How tragedy and trauma bring us into the 'collective' energy
In the light of recent tragedy in Turkey and Syria, I want to continue sharing my reflections...
Today I want to talk about a topic that I have never touched on so far: the concept of Collective Energy.
Over the last week or so, I've witnessed how we are affected by collective emotions...
They are my friends, my family, my clients and myself. The reaction is different, the root cause is the same.
Some of them start crying suddenly out of blue, some of them are having nightmares and panic attacks while sleeping (like me) and some of them are having issues with focus & concentration.
None of them experienced the trauma first hand, they were not there when earthquake happened. They are having the deep pain, sadness and grief for others with physical symptoms.
This is why it is important to talk about Collective Energies/Emotions.
What is the theory of collective energy/emotions?
Collective energies are a part of any healing or mindfulness journey — sometimes we go through the emotions even if we don’t experience it ourselves first hand.
Collective emotions are defined as emotions that are emerged from macro-level events. Instead of individual emotions that are emerged from our daily life experiences, we feel the emotions of masses or society that is responding to a major event or struggle.
Let me give you some real life examples:
Collective Grief: Your country goes through a major trauma (like the earthquake in Turkey & Syria or war in Ukraine), even though you were not there physically, you were not saved from the demolished houses, you feel the pain and grief deeply. Although you act like you continue life, something is not OK.
Collective Anger: You see the injustice in the world (racism like Black Lives Matte ), you relate to the pain of the people and yet you feel helpless. This helplessness makes you angry, you are angry at the system, you want to change this injustice. This anger prevents you from focusing on other things in your life.
Collective Energy of Scarcity: Even though you have a stable job or savings, you are feeling the fear of economic crises and bring scarcity mindset to your daily life. Everyone around you is talking about how bad the economy is and you feel this collective anxiety. This anxiety starts to affect your health, you show physical symptoms like ulcer or digestive issues even though your mind is telling you to calm down.
I am sure you are familiar with at least one of these situations. We are all part of this collective system, we are all connected and our emotions are also part this system.
How to handle collective emotions/energies?
✨ Acceptance
We are living in a society where we are forced to be happy all the time. Most of us are searching for happiness and when we are not happy we are looking for ways to fix it.
When is it is combined with the idea that we can "control" everything, we force ourselves to get out of the emotions as quick as we can.
Acceptance does not mean to accept the injustice and do nothing and give up. It means to understand that something is off or wrong. And a road to change is about to start! It can only start with you. For you to be able to do your part, first you need to process the emotions.
❤️ Grief is an emotion that needs time and space, period!
❤️ Anger is an emotion, that needs expression and relief before deep analysis.
❤️ Crying is healing, suppressed tears blocks the heart chakra.
So give yourself time and space to accept and feel those emotions.
✨ Stronger Together
We have tendency to either blame ourselves for our weaknesses or blame others for not understanding. Therefore sharing, talking and getting together with others helps to humanize the process. Remember they are also part of this collective consciousness and they need you just as you need them.
This process also helps us to see other people's perspectives and removes the negative energy of blame games. When you share you also see how others cope with their pain.
Some people will try to help you by saying “it is ok, don’t be sad, nothing happened to you”. If you need support from the loved ones or friends, explain to them clearly your emotions and why “it is not ok”.
If your preferred love language is physical touch, tell them that you need a hug. Sometimes a genuine hug is better than anything else!
✨ Focus on little steps instead of helplessness
Emotion literally means “energy in the motion”. What does anger tell you? How you can serve better to help to release grief?
The point of spirituality isn’t just act like everything is positive and "let go". The point is to use the tools, the feelings to turn complex situations into learnings, and empower you to work through the heavy emotions you face in life in a healthy way.
In my experience, for collective grief or anger, the best way is to focus on what you can do. Instead of feeling small and helpless, we can focus on what we CAN do to be of service.
Every little action affects the collective energy. We all want to do bigger things, if you have the resources, perfect go for it. If you don’t have it for now, just remember every little step is better than helplessness.
So make the list of the things that you can do, and start with one step at a time. You can also share your learning with your friends and motivate each other for the steps.
✨ It all starts with you
“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself’ says Rumi.
I know and understand the pain, anger or grief. I feel it in my bones. However staying there is not helping anyone or you. Any external shift, starts with internal shifts. Once you've accepted your emotions and analyzed the learnings, remember to focus on yourself.
It is like when you're on an airplane, you must put your mask on first before trying to help others. Ask yourself, what you need to initiate the change. Maybe you need to balance yourself first (so do a meditation). Or you want to raise awareness, and you don’t know how to use social media, invest in yourself to learn.
If you want to help Turkey and Syria but don't know where to start, here are some trustworthy resources
✨ AKUT – Voluntary search, assist and rescue organization: https://www.akut.org.tr/en/donation
✨ AHBAP – One of the most active voluntary networks, active in the affected regions: https://ahbap.org/disasters-turkey