What Is Wrong With People?

by Don Shetterly

Lately, it feels like everyone is at odds with one another.  Everyone wants to preach love and acceptance and positivity.  Everyone wants the feel-good stuff, but then they turn around and do just the opposite.

What's wrong with people?

It seems like everywhere I turn, people are angry and frustrated and often downright mean.  The love they say they have for others disappears when you interact with them.  The acceptance is anything but that when you connect with them.

Sure, maybe there is plenty of reason to be angry and frustrated, but we don't have to be hateful to one another.

People just want to spew their hatred all day long.  They don't care how it damages anyone in the wake left behind.  In fact, they don't even realize they are doing it, but they are quick to point out what others do wrong.

Hopefully, I'm not the one that is being blind here, but I do try hard not to propagate frustration and anger or stress on to others.  It serves no one any good if I do that.

I grew up in a home where people took their anger out on others, and it got quite old.  It was often explained to me that we hurt the ones we love the most.  How twisted is that thought?  There's no need to hurt anyone.

We look at others as if they are the problem and until they change, we are going to tell them what they should do, how they should act, and what they should believe.  It is sickening.

The best thing anyone can do is work on how they present themselves to the world.  Don't wait for others to change because you will be waiting a lifetime.  Instead, work on changing yourself.  Spread love to others and do it authentically.

Don't spread the horrible stuff on social media that only incites further hatred towards one another.  Don't jump on the bandwagon screaming with the other people that think adding screaming to an already noisy world is going to help.  Instead, take a hard inventory of what you display and what is in your heart.

If we continue to look at what's wrong with people, we're missing the log in our own eye.  We have not understood our role in this even if we want to puff our chests up and act as if we're perfect.

We are reaching toxic levels of humanity where it will begin eating into the physical health of our world.  We cannot sustain the actions of what we do to one another because it takes us so far away from being human.

Before you spew that hatred and share that social media post lambasting a fellow human - take a deep breath, take a drink of water and then collect your thoughts.  Most likely by the time you go back to it, your rational mind will see things differently.

How Do You See The World

by Don Shetterly

For many, experiences through life color the lenses in which they see everything around them.  No matter what they attempt to lead others to believe, these experiences alter so much of how we view the world.  We may not realize that we do this, but others can often see it in us.

I constantly see how people want things to remain as when they had a "safer" moment in life.  Maybe it was before something happened or while some traumatic and toxic stress moment was taking place.  These things become the norm against how we measure everything in life.

In one recent example, an individual wanted a TV program to come back because it represented a good time in their life.  They saw everything else as dark, gloomy, horrible and in despair.  Instead of them seeing the good in life that occurs each day, all they could focus on is the bad.

No, I'm not trying to convince anyone that all is good and we're living in the greatest times.  Often, the challenges we face in a day are rather difficult and mind-blowing.  We have screaming and gnashing of teeth with people picking a side in how they view things.  No one sees each other as human these days, only adversaries or friends.

Maybe the problem isn't the world and everyone else in it as it is how we view things.  If we see only the bad in those that don't match up to what we believe life should be, how can we see the good?  It might be more in what we do and present to the world than it is what others do.

I personally believe that each one of us has the power to effect great things or bad things in the world.  It is all in how we see the world and the way in which we react.  If we join the chorus of the masses in trying to pick a side, most likely we're going to see nothing good.

Instead, if we focus on how we can love ALL people and be there arm-in-arm with others, there's a good chance that things will get better.  It will improve not only our outlook on life but the world-at-large.

So, how do you see the world?  Do you see good or bad?  Do you see a friend or adversary?  If you do, what can YOU do to change this at the moment right now?  That is the question I will leave for you to ponder.

Pick A Side

By Don Shetterly

These days, it seems that too much social interaction revolves around everyone doing a pick a side.  It really is a sad testament to humanity when we can't even discuss an issue of the day without people becoming opposing forces.  It doesn't matter what the issue is.

I try hard not to pick a side on things.  Yes, I have my beliefs and opinions, but they are mine.  There's no need for me to force them on anyone else.  Far too many do that on all sides these days, and I don't think it is a good thing for our world.

Growing up, I had too many in my family that thought they always knew what was best.  Nothing stopped them from pushing their beliefs and opinions on me even if the facts did not support them.  The church we went to had a very narrow way of interpreting how we view just about everything in life including who would or would not get into heaven.

These experiences I went through left me feeling bewildered because either you saw it their way or you were just flat out wrong.  There was no allowance for differing viewpoint or beliefs.  It was one way and one way only.  You had to pick a side.

I see the same thing in everyday life where if you don't pick a side, you're banished to the side of the road.  Yet, if you point this out to anyone, they act as if "others" have the problem and not them.  They can not see the tree in front of them because of the log in their eye.

Many times I see people writing similar things to what I am saying here.  They are so tired of having to pick a side and would like people to be more respectful.  I'm not sure if the more tolerant voices get drowned out by the screamers or what, but we're hurting humanity.

Too many of the things that we deem as important in life that we will fight everyone for, are not as big as we believe they are.  Yes, there are some important issues, but to degrade others through hateful screaming and name calling does nothing to help.

I see people that bash others for behavior they do, and yet they do the same to others.  It makes me wonder if any conscious people are remaining these days.  Surely, as humans, we are more than screaming, name calling and hatemongers.  Surely, there's more to our existence.

When you pick a side, and it doesn't matter which side, you're hurting others and you are degrading yourself.  You have dehumanized the world through the lack of listening, care, and compassion.

When you pick a side, you show to the world that it is "us" against "them" and nothing good comes out of that.  No, it isn't everyone else that does this.  We point the fingers as if it is, but we could not be more wrong.

Much of this happens because we are not connected to the mind and the body.  We have our opinions and beliefs, but we are so disconnected that we have become less than human.  Change needs to start within each one of us.  We need to be the change we wish to see.

Stop playing into the game where you pick a side because you're only adding to the screaming in the world.  It is devoid of love and compassion.  We need love and compassion are so badly in the world.  You do not have to follow the crowd even though our society attempts to force that upon each of us.

Stand tall in love and compassion.  Learn how to be consciously connected to your mind and body.  By doing this, together we will help the world evolve to a better place.

Try to be more mindful of life.  Stop and evaluate how you spend your day and be aware of your actions.  One of the things that most miss in their day is truly being aware and conscious of how they present themselves to the world.  We are so unconscious in our activities which elevates these problems to epic proportions.

Seeing The Good In Mental Health Issues

By Don Shetterly

One of the things that I think depression and trauma do is alter the reality of how we perceive life.  Seeing the bad and the horror becomes commonplace.  Only seeing the struggle is what many do every day.

There are many that will sing the praises of happy thoughts or religious beliefs hoping to delay the what their mind tries to shove in front of them.  It is almost as if they have become so numb and disconnected, but have done so without authenticity.

No, I'm not saying that happy thoughts or religious beliefs don't have their place.  They are one thing that we turn to because the going has gotten so rough.  Sometimes they are the lifeline from one moment to the next.

However, if we're not careful, these thoughts and beliefs will do as much damage as the horror negative attacks we place on our lives.  They don't bring us into the body or the mind.  Instead, they keep us as far away as they can.

When the good stuff actually happens, we're so accustomed to feeling the negative and the horror, that we barely see the positive.  Sometimes we've got our mind set on happy thoughts and religious beliefs, that we still miss the positive impacting us.

It is too easy to slip right by the good happening in our life, and that's sad because after a life of depression, anxiety, horror and trauma, we need to see some silver linings.  If our mind and the body is stuck in neutral or in reverse, how will we ever travel the miles through the good that lies before us?

I believe from my own experiences and what I have seen in others, that we need to learn how to experience the full breadth of our emotional existence.  Whether it is negative thoughts, criticism, anger or happiness, love, and peace, we need the full range.

Without the full range, we're not fully human.  We are disconnecting and numbing parts of our life.  Without sadness, can you understand happy?  If you aren't in touch with anger, can you truly experience peace?  If you don't know what criticism is, does love fully make sense?

I'm not saying we stay in any one of these emotions, but we recognize them for what they are.  We look at them as having a place to help bring us further into awareness and consciousness, not remain disconnected and numb.

Finding our way through depression and mental health issues is challenging at best.  However, let us make sure we don't keep ourselves from seeing the good, not just the bad.  It is there if we allow ourselves to see it.  Closing our eyes will not make it appear.

Try to not forget the good with the bad.  You may need to consciously remind yourself to look for the good, but it is there.  Sometimes, it does take some effort to not let the negative completely take over our lives.