Emotionalism in America.

Emotionalism is destroying America. It feels harsh but, it’s true... and this is coming from a recovering emotionalist. I say recovering, because getting to a level of maturity that enables one to lead with logic rather than emotion is a long, tedious journey of unlearning that I’m sure is going to take years, perhaps even a life time to reach. However, I am committed to living a life of radical truth and clarity. That means, living according to facts, not feelings.

Allow me to start by saying what this blog post is NOT.

It is NOT a statement that supports rigid thinking and/or emotional bypassing. As a woman, mom, friend, spiritual life coach and reiki healer, I love and truly believe that experiencing our emotions and being honest about how they impact our reality is one of the most beautiful, courageous and freeing things that we can do.

This also is NOT an attack against anyone. It’s an honest placement of accountability. Which, we need more of, personally and collectively.

With that being said, let’s get to the truth. We’ll start with the media.

Various news outlets consistently posts stories with headlines that target the emotions of people. I suppose it’s good marketing. We are attracted to things that can make us FEEL something. It’s not that it’s inherently wrong to post articles with catchy and intriguing titles. It’s that the mass media is meant to be more responsible than the average person. They have an incredible ability to sway the masses from one direction to the next and instead of using that power to spread factual truths, they make the conscious decisions to appeal to emotions, and they’re often appealing to the emotionally immature. The media has been allowed to post half truths or sometimes just straight up non-truths and it is largely accepted because the narrative feeds into an emotional reality that instead of analyzing, researching and seeking clarity on in order to get to the truth, many just react, normally with fear and/or rage and then these people are not only expecting, but demanding the entire world to back them up, no matter what... and we do. The issue with this is that emotional baiting (manipulation) + emotional immaturity = a fucking mess, and that’s exactly what we’re seeing here in America. We are living in a social climate that insists we live and respond based on how things appear, feel, seem, etc. everything but the actual facts. I’m all for recognizing the unseen realities, but we’re humans. We live in the physical realm, the realm where time, logic and distinction do exist.

However, those controlling the media are not to blame for this reality, although, they are the perpetrators and abusers. I believe, that the responsibility of this belongs to us, the people. The family, friends, community leaders, etc. who not only feed into, but engage in these very same acts. This may be central to me, but I believe that your integrity should increase as your influence increases. Too often we see leaders either get lazy and wildly emotional and/or dismissive of the emotional journey or process when they establish a platform. That leaves the majority of their followers misguided. Either caught up in their emotions or completely disconnected from the emotional realities that do exist and are sometimes, justified.

We have to be more responsible with our influence and the truths we tell. Not just with our followers on social media, but with our followers in real life. The one’s who are looking and listening to us, whether we know it or not. We have to be especially mindful of this at home, within our personal relationships.

Integrity starts at home. We have all been taught one way of living, therefore, we are all modeling a way of living. No matter what your background may be, whether you come from an overly emotional or an emotionally stagnant environment, we all hold the responsibility of changing and creating our reality into one that is inclusive, tolerant, productive and worthy of being passed down from one generation to the next. We are not there yet, but I believe we can get there by holding ourselves and allowing others to hold us accountable to the emotional AND factual truths. We can hold ourselves to a standard of not only sharing truth, but embodying it. We can present ourselves authentically, while allowing others to do the same, without harshly criticizing them because their reality is different from our own. We can be more honest with ourselves, about ourselves, and do the work of becoming better people and creating a better society. Not just for us, but for our children who will inherit what is currently a mess. Let’s make sure we are giving them something to be proud of.