When I was talking to a friend about all the things I had seen on the ACLU's website, the contents of actual FBI documents and the long list of ACLU clients, and the info here on Opednews, based on which I was "Singing" my doom and gloom song, the friend did something really funny. She pretended to take out her violin, "played" and smirked in a sarcastic but loving, funny way of her own. "Doom and gloom! There is noooooo solution! All is going to be baaaad and there is no answer to aaaaaannnyyyy of of the problems!" I just had to laugh. She cut through, in her own humorous way, with a message which I, for my own best good, needed to hear. And her humor and physical demonstration drove the point home all the more. It was really funny and I really thank her for it.
So folks, if this reprimand comes, it's because I am guilty too. We all make mistakes and we all are in this human boat together.
And what I want to point out is that I am seeing the same theme here on Opednews:
Doooom and gloooom!!! Prepare yourselves! There is no way out! Never! Get ready: Here's the rollercoaster ride to hell! All aboard that's comin' aboard, which is all of us, willy-nilly! And there's no way out, never-never!
Now don't misconstrue what I am saying, please. Don't misquote and say that I said that it *never* happens. I said, "almost" never.
I also appreciate and agree with people who assert that our country is in very serious trouble. There simply is not a doubt about it. Further, the matters at stake concern truly criminal matters of a high order, and nothing less. I will couch it in absolutely no softer terms than that, and will spare the crazed non-stop criminals no justice in my judgement. Never. Not at all.
However, here is something that I have learned about fear, and I want to point it out:
When we have circumstances in front of us, with our logical mind we see an outcome as "substantiated" (in our mind) by the evidence we are weighing in the balance. In other words, we think "This is happening, therefore this will be the outcome". Or another way of saying, "x=y" instead of thinking: "X=y OR Z OR Q OR something else. ALL are possible".
So in other words, for every set of circumstances which we face, any number of outcomes CAN be the possibilities. Yes the worst that we fear can happen. But just because it *can*, does it necessarily have to mean that it *will*?
Castigate me if you like, but I assert whole-heartedly that even under the most heinous of circumstances, there can be any number of outcomes. Life is so full of surprises: Haven't we all experienced that in our lives, at some point or other? Haven't we all had the experience that when something bad is happening, or threatens to happen, that hope is just around the corner? Haven't we all felt at some point or other as if we were going to die (or the equivalent), and just when we thought there *was* no hope, just then hope came? And further, that the solutions were simple instead of complicated as the "Evidence" in front of us threatened to be?
"Big problems, simple solutions". That's my motto.
Okay, I don't pretend that our country's problems have any simple solutions right now. But I am still making a point.
There's always hope.
I want to suggest that the best thing any of us here on Opednews can do is to buy a copy of "The Feeling Good Handbook" by David Burns, MD. It's a fantastic book with worksheets helping the reader to identify and refute negative beliefs in one's head. The practical exercises, and identifying the common thought patterns, are fantastically effective. I cannot recommend this book more heartily for those fraught with anxiety, as many of us here on Opednews appear to be.
Further, I want to assert something for which I may be shot down. I will say it anyway, in the spirit of standing up for what is right instead of looking out for my own self, just as I am (usually) inclined to do:
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