THAT'S NOT MY BEAR - Brittlestar’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue #54
Cool stuff from a cold country: PeaceLoveCanada.ca
THAT'S NOT MY BEAR
It’s happened so many times.
Reading the news. Scrolling social media. Even our own lives.
We can get consumed by what’s immediately happening in front of us. That’s probably with good reason… I mean on a sociobiological level at least, right? If there’s an angry/hungry bear in front of you, that’s all you have to focus on really.
However, thanks to social media and the 24 hours news cycle it’s easy to think that every problem everywhere is your own.
Empathy and compassion - or even just anger - can make us feel like our lives or jobs or love life or the whole world is going down the crapper. It can make us feel like whatever is going wrong in front of our eyes at any point in time is an accurate picture of everything else in the universe and it’s all going to hell.
It isn’t.
Don’t get me wrong. There are terrible things happening everywhere all the time… but it’s not up to you to fix them all.
Seeing injustice or suffering and feeling compelled to help is a good thing but sometimes we can’t help.
Seeing awfulness that fills us with rage is a sign that we care… but sometimes we can’t do anything about it.
And truthfully? I’m glad. It can be too much caring to carry.
It’s good to care… but you need to also know when to stop when you start caring too much about things that are well beyond your control.
Take a breath. Blink your eyes. Take a step back.
Sometimes you need to say yourself, that’s not my bear.
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Pictured: Author as drunk young man with bear that is not his