Gratitude: Today is a Gift.

[loreta]

While actual truth is liberating, shock after shock, and that feeling of liberation never goes away, and gives me strength to keep going even when looking at the world is not a "happy" picture. I don't think "happiness" exists in the way it gets sold to us, but rather as a manifestation of awareness and knowledge, with which come this liberation and this gratitude. And people should be able to attain that, if they want it. So, the only solution I see, FWIW, is doing our best not to feed the illusions even more, both within ourselves and for other people's sake.

I was thinking about this lately. I am reading a book about the atrocities of the Nazis and the war in a book that try to understand why this happened (The Nazis, A warning about history) and for me reading about it is part of a sort of illumination, it is a light that is in me, as important as to see a bird singing or a smile of a child. I feel emotion and understanding much more than when I see a very beautiful picture of a flower or a mountain. I know that nature is important but to understand the nature of the human is the important thing to understand.

These videos are very beautiful, and manipulative also with their music and excellent images that remind me of programs like Nature and so. They are like postal cards. Every thing is perfect in these images and it is true that nature is perfect and we, most of the time, forget that nature is the perfection in this terrible world. And that we need nature to survive. But we need more than nature to survive. If we don`t understand how humans are we are damned. And the panorama we are living is because we forget all of this.

Maybe the objective of these sort of programs or pictures is to permit us to meditate, to relax. I remember the movie Baraka, where you can appreciate Nature in the two senses: how beautiful she is and how horrible she is also. You can see the beauty and the ugly. You can meditate on these two concepts at the same time.

 

[Laura]

In a sense, I guess the difference for me is that "happy" messages might make me feel good for a few minutes, if so, but that's it. While actual truth is liberating, shock after shock, and that feeling of liberation never goes away, and gives me strength to keep going even when looking at the world is not a "happy" picture. I don't think "happiness" exists in the way it gets sold to us, but rather as a manifestation of awareness and knowledge, with which come this liberation and this gratitude. And people should be able to attain that, if they want it. So, the only solution I see, FWIW, is doing our best not to feed the illusions even more, both within ourselves and for other people's sake.

Yes, so true. But I realized something this morning because my comparison of "warm, fuzzy stuff" to drugs yesterday really got me to thinking. What I was thinking about is how painful it is for people to wake up from the illusions - how painful and protracted a process it was for me, even - and like a medicine can sometimes speed the healing of a wound, maybe some people need a "fix" like this from time to time just to get them through, to remind them what they are doing it for. I know that when I feel like I've plumbed the depths, what I like is music and creativity from people and if a little nature gets thrown in there, that's okay too. When I've posted a string of articles and comments on FB that are horrifyingly depressing about reality, I'll often lighten things up a bit and create a "musical interlude".

We do have a section of the forum called "Tickle Me" for jokes and lighter stuff. And we have a category on SOTT called "Don't Panic, Lighten Up". It doesn't grow as fast as the other categories, but we do try to get something in there from time to time. Most often, of course, it's something about making fun of the PTB or the absurdities of human stupidity. So, again, on FB, I'll occasionally post something really funny if I have stumbled on it or someone has sent it to me - after a string of posts about the horror of our reality.

There's a movie called "Idiocracy" that everyone here has been trying for a long time to get me to watch. I once started it and got about 15 minutes into it, but it was so painful I had to turn it off. It was like the parody had become reality and I just couldn't stand it!

So, the conclusion I have come to after a few days of thinking about it is that "whatever gets you through the night" is sometimes necessary. The problem only arises when people focus only on that to the exclusion of reality. I don't think that members of this forum do that.

Having said that, I AM irritated with the TED talks business after they trashed Rupert Sheldrake... talk about closing your eyes against reality!!!

 

[mada85]

So within reality, amidst all the pain and suffering, there is also great beauty to be enjoyed and marveled at.
In fact, it would seem, in this 3D world, that suffering must first be endured in order for true beauty to be manifested.
OSIT.

I agree, R12. One cannot appreciate beauty without experiencing suffering. And strangely enough, suffering has its own beauty. We all need to be as aware as possible of the our own mortality, and the almost incomprehensible horrors of the world we live in. Beauty alone is an anodyne, which is probably why there are so many successful newagers out there telling people to focus on beauty, beauty and more beauty, and the horrors will all magically vanish in some great transformation. It's not that there's anything wrong with beauty per se, or the enjoyment of it, it's just that without suffering, without awareness of the true horror of our existence, beauty has no dark background against which it can be seen and appreciated.

 

[Esote]

Gratitude comes from being able to open our eyes to the good in the other, and one of the most human traits consists in making fun of reality as it is :

If only for a second http://www.utrend.tv/v/one-second/

Thanks !

 

[mada85]

Gratitude comes from being able to open our eyes to the good in the other, and one of the most human traits consists in making fun of reality as it is :

If only for a second http://www.utrend.tv/v/one-second/

Thanks !

Thanks, eoste. That was just beautiful, and moved me to tears.

 

[Laura]

Yes, that was nice, Eoste.

Let me describe something here. I've just spent the morning scanning the news and sending selected articles to the sott editors for posting. I was doing that in between reading forum posts, emails, and dealing with some fiscal administrative issues. One of the stories that caught my eye, particularly in light of the several years of harassment by French authorities, is the following:

http://www.connexionfrance.com/Bar-boss-Urssaf-illegal-staff-Floch-Mamm-Kounifl-Morbihan-15308-view-article.html

A BRITTANY bar boss has been fined €9,000 for using illegal workers – for asking customers to bring their glasses and trays back to the counter after use.

Reading this intensified my awareness of the insane environment in which we live. That thought, of course, led step-by-step - without any control on my part - to a global awareness of the insanity that others put up with and how it manifests in so many ways, from ongoing tax harassment to destroy those trying to bring awareness to a wide audience, to the people whose lives are literally being destroyed by sieges (Palestine), illegal drone strikes, disease, starvation, and more. The recent incident with the Indian diplomat in NY is a case in point of how the policies of the pathocracies are followed by rote and can lead to "lighting the fuse" events in an instant because nobody is freaking thinking about repercussions, consequences, NATURE.

Behind all that, there is my research and preparation for the next book which I hope will spell out some of these consequences of Nature as well as the incredible repetition of the same sh*t over and over and over again. Geezus! Reading about Rome during the time of the late Republic and early Imperium is like reading about the Food Fight mentality of global diplomacy (what a joke that word is) nowadays. And I KNOW where it is leading because it has done it again and again and again. And I'm sitting here practically SCREAMING for people to wake up. Not just pointing to dead babies again and again which would only make most people turned off because it has no relevance to their lives, (though I'm certainly upset by those dead and dying children), but trying to bring home the bacon of realization to the average person who we need, most desperately, to wake up and join with other normal people and stop sleep-walking to disaster. And of course, it feels like a huge weight on me, a stone in the pit of my stomach, a lump in my throat. Some days I just want to run outside screaming at the top of my lungs and just stand in the road, flagging cars down and blabbing incoherently: "Do you SEE what is happening???!!!"

But I can't do that. I must be strategic and consequent because I really, REALLY want to make a difference and I've studied the failures throughout history and if we ever needed to succeed, it is now.

So, all this is in my head, my awareness, and I'm feeling like I just got hit by a train.

So, there I am in this state - which is rather common for me - you could even say almost daily consequence of what we do - and I click to this thread and see this little video about cancer patients being induced to play a bit. And yeah, I get it. We do that too. We have our emergency room humor, we play with our karaoke and utilize that to try to get some catharsis going now and then - singing even with lumps in our throats. It reminds me of the songs I sang for my mother as she was dying. Have you ever sang with tears running down your face, forcing yourself to do it, stopping periodically to blow your nose off-mic?

We play with our dogs; they are innocent, they have no awareness of the insanity of this world we are in. They have the emotions and mentality of about a three year old child, they just love us and know we get upset a lot and think that a nice game of fetch will make everything better. So we play with them, FOR THEM, and sometimes, it works to pull us back from the edge. But only for a second.

And I'm not sure that you actually forget the insanity, the cancer, whatever when you play. I don't think you do. You just move into a different state where you can make fun of it, whistle past the graveyard, keep your courage up to do what must be done including, for cancer patients, dying.

I think that having fun, being foolish, is a lot more useful than people suspect.

 

[Foxx]

I typically skip past videos like this because I find them to be a little too "love and light" esque for me and the only major positive elements in life on earth at the macro-scale that I see is our society's inevitable destruction (providing the opportunity to give birth to something new), but since it was garnering a fair amount of attention and comments here, I thought I'd check it out.

The imagery is certainly very beautiful (although nothing new, so I wouldn't call it terribly creative from the get-go) and I agree that gratitude is a truly important concept, but the video definitely lost me when the elderly gentleman (contrasted with the child, towards the end) talked about all the "gifts" of civilization - electricity, running clean water, etc - this made me laugh a bit, as though it were a joke, as I contemplated all the rivers and lakes around the world that are too polluted to drink from or swim in (nevermind how polluted the oceans are--yikes), but how they once were crystal clear and clean and one could probably drink from the vast majority of water sources without getting poisons or weird pathogens and how hunter-gatherer tribes (or whoever lived in line with nature), before such pollution was distributed globally, reveled in the actual bounty of nature, instead of table scraps left over from a psychopathic cabal on a planet over populated with the insane and idiotic. I, for example, am NOT grateful for the fruits of this global civilization--in fact, I'm so not grateful for them, that I'd happily send that "gift" back if given the opportunity (and have done so by avoiding most foods and manufactured poisons that I can feasibly do).

I think this kind of gratitude is one that keeps people asleep; being passive and accepting whatever terrible situation this planet is in while still trying to be "happy" (in a blissed-out state), accepting whatever table scraps they get, never getting upset at injustice or talking about how badly so many people have it in this life and how to actually fix it. It also doesn't bespeak to an obligation to utilize one's gift(s) to give back--it makes me think of the book "The Giving Tree" a bit in this regard, as the narrative and images (which are part of the narrative) talk about gratitude as what one receives and mentions absolutely nothing of any obligation from receiving, implying that being grateful is more along the lines of take take take instead of give and receive. I think one should be grateful for what they have (it certainly can ALWAYS get worse, after all), but not let that placate them and also use it as a tool to see how one can improve the lives of others.

The video also (I think) did the "attraction to beauty" = "love" thing by discussing the beauty of nature and how we should all be grateful and whatever, but ignored the dark side of nature's creation, which I would say includes humanity's fairly ruthless destruction of the planet for thousands of years and also civilization-destroying cometary bombardments, as examples. That is, nature has the ability to create creatures that can act to destroy the bounty that it created via their own free-will--it can create entropy and destruction--but it also has a system to remove or alter that element itself if it becomes too unbalanced, via cometary bombardment.

To me, that's where my gratitude is placed: in that aspect of nature that is intelligent and responsive to the beings that it creates, including purging them if they can't get it together. That's where the beauty is to me: an offering of a chance to make things different in the future (after probably a fairly sizable planetary destruction) because, as it stands, I have yet to see a situation that I think will rouse this sleeping species except for mass death on a global scale. It's not like there haven't been warnings, it's not like we aren't getting signs of how things actually are, and it's not like most of this information is completely inaccessible, so those people willfully choose ignorance and then get exactly what they want and deserve. To me, it's one of the most fair things in nature, that we're due for a massive cometary bombardment and die-off, due to our own failure to evolve, to fight for justice and accountability, and to see things as they actually are, not as we want them to be. So that's where I place my gratitude and see beauty, primarily: that this global situation cannot continue as it is, no matter what (cancer either dies or kills the host), and it will either end or change drastically, but that it won't stay like this forever.

 

[Chu]

So, there I am in this state - which is rather common for me - you could even say almost daily consequence of what we do - and I click to this thread and see this little video about cancer patients being induced to play a bit. And yeah, I get it. We do that too. We have our emergency room humor, we play with our karaoke and utilize that to try to get some catharsis going now and then - singing even with lumps in our throats. It reminds me of the songs I sang for my mother as she was dying.

So, perhaps for us here it comes down to choosing wisely what kind of "break" to take? Some "fun" things we do for others, and not so much for ourselves. Sometimes we get to enjoy them, even. Some other things we do to take a "break" that is not really for the sake of a break, but to breathe, process what we've learned, and keep going (like, say, listen to good melodic music). Others we do because they have a therapeutic benefit (like singing together). But it all depends on the intent behind it. Is it to escape from reality, is it to bring a tiny bit of happiness to those who are suffering, is it to recuperate a bit before going back the "the battlefield"? Etc.

I think that when we need a "break" or "interlude", it is better to look for something that includes an actual learning experience too (even positive dissociation, like watching a compelling movie that teaches us something), or something that doesn't induce illusions. I like the cancer patients video very much, because in it, you cannot forget reality, but the producers brought something good to those suffering. It wasn't saying :" Just look into their eyes and you will heal them, feel grateful for their cancer" or whatever kind of BS we get on other videos. I think there is a big difference, and even if we may think that this type of "break" is not a big deal, it can have an effect on how we relate to life.

 

[Oxajil]

Re: Gratitude: Today is a Gift

This reminds me of a video my cousin posted on facebook. It was a pretty video made of the landscapes in Afghanistan, and there were scenes of women making carpets, a smiling girl, faces of different people etc. It was an interesting timing, because before he posted that, I was reading on some reports of Afghan women being abused etc. and how the state the country currently is in now is so much worse than it was before the US decided to invade it.

So thinking about all of that, makes me wonder: why are super high quality videos made on the beauty of things, when making videos on the reality of things could have a much bigger effect and possibility for change? Why can't there be a TEDtalk about how psychopaths have risen and made people miserable to the point they are in right now? I have no objection in the making of such videos with pretty scenery, but I guess a part of me kind of wishes that there was a balance. That there would also be a million views on videos that tell the truth. That people would also be attracted to knowing the truth and be intrigued to know what the hell is going on and what it is that is making things worse, instead of primarily being attracted to pretty and inspiring videos.

In a way, it reminds me of what Laura wrote in the Wave:

If the only Face of God you choose to see, is the “Good and Loving” face, the other face has not ceased to exist — it has merely become the Third Man who you cannot see and which will act in your life in ways you cannot comprehend. It is a little like being “in love” with someone who has certain characteristics that you decide to try to change, or to “put up with”. If learning to love means to love unconditionally, how can you say you love someone — a specific individual — if there are parts of that person you do not love? You don’t really love that person as he/she is. What you are actually in love with is your image of the person, not the person his or herself. In a sense, you could say that you are in love with yourself since you are the creator of the image of what your “loved one” ought to be. And the same is true of our “Love of God”. How can we possibly love Him, if we deny fully half of His being? If we set ourselves up as judge and jury as to what part of the universe, what part of existence, what part of GOD, is acceptable and “okay”?

Hope I'm making some sense. Fwiw.

 

[RedFox]

All of this is reminding me of the Positive Dissociation? thread.

I wanted to add a few things from my own perspective as someone who's struggled for a long time to be able to find balance in viewing the horror of the situation - and generally failed many many times. This is something I've been trying to explore quite deeply.

And it is the shocks of seeing the reality around us, while holding the vision of the potential beauty inside us, that gives us the strength to keep on going even when we feel nothing but despair.

For me I always swung between the two - I couldn't find that middle ground and what was worse could see it in retrospect.
I would fixate on either the horror or escape and swing back and forth.

Videos that show us nice things and make us feel warm and fuzzy are helpful only for reminding us of how things COULD be everywhere, all the time. But in general, reality needs to be faced daily, and we need to be constantly conscious of our death at any moment so that we do not fall asleep and dream while doing nothing to purify our souls and stand as individual beacons.

Seeing that I couldn't do it was one of the biggest sticks I use to beat myself up with.

In the same way that constantly taking photos can come between us and actual experience of real life, so can watching "feel good" videos separate us from reality. More than that, hard times not only make us stronger, in the long run, they make us happier. That is, successfully overcoming difficulties is exercise for the soul.

I'd also read many times in many places that hard times make you stronger and eventually happier - and yet I couldn't see it in myself. All I saw was floundering around and failure. Failing to make a difference, no matter how hard I seemed to try. I never seemed to get to the point of overcoming whatever difficulty it was, and would just go round and round and round.

I also feel like I'm wasting my time watching films or dvd series, yet I have to stop and rest -somehow? I also remember seeing the pictures of dead children on SoTT and had to stop because it was too much.
I've just been putting one foot in front of the other and attempting to dig into what the heck makes me so stuck in this over sensitive brain fogged automatic hell of a merry go round constantly feeling like I have to run 100x faster than anyone else just to stand still.

Constant over sensitivity/stirring up emotions, seeing the terror of it all and then slipping into disassociation. All the time seeing this pattern repeat and having no clue how to stop it!
If I tried to hit the breaks on part of it or force myself to change I hit burnout.

_http://psychcentral.com/lib/understanding-the-effects-of-trauma-post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/0003971

Understanding the Effects of Trauma: Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
By Lynn Margolies, Ph.D.


Understanding the Effects of TraumaThe essential psychological effect of trauma is a shattering of innocence. Trauma creates a loss of faith that there is any safety, predictability, or meaning in the world, or any safe place in which to retreat. {So you create whatever safety you can - build walls and armour. Normalise what happened to you} It involves utter disillusionment. Because traumatic events are often unable to be processed by the mind and body as other experiences are, due to their overwhelming and shocking nature, they are not integrated or digested. The trauma then takes on a life of its own and, through its continued effects, haunts the survivor and prevents normal life from continuing until the person gets help.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a condition created by exposure to a psychologically distressing event outside the range of usual human experience, one which would be markedly distressing to almost anyone, and which causes intense fear, terror, and helplessness. The trauma is an assault to the person’s biology and psyche. The event may have happened recently or a long time ago. There are 3 categories of PTSD symptoms: 1) hyperarousal, 2) re-experiencing, and 3) avoidance/numbing. {That's the cycle right there - over and over ad infinatum}

Hyperarousal is when the traumatized person’s physiology is in high gear, having been assaulted by the psychological impact of what happened and not able to reset. The symptoms of hyperarousal include: difficulty sleeping and concentrating, being easily startled, irritability, anger, agitation, panic, and hypervigilance (being hyper-alert to danger).

Symptoms of re-experiencing include: intrusive memories, nightmares, flashbacks, exaggerated reactions to reminders of the event, and re-experiencing (including re-experiencing physical symptoms when the body ‘remembers’).

Numbing includes feeling robotic or on “automatic pilot” – disconnected from feelings and from vitality, which is replaced by a sense of deadness. Symptoms of numbing/avoidance include: loss of interest in life and other people, hopelessness, isolation, avoidance of thoughts and feelings associated with the traumatic event, feeling detached and estranged from others, withdrawal, depression, and emotional anesthesia. Preoccupation with avoiding trauma or feelings and thoughts related to trauma can become a central focus of the survivor’s life.

Following trauma, it is normal to experience the range of symptoms typical of PTSD. However, when these symptoms persist longer than 3 months, they are considered part of the syndrome of posttraumatic stress disorder. In some cases, however, symptoms may take a long time to appear. Delayed PTSD is often typical in cases of childhood sexual or physical abuse and trauma. Symptoms can be hidden by emotional constriction or dissociation and then suddenly appear following a major life event, stressor, or an accumulation of stressors with time that challenge the person’s defenses. Risk factors for PTSD include lack of social support, lack of public acknowledgment or validation of what happened, vulnerability from previous trauma, interpersonal violation (especially by trusted others), coping by avoiding — including avoiding feeling or showing feelings (seeing feelings as a weakness), actual or symbolic loss — of previously held beliefs, illusions, relationships, innocence, identity, honor, pride.

Many people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder fail to seek treatment because of not having correctly identified or recognized their symptoms as trauma-related or not knowing their symptoms are treatable. Also, the inherent avoidance, withdrawal, memory disruption, fear, guilt, shame, and mistrust associated with PTSD can make it difficult to come forward and seek help.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is treatable. Treatment for PTSD through psychotherapy involves helping the trauma become processed and integrated so that it ultimately functions as other memories do, in the background, rather than with a life of its own. Therapy for PTSD initially focuses on coping and comfort, restoring a feeling of safety, calming the nervous system, and educating the person about what they are experiencing and why and – through the process of talking – interrupting the natural cycle of avoidance (which actually perpetuates PTSD symptoms though it is initially adaptive and self-protective). Therapy provides a safe place for trauma survivors to tell their story, feel less isolated, and tolerate knowing what happened. Psychologists help patients make connections between feelings and symptoms occurring in the present and aspects of the traumatic event(s). Through treatment, survivors begin to make sense of what happened and how it affected them, understand themselves and the world again in light of it, and ultimately restore relationships and connections in their lives.

Even in the absence of full-blown PTSD, people may also be traumatized by an event, such as the death of a loved one, in a way that continues to be painful or interfere with their lives. Trauma and unresolved grief can cause overwhelming feelings, depression, agitation and anxiety, mistrust of others, difficulty in relationships, shame, guilt, despair or a sense of meaninglessness, and helplessness and hopelessness. Trauma involves feelings of grief and loss. And grief can be traumatic, especially when it involves sudden or unnatural deaths.

Successful treatment of PTSD allows the traumatic feelings and memories to become conscious and integrated – or digested – so that the symptoms are no longer needed and eventually go away. This process of integration allows the trauma to become a part of normal memory rather than something to be perpetually feared and avoided, interfering with normal life, and frozen in time. Recovery involves feeling empowered {not in an egotistical or defensive armour way}, reestablishing a connection to oneself {body work can be specifically useful here - and gives you a clue about how out of touch you are with yourself, which also applies to your emotions}, feelings, and other people, and finding meaning in life again. Recovery allows patients to heal so that they can resume living.

Turns out the things I went through in my past where far from normal, didn't build character but Did shape my automatic behaviour, and are the single most painful thing I've ever faced - still am facing.
Being in constant trauma mode means having 90% of your brain devoted to solving the problem - without the right understanding or tools that 90% gets stuck in an irresolvable loop! All that is left is automatic learned behaviour for coping and survival.

I'm pretty sure everyone falls on a spectrum when it comes to this, and that most people don't have the tools or even the understanding to realise they have something that is left unresolved that by going untouched shapes their every thought and action.

You can't truly face the horrors of the world if you don't face the emotions and causative effect your personal horrors have had on you - or at least this is my current understanding. Heck I didn't even think what I'd been through was horrific, but it was. And because of that view I never acknowledged the impact it had on me.

This it seems is why I've not been able to do all I wanted from what I saw, and conversely been driven to act automatically and call it doing. The constant running from my past in a state of wild unresolved terror/pain/anger. I hope this isn't too off topic

 

[Approaching Infinity]

So, the conclusion I have come to after a few days of thinking about it is that "whatever gets you through the night" is sometimes necessary. The problem only arises when people focus only on that to the exclusion of reality. I don't think that members of this forum do that.

I agree. I think there are probably several reasons why people search for this kind of experience. For example, I know plenty of people who just like the 'feel-good' aspect. It warms the cockles of their hearts, but they're not actively seeking an objective understanding of the world and what goes on here. Some are even actively excluding such information from entering their minds (e.g., 'the news is too depressing!" or "it doesn't affect MY life"). Then there are those for whom it reminds them why they do what the do, what is ideal and what is possible, even if it's lacking in the world at large. The positive emotion induced by such things can act as an attractor or motivator to keep up the fight, OSIT. Then there are the people who have suffered so much that they just need some relief. A lifetime of mechanical suffering can battle-harden a person to the point where they just accept that life is like that -- almost endless suffering -- and the only break they have is to experience little pockets of goodness in the form of videos and stuff like that.

 

[Lisa Guliani]

Actually, I didn't search for this video, nor do I view it as much of an 'experience'. I liked the imagery, but certainly didn't focus on it or dwell on the images or the words spoken to the extent others here have.
It showed up on my news feed and I watched it and thought the time lapse photography was cool. I think gratitude is also a good thing, but in no way do I spend time searching for feel-good videos in order to have an 'experience'.
Lots of vids cross my eyeballs in a day. I happen to like time lapse photography and it did give me a few moments break from news horror reports and reading the book I'm currently into.
Just for clarification. I'm sorry if it irritated anyone here or equates to noise.
Certainly wasn't my intention in posting it.

 

[Ca.]

Thanks Lisa Guliani :D

I've always felt that the reflection of gratitude is shown as a "Prayer of the Soul" (by walking the talk), of its capacity to keep sane, with acts of gratitude.

Positive compilation of Russian dash cams(Video by ArkadiYM93- Author )
(From Russia with Love) STO
_www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzBInt4zljQ

 

[RedFox]

I happen to like time lapse photography and it did give me a few moments break from news horror reports and reading the book I'm currently into.

I think taking a breather is really important actually - we're only human after all. No one is disagreeing with that. :)
The link I posted above about positive disassociation may help clarify a little, but I think it's about being objective - seeing that you need to rest/recuperate and seeing the video from all angles.

Which reminds me of
https://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,22855.0.html

Q: (L) Well, I guess we can try asking some questions. Let me see the list. Hold everything! Pause! {Stops to read over list of questions.} Ok, I have a series of questions that have been written out here. The first one is; why have we all been feeling so inflamed/low on energy/depressed/irritable for the last two weeks?

A: Cosmic changes in process. Each person experiences this differently according to genetics and environment. Recall previous sufferings preparatory to DNA boosts? All must keep vigilant about diet and psychic hygiene during this time as there are also external factors that seek to block the natural process.

Q: (L) Does this have anything to do with our super-moon dance?

A: Indeed. And recall that the universe is about balance. After each period of suffering there is always joy.

Q: (Burma Jones) What do they mean by “psychic hygiene”?

A: Being careful about what you allow into your ”field”.

Q: (L) In what sense?

A: All senses.

Q: (L) What do you mean “all senses”?

A: Seeing, hearing, speaking, and so on

Q: (Ark) So, uh, I will tell a story about this “using all your senses”. A few days ago, I went out and I almost had an accident. I was driving on the interior peripherique - on the lane that was closest to the middle. There are three lanes. There was a guy behind me who was very unhappy that I was driving only 90kmh. He was swaying from left to right, trying to get past me and I could see it in the rear-view mirror. I looked to the right and realized I cannot do anything, because there was a car. I could see it.

So, I stayed. After about two minutes, you know, the one behind me again starts to act impatient behind me. But then, I look in the mirror again and the car to the right is gone. So I figure he must have moved somewhere else. Then I started to do {Ark makes descriptive hand gestures showing his driving maneuver} – only the car was there exactly in the right angle [to be in the blind spot.] But, uh, he was a young guy and he was fast. He steps on the brakes – and nothing happened, you see? I usually do not do such things. I was thinking very fast and that he must be gone, but I was not 100% sure. So, I should have waited until I was 100% sure. So, of course nothing happened, he just got upset.

A: We have more in mind. Take care with interacting with negative energies.

Q: (L) Well that’s kinda like creating your own reality, isn’t it?

A: Not what we mean… Keep your guard up and do not allow negative energies to slip by… such as believing lies… listening to negative music while thinking it is positive…watching negative movies and thinking it is negligible. It is extremely important to not lie to the self. One can listen or watch many things as long as the truth of the orientation is known, acknowledged, and understood. Clear?

Q: (L) So, in other words: awareness. Calling a spade a spade and not allowing something negative to enter you and believing it is positive. You can see it, perceive it and acknowledge it but not allow it to influence you. Because obviously, you cannot shut off your perceptions of the world, but you can control how it affects you. So, don’t let it inside, thinking it’s something that it’s not.

(Belibaste) So, see it as it is. If it is negative, see it as negative.

(L) Yeah, and they’re saying to focus on truth in order for changes to manifest in you that are positive. That is, “positive” can mean acknowledging that something is negative because it is truth.

Q: (Galatea) Choose the seeds you wish to water.

(L) Is that basically what we’re talking about here?

A: Yes

Q: (Ark) But I would say that everybody needs a panoramic retro-mirror.

A: Yes.

Q: (L) because that stuff sneaks up behind you and it gets in your blind spot.

So for my self personally I've come to understand that I do need to take time out (because I'm only human and can only do so much), that understanding myself and what basic needs I have and am ignoring (rest, relaxation, beauty etc) are important, and being able to see both the horror and the beauty in context without forgetting the other. That last part was particularly hard to grasp and has to do with black and white thinking - which again if you understand it comes from unprocessed trauma and not some sort of irresolvable fault in yourself.
The things I went through personally I always saw as minor or nothing compared to other peoples daily suffering - and I always felt extremely selfish if I went there. Turns out it was actually fear of facing my own pain and acknowledging how much of an impact it had actually had - turns out it was a lot! I can look back and see how much of my behaviour I tried desperately to change was a result of this, and hasn't been able to change until I got past the idea I was worthless and the courage to go look at my wounds objectively that I could start to change/see things more clearly.

I was thinking about this thread, beauty and horror (and for the record I liked some of the images in the video, but other impressions I didn't like) this morning - and it dawned on me that it's really just about life. That is have you ever seen a plant growing in odd places? Trying it's best to push through the cracks in a pavement for example.
The plant didn't choose to have concrete put over it! It just wants to grow, so it does the best with what it's got.
The other part is about how plants grown - they grow from (and please forgive my language) sh*t. They convert it into something creative and beautiful - which is I think something we have to choose to do, to want to transform the sh*t life and circumstance and others have dealt us.
The difference between us and plants is we can give up, or perhaps find ways of converting it that aren't optimal. We can turn it into armour or 'personality'. We can use it to curl up inside or run a thousand miles an hour. The point is that pretty much everyone on the planet hasn't got a clue how to use that fuel optimally, because we are all still stuck under our own sh*t and we don't even realise it.
If you read the quote above on PTSD perhaps that makes more sense? I really didn't see how the things that had happened to me had royally screwed me up for 30 odd years, and I'd been coping at the level of a 5 year old ever since. I'd never stopped to take a breath or truly find the tools/help to understanding and take stock of it all.

I'm sorry if it irritated anyone here or equates to noise.
Certainly wasn't my intention in posting it.

I don't think anyone is irritated with you or equating what you posted to noise, like I said I enjoyed some of the images :) But I was also aware of the other side of it too that others have brought up.
What people are sharing however is how they perceive this and the wider world, and from me how it's been a real struggle to understand that - I could see other people facing the horror and beauty in balance and I banged my head against that wall repeatedly for years until I finally stopped and looked inwards. I'd had enough of not being able to get past myself and was kind of desperate (and somewhat despairing) to change in the end.
It wasn't actually about getting past myself either, but about acknowledging it and seeing it in perspective - the things that had happened to me (and actually being able to call them for what they where - traumatic), how it felt and how it shaped me. From there I now appear to have a greater capacity to apply that to everything else in the world.

Well I feel like I'm rambling on about myself here, it's all still very new to me and I'm still processing a lot so I apologise for the lengthy post. I guess this is me sharing my gratitude for finally starting to be able to see in a more balanced way. As Laura's signature says:

He who learns must suffer
And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget
Falls drop by drop upon the heart,
And in our own despair, against our will,
Comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
Agamemnon, Aeschylus

The world can hold no meaning if you don't first understand your own suffering, or that you have suffered. And that is a terribly scaring place to be, and thing to face.

 

[Andromeda]

I've noticed the trend lately of posting these kind of videos and I think it's sad more than anything. The first one that made me really think about it was one going around on FB that showed several short clips of people doing kind things for other people, like helping some strange person on the street up after he fell. I have to admit that I got a little teary eyed myself when I watched it, but then I realized how sad and pathetic it was that such simple acts of common human decency were seen by so many as 'astonishing' and how many people latched onto it as proof that there is 'good' in other people. Other people and other things, out there somewhere. To make it worse, I think the other people were actors!

It just highlights the fact that the world is so bleak and that people feel so helpless that they have turned to a sort of 'hope and goodness' voyeurism. By doing this regularly, and experiencing these feelings by proxy and projection, I think people nurture a more distant and impersonal way of experiencing positive (and negative) emotions. In fact, I think it's pretty much emotional porn, and it can become an addiction.

So, I think that the message behind each of these videos is really important to look at. Not all are created equal. We should also look at why they touch us in the way they do. Not all of our reasons are the same, and we could probably learn a lot from thinking about it all.