March 19th- quote today about opinion and my opinion on this

You always own the option of having no opinion. There is never any need to get worked up or to trouble your soul about things you can’t control. These things are not asking to be judged by you. Leave them alone.
Marcus Aurelius MEDITATIONS, 6.52

From: https://lifehacker.com/opinions-are-optional-1821468158

And now I am going to expound on my opinions lol

As I listen to the news and have conversations with people I am struck by the many, varied opinions there are on the virus crisis we are now in. It seems impossible to tune out the constant feed of information and opinions bombarding us all the time. Yes we have to listen to get updates of how we can do our part to slow the spread of this disease and keep others safe. And ... we can also choose to not let the opinions and contradictions and theories swirling around affect us. We can let them slide away and not give them space in our thoughts and, most effectively, slow their spread by not sharing them!! 

The disease of fear spreads much faster and wider than viral infections because we don't recognize it as a disease. I say fear is a disease because it puts us into fight or flight mode, where we become protective of ourselves to the point of not paying attention to the damage it does outside a certain sphere. When it becomes more important for me to have my own stockpile for tomorrow than to make sure everyone is able to get what they need for today I am feeding that fear, and it spreads like cancer cells. The happiest people are those who share wholeheartedly, which doesn't mean they don't look after themselves, its just that tomorrow is never certain anyways and the bigger the community that shares and looks after each other the more resources are available to look after everyone... Paradoxes make the world go round:)

It seems counter intuitive to not have an opinion or share our opinions when everyone is talking about the same thing... and yet every opinion we have is our judgment of things we hear that we interpret from what we think using our own perspective. This means there are as many opinions as there are people in the world. And we are all infected!  And we don't have to be; we can control what we think.  

There is a antidote for this. Very simple, yet like a vaccination by needle we need to face a little pain for a lot of gain. And I don't know why it is so hard for us to collectively do this... we love hearing about people who are taking action, we can all be these people. I'm not a nurse, I'm not a millionaire, I don't have special skills to share, all I have and all I need to have is a heart that feels the suffering beyond my own. This vaccine is not a cure for what I am giving up, there is no self sacrifice, we are blessed to be able to make someone smile, feel heard or seen or valued and feel part of a community that cares. I am gaining when I take this vaccination ... the vaccine is finding where I can be of service to anyone or thing other than myself in any small way and feeling gratitude that I can do something. I think all of us know this intuitively, it is just far to easy to get caught in the contagiousness of fear of the unknown that breeds the opinions.

We have more abundance in our hearts than we can ever use up, in fact it grows the more we use it to make a positive difference outside ourselves. Inoculating our minds from the infection of spreading opinions and judgement and living with our eyes open to other people suffering where they are is a great place to start. One minute, one day, one step at a time... tomorrow will come regardless of our opinions.

With Love

Jeanne