One of the hallmarks of mental distress is fragmentation. Emotions are heightened, especially fear, and the mind becomes disordered as it deals with a level of stress it has rarely, if ever, encountered. Meaning falls apart; confusion and uncertainty take its place. The once solid ground underfoot turns into shifting sands beneath one’s feet.
Those of us who have lived trauma do everything we can to create the conditions for integration and wholeness once the event is over. We calm the threat-monitoring amygdala with its attendant fight, flight or freeze response. We bring the cerebral cortex back online so we can return executive functioning to our everyday affairs. And we talk, write, or otherwise express our experience so we can own and integrate it into our being.
But what if the event is ongoing and unresolvable? What if instead of affecting the individual it affects the entire population? What if those whose opinions lie outside the dominant narrative are mocked into silence until they silence themselves? What if the rift becomes so huge it is akin to the population splitting in two with no integration in sight? What then?
Humanity is in the end game of a story called “Fear and Separation.” Our only way out is to follow another story called “Love and Unity.” It is a tall order, but there are obvious places to begin. We discuss from the cerebrum, not the amygdala. We parse truth from lies, transparency from obfuscation. We seek what unites, and refute what divides.
In short, we take our attention away from the Lords of Chaos and pour it into the Angels of Order.
