I Was Triggered for a Minute. Then I Remembered This.
Take a moment to relax your shoulders and take a deep breath.
Seriously. I’ll wait.
How does that feel in your body?
There is a lot of heavy sh*t going on in the world right now, and we need to take care of ourselves first, just like the cliché oxygen mask analogy.
I was reminded of this recently from a negative comment on Instagram. Before I get into that, let’s zoom out and look at current events on a macro level.
The best way I can describe it without being political is that there is a lot of dark coming to light right now. Whether you believe in science or woo-woo, energy is real. And there is a lot of fear and anger circulating in the world right now.
You can either be consumed by it, or you can protect your own energy and stay in a higher vibration. Again, whether you believe in science or spirituality, you will probably know what I am talking about.
I am not saying to bury your head in the sand. And I am not saying to be apathetic.
What I am saying is that feeling fear and anger doesn’t feel good to you, and it doesn’t actually help anyone who is suffering right now.
All it does is contribute to the same fear and anger. And if you aren’t taking care of yourself, it creeps up on you.
For example, recently I re-posted an Instagram Reel to my Stories. It was a video of Kanye West talking about believing in himself despite the haters and being bullied. He goes on to talk about how people who believe in themselves don’t follow society’s arbitrary rules that are designed to keep people playing small.
He was speaking my language, so I immediately hit “share to stories.”
At the very end of the video, Kanye goes on to say that the only luxury is time, and then it cuts out before he can expand on the concept.
An acquaintance who follows me sent me a DM:
“Says the man who creates luxury brands?”
In all fairness, as a former Chicagoan who still has a lot of Chicago in me, sometimes I forget how controversial he is. But regardless of how other people feel about him, I shared the video because I resonated with the message.
This burst of negativity about what I saw as an inspirational message triggered me.
She totally missed the message.
How dare she rain negativity in my DM’s!
I don’t care if you don’t like Kanye or his message. Don’t DM me about it.
After a minute of sitting in those negative feelings, I realized that she had pulled me down to her negative state.
And I had a choice. I could stay there or change my state.
I chose to change my state. I sent her a response of:
“This is an old video before he had luxury brands.”
Then, I sent her love and moved on with my day. In hindsight, I wish I hadn’t responded with words at all.
When I first heard about this concept of sending people love, it didn’t go very well. For starters, I chose someone who had hurt me badly. I didn’t think he deserved love. But over time, as I practiced this with other people with less emotional intensity, I realized the opposite was true.
Those who are angry, afraid, and hurt often need it the most.
And on a global level, even though it seems like we can’t do much individually, at the very least, we can protect our own vibration.
According to the research of Dr. David Hawkins (not related that I know of), “One individual who vibrates to the energy of pure love will counterbalance the negativity of 750,000 who do not.”
And I know this practice seems like picking up one piece of litter in an Earth littered with oceans of garbage, but you’re either contributing to fear and negativity or you’re contributing to love.
When you find yourself getting pulled into fear, anger, or negativity, relax your shoulders, breathe, and send love to someone or to everyone.
And remember: you always have a choice about your vibration.
We are unavailable for absorbing energy.
Glow Tip:
This is something simple you can start implementing in your day-to-day life.
Notice the next time someone’s negativity pulls you into their emotional state. Maybe it’s:
• A comment on social media that annoys you.
• A message that feels unnecessarily critical.
• Someone venting their anger or fear onto you.
• News that immediately makes your body feel tense.
• A conversation that leaves you feeling drained.
Before reacting, pause, relax your shoulders, and take one slow, deep breath.
Ask yourself:
Do I want to match this energy, or change it?
Instead of feeding the frustration or defending yourself, try shifting your state. You can do this by stepping away, breathing, or quietly sending love to the person instead of engaging in the negativity.
This doesn’t mean you tolerate bad behavior or suppress your feelings. It simply means you choose not to carry energy that doesn’t belong to you.
You’re protecting your peace and deciding what energy you want to contribute to the world.
And that’s what it means to shine from the inside.
I made something for you!
I’ve been working on something, and it’s finally ready.
It’s called The 80% Life Detector, and I made it for the woman whose life looks good on paper but still feels slightly off on the inside.
You know the feeling. You have the career, the friends, the self-awareness, and yet there’s this low-grade feeling that something is missing.
This free worksheet walks you through 5 key areas of your life: friendships, dating & partnership, career, self-expression, and money, and helps you identify exactly where you’re playing small, filtering yourself, or settling for almost.
It ends with an Identity Shift Exercise that starts closing the gap at the root level.
It takes 20–30 minutes, and it requires brutal honesty. And it might be the most useful thing you do this week.
👉 https://mailchi.mp/6329c7a1dffd/shine-from-the-inside
Your next level is waiting. We don’t play small anymore.
