I do  not want to become complaisant or apathetic in my caring because I am being shocked daily by current events.

Alan Watt:Shock and Awe-The Manipulation of the Human Psyche(10/2010) “Watt reveals how the population are kept in a constant state of panic and terror, so that authority figures who speak with confidence are then more willingly trusted, using psychological “shock and awe” to generate fear and helplessness by bombarding the population with a myriad of different threats that they cannot personally cope with, and so turn to the state for reassurance and leadership.”

I have noticed that a lot of us have unresolved shock in our body’s. I know I did! At times it is shocking to realize that at 70 years old a thought or action can still propel me back into a shocked memory or an uneasy body sensation.

I read a quote that said: “You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing everything with logic. True power is restraint.”  OK I have many feeling about this quote so I am going to break this down.

At first this quote seemed innocuous and almost appealing and calming.  But I noticed I felt some agitation after reading it. So being who I am I became curious about this sensation in my body.  The quote also had a last paragraph “If words control you that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass.” I said to myself “Is that being complaisant?” This is not an easy thing to break down and explore but I want to try and go deeper into some of my musings. Taking this quote at face value it seems soothing but delving deeper into the quote and the statement from Alan Watt (not to be confused with Alan Watts) there is much more to be revealed.  If we are kept in a constant state of panic and we don’t know how to contact those deeper parts of ourselves there is the opportunity for hopelessness and apathy to grow with the possibility of becoming agreeable or indifferent.

The above article and then this quote felt similar to me even though there is different phrasings and perceived meaning. The government keeps us in a constant state of panic and terror. The quote says “do not have an emotional reaction, the key word here for me is reaction. Reacting to anything means we are already charged or in an energetic movement to something that is happening around us.

I believe there is a significant difference between reacting to something and responding to something.

Is TRUE power logical? I do agree with the sentence that  “The power is in restraint” because if we are reacting to something we might already be in resistance and having an emotion around the circumstances. So restraining would be the wiser and calmer course of action. Then Logic would be needed in order to be in contact with these parts of yourself and be able to say internally “I am feeling reactive right now and I know that if I say or do something there is the possibility that I could be met with someone else’s resistance.”

The two merge for me with the last sentence  “if words control you that means everyone else controls you” which is what the article is saying. Helpless or hopeless leads us to become more shocked, panicked, terrorized and restless.  Breathing and allowing things to pass is a wonderful way to calm ourselves down and become centered and connected to our core. Breathing and being present is the only way we will have full agency of our own emotional intelligence which will birth our voices to speak FOR our needs and desires. Reactivity is speaking FROM our imbalance and will never get out needs fully met. It will only add to the shock and chaos that already exists. 

Being a full human being is difficult, frightening, and problematical. ~Abraham Maslow