I think a lot of people are struggling, in a lot of different ways, and many of them are looking for answers wherever they can, or finding ways to express their voices. Sometimes that means ranting on social media, posting videos, writing a blog, making comments. Sometimes that means reaching out to friends and family, having close discussions, finding safe spaces to express your concerns and try to work towards meaningful and effective action.

I know people across different eras and civilizations and countries have endured things of great hardship. It’s never been easy being a human being. I haven’t met a single human being that has it “all figured out,” who isn’t fighting some kind of struggle I know nothing about.

I don’t make presumptions, and I focus mostly on trying to care for others where I can, but also understanding that it takes a lot of attention and focus simply to care for myself so I can be there for the people who matter deeply to me. I make an effort to stay in touch with people in a healthy way, but also to grow in awareness and consciousness (and conscientiousness), to empower myself, while working on keeping myself engaged intellectually and spiritually.

Faith of some kind – and I don’t necessarily mean the religious kind – is helpful, arguably even essential. As human beings, we choose what has meaning for us, and cultivating our beliefs is essential for our being. If you’re trying, and you’re struggling, I think you’re doing something right.

While thinking is important, it’s equally important to be able to let go, and simply “be” without being carried away by your thoughts – to realize that’s all they are, that your suffering has purpose, that it doesn’t have to feel heavy. But you need to choose to feel it, to sit in it, and to not see it as a necessarily bad thing. Things simply are, and experiencing them simply is, and when we embrace what is without trying to change or escape it, when we sit there and breathe it in, we realize we also have the power to breathe it out, and choose to remember what’s beautiful, and believe in a brighter tomorrow, and take a small action now, to love, to care, and to say something to move towards it.

Change isn’t made by drastic action. It’s made by small differential choices that integrate into something big. The smallest choice you can make is to love, instead of to hate. To choose to live with integrity and meaning, instead of giving in to fear, apathy, or hatred.

I used to tell myself that struggle is the root of all being. This can sound depressing, but it isn’t meant to be – it’s simply that when you look at life, all life has fought for its existence and survival in some way, shape, or form. Have faith that there is is harmony and beauty in it all, and seek to find it, to live it, to be it.