Probably the most important 12 minutes of your day today

This is a Ted talk on happiness and it's really excellent.  I literally laughed and cried while watching it.  Please, for your sake, watch it.

Where politics and emotions collide

Some of the best recent protest signs from the internet:

I also saw these on-line:  "Twitler" and "Make racists afraid again", both of which I thought were fantastic.

NYCDAT

If you read my last post and your reaction was "nothin' you can do about that", I ask you to think about what it will take for you to believe it's time to do something.  I understand feeling helpless.  I understand feeling too small to make a change.  I feel those things as well.  But please don't shut yourself off from this.  Saying NYCDAT and going on with your life is exactly what the offenders want you to do.  It allows them to act with impunity.  If you can maintain your awareness about how wrong these actions are, you are helping create an environment where the appropriate actions will take place.  This is a crisis.  Don't just set it aside.  Keep it in your mind.  Let it color your perception of events.  Talk about it with loved ones.  Use it to connect with strangers when the situations present themselves. Heck!  Make the situations present themselves.  NYCDAT is wrong.  YOU CAN DO IT!  WE ALL CAN DO IT! 

What will your response be?

President Trump has placed a ban on immigrants from several Muslim countries (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen).  Immigration officials have detained people at airports who were already on flights from the countries on the list.  What's next? What if what's next is "detainment camps"?  Are you prepared to sit by and do nothing? The people of Germany largely claimed ignorance about what was going on in the concentration camps.  Are you prepared for history to view you in the same way?

We may be on the doorstep of the most dangerous moment in American history. Are you prepared?

Quote: Rainer Maria Rilke

"I beg you, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language.  Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them.  And the point is to live everything.  Live the questions now.  Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

Culture impacting emotional health

Hello dear readers.  The current political situation in the United States is causing me to blog more frequently at The Weeping Face, then I have been here at Emotion Colored Glasses.  That's not really what I want to be doing, but I feel that it's important.  I will continue to post here as often as I can, but I urge you to click over to The Weeping Face and read and comment there on what you can.  

Our country is in danger.  We need both vigilance and compassion to save it.  I urge you to be as engaged as you are able to be, both with your own emotional health, and with our current political environment.

My perspective

I believe what's most important in life is not what happens to you, but how you react to what happens to you.  For that reason, despite my intense concern for our country, I will strive to remain centered as events unfold over the next days, weeks, months, and (four) years.  I believe that is what is best for myself, my family, and the world. 
"Peace in oneself, peace in the world."  -Thich Nhat Hanh

My emotions

Today is inauguration day here in the United States.  Donald Trump is our new President. Typing that sentence should make me vomit, but truthfully, I'm numb.  I'm in the middle of a prolonged rough patch in my personal life.  Combined with today's events, I'm left walled off from my emotions.  I can only access them at the most superficial level right now. That's what happens when you feel unsafe.  I will continue to work to regain access to my emotions.  Fear will not control me.  I will be whole, despite whatever actions our new President may take.

From Barbara Bush and Jenna Bush Hager

Nicely done, with compassion.  The connections between us are what will save us.

Change your perspective for a minute

Don't see this video as a political video.  See it as two men who care deeply about each other and about what they do with their lives.  It's inspirational.  The authenticity of their mutual respect is obvious.  Congratulations to both of them on lives well lived.  May we all aspire to similarly fulfilled inner lives.

Dignity and Respect

I will always admire his manner.  The way he creates respect for himself by first respecting others.  The dignity with which he approaches each moment of his professional life. These strong inner qualities are the hallmark of a great leader and I feel glad that we've had eight years of his guidance.  I know we'll need it in the years to come.  I hope we've internalized enough of his lessons to carry us through.

Compassion in action

Beautiful.  A day well lived.

This is testing my emotional skills!

Hello readers.  I apologize for the lack of posts lately.  I've been ill for over a month.  I also have a five year old, tinnitus, a gravely ill grandmother, and a furnace that needs replacement immediately.  I hope to be writing again soon.  Be well.

What matters to you?

This is a great short video about something other than what it appears to be about.  It's only two and a half minutes.  Click the link, watch the video, and then come back to read the rest of this post.  

Pretty good, huh?  I agree.  There are signs that can be seen to stop gun violence.  I think that's important and I hope you'll think about it.  But the video brought up something else for me.  It brought up the reality that most of society's ills could be healed if we really had the will to do it.

What does the shooter in the video need?  Better emotional skills and probably parents with better emotional skills.  Violence is fueled by bad emotional health.

What do drug addicts need?  Better emotional skills.  Addiction is fueled by bad emotional health.

What do terrorists need?  They need better emotional skills to tolerate their bad situations and they need other people to bring them back into society.  Those people need to have good emotional skills to be able to do bring them back.  And the people of the world need better emotional skills to be able to welcome terrorists back to civilization, without condemnation.  Both violence and judgment are fueled by bad emotional health.

What to people suffering from mental illness need?  If they had had good emotional health in the first place, it's unlikely they would have mental illness now.  I believe most mental illness is caused by bad emotional health.

What do corrupt politicians need?  Better emotional skills.  The lust for power is fueled by bad emotional health.

What do adulterers need?  Better emotional skills.  The multiple failings that are required to commit adultery are fueled by bad emotional health.

Any societal problem you come up with can likely be healed by better emotional skills. Why do so many people lament society's ills, but have no interest in fixing those ills?