I had written an article about my Manifesto for Social Media near the beginning of this year and I wanted to revisit it for a moment. What prompted me to revisit it was reading comment after comment on posts, both political and social that were meant to be divisive. Comments that are name calling and attacking of not only of someone else’s opinion but attacking the person themselves just seems so wrong to me! Actually it becomes offensive to read, and makes me want to jump right in and put my own “2 Cents” in, but that would be just setting myself up for attack as well – why? I’ll tell you why if you read on.
When we attack someone, not just the person, but the opinion, it is something that came from them, their motion, their energy was taken to write it down. This is a motion in a direction. When the attack comes, it is in direct opposition of that motion. It applies force meant to stop the original energy. This energy must be applied with enough force to stop something that is already moving, so it has to be greater. This is why the attack becomes sharper and more critical and in many instances goes to a personal level. What happens next is more applied force from the originator – and thus gets repuked with more energy from the attacker. This has both parties being in defensive positions applying force against each other and guess what happens to motion? It dies, it becomes still, even with so much energy pushed at it from both parties, NOTHING happens.
We can spend the rest of our days debating a point, even getting more and more people on our side, but the other side will do the same. This is what is happening in the world today. In politics and on the elementary school yard, it becomes a pushing contest where nothing is accomplished. The hopes are from each side that they can PUSH their way over the other, and achieve some sort of victory, maybe even push the other into understanding, but that is not likely to happen, and even if it does, it will be so slow to happen because all motion was stopped and must gain momentum again.
As I read post after post in the comment section, I see this over and over again. I think to myself, what can I do? Because anything I would try to write would put them on the defensive also, and it doesn’t create any positivity. This has been the problem that has been haunting me lately, is how to deal with this, and why I went back to my original post about Social Media to see if my words then could give me any help for NOW. This is when I came to the graphic I had made before about the emotional spiral, and I had an idea about how this fits in this discussion as well.
I started with trying to gauge where they person that was posting was on the emotional spiral and it dawned on me that in every case that had to do with attacking or negativity that it came from a place of “Boredom” or below. (Impatience, doubt, irritable, overwhelmed, worried, pessimistic, hatred, anger, ect.)
In starting from their post, it was in the bottom part of the spiral already and then the rebuttal would only add energy to that dimension. Was there a way to confront with “Contentment” or above? (Hopefulness, optimism, patience, etc.) The answer is YES, but you have to be VERY careful. Sometimes leaving it alone altogether, not adding to the energy that is already there is good, (because if someone else is taking the rebuttal already, that energy though STRONG, will stagnate and stop – (all that energy going nowhere is sad.) Make a new post with OPTIMISM, with HOPEFULNESS – start some NEW energy that others can add to THAT is how we can shift things!!!
Why is it that the cute kitties get as much play time in the social media feed as political memes? It is because kitties are cute and joyful! That is positive energy and we can use our words, our opinions, our pictures, and thoughts to PUSH energy towards all those energies that are in the upward emotional spiral. Guess what happens when you add energy in that direction? GOOD THINGS! Absolutely!
In knowing how things work, comes answers to how things can become better. This is why I have spent so much time thinking about this, is because I wanted to know the mechanics behind this. So that I could explain how this all really relates to physics. Math is a universal language that is pretty straight forward, but emotions are rather slippery. But the applications of motion and energy is already explained in so many other energies around us, we just need to apply the math to make things. It takes effort to PUSH in any direction, might as well apply the PUSH toward virtuous energies that create positive emotions. Imagine if we could all learn this lesson; not only learn it, but apply it continuously and remind each other of the energies we are each putting out there. Would this planet be a better place? Absolutely! – and that is me spreading a little Optimism and Hope!
John “Z” Zeydel 502-777-7892 feel free to text or message me here – I work as a business coach – all my one on one meetings are gratitude base, I have no fees. (see? I am practicing what I preach as well – doing my best to PUSH not only myself but those that wish to be influenced in a positive way)