Reassurance and Recourse After the U.S. Election
Usually I limit what I put out through my newsletter and
blog to those things related to the concepts and practice of finding inner
peace through an awareness of Truth. But in my work one-on-one with clients I
often find myself reassuring and giving practical advice about very worldly
things. Lately I have had to reassure and suggest courses of action to help my
U.S. clients deal with their anxiety after our recent national elections. I
find I’m repeating myself several times a day so I decided I would just put
these ideas out there in one fell swoop.
(If you voted for Donald Trump or are not a U.S. citizen you can
disregard this email or just read the spiritual practice advice in the last two paragraphs).
The reassurances:
If you voted for Hillary Clinton remember you are not alone.
In fact, you are with the majority of voters. She won the popular vote by what
may turn out to be a significant number of votes. (More on recourse for this
below). On the surface this may not seem comforting because it does not change
the outcome. But it may help for you to realize that there has not been a
sea-change in American values. She won the voters; Trump won the game called
the Electoral College.
Much of what the President-elect has suggested is
impractical and unrealistic and is opposed by his own party. Moreover, the U.S.
Senate requires a super-majority of 60 votes to get many things done. The
President-elect’s party holds only 51 seats in the Senate.
Every two years in the U.S. one-third of the U.S. Senate and
all of the U.S. House of Representatives is up for re-election. (More on this
below).
The paradigm shift that threatens here is the normalizing of
the President-elects attitudes and behavior. However, you can choose to not
adapt to or to accept these. If enough people refuse to find these acceptable
the paradigm shift will not occur. If you are concerned about your children you can use the next
four years to teach them your values when issues come up.
The recourse:
The world may be a pseudo-reality rather than Reality but it
is what you are experiencing. As A Course
in Miracles points out, if you deny this you depreciate the power of your
own mind. Until you reach a point where Reality is more real to you than the
world you can take action to empower yourself and mitigate your anxiety. Here
are some ideas:
The election outcome is not certified until the Electoral
College meets on December 19. You can add your name to the petition at www.change.org that asks the Electors to abide
by the popular vote. (Scroll down on the home page to find the petition).
If you live in a state that voted for Donald Trump you can
find out who your Electors are so you can put pressure on them to abide by the
popular vote. It is not likely that the Electors will change their vote since
they are chosen by the winning party and are very partisan. But at least you
will feel that you tried.
You can get involved to change the Senate and House in 2018
to make the President a lame duck. And after that you can get involved to elect
a new president.
You can go to www.nationalpopularvote.com
to write to your state legislatures to change the Electoral College so that in
the future it validates the popular vote rather than chooses the President
itself.
You can forward this email or the links mentioned in it to
others who feel as you do.
As I reminded you in last Friday’s article, use the world to
grow your awareness of Truth. What is loving reminds you of Truth. What upsets
you, no matter the source, by contrast reminds you to turn to Truth. Only the Truth
is true. When you touch that awareness you can detach from the world and just
watch it unfold without judgment. If you find that you have a hard time
connecting to Truth then you have an opportunity to take your blocks to the
Teacher of Truth (Holy Spirit) in your mind so you can undo them. If you need
help with this then call (702-878-3274) or email me (Liz@acimmentor.com) for an
appointment.
You will for a long time vacillate between detachment and
attachment. But this is a cumulative process and the more that you invite Truth
into your awareness the more you will detach. Look at it this way: You’ve got
four years of intense practice ahead of you!
Comments
From my perspective, Wikileaks flushed up a gigantic amount of corruption in the DNC similar to the way the Holy Spirit will flush up one's private thoughts to be healed. The entire Hillary campaign was an example of "ends justifies the means", and hence, she lost, in a sort of dramatic irony. Not everyone that voted Trump is some bigoted asswipe, and until people understand this, they will always demonize the "other side" and we are back right where we started. Divided and afraid.
So now we have Trump as president. That is reality. It's a perfect opportunity to practice forgiveness and stay in the moment. People are expecting their loved ones to be driven away in cattle cars and their rights to be trampled on--that is nothing but ego messing with people's minds. It's important to stay present and open to guidance, and if the spirit requires us to be active, to move with it. If things didn't go your way, allow those feelings of pain to come up and practice forgiving them with the holy spirit. Don't attack others or act on it, or you will be reinforcing those painful feelings and you won't get the miracle.
The good news is now that the corruption has been rooted out, actual progressives can take control of the DNC like Sanders and Warren. They are merely symbols of people's desire for real justice and equality. If Hillary would've won, this opportunity would never have presented itself, and we would've been stuck in the same little bubble of comfort that the ego knows so well, and never have questioned ourselves or how we view "those evil Republicans".
I hope i don't come off as condescending. I am trying to offer how this election plays out for me, and what i am learning from it with the Holy Spirit. Never in my life, have i ever thought I could sympathize or understand republicans, but the holy spirit has taught me to offer non judgement to them too. They're "the bad guys",not me, after all, which turned out to be a clear case of my own projections.
Again, of those 60 million people that voted for Trump, not all of them are evil bigots coming to kill your loved ones and send you back to whatever country you came from (trump's wife is an immigrant, come on, now).
It's not all death and gloom for everyone, and if everything works for the purpose of shared interests (with no exceptions, as the course says), then there's a miracle waiting for us here, whatever that may be.
No matter what you try to do help ease our anxiety with your last 2 articles, I see anger and more anger stirred up in your readership. First you gave the ultimate advice to use the 4 Habits. Dozens of comments later including one that implied that Trump won because Clinton's supporters were too wimpy (!) and still no peace. Then you offer practical ways to look at the situation and things to do about it (which for me reinforces the lesson that trying to act more enlightened than we are only reinforces guilt and so you met us where we actually are) and we get an angry rant from Bat (which is not to say there weren't any valid points made, but I'll take Democratic "corruption" anytime over the Republicans). I can only imagine the contentious comments that will follow.
You did your best. Keep up the good work.
There is not more peace in one political party versus the other, judgment definitely doesn't lead to peace. When we're judging we are headed down the wrong road.
Let's all take a deep breath and open our copy of 4 Habits for Inner Peace and get back to what our practice is, cultivating inner peace. What a great opportunity for practice!
This blog has been a great help over the years. But the last two weeks have been a disappointment IMHO. For eleven years I have heard about the dream, have seen others and myself taken to task for not seeing the higher, holier goal that we live in an illusion. Now we see that it was all a bill of goods. This blog in particular with its intensely ego ideas of how to get what you want when you want it is pretty intense. Our Mentor has lost her way. She doesn’t know it yet. Caught up in the world of politics talking about ways to subvert the system. It’s all just liberal ideology. I have been very open with my praise for this blog and its Mentor but now like today’s liberals with thoughts of racial equality for those crossing the border illegally, know I have been sold a bill of goods.
The Holy Spirit meets one where one is. It's what I find myself saying to clients all the time. "Here's another way to look at it; here are some suggestions of actions you can take to relieve your anxiety." It would be no different if Trump won and I was hearing from upset Trump supporters.
PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN GLASS HOUSES SHOULDN'T THROW STONES. Any progress getting that therapy dog for yourself?