The Relationship Between Inner Peace & Outer Impact in a Time of Wordly Crisis

Today, I wish I could write with a lighter heart, but in light of the current war on Ukraine in addition to the ongoing injustices on marginalized people, the pandemic, and the climate crisis lurking on top of it all, I’m feeling quite heavy and I imagine you are too.

Students in my classes have been asking me for advice for practices to help us through these times right now. I do believe that inner work supports outer action, and that we do need to take time to personally rest, heal, and cultivate peace in our own minds and hearts. Restorative practices like Yoga Nidra and restorative yoga have been my go-tos when I need to just be and recharge my own battery which seems to be draining faster and faster these days.

The Power of Our Personal Energy

I also want to be mindful that it is necessary, once we cultivate some energy, to focus outwards as well. Loving kindness practice and even prayer can be extremely powerful especially if you are feeling helpless and want to use your energy to cultivate peace and compassion in our world at large.

I’ve done a podcast episode on the healing power of prayer, and I know that “thoughts and prayers” themselves aren’t the only solutions, but despite this concept being made fun of on social media, sincerely sending out vibrations of peace like “may all beings everywhere be free from suffering” can have a profound impact, and you can learn more about that (and the research behind it) here.

I do think that it will be important to support organizations that are on the ground doing helpful work in the Ukraine and the countries that are taking in Ukrainian refugees right now. There are a lot of links spreading around on social media and, personally, I haven’t done enough research yet to promote any particular organizations (please write me back if you have vetted some of these and trust them and I will compile a list). I think it’s important to find not only those non-profits accredited by the BBB, but also those being promoted by Polish and Ukrainian citizens themselves, smaller organizations, local organizations (as opposed to U.S.-founded mega-charities), while still looking out for the unfortunate viral scams.

About Doomscrolling…

During global crises, social media can be really tricky to navigate. It seems like there is pressure to post, even though it feels performative, just to illustrate that you’re on a particular side.

I’ve even seen posts like “If you’re not posting about Ukraine right now you’re spiritually bypassing and I will unfollow you,” which I really don’t think is helpful. Some people (myself included) need time to process before posting on social media. And even more importantly, we want to ensure that what we are posting is actually legitimate and isn’t contributing to the misinformation crisis on top of everything else. We are social media communities after all, not professional foregin crisis correspondents.

Performative activism and doomscrolling are not the same as taking the time to get informed.

So if you are using social media to voice your opinion or share during this time, I invite you to do it with mindfulness. Vet your sources. Be aware of the account behind a post and if that source is credible. If you’re sharing links to donate, make sure that they are real organizations (generally “.org”s) that have legitimate websites and real people running them. I’ll be sharing more about media literacy and helpful practices in the days to come as well.

I’m personally working towards ensuring that I don’t just slip into my practices and shut out the world and ignore what’s going on (that actually is spiritual bypassing). At the same time, I’m working towards finding balance - this means turning on the news at designated times when I’ve consciously decided to tune in and be present to what’s going on. Not to just have the news constantly running in the background to infiltrate my consciousness at all times.

The same goes for social media. Scrolling might seem like the best way to stay informed, but if you’re just mindlessly scrolling and letting disturbing images and posts flash through your mind all day leaving you feeling numb, that’s not helping anyone at home or at large. Take the time to check in with yourself, mindfully schedule consumption, and give yourself a cut-off time as well.

And just like with the ongoing racial injustice crisis and the Black Lives Matter movement (which by the way isn’t separate from what’s going on in Ukraine), gaining a profound understanding of a large topic with a huge history isn’t something that can be learned in a few days or through a few youtube videos.

Committing to actually learning (and unlearning) is a larger process that takes time.

So if you can’t wrap your head around absolutely every issue right now, that’s okay. Reading a book by a scholar who has dedicated their life to a topic is a better solution to just taking in bite-sized scraps of information on the internet.

May all beings everywhere (this includes you) be happy, be healthy, feel safe, and live with ease.