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My heart has joined the millions of others who have been swimming through outrage, anguish, fear, and distress as the unfolding humanitarian crisis at our southern borders is becoming crystal clear. We KNOW the damage this is causing and it is heartbreaking.

For those of us who are on the far side of the empath bell curve, this heartache can take a toll. Typically, the advice is to turn away, don’t watch, read or listen to the news. That’s a kind of privilege that I’m not sure democracy can afford.

Titrate your doses, sure. Closing your eyes? Nope. That’s antithetical to acceptance and integration. What’s an empath to do?

In 1993, a study was conducted in Washington, D.C. The researchers postulated that gathering a group of meditators would impact crime rates. Beginning with 800 meditators, the group grew to more than 4000 by the end of this two month project. This study is well worth reading. Crime dropped by more than 20%. The project was designed to demonstrate a phenomenon the researchers called super radiance, leading to greater society coherence.

Read the study here

In the same way that each one of us is more than a healing arts practitioner, we are more than just physical beings. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. Remembering and giving space for our bigger potential, that awareness that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience may be a path through this dark territory those of us in the US are traveling through.

Tending to our state in the midst of a daily deluge of more horrifying news can be quite the challenge. My go-to for this, of course, is AAIT. I look for the polarities in play. These have been tricky for me to spot. That’s where friends can help. Outrage, that’s the one that has been getting me in it’s grip. A conversation with my dears, Denise Hughes (Check out her group on FB ) and Lisa C. Briggs (Check out her group, Beauty School) helped bring this to my awareness.

I realized that outrage had become my lens. Not cool, Robert Frost. Well, of course there’s ample room for a little AAIT there, right? Using the universal process to integrate outrage and the grace of my full true self opened the gate for me to navigate this outrage with a little more grace. I still feel outraged, it’s not unwelcome. Now, however, it feels infused with a kind of grace. That’s different.

Alongside AAIT, I’ve been leaning heavily into ho’oponopono and lovingkindness practice. These are such great walking around practices, as my friend, Sally Kempton would say. This combination of tending to myself in this way is bringing me back into balance, coherence.

I wonder if there are enough of us engaged in this kind of tending that we might reach a tipping point in societal coherence. What do you think? What are you doing to tend to your tender heart? For me, staying in outrage hasn’t left much room for the grace of my full self.