An excerpt from:
Authentic Humanity: The Quest for Reality and Truth (from the Big Little Books series)
by Leonard Swidler, PhD.
How Do the Events of Our Current Reality Affect Me?
Quite often, especially in this time of Covid, I find myself compressed by the aberrant events and the news media’s coverage of their “opinion” of the ensuing consequences. By compressed I mean I feel I am losing my positivity and the “imagining” that keeps the excitement of the future at the forefront of my usually happy awareness.
At times like these I need a mental space to buttress feelings of impending doom with a future that looks dim and bleak. After all, we all like to breathe deeply when our chest gets tight and anxiety begins encroaching on serenity. I am not one to wait for an answer to a problem. So, instead of accepting the societal dilemma, I create my own helpful awareness through a deep dive into my emotions and feelings.
Until you can accept situations that bother you, you cannot resolve your feelings. Thus, as I started this with compression and negative emotions, I look for ways to mitigate them, otherwise they will just lead to depression. So, instead of running away, I turn around to confront those thoughts and “make friends” with those feelings.
A Strategy to Deal with Negativity & Embrace “Positive Possibilities”:
I remediate these thoughts and feelings with a “road trip,” not driving but walking on a quiet, and secluded path along my street. Looking down the road I can see clearly what is near me, but as I look farther down, the less I can accurately assess the situation. Well, “isn’t life just like that!” In the distance I can only surmise what I see, so it’s incumbent on my own mind to project the future. After a period of time, my sense of urgency, my negative thoughts and the feelings of compression begin to loosen, and I generate my own positive possibilities.
For every negative there is always a positive. For every up there is a down. For every dark there is a light. Without these opposites neither could exist! So I’m relaxed on my walk knowing there are always degrees of each. I chose to see the “positive possibilities.” I can control things close to me, but like the road upon which I’m walking, I can’t control as much as I look farther into the future. With those thoughts, as I walk down the “road of life,” I can imagine a future that shows promise and a myriad of “positive possibilities.”
Learn more about human perception of “reality” in Authentic Humanity: The Quest for Reality and Truth (from the Big Little Books series) by Leonard Swidler, PhD.
Leonard Swidler 