Tranquillity in turbulent times sounds like an impossible contradiction.
It doesn’t have to be.
Here are 3 steps to make it possible.
- Recognition and Acceptance
- Understanding the big picture
- Taking action
Recognition and Acceptance
Get on the Internet, turn on your TV, your radio, open a newspaper or just keep your ears open anywhere people are talking and it sounds like the world is about to come to an end. That seems to be the case in North America.
The division over Brexit show that people in the UK and Europe are equally anxious about their futures.
Most of what is happening has been coming around in cycles since recorded history began. These cycles have been recorded for thousands of years. The Old Testament is full of stories of death and destruction, temples and cities destroyed, fire, flood, drought, plague, exile, dynasties ending. Entire civilisations overthrown, new ones rising up from the ashes.
The swings of the pendulum between one extreme and the other have been well documented in the book titled Pendulum by Roy Williams and Michael Drew. I wrote about it in this post in 2012 and again in this post in 2017 and 2018.
Re-reading that post from 2012, I am amazed at how things have changed in six years and how much further the pendulum has swung.
Obviously there are differences to the chaotic times of the middle ages, interminable European wars and revolutions in the 17th to 19th centuries. The two World Wars, the Great Depression, Cuban Missile crisis, Cold War, Middle East conflict, 9/11, Iraq 1 and 2 and Afghanistan all fuelled concerns over the future.
You might think it was hard to find any tranquility in that list of turbulent times.
There was for all of us if we chose to look for it and hang on to it.
What’s different now?
The Internet and social media which provide speed and reach of communication on a scale never experienced in all of history
Understanding the big picture
Almost universal access to these fast, effective and cheap platforms have resulted in:
- “Progressive” societies that confuse “rights” with privileges
- Intolerance for any views contrary to one’s own
- Polarisation of society with few being comfortable sitting in the middle.
Aggravating the situation is the media onslaught against President Trump, the legally elected President of the USA.
This President has had a greater positive effect on the economy and unemployment amongst other factors, than President Ronald Reagan and in at least one area, President Kennedy. But that is not good enough for the mainstream media and most of Hollywood.
Is it any wonder that we now see this great divide in the electorate. Any wonder that North of the border in Canada, the same issues are creating a similar divide between left and right. Anti-Trump and anti-conservative sentiments denying even mildly conservative speakers the opportunity to speak at universities. Sentiments that brand one a “white supremacist” for speaking out against what one feels is wrong with the current political climate.
Some commentators believe the USA is in a state of “Cold Civil War”. This article in Imprimis by Charles R. Kessler is a worrying analysis of the five possible outcomes from where the country is now.
Taking action for tranquillity
People can find tranquillity in the most turbulent and dangerous environments. Those periods of quiet and peace may be fleeting, but they are important.
The vast majority of us in North America, Europe and most of the developed countries are not in immediate danger. With few exceptions, if we have a roof over our heads, food on the table and a bed to sleep in today, we will still have all
Our inability to find tranquillity is because of what we allow to occupy our minds.
The solution is quite simple:
- Media diet
- Limit purposeless time on social media
- Avoid poisonous, people, groups, conversations on social media
- Attract people to the middle ground
- Choose to do things that help you find peace and tranquillity
- Consider yoga, meditation, faith and religion as a way to find tranquillity, and inner peace
I cancelled my satellite TV account 5 years ago. Living in a rural area, I can only get 3 or 4 broadcast channels. Netflix and Acorn TV have more shows and movies than I could ever watch at a ridiculously low monthly cost.
I listen to a local radio station in the early morning and when I am in the car for the weather and community news. By being selective of what I watch on the Internet and social media, I don’t get caught up in other people’s dramas or misery. I have absolutely no interest in the latest celebrity scandals, dress disasters, political pontifications or environmental evangelism.
My view is that if anything really important happens, someone will soon tell me about it – someone always does – then I can choose to find out more if I think it is important to me.
I am reminded of the now defunct (I think ) press clipping service before the days of the internet and copying machines. Much like keyword searches today, you provided a list of topics and a real person would cut articles out of newspapers and magazines. Every few days a large envelope would arrive with the actual cuttings inside. I think there was also a service to transcribe radio news reports. You got what you wanted and no more. If you wanted what was being published about widgets, that’s all you got. No mention of movie stars or presidential grammar.
No matter how busy my day looks I rarely miss my 40 minute morning walk. I read, play my guitar, cut and split wood and still put in eight or more hours “work” every day.
That’s how I find tranquillity, you can too if you choose to.
Conclusion
Much of the chaos we see around us is not new, it’s part of a cycle that ebbs and flows like the swing of a pendulum.
We cannot control the pendulum and the forces around us, but we can control how we react or respond to them.
We can insulate ourselves from their influence and we be a positive and moderating influence on others and on the
Changing our environment may be necessary. Many people are moving to smaller cities, rural areas, decluttering and downsizing to tiny homes to find tranquillity.
There is a way to rise above the chaos and intolerance, if we choose to find it.
Leave a comment to tell us your thoughts and how you find peace and tranquillity.
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