You are not alone

What do you feel when looking at the world?
Hope? Fear? Anger, frustration, despair, indifference?

Or maybe a cocktail of every familiar and unnamed emotion a human can feel.

Regardless of where you are on the spectrum of utter despair and mindless optimism,
I promise you, I have been there too. And some days I manage to travel back and forth
between these extremes many times.

This is not a letter where I will tell you to focus on the positive.
This is not a letter where I will tell you it is all hopeless.

This is a letter where I want you to feel. Everything.
Because communicating with emotions, I think is a part of how we change the world.

Look at this list.

What feelings flow through your system?

If your first response is to go and hide under your bed, I understand.
If you desperately want things to change, I do too.
If you feel powerless, I hear you.

You are not alone. And there are no wrong emotions here.
Every aspect of this. The hopes and dreams, the fears and despairs, are valid and real.

The question then becomes, can we use these emotions… and how?

Before going any further, I first want to emphasize one thing.
Notice that I only mentioned “the bad stuff” in the list before.

Remember the quote from Max Roser.
“The world is awful, the world is better, and the world can be much better.”
Remember that all of those statements are true at the same time.
And every one of them comes with its own set of emotions.

If you only see the bad stuff, of course you will get depressed and anxious.
Only focusing on the positive, results in an overly naive and ignorant world-view.

The key is to balance it, not to stay constant on one level,
regardless if that is utter despair or mindless optimism.

I firmly believe that the world would be a better place, if we all became
a little better at talking and listening to each other.

You can’t solve any of our massive challenges alone… so then you need to be able to
connect and communicate with others. Facts and numbers rarely motivate people.
To connect you need stories and stories need emotions.

No, I am not suggesting that you should start crying all the time. That is not what I mean.
I am talking about being able to recognize different emotions in yourself and others.

Yes, I know that you already match your mood to your surrounding.
You don’t stand and smile at a funeral when everyone around you is crying.

But how do you connect with someone who is worried about the future?
How do you comfort someone who “just wants to hide under the bed”?

How do you connect over these new, big and existential emotions?

If you ask me, this is only possible if you have felt the feelings first.
Like a wounded healer you can connect on a deeper level,
through empathy and through a mutual understanding.

And that will only happen if you have allowed to feel the emotions first.

So I want to encourage you to start listening for clues, looking for expressions, use
what you already know and apply it to all these big new emotions.

You are not alone.

Want to continue the conversation,
send me a DM on LinkedIn

Until next time!
Daniel - The Talking Bridge

Ps. Music Motivation:

Some days you are drowning in tears
Some days you shout into the storm
Both are parts of being human