Dark Despair
We have been raised in an increasingly intelligent, curious, inventive, adventurous, and productivity structured society. Accumulating as much money as possible, creating a personal power structure, becoming popular, envied, and striving to outdo our competitors has become a very common way of living our lives and doing business. We struggle our way through an intense cut-throat society that encourages becoming best at something - even if that something is hazardous to people as well as our environment. The “bottom line” mentality has become the trademark of every corporation and large organizations that are falsely assumed to be looking out for us. It is in this kind of thinking that has produced the dark despair that so many are feeling.
Unsettled
Burying 2024 and birthing 2025 into existence is no guarantee any of this will change. The relentless misery that accompanies heavy duty despair is building as this new year grows. Look at how unsettled so many are with the result of the 2024 election, the tremendous devastation caused by the California fires, the state of our national economy, and the cultural and religious divisiveness that the late president Jimmy Carter saw as profound damage to our democracy. With so much anxiety in the minds and hearts of our national population, is it any wonder that a despair is spreading, and spreading quickly?
Thoughts
Thoughts are energy. As such, the thoughts we put out into the world magnetizes to itself similar energies of thought. This then, builds a larger and larger energy force that influences every single thing it comes in contact with. Our world does not need an increase in dark despair, we have enough. The progressive work of monitoring our thoughts and related emotions isn’t easy. Yet, anything that is worthwhile isn’t easy. This process requires us to sit with the discomfort of depression, despondency, and despair in order to recognize it and to confront the pain of it all without the solace of it going away - until despair begins to mentally and emotionally dissolve into positive thought forms that renews our trust in the fact despair does not, nor cannot, last forever. If we are patient despair can shift to thoughts focused on determination and dedication to hold good thoughts even when everyone else is screaming “the sky is falling.”
Reset
It is far better to remind ourselves regularly that there is a reason for everything. No doubt this is easier said than done. Many will say, “I know all this” and yet continue to live out their lives in ways that show they don’t. If we don’t trust that there is indeed good reason and beneficial purpose for every unwanted occurrence, and that we will rise stronger from the ashes of despair, then we’ve succumbed to the false belief in an accidental universe; a universe wherein nothing is intended and everything takes place hap-hazardously. We humans are quite capable of making lemonade out of lemons, and for this I am not only amazed, I am thankful. Time to reset our thinking and adjust our emotions. Time to bring about a better way of viewing life that demonstrates our unique human ability to find the goodness beneath the awfulness.
“Now is the only moment we truly have to live, so why choose to live it in despair. Learn to become aware of when your thoughts wander into the dark vastness of despair so that you can consciously determine to change your mind.”