Understanding the Rising Trend of Mass Shootings
We’ve all noticed that in the last 20 to 25 years there have been a lot of shootings and attacks that seem to arise all of a sudden from nowhere.
Beginning with Dunblane in Scotland more than 20 years ago, these attacks have spread to many parts of the world, especially in the United States. Many classrooms were involved in these sudden attacks and we are always looking for the reasons and as a society we ask “Why is this happening?”
At first people thought this could be some kind of terrorist plot and now we see there’s a much bigger picture than just a terrorist plot. Who are the people who are doing these attacks and what could be the common element in all of these people? Is there a theme? Plus what could we do to ensure that it stops happening?
Practical Ways To Help Stop Mass Shootings
As we consider how to help stop mass shootings, there are several practical steps we can take as individuals and communities:
Foster inclusive communities: Create and support programs that promote social connection and reduce isolation, especially for young people.
Improve mental health resources: Advocate for better access to mental health services in schools and communities.
Enhance early intervention: Learn to recognize warning signs of potential violence and know how to report concerns appropriately.
Promote emotional intelligence: Encourage education programs that teach empathy, conflict resolution, and healthy emotional expression.
Strengthen family support systems: Develop community initiatives that support struggling families and provide resources for positive parenting.
Implement responsible gun safety measures: Support policies that ensure proper gun storage and safety education.
Cultivate a culture of compassion: Actively practice and teach forgiveness, understanding, and non-violent communication in our daily lives.
By incorporating these practical steps into our lives and communities, we can work together to create a safer, more connected society that addresses the root causes of mass shootings.
Why is This Shooting Happening Everywhere and What Can We Do About It
One thing we can do in all of this is to take Responsibility for everything that is happening in our world and get that we are all One and we are Not separate. The idea that it could be happening in some distant part of the world and that it won’t happen in my town or my school, is an erroneous fallacy because it has turned out Not to be a truth.
Fostering Awareness in Our Communities
We need to take our eyes off our computers, televisions and smart phones and start looking at everybody around us to assess the level of peace in each person in our vicinity, friends, family, loved ones. What can we do to be helpful and take a look at the larger picture of how we can end separation in our families, friends, loved ones, and create joining and interconnectedness. We have to look at what is right in front of our own eyes, specifically in our own lives, our own conflicts, our friends’ conflicts and Clear our emotional pain with each person we know and meet.
The picture of the war of the attacks at schools, concerts, cities has become too big a sociological challenge or psychological problem for us to just rely on formalized therapists or consultants.
Addressing Social Isolation and Rejection
We all need to look outwards, lift up our eyes and see who is alone, separate and possibly filled with rage because they see that others have separated from and rejected them. These people who feel alienated and rejected and who have difficulty making friends, feeling accepted and the ones who possibly have been bullied by others and have bullied other people in return can be a ‘danger point’ for all of us.
This danger point has to be recognized that it’s not their problem alone and they don’t have to find a way to fix it. They may not know it’s even possible to release their feelings of isolation and rage because they have had it all of their lives and they believe it is a part of themselves.
As a Life Coach and Counsellor for over forty years I see that most people confuse what is their ego personality and do not know they can Clear and Release the thinking ‘this is who I am’. Meaning, they believe these personality traits are their authentic self, however this is not the Truth. We need to become truly awake and observant and witness our own ego attack thoughts, negative thoughts of ourselves and others. These are the things we need to release, not live out or go asking for the collusion of others with the notion to confirm that ‘we are right’. The more we want collusion and receive collusion the more Stuck we can become.
Clearing Emotional Pain and Negative Thoughts
When two ego personalities collude on an ego thought and blame someone it makes it real and justified. Then we can’t separate ourselves from that person. So most people are in the process always of excluding someone or separating themselves from that person because they find them dangerous, instead of thinking “How could we be honest with this person and share without blaming what we feel and take responsibility for our own feelings?”
We want to be thinking more about what would be helpful instead of just getting rid of that person from our lives. Separating ourselves from people increases the isolation and sense of alone-ness within ourselves and the person we are separating from. This isolation and aloneness can lead to a deep rage and thoughts such as “Well I’m all alone and no-one cares about me and I’m not part of any group and family because I feel so separate, it doesn’t matter if I kill those people because I am all alone anyway. I am completely alienated from everyone, therefore who ever I shoot will not matter as no-one cares about me, why should I care about anyone!”
The Power of Compassion, Forgiveness, and Ancient Spiritual Practices
What can we do about this? For one thing, we can extend generous compassion to ourselves if we think we are guilty. Also, to others who may think they are guilty and energetically to the world at large. Using the Huna Healing system from Hawaii and, in particular, the Ho’oponopono prayer can be helpful in daily life. There are four parts to the prayer that can be repeated over: I’m Sorry, Please Forgive Me, Thank You, and I Love You.
The Huna Healing system is an ancient Hawaiian spiritual and healing practice that focuses on the balance of mind, body, and spirit. It is based on the idea that everything is interconnected and that healing comes through understanding these connections. Huna is not a single method but a holistic system that incorporates elements of energy work, meditation, prayer, and the release of negative emotions.
Key concepts include the cultivation of mana (life force energy) to enhance well-being, understanding the three selves (Ku, Lono, Kane) for balanced living, and the release of negative emotions to restore harmony. Huna also emphasizes a deep connection with nature, engaging with its elements, and practices such as chanting, breathing techniques, visualization, and meditation for spiritual alignment and emotional clearing. Huna Healing offers transformative tools for inner peace and well-being.
The hypothesis in this prayer is that if it is happening in my world and I take notice of it, it has something to do with me on some level and that I have attracted it. Even before our birth we may have absorbed from our mother and father’s lives their own unresolved trauma.
As a therapist and life purpose coach it has become important for me to recognize how much of a person’s pain and suffering they have unconsciously agreed to. In my work I see consistently that suffering can be cleared and that joy, aliveness, power and passion for their life uncovered and experienced.
Healing Childhood Trauma
One of the phenomena I have noticed over the years as a Therapist has been the extent of the emotional and sexual abuse of young children. From my therapeutic experience I see the process of releasing and forgiveness as a key to healing. It is my hypothesis that many of the teenagers in schools where shootouts occur were subjected to sexual and/or other abuse. For these teenagers it would lead to feelings of helplessness, of being attacked, put upon and now in the classroom they are reclaiming internal power, striking back at their perceived attackers. It is interesting that in many cases they are killing children, just as they were when they too were ‘attacked’.
There are many forms of therapy today to help these children who have been emotionally and sexually abused. Therapy that offers opportunity to let go of the suffering they have gone through and come back to their true authentic nature and release their aliveness.
Becoming Proactive: Moving Beyond Silence
It is up to all of us to become aware and awake to what we see that needs to be cleared or released that is negative inside of ourselves and others all around us. We can no longer afford to be silent and sleeping, playing video games on our phone. It is time for each of us to look at “How can we choose to wake up more in our lives right now and become more proactive?” And say to ourselves “I choose to wake up now before it’s too late”
I make up a story within myself that there must have been a doorman or someone in that Las Vegas Hotel or a person working there who must have noticed there were so many golf bags coming in from that man with the guns in his golf bags before the shooting occurred. There has been an idea going around in the world that we just need to mind our own business! In fact the opposite is true! We all need to wake up to the thought “We are all a part of the Totality”. This means whatever is happening in my world is part of my own business and if I notice it, maybe I’m noticing for some reason and from my intuition I can maybe contact a person who can do something about it?!
We each have to become more pro-active in our own world.
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