How does one make sense of a senseless act of violence? Try as we might to understand these (fill in the blanks here __________) acts, ones that clearly promote stress, most likely, we never will. Like many of you, I woke up this morning to hear of the tragedy at the midnight showing of the new Batman movie. Unlike most of you, this act of senseless violence took place within an hour of where I live, making it all the more palpable. Grieving experts remind us that our first reaction to something like this is shock, followed by disbelief, for some anger, then resignation. Even if we can never make sense of such a stupid, egotistical, senseless act, once we are done mourning, we must move on with our lives. For failing to move, we become one more casualty in this senseless assault. If there is one thing this day teaches us, it reminds us all that life is precious, and we must never take anything for granted, including those whom we love and those who love us.
Stress Tip for the Day:
Days like today remind us to stop and offer prayers and healing energy to those who must literally pick up the pieces of a senseless tragedy. Days like today remind us to help those less fortunate than ourselves, for we are all connected together as one human family. Days like today remind us to take time to grieve (through the entire spectrum of emotions) and then release, detach, forgive (if necessary) and move on. We many never fully understand such a tragedy, but we can prevent ourselves from giving our power away to those who commit such acts of anger and violence.
Links, Books and Movies Worth Noting:
Years ago in graduate school I came across a great book about grieving called Necessary Losses by Judith Viorst. If you can ever get your hands on this book, I highly recommend it.
Quote for the Day:
“When your fear touches someone’s pain, it becomes pity. When your love touches someone’s pain, it becomes compassion.” — Steven Levine.
Photo for the Day:
Many photos have appeared on Facebook today in memory of those who died last night in Colorado. A days like this leaves me in a quandary as to what to post for a photo. At the time of writing this, this one seemed to catch my eye despite the fact that I am not really a Batman fan. I may change it, but for now here goes…..
Brian Luke Seaward, Ph.D. is an internationally renowned expert in the fields of stress management, mind-body-spirit healing and stress and human spirituality. He is the author of over 12 books including the bestsellers, Stand Like Mountain, Flow Like Water, Stressed Is Desserts Spelled Backward, The Art of Calm, Quiet Mind, Fearless Heart and Managing Stress (7e) and the newly released, A Beautiful World: The Earth Song Journals. He can be reached through his website: www.brianlukeseaward.net
© Brian Luke Seaward, Ph.D.
