Finding Peace & Hope in Times of Turmoil

This video above is the same text that is written below. It felt so important to me that I wanted to share it in video form too. ♥️

Feeling the effect of the LA fires, which has had a similar impact on me as the recent Lahaina, Maui fires, I wrote this piece last night to express the depths of my emotions surrounding the experience. I hope it brings you comfort. If you don't agree with all of my points, that is okay, but please be kind in your response. Mahalo for your consideration. 🙏🏽

As the Southern California fires burn with no end of sight of containment, I am watching from afar as artistic friends of mine scramble to safety amidst losing their homes and everything that possesses a sense of normalcy.

Nothing is predictable in this day and age.

This total surrender to the chaos reminds me of my own journey with facing my possible death with stage 4 cancer. As the cancer spread through my body and threatened to steal my life force, I was in incredible pain and struggling to stay alive. Without going into the horrors of what I experienced physically (you can read about it in my book!), what I really want to share is that I had to learn to COMPLETELY SURRENDER to the discomfort I experienced.

One of the biggest lessons of this path is that the more I struggle to resist the sensation of discomfort, whether it be physical or mental, the more I would prolong the agony of what was occurring.

If I acknowledged and listened to the pain in my body or the intense emotion rolling through me, rather than attempting to ignore it, it would dissipate, release and soften rather than intensifying.

These are crazy times. I could endlessly pontificate sharing my thoughts about what is occurring now, but more importantly I want to encourage you to feel your feelings. The constant natural disasters are staggering. Not only are they hard to comprehend the why and how of it all, but they create trauma, shock, grief, anger, frustration and hopelessness. It is okay to feel massive grief. You do not have to pretend that these times are normal, as they are not.

It takes great courage to live in these modern times. How can we pretend that witnessing constant apocalyptical disaster is normal, when it is not? How can we know that across the world there is a brutal war going on and know brothers and sisters are starving and facing vast injustices, when are fortunate to be living a comfortable life? How do we stay AWAKE AND AWARE, without going numb, when others are losing their homes, lives, friends, family and struggling to survive?

Personally, my heart hurts. I find myself at times feeling hopeless and facing the urge to numb out, as it feels like far too much to feel.  

I encourage you to feel the grief. Reach out to others. Talk about it. I can guarantee that you are not alone in your feelings. We all are human. As Michael Franti says, “Stay human”.

Without going into too much detail, I am far too aware of the discrepancies surrounding the Paradise, Maui and now the LA fires. The similarities are far too uncanny. If you are brave enough to look beyond what the mainstream narrative is sharing, the pieces come together in ways where it all makes sense. I do believe that realizing the story behind these natural disasters, that it is far more than just climate change can be liberating and empowering.

I am also aware that this reality can be daunting to truly comprehend, and many do not want to see how it all lines up. Opening the mind to one incongruent fact can trigger a case of cognitive dissonance, which can threaten the everyday reality that we have been taught to believe is ‘real’. I do believe it is important to constantly question reality. This makes me think of the movie ‘The Matrix’, which might be a good thing to revisit in these tempestuous times.

It’s time to wake up folks. The more we try to ignore what is unfolding before our eyes, we continue to give our power away. There is strength in unification and facing the reality that corporations and billionaires are wielding and directing the narrative.  This can create a feeling of hopelessness in the individual, but the reality is that we are individuals all going through the same experience. Connect the individuals in the collective experience and that is where the true power is!

I do believe in the power of transformation. My motto is ‘choose love over fear’. This is not spiritual bypassing but making a concrete choice to believe in the hope, connection and expansion rather than spiraling down into the realm of fear, terror, contraction, separation, anger, blame and hatred. There is ALWAYS a choice with how we choose to handle a challenging situation.

We can choose to believe in the goodness of the human spirit, hope and that all that is unfolding before our eyes is for our growth individually and collectively.

We have the power to dictate our reality. It is so very easy to fall into a paralyzed state of fear when these natural disasters knock us off our axis.

When I was facing death, I had to make a conscious decision to face my greatest fear, which was doing chemotherapy.  As I was in the active dying process, I knew it was my only possibility to live. I did it as I dearly wanted to be around and give my magnificent son every opportunity to thrive in his life. I had seen other cancer patient friends of mine pass at a tragically young age and saw the impact of how their deaths impacted their kids. My decision to do chemotherapy was not easy, but in reality, the terror and thoughts of what I attached to how hard it might be, was worse than the actual reality of how the experience was for me.

There is great power in claiming and embracing our authentic true nature.

We are here for a reason now. I see that every soul that choose to be born during these times of great change signed up for powerful transformation.

I do think these calamities can push us to our edge, to make us find our strength and realize just how powerful we are. That was how it was for me, when I almost died from cancer.

Remember who you are.

There is a purpose for you.

You were not born to suffer.

You were born to shine.

Believe in hope.

We are stronger together.

You are loved

You are beautiful

You will get through this

I believe in you

I love you

❤️

I would love to hear your perspective if you feel like sharing!