LINKING TO THE LIGHT OF HOPE ‘YET’ TO BE FOUND AMID HUMAN BURNOUT
By Stacey Kumagai
It’s the last month of the year. This means a lot of different things to everyone.
Some look at it as a wrap-up of what has been and examining what IS.
While others may assess and reflect, others are rushing through a holiday season as if some finish line awaits with a prize – some as an obligatory consumer; others as a business looking for extensions of what didn’t work in promotion during Black Friday to Cyber Monday.
Non-profit organizations are assessing why “Giving Tuesday” wasn’t as generous due to inflation and humanity dealing with being overstretched.
TV is sending a barrage of commercial ads now where people are SHOUTING at us - and if you are noticing the volume is about 2-3 notches louder than it ever has been – you are NOT imagining this – it IS real. This is called ‘desperation is showing.’
As many businesses and organizations look at ‘how they did in their bottom line’ for the year to have insight to their New Year to move ahead into new territory, doing every darn last ditch effort, the rest of humanity asks the question….
Where is the hope? Are we merely sent a barrage of messages as if we are numbers and not people?
That’s right, I am again bringing the elephant in the blog room everyone is muttering under their breath, but few dared to address or say.
As I observe, listen, pay attention --- I am gathering real data in real time every single day on this matter FOR YOU.
Let me share with you as a higher conscious communications coach what that means:
· People are examining ‘what they are doing” and now asking WHY.
Why am I ___________ supporting/spending/choosing/only-addressed –to-be-consuming/doing/performing/reacting?
· People are so bombarded with addressing WHY they are wondering more about HOW.
How do I _____________problem-solve/figure-out/change/deal with change/learn/grow/get past the perceived purpose instead of the real one?
· People are taking stock of WHERE they are.
Does living here suit me? Where do I go next? Where will climate change not affect me? Where do I apply for my next job that won’t leave me left with unanswered questions where I can work in a balanced supportive environment?
· People are secretly (yes, I am talking to YOU) – obsessing/worried/concerned about WHEN.
From “When will the pandemic end?” to “When can we live like we used to?” to “When will there be a cure?” to “When will I be able to thrive instead of just barely survive?” to ‘When will XYZ ______ (fill in the blank) stop?” to “When will the world end or when is my time up?” “When will I see the change I am actively trying to create each day?”
THIS IS the psyche of humanity at the moment.
Most of this is unspoken and therefore the reality of today’s everyday actions is trying to put square pegs in round holes – this applies to business as much as it does to your personal relationships.
Many people are keeping a low profile underneath the radar with all of the thoughts swirling about in their brains at night which keep them up unless they are actually living their best life and/or they have actually turned off the news.
More than half of the world is no longer ‘glued’ to daily news consuming it the way they used to (pre-pandemic) and most don’t want to know what is coming next because it is too much to bear with what already is on the existing plate and shoulders of all humanity.
This is the #Truth that no one is actively admitting or discussing until the volcano erupts (literally – notice world events right now – and if you’ve stopped paying attention to news, FYI Mauna Loa erupted)…. And then we have to deal with the lava that flows and spews from it, the toxic gasses emitted and the reality of historic things in a history book cycle of chapters that no one wants to revisit. There is an underlying energy as the constant change comes in a barrage of difficult and challenging news, and it is why cocktail party chatter is leaving people with frustration with the ‘shallowness’ of conversation avoiding said elephants in the room
YET, everyone needs a break, and remember (do you remember?) FUN? What is that?
When was the last time you fully engulfed yourself in this with the carefree feeling you had once before without being paranoid of getting sick, getting hurt or killed?
I ask this question, because as a reporter, this is the question I asked many of the people I surveyed. Most professionals have been in "survival mode' trying to keep their job, stay at their job, look for another job, and try to make ends meet amid inflation or dealing with ill long-Covid loved ones.
Front line workers, educators, non-profit organizations, delivery, retail and hospitality people, and self-employed entrepreneurs are burned out. Large matrix corporations are scrambling to keep their people; fighting with the hybrid configuration and also missing their old dynamics trying to pivot. Small business brick and mortars are hanging it up for inability to compete with big box or digital retailers.
FUN is now subjective, possibly reduced to reading a book, watching a movie or having one's favorite meal delivered in a way that was a simple pleasure not previously celebrated 'as something' to the degree it is now.
Therefore, a conflicting situation arises almost to the extreme – people either really want to talk or go through the motions of talking (not really talking) – depending on their current state of where they are with what they have dealt with.
THIS is the reality in our world.
So if you are struggling in your business – you are not a stranger to this narrative, but you may be in your own struggle bubble to see you are not alone.
If you are
struggling personally – no, it’s not just you, this is what is going on - but you may not have people who relate to your own personal struggle, as everyone is in survival mode not invested in your personal struggle as they can barely keep up with their own issues and way out of their own paper bag.
The collective consciousness right now IS TRANSITIONING - attempting to do so quietly, but not everyone is able to do it gracefully with humility.
That is the reality of what is going on as the global acceptance of the aftermath of reality sits and waits to be discovered, as we shifted alternate timelines during the pandemic.
I spoke with a medical professional who stated “There are so many things for which there are no cure and no answers, so you just have to live your life, the best as you can anyway with what you can do.”
That was a powerful statement to make. While some may see that as a ‘gloom and doom inevitable’ – it is truthful and if you look deeply enough, there is a glimmer of hope in that somewhere. But if you look even more deeply, you will notice WHAT IS NOT BEING SAID……
“We don’t have the answers to that (yet).”
I spoke with a business executive who actually stated “The world is ending, don’t you see it is like in our history books repeating itself? It is the end and it is near…I have no answers anymore but I can listen. If listening helps anyone get it out of your head so they don’t have to carry it around, I can do that.”
Wow. Powerful words. “I can listen.” While some may see that as a ‘gloom and doom inevitable’ of being all there is because there are no answers, even as an analyst admits – it is truthful and if you look deeply enough, there is a glimmer of hope in that somewhere. But if you look even more deeply, you will notice WHAT IS NOT BEING SAID……
“We don’t have the answers to that (yet).”
I spoke with a professor at a local university who stated “We learn what we learn. Others don’t want to learn, and there is a group who want to learn but the reality is they cannot even afford to learn. But learning is still important - it’s just that some people don’t want to do anything with it or are too tired or have given up to do so.”
While some may see that as a ‘gloom and doom inevitable’ – it is truthful and if you look deeply enough, there is a glimmer of hope in that somewhere. But if you look even more deeply, you will notice WHAT IS NOT BEING SAID……
“We don’t have the answer to that (yet).” We know that human ‘burnout’ is here now, but will it stay that way?
I share the above examples as a qualitative sampling of information. There are more ‘in real life, in real time’ examples I can share – but they all boil down to the same redundant message.
“We don’t have the answer to that (yet).”
AND YET ---- each of these people actually had a thread of hope in there. It may appear to some eyes even if you squint, that it is barely there. But the reality is this is the very thread that everyone is hanging onto.
Humanity is exhausted, spent, limp, crawling, depleted and fragile…..
However, we are STILL HERE.
The elephant in the room is the REALITY CHECK full-blown admission no one wants to say out loud for fear of judgment that they’ve given up and are running on fumes.
Mental and emotional health is at an all-time maximum pressure-cooker high right now due to these last few years we’ve undertaken.
#Truth
How do I know this? I have done the research. While what I have shared in my blog is a mere small snippet of my qualitative research, I have made phone calls to various organizations, institutions, medical professionals, high profile business executives and educators and the facts are what they are even beyond what my fingers are typing right now.
While we are as a collective consciousness admitting we don’t know what we don’t know on a 5D, stuck in the 4D, somehow lava leakage spewing into the 3D a little bit at a time, whether most of human consciousness is aware of this or ‘woke enough’ to admit.
How we choose to LINK to this alternate timeline isn’t even a choice anymore regardless of what your human is doing (not watching news, not actively listening, praying things change or for it all just to ultimately go away, binge-watching junk food TV for the brain to numb yourself or gravitating to your guilty pleasures or digital devices as a crutch to ignore the reality of life).
Like status quo hamsters on the wheel most of humanity loathed like the plague and tried to break away from – somehow this one daily grind familiarity provides comfort even if its stability is shaky based on the current climate of the world (literally and figuratively), the economy, and in war-zone on the battlefields.
One of my neighbors will tell you that she likes the idea of routine, as I catch her sweeping her front porch “as the one thing she can control with her own hands” from changing.
As we take a look (for real) LINKING to the one word “YET” is “HOPE” no matter how quietly it may be subliminal in our own back pocket arsenal, mind or heart space.
You may be exhausted but the fight is not over.
You may be tired of the tried-n-true cliche's of life "There is light at the end of tunnel," "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger," "We will survive," "Expect the unexpected," "You are not given anymore than you can handle," "If you're going through hell, keep on going," and the list goes on.........
Before you turn your nose up at any of these cliches, dismiss their power, take a look at them again to know they all were once said because SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE, IN THE PAST WALKED THROUGH THE STRUGGLE IN THE SAME SHOES.
That's right .... these cliches emerged from times of struggle or suffering. As you know suffering is optional, but the struggle no matter how real does indeed ---- (cringe if you will at the cliche) "It builds character."
Celebrate your character and the fact you are still here. Because you ARE.
We must all find hope in that fact and what is still YET to be discovered within that!!
We as humanity may not have all of the answers, YET and we may be asking a lot of questions of the world and ourselves, but we do have within us no matter if it feels invisible at times, the hope for what is yet to come to turn things into the positive direction of change.
So Lovely Souls, as I address this year-end wrap up closure, potential of New Year new beginning possibility, let’s step into that golden light thread of hope that exists within all of us which still allows each of us TO BE HERE RIGHT NOW.
If you woke up this morning with a mind filled with questions as remnant roll-over residue from a compounding of the past few years of our own toss-n-turning sleepless nights before, may you step into the Silent Night of the holidays to reflect upon what you can still see in your own North Star within to carry you through to what is STILL YET TO COME.
Hope is still available even if your faith, conviction, trust and belief is running on fumes.
Sending blessings, hope, peace, light and energy toward what good yet awaits all of us.
Namaste.
Stacey Kumagai
www.pinterest.com/linkronicity
