When I think of this phrase I think it means to be an informed consumer.
- Am I buying products made by children in the slavery mills around the Globe?
- Am I consciously aware that what I do here in my country is negatively affecting the Amazon Rain Forest?
- Are the diamonds that I admire Blood Diamonds?
Right?
Big thoughts.
I think I can make my buying power MAKE a difference.
I CAN make my money talk!
What IF….
The phrase “THINK Global…Act Local” could be applied to Domestic Violence and Intimate Partner Violence and Child Abuse?
What would that look like?
It might look like this…
You are watching TV on a normal day or night and you see a story of a VERY FAMOUS NFL player like Adrian Peterson being charged with Child Endangerment for beating his 4 year old son with a switch. You may or may not be appalled… Let’s say you ARE appalled.
What can YOU do?
Well you can begin to look at your own behaviors towards your kids or other people’s kids.
You can open a conversation with your kids … if you dare… and ask them what it’s like living in your home.
- Do they feel emotionally safe?
- Are they worried about people flying off the handle?
- Are they afraid of anyone in particular?
YOU must be brave and courageous and really listen.
LISTEN with your ears and your HEART. (Especially your heart.)
You MUST promise them immunity from YOU flying off the handle if you hear something that hurts your feelings.
If I would have had parents who had asked this question to me and if I trusted them, I would have said something like this:
“Well you are always beating us and yelling at us. If we cry then you beat us more to “really give us something to cry about.” You tell me that I never do anything right. I am always scared of you.”
IF I had parents who were brave enough to go there, I may have had a slim chance of a happier childhood.
YOU have the POWER to give your children a bigger chance of happiness.
If you ACT LOCAL, while observing the pitiful GLOBAL state of violence against women and girls you will be making a difference.
Don’t know where to start? Start with YOURSELF, your own boundaries and awareness of shame and building your shame resilience.
START TODAY.
START NOW.
Here is something to get you started…www.liveabrighterlife.eventbrite.com
If I can do it, you can do it.
Now, let’s say you were NOT appalled at someone beating their child in that way, you can still do something.
You can begin to wonder about your own abuse and ask yourself if your parents could have been more compassionate.
If you say they did the best they could with what they had, you would be right. However, YOU can do better with all the new information that you have about child rearing. You can seek out informed guidance on how to be a better parent.
Why? Because you owe it to those kids you brought into the world.
So however you slice this Domestic Violence pie, you can Think Global and still Act Local.
Love and light,
Indrani