I wrote a post on Instagram yesterday about scrolling through Instagram to see images of Australia burning and protests in Iran and how it made my heart heavy to see such things. For the first time in a long time, I felt so sad and angry for our world. It took me awhile to process these emotions - I'm still battling with waking up in the middle of the night and thinking about the state of our world, how things can seem pretty scary at times.
I always think of things in a positive light and allow myself the time to breathe in the discomfort while waiting for a fresher perspective to take form. When looking at tragedies and crises, we are forced to shift our perspective off of ourselves and our own lives and look for ways to help others. When the narrative of our everyday existence isn't so much about "me, me, me" we can move through life in a more thoughtful and altruistic way, noticing how our own thoughts, actions and relationships with others affect the world around us.
How can you choose to live every day this week in the service of others or something else? This can be something as simple as being more patient with the over-talkative or nosy co-worker; offering advice to someone who you think could use some insight; lending a land to a family member or friend who could use assistance; volunteering at a local nonprofit; or simply seeking out ways to feel of use or importance to something outside of yourself.
So far for me, I donated to a charity that is helping to fight the Australian bushfires and I'm thinking of planning my own fundraiser, possibly with a friend, to help raise money to donate toward Australia as well. Sometimes when you focus on what you can do right now to help something or someone, the problems or issues of your everyday life don't seem as burdensome anymore.
What can you do this week to help shift your own narrative? What types of services and volunteer work do you take part in that make you feel connected to something more?
This week's challenge: How does shifting the narrative off of your own life and onto
someone or something else help you to see things from a different perspective?