Stay Present and Take Care of Yourself
We are in the eye of the hurricane. The divisive and hostile campaigning is over, the vote is in, and there is a relative calm in the air. Those of us who dreaded this outcome are either still in shock and disbelief, or have settled into some kind of acceptance.
The most important thing now is to build resilience for the difficult times ahead. That starts with personal self-care. If you have a daily practice for developing inner peace and vibrant health, stick to it. If you don’t have one, start one.
Meditation is a good place to begin. Learn to calm your nervous system and settle into contentment with this moment. Locate a still point of awareness within your mind that is steady. Go there daily and recharge.
Tending to our physical and mental well-being is essential now. Make time to exercise, eat and sleep well, and connect with others. Do things that nourish and support yourself at the deepest level. Let go of wanting to be right or fix the problem. Keep yourself vibrant, alive, and positive.
Based on the previous Trump administration, I expect that the next four years will be chaotic and abrasive. The amount of mayhem and aggression unleashed will challenge many of us to be present. The hatred and hostility that is likely to explode can stir up so much anger, fear, or frustration within us that we just want to tune it all out. However, ignoring the coming events enables the erosion of our democracy and a descent into a harsh authoritarianism that could infect our society for decades. Staying tuned and aware of what is happening is essential for our well-being and sense of belonging and connection.
Taking care of yourself does not mean ignoring or denying the problem. It means putting the impossible situation in front of you in perspective. It is about recognizing the problem at its primal cause, which is our human obsession with our own ego identity. So, how do we remain present through this next period? Read on to hear about a new and creative way to stay focused on coming political events while maintaining serenity and inner peace.
Untethered Ego
In order to stay present, it can help to view Trump and his allies as exaggerated, unleashed, expressions of ego. I have spent much of my life paying attention to ego and the programming behind it. This is the basis of a spiritual approach which I first encountered in the teachings of Buddha and Christ.
A spiritual approach is different from a religious one. Spirituality is an active investigation of what is real and true using tools and technologies that enable us to look inward and understand our own conscious mind. There is no belief or ideology involved. There are only suggestions for what to look for and how to locate the source of the suffering that we all experience.
One way to reveal the cause of our suffering is to look closely at our attachment to ego, and the programming required to maintain it. Ego is not who you are, but it is who you think you are. We choose ego because it promises to make us all-powerful. The basis of ego is the idea that we can stand alone and be fully whole in our isolated, individual self.
The ego is the expression of our desire to be our own source, independent from the whole. And, it requires that we bolster our individual personality in order to prove ourselves worthy and validate our existence.
The problem with this premise is that we are already worthy. Our existence is guaranteed by and sourced from God. And God is nothing more or less than all of us, and all that exists, together as one whole conscious being.
This is what we are here on earth to learn. And the way that we learn that is by exposing our ego and the programming behind it. We merely need to see it for what it is. Ego presents as our friend and ally, promising to make us all-powerful in exchange for total allegiance. Ego tricks us into relying on it for all of our needs, especially safety, security, and survival.
It does this by creating false images of enemies and hostile forces in the world that are out to get us. In the ensuing panic and confusion, ego presents itself as the one thing that we can count on to save us.
In order to maintain the illusion of a small self, separate from the rest of the world, ego requires tension, conflict, and struggle. There always has to be an evil other that ego is fighting against and protecting us from. This is what makes ego appear real and alive. Ego convinces us that it has our best interests in mind and is our most essential ally. The programming of the ego is all about keeping our attention focused on our personal self and our own individual survival. It sows division between us and others and isolates us from the rest of the world.
Our programming convinces us that we require an ego in order to survive. This is how ego maintains its control over us and usurps our attention for its own proliferation. In reality however, ego is only out to serve itself.
Connecting the Dots
Does this sound familiar? Remind you of someone you know? If we look at Trump and the general movement of the Republican party in the past decades, it is clear that they are acting out the hidden agenda of the ego.
This behavior is not limited to Trumps allies and the party behind him, of course. It is the way that most of us think and act. It is just that they are letting ego run loose in a way that we have not seen before on the main stage of the United States.
Social customs, institutions, laws, and morals have been in place in civilized cultures as far back in human history as we can see. Their purpose is to contain the ego and limit the amount of destruction that it can do. People learned early on that if we don’t put barriers around it, ego can spin out of control and destroy everything in its path.
So, we make rules, religions, moralities, and governments. But eventually, ego finds a way to appropriate these to further its own agenda. Then the barriers that we put up to control ego end up controlling and limiting our true self. They stifle creativity and individuality and diminish us through fear, shame, and guilt.
In the 1960’s, in the United States, a movement began to undo the rules and moralities, religions, and governments that were suffocating the human spirit. It was a time of enormous social change and opening for new ways to bring vitality, freedom, love, and peace, into our human experience.
The counter-culture movement of the 60’s spread and grew to impact the world, and is still growing today. It has succeeded in eliminating many of the rules and norms that felt so oppressive. And that has made us more vulnerable to the influence of the ego.
As a result of the social revolutions that began in the 1960’s, ego is no longer restrained by traditions and customs as it once was. We have unleashed it, and are seeing the effects. Pandora’s proverbial box has been opened.
Now What?
If we think of Trump as a full expression of unbound ego, it could help frame an effective response. In meditation practice we learn that you cannot get rid of a thought by judging or opposing it. That just generates more thought, confusion, and chaos in your mind.
In a similar way, we do not get out from under the ego’s spell by demonizing or fighting it. Pushing back against ego strengthens it. This is the reaction that ego wants. Ego is an illusion created by the constant thought stream running through our mind. It is a product of our imagination. It can only impact us when we mistake our ego for ourselves. When we fight against it, we unconsciously validate and empower the ego.
The only way to reduce the influence of ego is to simply become aware of it. Ego cannot exist in the light of our awareness because it is not real. It only can control and manipulate us from the shadows of our unconscious.
In a similar way, the coming Trump administration can only hurt us if we are not paying attention. The more light that we shine on its behavior, the less damage it can do. We do this by keeping a healthy news media presence, and challenging reporters and influencers to be as unbiased and fact-based as possible.
This will be difficult. As we have seen, Trump and his allies will do whatever they can to eliminate the presence of unbiased media and keep us from seeing what they are doing. Ego maintains its control by hiding in the shadows, distracting us, distorting the truth, and pitting us against each other.
We need strong independent investigative reporters to do this. We need to support and strengthen this part of our democracy. We need to be honest and brave enough to speak what we are seeing. We need to call out self-serving and deceitful actions, and champion integrity and honesty, wherever these appear. And we need to be clear within ourselves so that we can tell the difference.
Our power and effectiveness to respond to this next US administration lies in our capacity to pay attention and simply call out what they are doing. A complex struggle of right against wrong only energizes the ego and compounds the problem.
Keeping An Eye on Ego
The election of Trump is a call to action. He and his allies are showing us what our unrestrained ego is capable of.
The greater purpose of the coming Trump administration is to demonstrate clearly that ego is not our ally. Our allegiance to ego will not provide the peace, security, connection, belonging, and independence that nourishes and fulfills our true self. Ego is vicious and wants to triumph over our true self, ending in our own demise.
We have outgrown many of the traditional ways that we sought to contain ego. And now we need new ways to reduce the influence of ego without diminishing our connection to the consciousness and life force energy within us.
Democracy is one such way. I like to view it as a spiritual practice. It is a means to realize that we are all connected and all equal parts of one magnificent whole. And it requires our individual presence and participation.
Seeing the patterns of ego playing out through Trump and his allies can ground us and offer a vital sense of perspective. Becoming aware of them can offer a context that enables us to stay present through the coming chaos.
These patterns are predictable and repetitive. Once we see the patterns we can get ahead of them and name them each time they arise. This will reduce their influence.
Understanding what is unfolding from this larger perspective will help us to manage the fear and anxiety that are natural responses to a person like Trump being in charge of our government. Our task now is learning how to stay calm, while paying attention to what is happening around us. This is an effective way to bring sanity, stability, civility, honesty, and love back into our society.
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