Spiritual Faith in a Stress Filled World

Maintaining spiritual faith in a world that seeks to stamp it out serves as one of the hardest challenges you will face. Watch or read the news, and you will find a thousand issues to stress out about. Just today, my Yahoo feed included the following: 1) breast implants linked to cancer, 2) Florida school board votes against LGTBQ+ month, 3) a reporter breaks down while reporting, and 4) a bullied middle schooler took his own life in North Carolina.

Just looking at the headlines for these articles fills me with sadness. However, they only vaguely apply to me personally. The algorithm used by this tech giant only connects bits and pieces that relate to me. I'm a woman, but I don't have implants. I once served as an adviser to an LGBTQ+ club, but I do not do that anymore. I used to be a journalist about 26 years ago. I currently have a daughter in middle school. Taking all of this into account, the worry that these articles produce in me is exaggerated. Yet, for many people with little time and spiritual grounding, these articles could overwhelm and bring on feelings of anxiety. And that's the point. That's what the algorithm wants to do. It wants you to believe that the world is falling apart and that people are out of control.

How do we combat this onslaught? Can you sue an algorithm for the mental and spiritual damage it inflicts? Probably not, but it's important to recognize it as a definite type of evil.

When we gain perspective, we can combat this negativity. One of the solutions that I have found is to spend as little time as possible reading and watching the national news. They have spent years developing the psyche-ops to manipulate you; the less you tune in, the less chance you will succumb to their barrage of fear. There is little chance you can impact national outcomes and trends anyway; most of those large issues are out of your control. However, you do have a voice in your community and state. Know who you are electing locally, be aware of decisions being made by your town council and school board. Be present in your neighborhood. Worrying about what's happening in Florida or Texas or Washington D.C. will do little good if you do not live in those places. Keep your perspective.

Reinforce to yourself and others that in this moment you are safe and free. So much of our worry goes to "what ifs" that may never actually happen. We ignore the now and worry about the future. We think we are victims and powerless, when we actually are not. We are forever free to make choices about our actions and, more importantly, our responses. That idea of stuckness, of being a victim of circumstance, keeps us from being fully realized. The reality is that we are constantly making decisions for how we will function in this world. We just have to be in the now.

I have been so poor that there were only a couple items in the pantry to eat. I was young and trying to get through college on my own. However, there was help out there. I reached out and received it. That's the secret that the national news doesn't tell you. People will help you. People are helping others all the time. I think about all of the church communities who regularly give out food and arrange shelter for struggling people. I think of the schools that provide a place where students can wash clothes, get a backpack full of food for the weekend, and have basic toiletries. You won't see these things on the news; these stories bring hope and a sense of gratitude. Most of your fellow humans are good people doing their best; the ones who aren't need our help to get better.

We also have a strong spiritual world around us that we forget about. I have made some really terrible decisions that have literally put my life in jeopardy. No physical person was there to help me in those moments, but I was still not alone. Spirit guides and angels protected and helped me. Many of us have these experiences, but we attribute them to luck instead of help. If you ask your spiritual helpers to come to your aid, they will. Even if something does happen to you - which is a reality - your guides will still help you through it.

One of greatest ways to battle the negative attack is so simple we forget about it all the time. Recognize that you are so abundant that you have something valuable to give to your community. For some, this abundance comes in the form of creativity. Sing in your church choir. Create a beautiful piece of art and offer it to a local coffee shop to put on the wall. For others, you have an abundance of time. Help out at a community fundraiser. Attend town meetings and contribute your voice to the discussion. Still others have an abundance of money. Give it away to people who are making a difference and doing things for the people around you. When you realize that you have abundance in your life, you will no longer feel tight and restricted. You will feel expansive and blessed.

When you get to that point, celebrate. As Mary Oliver says in her poem I Worried, "Finally, I saw that worrying had come to nothing. And gave it up. And took my old body

and went out into the morning and sang."