“How Can I Do Good— When Everyone Else is Not”

Lots of people are doing things that are not helpful… but how do we keep moving forward in spite of all this? A person on Facebook ask this question and here is what I recommend.

Change Your Perception

You are looking around and you see people doing things that make you feel upset. That’s a normal reaction until you see it for what it is… just a process that’s taking place… and it’s neither good or bad. It’s our mind that takes everything and makes it into a perception (a non-reality) of the reality of the situation. We place a judgment upon the whole thing. Acceptance goes a long way towards healing the mind/body. If we keep fighting reality then we can never have peace. That being said, it doesn’t mean we have to be part of what other people are doing… not at all. It just means we watch from the side lines and not allow our mind to become embroiled in all the turmoil.

Learn Meditation

This is where learning meditation comes in. The more a person meditates the less the outer world and all its turmoil bothers them. It’s kind of like watching a movie and knowing terrible things about to happen. But you know that the movie is just a movie and it doesn’t bother you. In fact, studies done with Zen meditation masters find that their minds don’t work like ours. They can see photographs of terrible car accidents and on their EEG there is nothing happening… they are not upset at all. But they ask questions and are interested, have compassion, but that part of their brain that becomes filled with anxiety has been turned off.

Dial Down the Amygdala of Your Brain

And what we are seeing in the world is that part of our brain which turns on emotional anxiety called the “Amygdala” has become overly excited to the point that it never turns off. It’s in hyper mode all the time, thus we are always full of anxiety, fear, and dread. But the practice of meditation dials down the Amygdala… thus one can find inner peace no matter what other people are doing.

Thus with meditation, it’s easy to do what you want to do… when others are being bad. You just keep doing what you know is right in your heart and allow the world to be what it is. And meditation helps people stay focused… thus they do what they really want to do, instead of being side tracked by what people are doing.

So just like all the Zen Masters, Christian Monks, and other spiritual people who practice meditation daily… they can do good things in the world and not allow anything to bother them.

Thus the short answer is - MEDITATE and Feel Great

Learn Vipassana or TM Meditation

Many Blessings to Everyone!

Dr. Paul Haider