Is Your World Spinning Out of Control?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Is Your World Spinning Out of Control?
When all else fails, step into the tilt.
When you were young, did you ever turn in circles really fast with your arms stretched wide? Did you keep going, faster and faster until you were so dizzy you had to just stop and lay down? Do you remember that feeling? Initially, the entire earth you lay upon tilted violently and you would grip the ground on either side of you to try to keep yourself from falling off of the edge. Eventually, the world would quit tilting and just move gently until finally, peace came back into your world and it was just you, the grass and the big sky above you.
As children we pushed ourselves to these limits out of fun, we wanted to experience the thrill of the world tilting beneath us, yet we were always certain everything would right itself and all would be well. Many of us would go back again and again to experience this many times. As adults, we have lost our faith that everything will right itself after a long spin.
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This happened to me this week. I reached my tipping point. I feel like I have been spinning in circles; I started the magic ride, yet it feels like it will not end and I may actually slip off the edge. When I stepped back and looked at our world, it seems to me a lot of us feel out of control and are gripping the ground with all of our might just to keep from falling off the proverbial edge. This lead me to wonder: what happens when you fall? How do I prevent myself from “being anxious and living in the future” or “being depressed and living in the past” and move towards “being at peace and living in the moment” (from Lao Tzu)?
First, we entered the uncertainty that is COVID. The anxiety of how it will affect everyday living moving forward.
After banning together, in kindness to defeat a common foe, we were violently divided by racial injustice that turned into a perception of valuing some lives over others.
The division continued over the wearing of masks.
When a vaccine was discovered, the separation of this country seemed to reach new heights. We went from a country of “my body, my choice” to “your choice is to get vaccinated or not work.”
And then…Russia happened.
In all of the division, no one has had a discussion with the other ‘side.’ No one reached out and found the cause of the strong opinion so there could be understanding and respect, not agreement. The freedom of opinion, which is one foundation of this country, or so I thought, we lost in our violent separation.
Now I ask you, when was the last time you did not feel angry? When did you last feel peaceful? When did you last watch a sunrise or sunset and feel gratitude for the beauty of the world we live in?
My proposal is to step into the spin. Feel the lurch. Celebrate the gentle rocking as it brings a new state of being: calm acceptance. Until we stop pining for what was we cannot celebrate who we have become and what we have to offer. Look towards the small, step by step, day by day as I believe we are experiencing a multitude of traumas over the course of a short time.
I started looking into trauma as I was looking at how the world events affected us and found this explanation: Dutch philosopher Ciano Aydin describes a situation as traumatic when it “violates” familiar expectations about someone’s life and world, sending them into a “state of extreme confusion and uncertainty.”
Well, that is our lives in a nutshell!
Did you know there are two main ways to heal from trauma related illness or injury:
- get away from “that which is causing the pain”
- to not isolate
We cannot get away from the confusion, lack of certainty and actual virus; it is out there.
We are also instructed that to heal and move forward we need to not isolate. Much of the world would now call social distancing isolation.
So, what are we left with? We need to try to make our worlds smaller so we can stop the spinning within them. In the end, you need to do you. Simple and short. This is a time you need to reinvent yourself and reinterpret your world and priorities.
Personally, I am massively affected by the news. News of the Ukrainians and Russia deeply sadden me. However, when I hear of thermobaric weapons I am devastated. I have learned that there is absolutely nothing I can do directly to change this outcome. So, I do not watch the news. I cannot get swept up in the misery, loss and injustice of a situation I cannot help.
You need to recognize your own spin, foresee the tilt, take a deep breath and walk into it with the confidence of tomorrow. Just like when we were kids, we need to have faith that there is a future even after the spinning.
The ‘hits’ just keep coming to us, every single one of us. We are all tied together. Us, as in we, a people is also U.S. the country. We need to remember that.
“There’s nothing wrong with being scared, as long as it doesn’t change who you are.”
– Grandma in Paranorman