Boycott fear

I accept what is.

These are the words I have been telling myself after an election I have found to be traumatic and sad. Yesterday I was in mourning. I think that was the right response, after seeing my hopes for a lot of positive change in my country get dashed by the election of someone who doesn’t seem to care about my most deeply held values — like the desire to preserve the earth so we can all continue living on it, or the vision of embracing people from diverse lifestyles and backgrounds.

But out of change, and out of pain comes growth. I am grateful for the opportunities this will give us to grow as a nation.

And one big way I hope we grow is to stop trying to manipulate each other using fear.

Throughout the election and, indeed, throughout history, by many people, fear has been used as a great manipulator to get people to do what you want. People use it because it can be very effective. They have an end goal, which may be desirable, and they use fear to try to push people towards that goal, not caring how it affects the people they are influencing.

In this election, some used fear to push people away from one candidate, some from the other. Fear was used so heavily for so long, that seeing a fear-based article about something “those Republicans” are doing in my email this morning just made me feel sick. I have a lot of friends who are on the other side on this election. Loving, caring people, who genuinely believe that their path is the best for our nation. I don’t want to be divided from them, based on fear.

And fear is the opposite of love. It is the opposite of what I want in my life. It is the opposite of peace. And I can choose to have peace in chaos. I can choose to be filled with love, even if the world were sinking around me, and in my last dying breath, I could choose love and peace. That is the life that I want to live.

So I have decided. I’m done being motivated by fear. So I am boycotting it. Any email I get that asks me to do something based on fear, I’m going to delete. Any media I see that is spreading fear, I’m going to stop reading/watching/listening. Any group or person who continues to spread fear, I’m going to unsubscribe. And I’m not going to use fear to get people to do/think/believe/buy what I want.

While some undesirable things may happen in the next four years, I prefer to increase love and light in this world.

#boycottfear with me. And let’s together make this world a more loving place to live in.