Ripple effect of responsible reaction during a crisis

I have been thinking a lot about ‘how we can prevent ourselves from reacting irresponsibly to a situation’ so thought about writing something on the subject.

Lately, I have realized that it’s almost impossible to not be impacted by all that is going on in the world even if you are one of those who likes to avoid negativity. The most horrid part is that we all have a tendency to only focus on negative and highlight it on social media — a few influencers and leaders are sadly taking undue advantage of it without even realizing the permanent destruction it is causing. I am not going to take names here to draw unnecessary attention to yet another negativity (;))

But have you thought about why this is happening? Is it a crisis? Media? Politicians? Economic downfall? When I went deeper into it, I realized how human civilization has always survived crisis and pandemic so that’s not the only reason because we are great at surviving and thriving.

On digging deeper, I realized that we all are simply ‘reacting’ without taking any responsibility for how those words/actions create a ripple effect. Consider an example of this.

• A on Twitter says something
• B with millions of following gets triggered and reacts.
• The reaction of B causes millions of triggers to millions of people.
• The original message and the point of it is lost.
• Meanwhile the media monetizes.
• We never come to a conclusion.
• And hence our crisis saga continues to grow. People become angrier and the world seems to be collapsing.

And I have personally experienced the impact of all these steps.

I can go on and on into the science of it but that’s not the point. The point for me is to encourage all of us to find a solution to this ongoing craziness at an individual level.

Can we do just this?

Take responsibility for the person in front of us and do that one thing which would diffuse the reaction. For context, here is something I do:

1. Every time, someone or something angers or disappoints me — I try to take a pause. I try not to react and leave the space till I can respond without hurting.

2. If I do have an urge to respond or react — I close my eyes and send love to this person in front of me.

I am not an expert on the subject but I have consciously experimented this approach many times and possibly prevented a lot of negative spiraling at a small scale.

Even if it’s obvious, please share one trick you use to diffuse that plausible ripple effect of negativity.

We are in this together you guys! Let’s truly unite as a species and do what is needed to not be more divided. Meanwhile in the universal scheme of things, we are anyway in the 6th mass extinction.