One of my dearest friends texted this to me today: “I am feeling very sad about America so no rah-rah business for me.”

And this was my reply: “I’m sorry you are feeling sad about America today. I get it. Some of what’s happening is heart-breaking, abhorrent, and feels downright evil…

But today I am choosing to celebrate the hundreds of thousands of points of light in this country who WILL turn the ship around. I will continue to feel sad that we have come to this place, but I will not rest there.

Remember that EVERY person you interact with today will feel and be impacted by your beautiful love. We are all MOOD CONDUCTORS, and you will be sending out ripple effects in a place teeming with people who need BIG love. Perhaps your ripple effects will be magnified today!”

Her response came: “Oh, I needed that encouragement to look to the light! I felt that in my stomach when I read it. You should post that because it totally brought me up!”

So I’m sharing those words with you in case you need to be reminded of how important it is to look to the light.  

America is what WE make it. If we want the light to win, we need to BE that light in whatever small or big ways we can.

When we sit in sadness, anger, and frustration, up to 70% of our ability to think clearly and actually have the wits about us to make a difference — to BE the light — goes offline.

When we marinate in stress — and tell ourselves the stories over and over that keep us there — our body’s resources (blood, oxygen, energy) go to the fight or flight response and NOT to the Pre Frontal Cortex (PFC) which powers the creativity, resilience, flexibility, generosity and clear thinking that are needed to SOLVE the problems that got us here. (And I’m not even touching on what the continued stress response we create with our thoughts does to our body’s ability to heal, digest, fight infections, repair cells…)

It’s the stories we tell ourselves — the perseverating again and again on the things that scare us, anger us, sadden us — that wreak havoc, that weaken us.

Of course we need to pay attention to what’s real and feel the feelings that go with that that will galvanize us to action. That stress is good stress. It gets us moving.

But no more perseverating!

We all need to put our brains to work to SOLVE the problems and not get stuck in the loop of sadness or outrage about the problem.

One of the best ways I know to get our brains in gear to solve the problems is to ask powerful questions.

“What small or big thing can I do today to make a difference, to BE the light?”

“Who out there is making a difference and how do I best support them?” (Glennon Doyle for one!)

These questions put our PFC back online to do the job that will help us turn this ship around one thought, one word, one action at a time.

As my friend further texted: “I get it! I will walk that path like a BOSS today.”

Let’s all #GoWalkThatPathLikeABoss!

With much love,
xoxo
Ellie