Spam Filter For Your Brain - Episode 95
Something that I feel quite strongly about in all of my years of activism work, going on protests, documenting civil disobedience, was to notice how many people were so caught up in how messed up the whole world is, that they were not treating themselves with the respect and compassion and dignity that they were hoping to achieve in the wider world, in the bigger scheme of things.
I know that there are a lot of people who listen to this podcast who are people with huge hearts, people who care a lot about what's going on in the world, and it can be so easy to think the whole world is messed up, the climate is messed up. Things that people do to each other that you see on the news every night is just so awful, t can be really easy to get lost in the dreadfulness of it all and lose your own sense of self.
And that doesn't mean that these things can't hurt you, and it doesn't mean that you can't feel a huge amount of emotion when you see another human, or animal, or the planet suffering. But I invite you to be mindful about where you are using your level of hurt to drive you to inaction. Because there is a level of pain and anguish that we can cause ourselves on top of the pain that already exists, which leads us to not having any energy to strive for a better world, or to create new circumstances, or to be able to respond in a way that creates change.
Quite often, we can get lost in how sad and hopeless it can all feel, and we can convince ourselves that one person's action doesn't make a difference. But actually, the world is just created by a whole load of people's individual actions. And I think there's another side of it as well, where there are people who want to be kind and caring, and then feel quite guilty about feeling angry. And anger is quite an uncomfortable emotion for so many of us. We don't often have an opportunity to express it in a safe environment, and it feels like something that we want to try and get rid of. But when it comes to injustice, we feel like this is a fair place to channel it.
But if anger doesn't feel safe and you're feeling angry about the situation, you're just going to get yourself all caught up in a big muddle of confusion about why all these feelings feel so big and icky and unfamiliar, and get lost in your own emotions about them all, which distract you away from taking concrete action and focusing on the things that we're trying to change and maybe helping the people who are suffering more than us.
I think that anger is a really natural human response to things and familiarising ourselves with the fact that it is a human response and not something to be got rid of is really important in creating a more socially just world, more equity in the world. Anger is a natural response. It is a force for change. There is no way that all of the biggest changes that you can think of throughout humanity in terms of social justice would have happened without people being angry. But it is about whether you're channelling that inwards or outwards, and how comfortable you are in sitting with the fact that you are angry. And that doesn't necessarily mean that you are incapable of taking any action past the anger.
I just think it is somewhat wise. sometimes, to not take action, action from anger. So it is okay to acknowledge that you're feeling that and notice that it is a force, and then see that as a powerful force behind rational, calm actions that can be driven, that are less volatile than anger.
The thing about anger is it explodes, and it explodes in all directions. You can have anger as a driving force, but your thoughts need to be calm, rational and kind if things are going to go in a direction of your choosing, rather than exploding in any old direction.
It's easy to think the world is messed up, and anger can be a natural response to this. But exhaustion and burnout don't have to be, because often exhaustion, burnout, torturing ourselves with the idea of how much other people are suffering, quite simply, eventually lead to drying up of the passion and then antipathy it leads us to not being able to take any further action towards social justice, because we don't have anything left to give. And that's why you see so many people, I think, who used to really care about social justice, and now just shrug their shoulders and say, "Well, nothing much makes a difference".
I think that it is possible to make a change. And I think that every single action that we take towards being more kind to people around us infinitely creates a more kind and just world. But I don't think we can do that if we are treating ourselves with less kindness than we would wish for other people. Quite often we can think that self care in this context sounds really indulgent. But I don't think it is. Because the people who are looking after other people, who are trying to make sure and advocate for people who may not yet be able to advocate for themselves, if they're not looking after themselves, like who's going to do that?
You need to treat yourself with the same love and care and justice and compassion that you are hoping for for other people. Because the world may be messed up, but you don't have to be.
I hope that this has been a useful little lesson on passion and politics as well as self care. And I look forward to speaking to you next week.
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