Living with Aggressively Angry People The most important consideration in living with someone who is aggressively angry is safety. You need to be able to feel safe in your home. If the person you are living with has a tendency to be aggressive in ways that are threatening, you need to set clear boundaries about these behaviors. If those boundaries are broken, you need to call the police. It is important to note that calling the police is a significant intervention. I do NOT recommend doing this as a threat, doing it to have the upper hand, doing it to embarrass the person or doing it as payback. If you call the police, it will have serious consequences. It is likely someone will be arrested and go to jail. There will likely be significant financial and legal complications. It is frequently the beginning of the end (or the end of the end) of a relationship. However, if your safety is truly in jeopardy, do not hesitate!
Living with angry people is difficult. Since all of us are angry in some way, this means that relationships are usually difficult. The reason I mention this here is to emphasize the importance of getting away from blaming the person who is aggressively angry. The reality is that they are in a great deal of pain, and need help to deal with their pain and their anger as well.
One of the standard interventions I recommend for people dealing with a partner who is angry is to try saying the following six words: "What do you need right now?" In order to be able to do this, you have to be able to not be overwhelmed with your own injury. That's not always easy to do.
This question is especially effective because, in addressing the needs of the person who is aggressively angry, it goes underneath the anger. When this question works, you are saying, in effect, "I know that you are angry, and that is ok. I know that there is a reason that you are angry, and I know that it is because something is hurting you. I am concerned about your injury, and I would like to help attend to it." Isn't it amazing that you can condense all of that into just six words?
Now, sometimes an aggressively angry person will try and hold on to their anger for a while. They may have learned that they are safe when they are angry. It may take two or three times of repeating the question. If the anger doesn't start to get diffused when this is happening, then something else is going on. It may be using anger as manipulation, or they may just be unavailable.
Either way, this would be a good time to call time-out. In order to be effective, time-outs need to be time-limited and honored. Honored means that the time-ins happen as well.
Living with someone who suffers from aggressive anger isn't easy, but if you don't blame them, eventually that anger should dissipate. If it doesn't, seek professional help.
Anger Styles: Red Hot or Aggressive Anger
While all forms of anger are appropriate to use in some circumstances, the more extreme kinds can be problematic if they form a style, or a typical kind of response to injury. Mental health is about having a full range of options, knowing when particular type of response is likely to be most effective and being able to use your anger appropriately.
Aggressive anger is one of the more destructive interpersonal styles. This is what people think about when they normally use the word anger. Aggressive anger is characterized by angry outbursts and what is known as having a bad temper. People who have difficulty containing their anger get into trouble, in their marriages, at work and out in the world as well. It is destructive to intimate relationships, since partners of people who have aggressive anger as their style, intimidate others. Frequently you will intimidate others even when you don't mean to. It's hard for the people who love you to feel safe. If you have children, you are probably in danger of damaging them through your angry style.
The good news is that there's nothing wrong with your anger. The problem is what you are doing with it. Anger is meant to fix what is hurting you, and if you are overwhelmed by your anger, you probably don't understand that it is likely that you have an accumulation of injuries. If your response to a relatively minor injury results in an outburst, likely you've got old injuries from the past, adding to the pain you experience from the more minor upsetting events day to day.
Another possibility is that you may be suffering from a mood disorder. Both Major Depression and Bipolar Disorder can cause irritability. Also, another problem to be aware of is alcohol. If you have a problem with alcohol, it can cause irritability as well. If you think you are suffering from any of these problems, I recommend that you seek professional help as soon as possible.
Lets go back to the good news, which is that nothing is wrong with your anger. You will need to learn to be able to work to bring it under control. You need to learn what is hurting you and causing you to have so much anger. There are ways to release and ventilate anger that will not hurt you, or anyone else. The more you can learn to use the energy from you anger to empower you, to nurture you and attend to the injuries that are causing it, the more the angry outbursts will recede. The pressure will come off, but it may take a concerted effort. Don't give up. It's difficult to change your anger style, but the energy of your anger is meant to fix what is hurting you. Keep trying!
Aggressive anger is one of the more destructive interpersonal styles. This is what people think about when they normally use the word anger. Aggressive anger is characterized by angry outbursts and what is known as having a bad temper. People who have difficulty containing their anger get into trouble, in their marriages, at work and out in the world as well. It is destructive to intimate relationships, since partners of people who have aggressive anger as their style, intimidate others. Frequently you will intimidate others even when you don't mean to. It's hard for the people who love you to feel safe. If you have children, you are probably in danger of damaging them through your angry style.
The good news is that there's nothing wrong with your anger. The problem is what you are doing with it. Anger is meant to fix what is hurting you, and if you are overwhelmed by your anger, you probably don't understand that it is likely that you have an accumulation of injuries. If your response to a relatively minor injury results in an outburst, likely you've got old injuries from the past, adding to the pain you experience from the more minor upsetting events day to day.
Another possibility is that you may be suffering from a mood disorder. Both Major Depression and Bipolar Disorder can cause irritability. Also, another problem to be aware of is alcohol. If you have a problem with alcohol, it can cause irritability as well. If you think you are suffering from any of these problems, I recommend that you seek professional help as soon as possible.
Lets go back to the good news, which is that nothing is wrong with your anger. You will need to learn to be able to work to bring it under control. You need to learn what is hurting you and causing you to have so much anger. There are ways to release and ventilate anger that will not hurt you, or anyone else. The more you can learn to use the energy from you anger to empower you, to nurture you and attend to the injuries that are causing it, the more the angry outbursts will recede. The pressure will come off, but it may take a concerted effort. Don't give up. It's difficult to change your anger style, but the energy of your anger is meant to fix what is hurting you. Keep trying!
Anger Styles: Ice Cold or Passive-Aggressive Anger
While all forms of anger are appropriate to use in some circumstances, the more extreme kinds can be problematic if they form a style, or a typical kind of response to injury. Mental health is about having a full range of options, knowing when particular type of response is likely to be most effective and being able to use your anger appropriately.
Passive-Aggressive anger is one of the more destructive interpersonal styles. It is a behavior characterized by the phrase, "You can't make me!" The statement is undeniably true. We can hurt people; we can threaten them, or lock them up. But we cannot make people perform. People only perform out of a willingness to do so. Since relationships are built on agreements, if someone makes an agreement and then doesn't follow through, this is angry behavior that is based on not doing something. That aspect of "not doing" is what makes this kind of behavior passive-aggressive.
As a style of anger use, passive-aggressive behavior is incredibly destructive to relationships. It destroys trust, and the people on the other side of this behavior experience it as crazy making. They hear the words of agreement spoken, and continue to hope that agreements will be kept, only to experience escalating levels of injury, frustration and anger.
In this way, passive-aggressive behavior draws anger towards the person behaving that way. The partner, often called the "Hostile-Dependent," makes more and more accusations, all true, about the passive-aggressive partner's betrayal of trust though breaking agreements.
One of the main difficulties for someone who has a passive-aggressive style is that they are frequently out of touch with their feelings. They don't know that what they're doing is angry. Frequently they are puzzled and resentful of their partner's constant anger and disapproval.
Another problem in changing passive-aggressive behavior is that it has some of the dynamics of addiction associated with it. Doing what you want instead of what you've agreed to do feels good every time in the short term, even if it's destroying your relationship.
If you've identified that you have a passive-aggressive style, and you want to begin to change it, you'll need to do several things. First, you'll need to work hard to get in touch with your emotions. Second, you'll need to realize that no one is really trying to "make you" do the things that you agree to. Your partner wants your participation to be voluntary. Third, since fear of rejection often plays a major role in making agreements that you really don't want to keep, you'll need to find your courage to say "no" when you don't agree. Finally, don't give up. It's difficult to change your anger style. Keep trying!
Passive-Aggressive anger is one of the more destructive interpersonal styles. It is a behavior characterized by the phrase, "You can't make me!" The statement is undeniably true. We can hurt people; we can threaten them, or lock them up. But we cannot make people perform. People only perform out of a willingness to do so. Since relationships are built on agreements, if someone makes an agreement and then doesn't follow through, this is angry behavior that is based on not doing something. That aspect of "not doing" is what makes this kind of behavior passive-aggressive.
As a style of anger use, passive-aggressive behavior is incredibly destructive to relationships. It destroys trust, and the people on the other side of this behavior experience it as crazy making. They hear the words of agreement spoken, and continue to hope that agreements will be kept, only to experience escalating levels of injury, frustration and anger.
In this way, passive-aggressive behavior draws anger towards the person behaving that way. The partner, often called the "Hostile-Dependent," makes more and more accusations, all true, about the passive-aggressive partner's betrayal of trust though breaking agreements.
One of the main difficulties for someone who has a passive-aggressive style is that they are frequently out of touch with their feelings. They don't know that what they're doing is angry. Frequently they are puzzled and resentful of their partner's constant anger and disapproval.
Another problem in changing passive-aggressive behavior is that it has some of the dynamics of addiction associated with it. Doing what you want instead of what you've agreed to do feels good every time in the short term, even if it's destroying your relationship.
If you've identified that you have a passive-aggressive style, and you want to begin to change it, you'll need to do several things. First, you'll need to work hard to get in touch with your emotions. Second, you'll need to realize that no one is really trying to "make you" do the things that you agree to. Your partner wants your participation to be voluntary. Third, since fear of rejection often plays a major role in making agreements that you really don't want to keep, you'll need to find your courage to say "no" when you don't agree. Finally, don't give up. It's difficult to change your anger style. Keep trying!
Your Power, Global Warming and the Organic and Holistic Movement
A Speech by John R. Rifkin, Ph.D.
For the Second Annual OH Expo, 8/19/06
I want to start by thanking Stacy Plouffe and Carmelita Garcia, the founders and organizers of the Organic and Holistic Expo, for inviting me to speak to you today, and for their vision in bringing together people who share their views of the need to market Earth-friendly and ecologically sound services and products. I also want to thank all of you for coming out to the expo today and supporting the Organic and Holistic movement.
Normally, I do most of my talks about anger, power and relationships. Today, however, in honor of the OH Expo, I want to talk about your power, global warming and the Organic and Holistic movement.
The Organic and Holistic movement is ecological almost by definition. Practitioners of Holistic healing view the body as a whole system that is interconnected with the whole of the planet. Organic foods are grown and raised with a view that pesticides and artificial fertilizers may not function well within the context of either the body or the planet. Traces of these chemicals can cause harm to the environment and therefore to the people that live on the planet. There is plenty of evidence of pesticides negatively impacting our health.
I remember reading "Dune," by Frank Herbert in 1967, and discovering the concepts of ecology by reading a science fiction novel. Later, in the summer of 1971, after I had moved to Colorado , I studied with Buckminster Fuller's World Game, where we attempted to design the systems that would work best for us as a planet, disregarding politics and conventional boundaries. We did this, to some extent, by using Dr. Fuller's invention of the least distorted maps of the globe. He used a 20 sided solid, a duo decahedron, to collapse the globe onto. Then, since this is a figure that can be made flat in a number of ways, you can unfold it to have a picture of all the land surrounded by water, or of all the water surrounded by land. Using these innovative maps, it was easier to look at the most efficient transportation and energy systems. It was a stimulating and exciting time. It's work that still needs to be done for us to function efficiently as a planet of people.
Today, as we see the beginnings of climate change based of human activity, it is increasingly clear that changes are coming to how humanity will be able to live on this planet. It is clear that global warming is based on the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Our responses to these changes will necessarily be based on our learning to develop technologies that are more and more green, more and more holistic and which use energy that does not generate carbon dioxide.
As I've come to look at where we need to be going in the immediate future, it's clear that we need to transfer directly from solar energy to electric energy. This technology is already available today! If you can afford to by the panels, which are rapidly coming down in price, you can live carbon free in terms of your home's energy needs. If you can afford to buy an electric car, you can drive carbon free.
Only the natural energies that come directly from solar energy are truly carbon free, and only carbon free energy can pull us back from the brink of disaster related to the build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the global warming that follows from this. Once we have carbon free energy, we can meet all of our transportation needs through electricity and its applications though electric cars and mass transit.
Earlier this summer I was buying some roses at an organic nursery in Boulder and they had a quotation that captured my attention. The quote was from Sir Francis Bacon, an author who is considered to be the father of inductive reasoning. To give this quote perspective, Francis Bacon lived in the late 1600's, and yet it has relevance even today: "Nature is only to be commanded by obeying her."
This quote by a great man almost four centuries ago seems like a great lead into my talk today. It is interesting in that it captures our need to be in charge and to be powerful, yet also captures our powerlessness in the face of the power of nature and the planet, all in the same short sentence. We are powerless in the face of floods and droughts, hurricanes and other storms.
I want to go back and talk a little bit about technology, which I mentioned a few minutes ago. The dictionary defines technology as "a capability given by the practical application of knowledge." Technology is using what we know to better our human condition.
The human condition is not easy, in spite of some of the ease we experience today in this country. Much of humanity is still in the process of trying to climb up out of the mud, to move from a poverty-stricken, subsistence quality of life to one of dignity and accomplishment. To move beyond that to a life of true fulfillment is still a distant dream to many of us.
Yes, life is hard for everyone, and even harder for those of us living at this subsistence level. Technology represents a way to improve all of our lives.
And yet our technology cannot command nature unless it obeys her. This is a lesson that the Organic and Holistic movement embraces. We are one planet, interconnected, needing a green technology to recognize and work within this concept. Our technology needs to work in harmony with Mother Earth.
We are moving, gradually, towards developing and utilizing ecological technology. Fuels whose only pollution is heat, recycling abilities that will eventually approach 100 per cent of all manufactured material and biodegradable technologies. As I said earlier, we need to capture solar power in all of the available forms it takes, hydroelectric power, wind power, and the direct translation of solar to electric.
In the meantime, how do we find our personal power to support this holistic process? How do we use our personal power to support the movement of civilization towards the goal of fulfillment in the lives of every possible human on our planet?
In my book, "The Healing Power of Anger: The Unexpected Path to Love and Fulfillment," I discuss in great length the process of individuals achieving their own personal power and recovery from psychological and emotional problems. I'll give a brief overview here to make sure we understand the role anger plays in empowerment.
All problems begin with injury. The two most primary human emotions are pleasure and pain. For the most part, we don't have too many problems with pleasure, though the human psyche is so creative that even pleasure can be pulled into the service of pain through addictions.
But the primary negative human emotion is pain or injury. This starts with the fact that we need a relatively constant temperature and an ongoing intake of potable water and nutrition. We need to be safe.
These needs cause pain or injury when they are not fulfilled. Three secondary emotions follow pain or injury. Sadness I define as a grieving or honoring of that injury. Fear is energy the body generates to avoid being hurt again. Finally, I define anger as energy the body generates to fix what is hurting you.
The central thesis of my book is that when you begin to look at anger as energy, it is easier to be more compassionate towards those who feel anger. Also, when you look at anger as energy, it becomes clear that it has to go somewhere. The energy of the anger that you experience from injuries every day will either be used functionally or it will go into some form of dysfunction.
There are only two ways you can use your anger functionally. Self-nurturance is when you can act directly on yourself, to nurture yourself. Empowerment is when you can act on the world, to get the world to nurture you. If your anger about your injuries isn't used in one of these two ways, it will go into some form of dysfunction.
This dysfunction can be acting out your anger in a destructive behavior to things or others, or it will be actively self- abusive. Either one of these choices will leave you feeling worse about yourself.
So, the question for today, and this talk, is how do we find ways of using our anger about the ways in which the world does not work functionally to use it for empowerment? How can we act on the world to move the social agenda forward in ways that are consistent with our beliefs in holism? How do we use our personal power to influence others and move us all closer to functioning within our interconnectedness with the planet?
The Organic and Holistic movement looks at the world as completely interconnected. My personal transportation utilizing fossil fuel helps to warm our planet which harms the home of the polar bear and threatens many species, which harms me and the entire planet. Yet I still need and desire personal transportation. Remember James Taylor's song, "Traffic Jam?" There's a great line at the end where he says "You know that I thought that I was cool, runnin' around on fossil fuel, 'til I found out what I was doing was drivin' down the road to ruin."
We have to have greener, non-carbon dioxide generating personal transportation. We have to have good, affordable mass transit. We have the ability to generate electricity directly from the sun. We have the ability to use this energy for personal transportation. Not doing this becomes a moral decision when the consequences impact the sustainability of our planet.
We all have innumerable decisions to make every day. Do you throw away that aluminum can or recycle it? It is becoming a moral decision. Do you watch someone else throw away an aluminum can or do you volunteer to recycle it for them? How about that plastic water bottle?
Just as I encourage my clients to not live in to depression or anxiety, and to take back their personal power in their own personal struggles to overcome their emotional problems and to thrive, I'm here today to encourage you to continue your fight to move us all forward to living in harmony with this planet. In the handout that is available and circulating, I have copied a list of ten recommendations from the Union of Concerned Scientists. These are things that you can personally do, right now, to immediately slow the amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere and slow or even reverse the rate of global warming.
Now it's clear, that we must all begin to use our personal power in the individual, daily decisions that we make. It is also clear that the problem is one that presents itself to the whole planet, and that systemic change is necessary to reverse global warming. We need the governments to all recognize, as many governments already do, that changes need to be made. We need the governments of the world to support the utilization of solar power and electric cars.
If the governments are supporting the utilization of this technology, the massive production of these technologies will dramatically bring down the costs. Every home needs to have photovoltaic panels and or shingles so that they can produce solar energy. Electric cars need to be the standard and their efficiencies increased. These things can be done. They are viable right now. And our planet is in peril if we do not get the word out to everyone.
Use your personal power! Vote! Vote at the ballot box for the people who will support moving us forward into green technologies! Vote with your dollars for products that support and live in harmony with this planet! Vote with your energy for recycling waste products. Vote by planting young trees to reduce the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the air. Vote by recycling as much as you can. Vote with all the daily decisions you make. Vote by not letting your car run when it doesn't have to. Vote by talking to others about the need to become conscious and aware of these issues. If you can afford it, vote by buying a hybrid or electric automobile. Vote with your work for Organic and Holistic endeavors that will continue to make this planet viable and support humanity as we grow past our adolescence and towards maturity as a species that recognizes our creativity, diversity and need for the fulfillment of each individual.
You, who are here, today, are the leaders! Your personal power will only continue to grow as our interconnectedness becomes a more and more obvious reality.
One last thought: if you haven't yet seen the Al Gore movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," do so as soon as you can. Recommend it to others.
Remember, "Nature is only to be commanded by obeying her."
Thanks and power and good luck to you all!
For the Second Annual OH Expo, 8/19/06
I want to start by thanking Stacy Plouffe and Carmelita Garcia, the founders and organizers of the Organic and Holistic Expo, for inviting me to speak to you today, and for their vision in bringing together people who share their views of the need to market Earth-friendly and ecologically sound services and products. I also want to thank all of you for coming out to the expo today and supporting the Organic and Holistic movement.
Normally, I do most of my talks about anger, power and relationships. Today, however, in honor of the OH Expo, I want to talk about your power, global warming and the Organic and Holistic movement.
The Organic and Holistic movement is ecological almost by definition. Practitioners of Holistic healing view the body as a whole system that is interconnected with the whole of the planet. Organic foods are grown and raised with a view that pesticides and artificial fertilizers may not function well within the context of either the body or the planet. Traces of these chemicals can cause harm to the environment and therefore to the people that live on the planet. There is plenty of evidence of pesticides negatively impacting our health.
I remember reading "Dune," by Frank Herbert in 1967, and discovering the concepts of ecology by reading a science fiction novel. Later, in the summer of 1971, after I had moved to Colorado , I studied with Buckminster Fuller's World Game, where we attempted to design the systems that would work best for us as a planet, disregarding politics and conventional boundaries. We did this, to some extent, by using Dr. Fuller's invention of the least distorted maps of the globe. He used a 20 sided solid, a duo decahedron, to collapse the globe onto. Then, since this is a figure that can be made flat in a number of ways, you can unfold it to have a picture of all the land surrounded by water, or of all the water surrounded by land. Using these innovative maps, it was easier to look at the most efficient transportation and energy systems. It was a stimulating and exciting time. It's work that still needs to be done for us to function efficiently as a planet of people.
Today, as we see the beginnings of climate change based of human activity, it is increasingly clear that changes are coming to how humanity will be able to live on this planet. It is clear that global warming is based on the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Our responses to these changes will necessarily be based on our learning to develop technologies that are more and more green, more and more holistic and which use energy that does not generate carbon dioxide.
As I've come to look at where we need to be going in the immediate future, it's clear that we need to transfer directly from solar energy to electric energy. This technology is already available today! If you can afford to by the panels, which are rapidly coming down in price, you can live carbon free in terms of your home's energy needs. If you can afford to buy an electric car, you can drive carbon free.
Only the natural energies that come directly from solar energy are truly carbon free, and only carbon free energy can pull us back from the brink of disaster related to the build up of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the global warming that follows from this. Once we have carbon free energy, we can meet all of our transportation needs through electricity and its applications though electric cars and mass transit.
Earlier this summer I was buying some roses at an organic nursery in Boulder and they had a quotation that captured my attention. The quote was from Sir Francis Bacon, an author who is considered to be the father of inductive reasoning. To give this quote perspective, Francis Bacon lived in the late 1600's, and yet it has relevance even today: "Nature is only to be commanded by obeying her."
This quote by a great man almost four centuries ago seems like a great lead into my talk today. It is interesting in that it captures our need to be in charge and to be powerful, yet also captures our powerlessness in the face of the power of nature and the planet, all in the same short sentence. We are powerless in the face of floods and droughts, hurricanes and other storms.
I want to go back and talk a little bit about technology, which I mentioned a few minutes ago. The dictionary defines technology as "a capability given by the practical application of knowledge." Technology is using what we know to better our human condition.
The human condition is not easy, in spite of some of the ease we experience today in this country. Much of humanity is still in the process of trying to climb up out of the mud, to move from a poverty-stricken, subsistence quality of life to one of dignity and accomplishment. To move beyond that to a life of true fulfillment is still a distant dream to many of us.
Yes, life is hard for everyone, and even harder for those of us living at this subsistence level. Technology represents a way to improve all of our lives.
And yet our technology cannot command nature unless it obeys her. This is a lesson that the Organic and Holistic movement embraces. We are one planet, interconnected, needing a green technology to recognize and work within this concept. Our technology needs to work in harmony with Mother Earth.
We are moving, gradually, towards developing and utilizing ecological technology. Fuels whose only pollution is heat, recycling abilities that will eventually approach 100 per cent of all manufactured material and biodegradable technologies. As I said earlier, we need to capture solar power in all of the available forms it takes, hydroelectric power, wind power, and the direct translation of solar to electric.
In the meantime, how do we find our personal power to support this holistic process? How do we use our personal power to support the movement of civilization towards the goal of fulfillment in the lives of every possible human on our planet?
In my book, "The Healing Power of Anger: The Unexpected Path to Love and Fulfillment," I discuss in great length the process of individuals achieving their own personal power and recovery from psychological and emotional problems. I'll give a brief overview here to make sure we understand the role anger plays in empowerment.
All problems begin with injury. The two most primary human emotions are pleasure and pain. For the most part, we don't have too many problems with pleasure, though the human psyche is so creative that even pleasure can be pulled into the service of pain through addictions.
But the primary negative human emotion is pain or injury. This starts with the fact that we need a relatively constant temperature and an ongoing intake of potable water and nutrition. We need to be safe.
These needs cause pain or injury when they are not fulfilled. Three secondary emotions follow pain or injury. Sadness I define as a grieving or honoring of that injury. Fear is energy the body generates to avoid being hurt again. Finally, I define anger as energy the body generates to fix what is hurting you.
The central thesis of my book is that when you begin to look at anger as energy, it is easier to be more compassionate towards those who feel anger. Also, when you look at anger as energy, it becomes clear that it has to go somewhere. The energy of the anger that you experience from injuries every day will either be used functionally or it will go into some form of dysfunction.
There are only two ways you can use your anger functionally. Self-nurturance is when you can act directly on yourself, to nurture yourself. Empowerment is when you can act on the world, to get the world to nurture you. If your anger about your injuries isn't used in one of these two ways, it will go into some form of dysfunction.
This dysfunction can be acting out your anger in a destructive behavior to things or others, or it will be actively self- abusive. Either one of these choices will leave you feeling worse about yourself.
So, the question for today, and this talk, is how do we find ways of using our anger about the ways in which the world does not work functionally to use it for empowerment? How can we act on the world to move the social agenda forward in ways that are consistent with our beliefs in holism? How do we use our personal power to influence others and move us all closer to functioning within our interconnectedness with the planet?
The Organic and Holistic movement looks at the world as completely interconnected. My personal transportation utilizing fossil fuel helps to warm our planet which harms the home of the polar bear and threatens many species, which harms me and the entire planet. Yet I still need and desire personal transportation. Remember James Taylor's song, "Traffic Jam?" There's a great line at the end where he says "You know that I thought that I was cool, runnin' around on fossil fuel, 'til I found out what I was doing was drivin' down the road to ruin."
We have to have greener, non-carbon dioxide generating personal transportation. We have to have good, affordable mass transit. We have the ability to generate electricity directly from the sun. We have the ability to use this energy for personal transportation. Not doing this becomes a moral decision when the consequences impact the sustainability of our planet.
We all have innumerable decisions to make every day. Do you throw away that aluminum can or recycle it? It is becoming a moral decision. Do you watch someone else throw away an aluminum can or do you volunteer to recycle it for them? How about that plastic water bottle?
Just as I encourage my clients to not live in to depression or anxiety, and to take back their personal power in their own personal struggles to overcome their emotional problems and to thrive, I'm here today to encourage you to continue your fight to move us all forward to living in harmony with this planet. In the handout that is available and circulating, I have copied a list of ten recommendations from the Union of Concerned Scientists. These are things that you can personally do, right now, to immediately slow the amount of carbon being released into the atmosphere and slow or even reverse the rate of global warming.
Now it's clear, that we must all begin to use our personal power in the individual, daily decisions that we make. It is also clear that the problem is one that presents itself to the whole planet, and that systemic change is necessary to reverse global warming. We need the governments to all recognize, as many governments already do, that changes need to be made. We need the governments of the world to support the utilization of solar power and electric cars.
If the governments are supporting the utilization of this technology, the massive production of these technologies will dramatically bring down the costs. Every home needs to have photovoltaic panels and or shingles so that they can produce solar energy. Electric cars need to be the standard and their efficiencies increased. These things can be done. They are viable right now. And our planet is in peril if we do not get the word out to everyone.
Use your personal power! Vote! Vote at the ballot box for the people who will support moving us forward into green technologies! Vote with your dollars for products that support and live in harmony with this planet! Vote with your energy for recycling waste products. Vote by planting young trees to reduce the amount of Carbon Dioxide in the air. Vote by recycling as much as you can. Vote with all the daily decisions you make. Vote by not letting your car run when it doesn't have to. Vote by talking to others about the need to become conscious and aware of these issues. If you can afford it, vote by buying a hybrid or electric automobile. Vote with your work for Organic and Holistic endeavors that will continue to make this planet viable and support humanity as we grow past our adolescence and towards maturity as a species that recognizes our creativity, diversity and need for the fulfillment of each individual.
You, who are here, today, are the leaders! Your personal power will only continue to grow as our interconnectedness becomes a more and more obvious reality.
One last thought: if you haven't yet seen the Al Gore movie, "An Inconvenient Truth," do so as soon as you can. Recommend it to others.
Remember, "Nature is only to be commanded by obeying her."
Thanks and power and good luck to you all!
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