“Buckle up!”

I want to talk about personal energy and our collective energy. We’re in a new environment whether we like it or not. Information whether accurate or not, beneficial or not is hitting us at lightning speeds.

The ability to choose how we feel to the best of our ability, has never been more important. If we ask the question, how does my broader environment want me to feel? Do you get a clear answer? Do you feel positive in your reflection and hopeful or might you experience something different?

I believe it’s safe to say at this stage, without any negative intention, we have broadly been experimented on in the information age. If we knew then what we know now, might we have built a different internet?

Is it possible to truly separate the collective energy of the environment which we participate in, from our own energy? I imagine there are many good arguments depending on how you position yourself to the question.

This makes me curious. If we lack control over the environment, whether physical or digital and that environment is not in alignment with what we feel is best or true, what should we do?

Do we break it down into smaller bits, compartmentalize when and where appropriate? Is that even an option for some people?

Do we demand change or get directly involved in some way?

Do we withdraw for our own safety?

Each of us is going to navigate in a way that we can or are able to. We all have different approaches to life, aspirations and a vision of what we may want the future to look like.

It feels like now more than ever, we do not need an external entity to identify what makes us different. We have crossed that finish line. I don’t think it’s left many of us feeling hopeful or good. (Labels, on top of emotions requiring conclusions. Conclusions creating emotions and new labels.)

At a time when information is most abundant, we’ve simultaneously dawned behaviors counter to the productive exploration of information. A desire to be valid or correct has compromised a skillset which says, is there something to learn or gain from the potential perspective that we might be wrong about something?

When I ask the question what does my broader environment want for me? If I’m being honest, I have a hard time being positive. Is that because I’m of the wrong or different algorithm? Has life caught up with me where I’m seeing the world through that of more responsibility and less so of potential? Or is it possible February in Winnipeg is just a tough time and place to be.

The world, people and places are showing no signs of slowing down. Acceleration is on the menu. Shinzen Young, an American mindfulness teacher and neuroscience research consultant once said suffering is equal to pain times resistance (Suffering = Pain x Resistance). If this statement carries weight what happens if we resist an environment, world or person which has no brakes?

Only some people are afforded the luxury or privilege of making choices and even that is a controversial subject. If I think about the word “buckle” as a verb, I’m left with more questions:

I believe we need to buckle up for what’s a head; change, uncertainty and an ever-present invitation to participate in the contrast of chaos, we call life. Especially as we become more connected globally.

While difficult, I can choose to regulate my emotional state. I could lose my cool for the 3rd time this week because someone’s texting and driving or I can think about how silly I would look to an observer; having a heated argument with someone who can’t hear me and wasn’t concerned with my time or safety in the first place.

Internally, meeting everyday annoyances with humor is one way I’m able to check myself. It allows me not to react. Consciously separating my experience from a collective experience (albeit in traffic) ensures I do not contribute more of that energy to the environment. Yes, if I honk my horn and flail my arms they MIGHT stop texting and proceed safely but will I have any control on how my behavior is perceived by others? With my actions, what potential information am I putting into the environment? What opportunities might I be creating for misinterpretation?