May 28, 2020 2 min read Coaching

Why Are People So Fucking Angry, Right Now?

Is it Because of the COVID-19 Pandemic or Something Else?

I’ve been writing and talking a lot about how we can be better people, how we can be the best and most human-hearted versions of ourselves doing the COVID-19 pandemic.

In my podcast and article from last week, An Invitation to Experience Things As They Are in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic, I went really deep, to the point that a couple of people suggested I try to “break things down a bit more.” I realize that, while I am deep into the study and contemplation of the Tao Te Ching and how to frame that with my Way of Queer Leadership research, I can go so deep that I might lose the listener.

While that was never my intention, I would invite you to listen to An Invitation to Experience Things As They Are in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic multiple times:

Not to sound egotistical, but I am listening to it again because there were things I said that I only intuited and spoke aloud while recording the episode. This is an approach I sometimes take with my work: I prepare well in advance with written notes, but for that particular episode I allowed myself to go into something like a meditative trance while I was speaking. I didn’t want to hold back or judge my thoughts as they arose. In the review of that episode, I am beyond pleased with what I recorded because I feel I have found the way forward on this path I have been trodding for a very long time.

In this video, I talk about the present and observable factors that explain why we respond or react to the stresses, threats, and challenges that this pandemic has brought into our lives. I discuss,

How “hedonic tone” affects (and controls) how we feel which affects our nervous system;
The role of the amygdala (the “reptilian” brain) and how it uses our various senses to read the environment to establish the level of threat or safety to us;
Why the effects of COVID-19 on society make it challenging to create prediction and response, and thus a feeling of safety and security (low hedonic tone);
Why we are hard-wired for negativity as a survival mechanism;
Why there is no such thing as a negative mood or mindset;
Why good news and good feelings are short-lived and seem to do little to reduce “negativity,” and;
How we can witness the world to more easily understand and create strategies to “accept things as they are.”