What can we do? How can we help?
As I write this month’s Breath and Breathing Report my mind turns to the wave of natural disasters—floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and shootings that have occurred recently. Human suffering makes my heart ache. It also wakes up the natural compassion that lives in my heart. And I am willing to bet that it does the same for you.
So many people have lost their homes, their jobs, their precious possessions, and their loved ones: not only in Houston, Florida, Puerto Rico and Las Vegas but in so many other places around the world.
Countless people are suffering the ravages of fire, floods, earthquakes, war, terrorism, disease, divorce, bankruptcy, accidents and injuries. The sheer number of people who are desperately trying to stave off what seems like endless sadness and despair is mind numbing. In times like these when so many hopes and dreams and lives are lost or destroyed, we can use a few angels.
We are all angels when we look for ways to turn our natural compassion into action. We are all angels when we ask: “What can I do? How can I help?” How can I make a real difference right now?
Keeping those suffering people in our thoughts and prayers is a good and noble thing. Being grateful for our own blessings and good fortune is also important. But massive collective action is what is needed most.
What can you do to provide or support emergency services? What can you do to help with the basics of survival—food, water, shelter? Can you contribute your time, your expertise, your money, your personal energy?
I recently read a blog by resilience expert Ken Druck, and I came away with some very important reminders. I ask you to consider the following if you truly want to help someone who is caught up in a tragedy.
Practice empathy and patience.
People in the midst of suffering can be very difficult to be around. Nothing we say or do seems to help them, and sometimes it seems they don’t even want our help. They just want their lives back, their homes back. They want their loved ones back. Sometimes all we can do is simply listen and offer encouragement.
Keep your judgments to yourself.
Feelings of fear, helplessness, anger, grief, confusion, humiliation, despair, and guilt can hijack us or overwhelm us in times of great peril or suffering. Leave your opinions, criticisms and politics out of it. Open your heart and show
kindness. Pretty simple basic stuff when you get right down to it, but not always easy to remember or practice.
Practice compassion and understanding.
When someone’s life or the lives of their families and friends have been turned upside down, we need to do our best to understand what they are going through—physically, emotionally, and psychologically. And it is especially important that we not try to put a positive religious or psychological spin on what has happened or is happening.
Mobilize support services.
Inspire and enlist others in your community to help victims deal with their loss and trauma. Tap into the collective compassion of your community, your company, your church, or professional association. Do what you can to bring together those in need with experts at developing effective strategies and delivering vital resources.
Roll up your sleeves and pitch in.
Do whatever is within your power and ability to do. Volunteer your time, donate money, or motivate others to participate in local or national efforts to help those affected by tragedy.
“Rising up from the ashes, coming back from a disaster, fighting our way back to life,” as Ken Druck writes, “is perhaps the greatest triumph of the human spirit.” And so is turning our natural compassion into positive action. Both of these things happen one breath at a time, one step at a time, and one loving word, touch, or deed at a time.
When I took Breathwork to the Soviet Union in 1990, I learned about a very powerful movement inspired (and required) by Lenin (not John the Beatle, but Vladimir the communist). It was called “Soubotnick,” which is a play on the word “Saturday.”
Several times a year, on a Saturday, everyone from coast to coast, from north to south, went out onto the street and cleaned up their little part of the world. Soldiers, school children, hospital and factory workers, police, scientists, athletes, academics, farmers, housewives—everyone in the country focused on cleaning up the streets and sidewalks and parks in their neighborhood. In that way, in one day, the whole country got cleaned up!
What if we could motivate—not mandate—communal action like that? What if we could unleash and organize the natural collective compassion we all feel? What if we could bring the “think globally, act locally” idea to life in a real and practical way? What a difference we could make!
We are not separate. We are one.
This is not just a pretty spiritual idea or a noble philosophy. It is a fact in reality. We are all connected. Whether you feel it or not, realize it or not, believe it or not, whatever happens to any of us
happens to all of us.
Take in a long inhale as you focus on what is happening around you in the world. And take in a long inhale as you focus on the feelings that come up in you as look around at the suffering. Then ask yourself: “What can I do to help? How can I make a difference?
Then take another deep breath, let it out, and do something damn it! Get creative and find a way to turn your natural compassion into positive action!
Good luck in your practice and many blessings on your path.
