As 2025 unfolds, more and more news break that threaten our peace, security, and well-being – ours and of many people we know, and of even more that we don’t.
This torrent of unwelcome updates on our life is streaming not only from one, even if very important, country.
There is also a clear acceleration of the climate change. There are multiple wars, the migration crisis, the cost-of-living crisis.
The-world-as-we-know-it-is-breaking-up crisis.
And, it is only early days.
What I mean is that it is early days not only of that one particular government, but of the unfolding monumental changes in the world and in our way of life that these things signal of, louder and louder with each passing year.
I hear many people looking for help from spiritual teachers and self-help gurus.
Many are asking, what can I do to help myself stay centered?
What practice should I use, what trick should I employ to calm myself down?
How can I survive, I already feel that I can’t take this nerve-racking chaos, heartbreak, and sheer insanity anymore?
But, dears, there is no such *practice.*
There are indeed spiritual and psychological tools that can help us keep calm-er, to return to our center quicker, to get back our strength sooner after we go down in exasperation and despair. And that might help for a little while.
If you happen to be an artist, a musician, a performer, you can pour your feelings into your art and get a lot of relief through that – but that too won’t last very long.
There is only one thing that universally helps, and that is changing your focus to helping others. Nothing else will work for building and maintaining a float on which you will be able to survive and endure these times.
It can be help of any kind. It is not difficult to find someone to help: there are *always* people who are worse off.
For the purpose, regular help is the best. Becoming part of a community, or creating one with the focus of helping someone, is the double best.
When you have that, using your practices and psychological tools will support your mental health quite efficiently.
Without taking the focus off yourself, nothing will do.