Becoming a Spiritual Warrior

I started writing again on this blog in the beginning of November as my way or participating in National Novel Writers Month (NaNoWriMo).  I had every intention of a new start of creating new blog posts as part of my refound need to be creative and let some of the juices flow.

Then, the 2016 Presidential Election hit.

Like so many others, I went into a stage of trauma and shock.  To know that, through an electoral system that gives too much weight to rural states, a completely unqualified, mental deranged and dangerous individual was now going to be in charge of running the country.  It went deeper than my candidate losing (I was actually more excited about Bernie Sanders, but I could definitely live with a Hilary Clinton administration).  This was more like the adults were being cleared out and the 4th grade bullies were now going to be able to exact their immature revenge on everyone, and they were going to completely trash the place and everyone be damned. Also, the fact that there are so many people in this country who could look past volumes of inappropriate actions (the man has succeeded by cheating and violating his employees and business partners, to say nothing of the US government by cheating on his taxes), and still they voted for him.  It was as if we discovered that people who we thought we could count on as friends and colleagues had sold us up the river without a second thought.  If you aren’t a male, heterosexual, “Christian” (quote intentional) European-American, you are on the outside and are available to be beat up, have your rights taken away, and to be treated like a second-class citizen.  I won’t go on, as many more people have spoken more eloquently on this than I have.

So, for the past few months since then, I, like so many others, have been trying to figure out what to do, and how to manage my own self.  My insides were all a mess for the weeks before the election, as I think that somewhere inside me I knew that this was going to happen. I’ve been for the most part doing what I understand is recommended for anyone who’s undergone a traumatic experience, and that is to take care of myself.  I’ve cut way down on how much of social media I’ve ingested, worked on getting more sleep, and meditated more and done my journaling. That and working at cleaning out my apartment and clearing out stuff that is just getting in the way. I got another hit of the anxiety this past week when the Bully-In-Chief was inaugurated and started dismantling the countries infrastructure and putting more incompetents into positions of power.

I realized that we are in this for the long haul, and instead of working for the betterment of all, our energy is now going to be taken up by the fight for justice.  Instead of our being able to be reasonable, we have to work against the tyrants who have taken over the reigns of power.  It will take energy that would be better used to work for good, but now we have to battle evil in our midst.  That being said, I, as well as the rest of us, really need to get into warrior training.  If I’m to be of use to the world, I need to be in shape to take part in the battles ahead.  Therefore, I have to be in shape (get enough sleep, eat right, exercise), build up my skills (meditate for mental sharpness, practice my words, etc.), learn as much about the enemy as possible (keep up to date with the ways I can make a difference, and what are the battles where I can be the most effective), and be agile and ready to act when needed.

I’ll be looking to see what I can do for positive action in this world, while also focusing on taking care of myself.  As they say in the flight announcements, “put on your own emergency mask before helping others.”  It’s the only way that we can keep moving forward.