Send Love to Japan – But Do This First

This weekend I wanted to write a post to help Japan’s crisis. It would have been a post you might expect from Metaphysical Mom, focusing on promoting volunteer opportunities, sending financial help, and sending healing thoughts to the people and communities of Japan.

I stumbled because I didn’t want to write about the fear of devastation, the overwhelm of cleanup, the worry of radiation, the heartbreak of lives lost. This event is overwhelmingly catastrophic, I can’t imagine how someone still alive in Japan can begin to deal with the events and move forward. I wanted to focus on helping them think positive, but I didn’t know where to start.

Then a wise friend reminded me of something important. Rahi, a member of our Think Simple Now team, told me this: “For any healing to happen, one very important thing is acceptance of the fear. The minute you acknowledge fear, you bring it to your conscious mind. The terror associated with fear at the subconscious level, constricts your energy. When you bring it to the open, the grip starts loosening…when that happens you have a foothold to work with.”

She speaks a profound truth, one we often forget to acknowledge.
When we face our fears, when we acknowledge our feelings, we can bring them into the open, which gives us an opportunity to let them go. The moment we try to tamp them down, to make them go away, to ignore them, or to cover them with positive thoughts, the fear buries itself. If we allow it to surface and deal with the feeling, it will dissipate.

One fearful (or sad, upsetting, or anxiety-producing) event brings back related memories and creates further fear, but if we can just sit with the physical feeling of fear (or related feeling), we no longer resist. The moment may be frightening, but without resistance, the future can be brighter.

So, while I no longer watch the news on Japan more than a few minutes at a time (too much news will create fear again, and again, and again), I will allow myself to feel sad. I will allow the overwhelm to surface.

And in accepting this sadness, I (and you) can move on. Then, when you think of the struggle of the Japanese people, you can move forward and feel love and hope for them. I will continue to donate, and to share others’ efforts where I can. There is strength in action. There is more strength in facing a fear, then moving forward with loving action.

What fear does the Japan crisis trigger for you? How will you process it? Then, how can you help the people of Japan?

I’d love to hear from you!

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