{"id":130,"date":"2011-01-13T10:34:34","date_gmt":"2011-01-13T18:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/livinginenthusiasm.com\/?p=130"},"modified":"2011-01-13T10:34:34","modified_gmt":"2011-01-13T18:34:34","slug":"steps-for-higher-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/endlessmagic.com\/index.php\/2011\/01\/steps-for-higher-action\/","title":{"rendered":"Steps for Higher Action &#8211; Lessons Learned from the Arizona Shootings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><span style=\"color:#000080;\"><em>&#8220;We are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth what matters is not wealth or status or power or fame but rather how well have we loved and what small part we have played in making the lives of other people better.&#8221;<\/em><\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n<address>Pres. Barack Obama at the Arizona shooting victim&#8217;s memorial. <\/address>\n<address><\/address>\n<address><\/address>\n<address>Listen to this Post Instead:<br \/>\n<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-130-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/endlessmagic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/01132011-higheraction.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/endlessmagic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/01132011-higheraction.mp3\">https:\/\/endlessmagic.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/01132011-higheraction.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/address>\n<p>As I listened tonight to President Obama&#8217;s speech at the memorial in Arizona I was moved.\u00a0 At a time when a lesser man would have made a fiery, vindictive speech our President instead took the high road and demonstrated his capability for spiritually minded\u00a0action from his place of leadership.\u00a0 This is where Barack Obama shines and we needed his light today.<\/p>\n<p>He called upon us not to continue the vitriolic and hateful blaming that has got us into such a mess.\u00a0 He called upon us to live up to the dreams of our children.\u00a0 He called upon us to let go of old ideas and embrace a different type of conduct and problem solving.\u00a0 It is this collaborative approach that my life\u00a0is devoted to, both in my spiritual practice and in my technology career.<\/p>\n<p>Years ago, at the prodding of the Universe and several key people, I was encouraged to look at my life in a different way.\u00a0 It was time for me to put down my warrior shield and sword and begin to embrace my life and people differently.\u00a0 It was hard &#8211; excruciatingly painful at times &#8211; and now in retrospect very well worth it.\u00a0 <span style=\"color:#0000ff;\">When you spend your life fighting against things rather than building things you can find yourself spiritually exhausted with little to show for it.\u00a0<\/span> My experience is that many battles in life are never won.\u00a0 We simply wear each other out and collapse on the battlefield.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I now know there is another way.\u00a0 Each and every day I make an effort to do what Pres. Obama asked of us collectively.\u00a0 In some small way to\u00a0make someone&#8217;s life better, including my own.\u00a0 This idea and attitude is not about selfless service.\u00a0 It is about how we resolve conflicts in our society.\u00a0\u00a0 As he said, &#8220;How we treat each other is entirely up to us.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I know many of us look at the world around us and feel overwhelmed by the issues, difficulties and violence we see. Each of us has the power to impact our world in many ways.\u00a0 Learning to handle conflict in an open, neutral and productive fashion is a skill that takes time but pays great dividends.\u00a0 Here are a few things I have learned to help me in that process:<\/p>\n<p>1.\u00a0 <strong>Breath <\/strong>&#8211; Yes, I know you&#8217;ve heard it but its true that taking a deep breath puts you and your body in a more receptive state.\u00a0 Try it.<\/p>\n<p>2. <strong>Remain Curious <\/strong>&#8211; It helps me to be authentically inquisitive about the motivations of people who are different from me.\u00a0 Sometimes those motivations are simple &#8211; fear, possessiveness, feelings of self loathing and sometimes more complicated.\u00a0 \u00a0 When I find those things in other people I am able to have more compassion for their different opinions and allow myself to learn something from them.<\/p>\n<p>3.\u00a0 <strong>Find Your Tribe <\/strong>&#8211; Isolation, intellectual or otherwise, is not healthy for human beings.\u00a0 Finding others who share your sensibilities in the world can give you a sense of purpose and belonging.\u00a0 Getting active in the world around you will allow you to combat those overwhelming\u00a0feelings of depression and hopelessness.<\/p>\n<p>4.\u00a0 <strong>Stay Neutral <\/strong>&#8211; Those with different views can not &#8211; and I mean that they simply CAN NOT change you.\u00a0 Consequently you have nothing to fear or be defensive about.\u00a0 You are in charge of you, so relax.\u00a0 Defending yourself against competing ideas takes time away from building a strong foundation of worthwhile works that benefit those you care about.<\/p>\n<p>5.\u00a0 <strong>Compromise <\/strong>&#8211; Whether at home or work only compromise can truly craft solutions when there are competing priorities.\u00a0 Everyone wins when a solution is found. Stubbornness will not save a sinking ship, get your project approved or get your spouse to put the cap back on the toothpaste.\u00a0 Allow for unique and innovative solutions to reveal themselves. Personally I&#8217;m a fan of the Metadent pump for those toothpaste woes.<\/p>\n<p>6.\u00a0 <strong>Cultivate Patience <\/strong>&#8211; Issues are not created or solved overnight.\u00a0 I often find it useful to step back and approach a situation from a different angle on a different day. Forced solutions rarely stand the test of time.<\/p>\n<p>7.\u00a0 <strong>Believe <\/strong>&#8211; Opening our hearts to the possibility of a better future is our first step in creating it.\u00a0 We can choose\u00a0to allow \u00a0for a greater sense of &#8220;moral imagination&#8221; to expand us to higher levels of activism, compassion and harmony.<\/p>\n<p>I earnestly hope that more people in our country will take up this challenge to engage in higher action and leave behind the anger and dissention that is so destructive to our country, our communities and our homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There is another way.\u00a0 I&#8217;m sure of it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;We are reminded that in the fleeting time we have on this earth what matters is not wealth or status or power or fame but rather how well have we loved and what small part we have played in making the lives of other people better.&#8221;\u00a0 Pres. Barack Obama at the Arizona shooting victim&#8217;s memorial.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/endlessmagic.com\/index.php\/2011\/01\/steps-for-higher-action\/\" class=\"more-link themebutton\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[10,11,13],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2pZx8-26","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/endlessmagic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/endlessmagic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/endlessmagic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/endlessmagic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/endlessmagic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/endlessmagic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/endlessmagic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/endlessmagic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/endlessmagic.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}