Daily Inspiration: “Be bigger than small minds”

“Be bigger than small minds” – Futurist Jim Carroll

Here in Canada, we have our Thanksgiving holiday a good month before our southern American friends. We also tend to have less stress about the occasion.

In the last several years, the holiday has become a minefield of stress, accelerated worry, extreme concern, and many arguments among the close and extended families that get together for the occasion. You might notice that the news today is full of articles about how to navigate the discussions at the dinner table and avoid the heated rhetoric. It seems that the singular ‘crazy uncle‘ has become rather ubiquitous as conspiracy theories, angry politics, and irrational thoughts become the louder voices in the room.

The situation mirrors the complexities of our world today. At times, it just seems that otherwise nice people have inhabited the land of the angry, bearing the rage of hateful emotions at the same time that they enjoy the highest standard of living known to mankind, the fruits of healthy longevity (if they choose to participate in rational living) and perhaps the last vestiges of democratic freedom as fascist politics rises to the forefront.

Often, this odd situation bubbles to the forefront when you find yourself suddenly verbally attacked at random moments, your social media posts become fodder for extreme rhetoric, or a simple comment at the dinner table leads to a spiral of venomous rage. Yikes!

What do you do about it?

As Taylor Swift says, ‘haters gonna hate.‘ There’s not a lot you can do at any given moment, in your own small way, to fix the situation, but shake it off. We are in the midst of a massive historical challenge – we don’t yet know how it will play out. That said, sometimes it becomes best to simply not participate in the irrationality, to swim in the diseased minds of those around you, to walk the voyage with the craziness.

You can best do this by opting out. Simply don’t take part – don’t tune in, but turn on to your own thoughts and drop out.

Be bigger than the small minds around you. 

You’ll thank your stress levels and your sanity for it!