Michael Beckwith once wrote, “The daily headlines describe a global culture that has been cur off from the soul.” One need not look farther then the headlines on any form of news media for stories about violence, whether it is overt, subtle, verbal, physical, emotional, psychological, or spiritual. We manifest violence through our words, actions, and thoughts. Violence is associated with power, either the misuse of the power one has or an attempt to feel powerful in a world where they have felt disempowered. Violence can be individual or structural. We hear about individual violence in stories of wars, abuse, neglect, murders, rapes, bombings, terrorism, etc. Then there is the structural violence, which leaves entire groups of people in a state of suffering without a direct trace of why they are suffering. It is a form of violence where some social structures harm people by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. Structural violence institutionalizes violence through systems of inequality such as ethnocentrism, classism, racism, sexism, nationalism, heterosexism and ageism. This institutionalized form of violence can lead to increases in the more direct individual forms of violence including family violence, racial violence, hate crimes, terrorism, genocide, and war

We can choose to be aligned with structural and individual acts of violence or we can choose to align ourselves with our consciousness and our spirit. We can choose to think with our hearts and not just with our heads. We can choose to be impeccable with our words and actions and not think, say, or do anything negative about or to others or ourselves.

We can choose not to be a part of the global infrastructure, which institutionalizes violence. Rather, we can choose to be a part of an emerging infrastructure, grounded in love and spirituality and is broadcasting love via the hearts of those involved in this transformation.

The headlines we see on the news are based on fear, suspicion, and violence. While these forces are powerful, love can bring about transformative change in people and situations. Being connected to one’s soul, being loving in one’s thoughts, words, and actions can triumph over violence through peace, compassion, honor, and dignity.

So often, what keep us from being loving and compassionate is fear. Not necessarily fear of what we do not know, but fear of what we think we know. We have been led to believe so many lies by the media and other institutions we may no longer know what is truth and what we have been taught to believe is truth. As we grow and evolve, we sort through all we have been taught to believe and come to what we know in our souls to be true.

Doing so is not easy. It requires one to align one’s self with honesty and know we already have the inner strength, intelligence, and ability to be at peace while we sort through all the things we have agreed to during our lives.

Each day we have a choice to align one’s self with the headlines of the world and live in a state of fear or align one’s self with the heart and live in a state of love and compassion. Moving from being aligned with the headlines to the heart is a process and a journey. However, as we do this we learn to replace violent thoughts, words, and actions with loving and healing thoughts, words, and actions. The question then is what are you choosing to align yourself with?