What Can You Do About That?
The answer depends on whether “that” is personal or broader.
The evolution of humankind is amazing. Relatively speaking, we’ve gone from hunter/gatherers struggling to survive as individuals to farmers struggling to survive as a community to whatever we are now blazingly fast (only about 12,000 years).
What we are now is an interesting mystery. Only in the past 100 years or so have human beings developed the ability to communicate instantly across the globe. We’ve gone from a knowledge base that encompassed those within maybe, at best, 100 miles around you, to being able to learn, right now, what’s happening on the other side of the globe. If you really think about this, it’s truly amazing.
It has, however, come with a price nobody’s reconciled. It’s massively impacted the collective mental health of everyone. Arguably, it’s impacted all four elements of human health, wellness, and wellbeing – mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual. This, unfortunately, takes a back seat to ideas, opinions, thoughts, and faux immediacy of problems that you can do little to nothing about.
Recognizing this can then lead to false impressions of selfishness, lack of caring, and possible shunning. Ironically, many of the people and institutions humans turn to in the face of this are prime examples of true selfishness, lack of caring, and shunning.
The stark and unpleasant reality is that the answer to the question – What can you do about that? – tends to be very little or even nothing.
This will not be pretty or pleasant
Look at the world around you as I write this. There are some truly awful, horrific things happening. What can you do about that? Let’s break some of it down.
The Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Unless you live in Israel, the West Bank, or Gaza, there’s little to nothing you can do about that. Boycott businesses supporting bad actors, attend protests, give money to charities trying to help. Vote in elections. That’s about all you can do if you’re not there.
The Russia/Ukraine conflict. Unless you live in Russia or the Ukraine, there’s little to nothing you can do about that. Boycott businesses supporting bad actors, attend protests, give money to charities trying to help. Vote in elections. That’s about all you can do if you’re not there.
The US election. Unless you live in the US, there’s little to nothing you can do about that. Boycott businesses supporting bad actors, attend protests, give money to charities trying to help. Vote in the election. That’s about all you can do if you’re not there.
As a US citizen, I’m going to drill down a bit further here.
The Florida problems. The current governor of Florida is actively working to make his state increasingly science-denying, homophobic, and unfriendly to anyone not politically conservative. Guess what? Unless you live in Florida, there’s little to nothing you can do about that. Boycott businesses supporting bad actors, attend protests, give money to charities trying to help. Vote in the elections. That’s about all you can do if you’re not there.
Note the recurring theme. What can you do about that? Little to nothing. Acknowledging that feels pretty selfish, right?
The answer to – what can you do about that? – feels wrong
Project 2025, the increasingly public playbook of the uber-conservative politics being embraced by the Republican Party, is disgusting and frightening. If Trump wins, and they put even a small amount of that playbook into action, it will not only undo decades of progress for pretty much everyone, but actively drive people further apart. If you are anyone other than a cis-gender white wealthy male, you’ll be fucked over in some way by Project 2025.
What can you do about that? I really hate to say this, but unless you live in the US, there’s little to nothing you can do about that. Boycott businesses supporting bad actors, attend protests, spread the word, give money to charities trying to help. Vote in the election. That’s about all you can do.
I have friends who plaster their Facebook and Instagram feeds with constant reminders of the above. To one degree or another, good on them for making this more mainstream. However, I have friends also plastering their social media feeds with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the Russia/Ukraine conflict, and shit happening in states on the other side of the country.
While it’s good to be aware of these things, inundating ourselves with them doesn’t do us much good. Why? Because what can you do about that? Little to nothing.
Stating that feels selfish, unkind, and uncompassionate. Perhaps it is. Yet it’s also important to know that when you focus on what you can do little to nothing about you disempower yourself.
What can you do about that?
When it comes to you, your life, your thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions? What can you do about that? Everything. That is something over which you have control.
Yet many of the distractions of the world around you tell you otherwise. When the narrative is constantly hammering away at your self-confidence, ignores mental health, and is trying to sell you something, it drives you away from yourself.
This is why it feels selfish to only acknowledge the distant conflicts of the world and do or say nothing further. It’s also why saying no to someone toxic in your immediate vicinity or setting boundaries to protect your mental and emotional health also feels selfish. Because while humans have evolved into globally connected fonts of information both useful and useless, our subconscious minds are still barely out of hunter/gatherer mode.
Fear is the perfect example of this. At its core, fear is super useful, because it keeps you alive. Base fear tells you you’re in danger. Run from the lion. Mind the cliff. Those guys over there with the spiky clubs are going to take what you’ve already gathered and you need to fight or flee. This is super useful for survival.
Now that humans are seldom under the same threat to life and limb, fear has evolved. But not in a useful, life-saving way. Now fear tends to be wholly about subconscious beliefs, values, and bullshit. Fear of missing out? What’s that in the grand scheme of things? Fear of failure? If you’re not going to die as a result of failure, what’s that in the grand scheme of things?
Worse, this has been weaponized in the age of mass media to distract, disempower, and get you to spend money. It’s not pretty.
It’s not selfish to work and act locally
So, what can you do about that? First and foremost, recognize and acknowledge what you can and can’t do. If it’s a global issue, you’re incredibly limited. If it’s a national issue, you’re still limited, but slightly less so. A local issue, specific to you and yours, is something you can work on.
By local, I mean within your physical community, circle of friends, workplace, and the like. You can have an impact here. A direct impact. However, it is still limited because you can only live for you.
Many times, well-meaning people create greater havoc than assistance with their actions. “I’m only saying” and “for your own good” and “playing devil’s advocate” might be well-meaning, but they’re disempowering.
The problem is that, while they might be able to offer advice, they can’t think, feel, intend, or act for you. You alone have that power.
It is not selfish to work and act for yourself. That’s because nobody else can. When your mental, emotional, and spiritual health, wellness, and wellbeing are suffering, you have the power to make changes to fix that. This is done via active conscious awareness – mindfulness – and making intentional choices and decisions.
Outside of yourself, you have no real power. Despite messages to the contrary, you can only make choices and decisions for yourself. That feels selfish, right? But it’s not.
I am not suggesting you ignore the world around you. Being aware of horrors like Project 2025 is the only way to stop them. However, when that’s your whole focus, and you ignore your mental, emotional, and spiritual health, wellness, and wellbeing for it, you disempower yourself. That helps nobody, least of all you.
Be a beacon in the dark
The fear-based society you and I live in is often disconcerting, uncertain, and outright frightening. Because it’s human nature to look to the future and back to the past, the now gets sacrificed.
The trouble with this is that the now, the present, is the only time that’s genuinely, truly, real. The past has come and gone and is colored by bias, prejudice, judgment, and other factors of both groups and individuals. The future is unknown and can unfold in all sorts of unexpected and sometimes unwanted ways. But the now, this moment, is in your control.
Your present self – who, what, where, how, and why you are – is yours to be or change. Despite messages to the contrary, you’re not selfish when you practice self-care and work on yourself. The truth is that you’re empowered when you do so.
When you’re empowered you can be present, here and now, and make choices and decisions with intent to live the most full, decent, and desirable life that you can.
This is not selfish. In truth, it turns you into a beacon in the fear-based dark. That beacon of mindfulness and self-assurance, even when you’re not 100% confident or without doubt, can be a boon to others.
What can you do about that? When it’s a global, international, or national problem, little to nothing. When it’s your life and all that makes you, you – anything and everything. Recognizing and acknowledging this is how you become empowered and can be a true beacon of light in the dark.
Realistically, the more people who are self-aware and mindful, the more it disempowers the faux forces of disruption in the world at large. This is a lot to digest, but the truth can set you free.
What can you do about that? Depends on what “that” is.
This is the six-hundred-fifty-sixth (656) exploration of my Pathwalking philosophy. These weekly essays are my ideas for – and experiences with – applying mindfulness and positivity to walk along a chosen path of life to consciously create reality.
I share this journey as part of my desire to make a difference in this world and empower as many people as I can with conscious reality creation.
Thank you for joining me. Feel free to re-post and share this.
The first year of Pathwalking, including expanded ideas, is available here. Check out Amazon for my published fiction and nonfiction works.
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