life.
From my perspective, conflict is not a reflection of how terrible humans are. It is a natural dynamic of overflowing and unbalanced collective emotion — which is energy in motion. Just as literal storms rise up so as to restore balance, so too does conflict arise as a way of restoring balance.
Seeing this, in itself, provides a shifting of energy within.
Rather than investing in and attaching to the stories fed to us by the governments and media of the world - we can take a bit of our power back by stepping back and seeing things in a broader and more natural context.
This gets to the heart of the purpose behind this post today - a gentle reminder that each and every one of you gets to choose whether you react to the events in your lives or whether you respond.
Antithesis: React or Respond?
My suggestion, indeed - my entire healing and coaching practice is that you do your best to choose your response, with conscious awareness whenever possible.
If you are not choosing to respond with conscious awareness, you are more than likely simply reacting to the perceived chaos.
The word “react” can be seen as literally re-acting out the same energy that is hitting you. Just look at how much rage is boiling up. Rage fuels rage.
Are you familiar with the Chinese Finger Trap toys? After placing your fingers in the trap and pulling even slightly, the trap tights. The only way out is to relax and let go.
Am I saying you should relax and let go of your concerns about the events unfolding in the world right now? NO
What I AM saying, however, is that YOU get to choose how you RESPOND. And that responding is a far more empowering way to move forward than being in reactionary mode.
The last podcast episode was entitled Autonomous Humans or Automatons? One of the topics I discussed with Rebecca Hardcastle Wright in that episode is the choice that we as humans have in front of us - do we choose to embrace individual moral sovereignty and free will? Or do we do and think and feel and emote as we’re told?
With awareness, we understand that - in the words of Johnny Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten from the Sex Pistols - “anger is an energy”.
They put a hot wire to my head
'Cause of the things I did and said
They made these feelings go away
A model citizen in every way
Your time has come, your second skin
Cost so high, the gain so lowMay the road rise with you
May the road rise with you
May the road rise with you
May the road rise with youAnger is an energy
- Public Image Ltd - Rise Lyrics
(Click here for the music video)
Anger is indeed an energy, and you get to choose when and how it manifests in and through you.
Just as storms and clouds and rain are inherently neutral, neither positive nor negative - but can become either and to an extreme in how and when they manifest.
This is to say - yes, there is a time and place for anger, as there is for any and all emotions. The key is to choose our response vs be lost in endless looping of reactions.
Let’s consider the words “respond” and “response”. The etymology refers to the ideas of answering back, and making a promise or pledge in return.
What a difference this is from reaction. Imagine if more and more people responded to war and violence with a promise for peace that they themselves are pledging themselves to, a pledge for which they themselves are responsible.
When seen through this lens, being responsible can be seen as being able to respond. Are you responsible and accountable for your emotions and thoughts and ideas and beliefs? Or do you blame the media, the government, or maybe still stuck blaming your parents?
This is not to say “shame on you”. We all do this.
And yes, it is a huge part of our culture and indoctrination. This external locus of control is everywhere, rewarded and incentivized. And in return, taking responsibility for oneself is often seen as dangerous or antisocial (just think of the mainstream caricature of offgridders or preppers).
But we also live in a culture that is full of toxic fast food, highly destructive drugs, and crime - and yet a great many people consciously choose a very different path when it comes to those areas of life.
The idea here is to begin to see the energetic layers of this the same way you see the marketing of food in the grocery stores. Just as health-conscious people typically avoid grabbing the loudest most colorful box of sugary breakfast cereal, so too can we avoid the toxic energies being blasted at us night and day, and then reacting in kind.
One way to create space and peace and to reclaim our own power and energy in all of this is to practice one or more of the many forms of energy balancing.
How Learning to Shift Your Own Energy Helps
Energy shifting is 100% natural and innate in all of us. When you see a little baby bouncing in their crib, you are witnessing a new human who is practicing energy shifting.
We all know how to shift our energy. We do it when we blast our favorite songs on the radio or when we go for a walk when we’re feeling stressed or sad.
We’ve all experienced the tremendous energy shifting power of a simple human hug.
So if there is no mystery here, what is there to learn?
As outlined above, one of the biggest things to learn is to simply remember and realize that you have this power and can tap into it ANY TIME.
The key is remembering:
how it feels to restore inner balance
how it feels to have peace in your heart
that it’s OK to feel anger and rage but that YOU get to choose when and how and if you express it
that no matter what is happening outside of you, YOU are response-able for what happens inside of you
shifting means changing - it does not mean ascending, going up, being positive no matter what.. you choose what is needed, appropriate, and desired
Many Forms of Energy Shifting
There are endless forms and methods for shifting your energy. There are everyday activities we all know about.
But there can be cases where they don’t seem to work, or there are deeper blockages or denser darker energies that seem to get “stuck” inside of us.
In these cases, it can help to learn practices like Reiki or Qigong, for example. Or to see and work with a practitioner.
In my practice, while I am trained to do healing work to help when my clients are in a bad place, the real work is to teach and support my clients as they develop their own practices.
Don’t Should All Over Yourself
A word of caution here… depending on where you’re at in life, some of this may be new to you. It may be energizing. It may seem to offer a way out or around some of the painful experiences of life.
That is not the point of this exercise.
The practice of Shifting Your Energy is to develop your ability to transform energy. Pure and simple.
But it’s important to always recognize that most of us are early on in developing this ability. So it’s best to simply do your best. And remember - you can also choose to stop beating up on yourself when you fall back into old habits of getting angry and depressed by the news.
Rather than feeling bad about yourself when this happens, when you slip into victim energy - a more empowered response is to simply laugh at yourself in a kind-hearted way “ha, there I go again” and then pull yourself back on track.
That’s all it takes to find yourself more and more centered in life. More and more able to bring greater peace and harmony INTO this world.
Are there people out there that want to watch the world burn? Sure.
But I choose to believe that even those individuals would prefer to feel peace in their hearts if they could ever be open to that.
Unfortunately, for some (many?) who seek violence and conflict - they do this precisely because they see no other way to get to a place of peace.
Others simply see only one or other sides of where the pendulum swings and believe conflict is all that there is - so better to come out on top than be destroyed.
In either case, how can peace ever show up or happen in this world if there aren’t individuals who choose to plant the seeds within themselves first and foremost? And then do the work necessary to foster an inner environment in which these seeds can grow?
The moments between the in-breath and out-breath… the moments before the pendulum begins to swing back up in either direction… these moments hold within them an eternity of peace and prosperity that can be experienced by anyone.
Learning how to consciously shift your own energy is one way to tap into that kind of peace. If that is what you choose to experience.
More Than Peace
I’ll leave you with this. We are not limited to choosing between peace and violence. The amazing thing about us humans is how creative we are when we give ourselves permission.
These times of conflict and turmoil often create some of the most amazing advances in our world.
Maybe you don’t vibe with the peace thing. Remember the deal - this is not good or bad, right or wrong. The key is to CHOOSE what you DO want to bring into this world. What are you here to do, make, create, experience?
Way back when, I did a Quantum Healing Hypnosis Technique session (QHHT) with a gifted healer. In QHHT, you are supposedly communicating directly with your higher self. My higher self stated in no uncertain terms — everything I am doing in this lifetime is being done to contribute to the kind of world I want to come back to. And also: everything I am doing here and now, I am also working on doing on the other side as well. Talk about things that make you go hmmmm…..
My point is this - YOU DO YOU. Do your thing. Be yourself. You don’t have to tune into the same channel everyone else tunes into.
You get to choose your response. Shifting your energy is one way to choose a more empowered response, while reclaiming more of your own power and energy in the process.