Through the Eyes of Love…
The feelings are overwhelming. Buttons are pushed when least expected. Social media creates too much angst. People are angry, sad, feeling attacked or attacking, focused on who is right and who is wrong, comparing, contrasting. Everything is seen through a black and white lens, through the eyes of fear.
Fear of change. Fear of no change. Fear of being wrong. Fear of being right. Fear of more. Fear of less. It is all a world of duality and approached from the emotions and energy tied to fear. None of that is really very conscious either, it is the natural way the world seems to focus and many of us get swept up into that automatic, unconscious response.
We have so little control over what is happening to us and around us. We cannot control a disease and pandemic. We cannot control other people’s feelings or actions. We cannot control the government’s reaction or inaction. We cannot control the decisions that our employer or other companies make during this time.
We can only really control how we respond to all of that is out of control. Unconsciously, we easily respond from a place of fear, from a place of frustration, guilt, anger, apathy. What if we were to change how we reacted to come more from a place of compassion, of love? How could that change the dynamics that we feel and experience?
Instead of judging and comparing, making things “this or that,” we can focus on opportunity, possibilities, empathy, compassion. We can listen to what someone is saying and try to see it through their eyes. We can stop thinking there is a right or a wrong and realize that everyone’s view is based on their experience. And even if our experiences are similar they are never identical. My brother and I grew up in the same household, with the same family and parents. We did a lot of the same things, and had many of the same experiences, however the effect of them on each of us was different. Where my brother got to play sports and do his thing, I was being taught how to write out checks and balance a checkbook. I got to play sports as well, but I had the added burden of learning how to be independent in life, not to need anyone. My brother didn’t know about that until a dozen or so years ago. Our childhoods were a bit different, even in the same house. So imagine trying to compare situations across households, communities, countries, ethnicities. You really cannot. All you can do is use your empathy and compassion to try to understand. Leave the judgements at the door.
By using empathy and compassion, we approach situations more from a place of love, a higher vibrating energy. We do this by being conscious of our reaction. Of not unconsciously spout off our response, but stop ourselves and consciously make a choice about our reaction. To sit back and ask, “how can I approach this from a place of compassion?” Or, “how can I approach this from a place of service?” Once we become conscious of our reaction, we get to react or respond any way we truly want. We can even begin to ask ourselves, “what is the opportunity in this?”
Changing our lens from eyes of fear to eyes of love allows to judge less, compare less, collaborate more and serve more. Let’s all begin to look more through the eyes of love than fear and serve each other to our highest collective good.