Staying Centered in an Election Year

Current events surely have the potential to throw us off our center, and presidential elections in the modern era often push our buttons like nothing else does. The presidential election this year in the United States is like none in our modern era in that regard. Not only are the candidates in the two major parties polarizing, but even the primary elections generated a lot of passion.

In such an election where we have a strong draw to a particular candidate or great angst about a candidate, how do we keep our center? How do we deal with anxieties about a candidate that we feel would be harmful to the country and its people?

It provides us an opportunity to look at where real power comes from. In the Science of Mind philosophy, we teach that there is only one power that we all have access to in infinite measure. It is the power and presence of the divine, and it is good in its essence. While we all can access this power, and while we have choice as to how we use this power – for good or for ill – ultimately its nature is good and the greatest power comes from aligning with power for the highest good.

Our call is ultimately to each personally use the one power for the highest good. In an election, we can look to what we can do individually and collectively to bring about the greatest good. Some examples include:

• Voting our conscience in terms of what choice we feel will bring about the greatest good.
• Educating ourselves and others on the candidates, their likely policies, and any other relevant information about the candidates.
• Engaging in other activities, such as campaigning, for the choice we feel is optimal given the range of choices.
• Inwardly hold the space for the highest outcome to occur through prayer and whatever ways we use to align ourselves with the highest.

Once we have done everything we feel we can do, then we are called to make peace with whatever the result is. We do not control results. If the electorate votes in a candidate we feel is not the best, we get to make peace that this is where we are collectively and to work from there to help in the evolution of our collective consciousness.

Just like in our individual lives, we might sometimes need to experience our darkness or shadow to come more fully into the light, so this is also true in a macro sense with all of us together. This may not be the path we consciously choose, but this is the way it goes sometimes. Fortunately, it seems we are coming to a place where our evolution keeps us moving closer to the light, but we need not resist or fear those times where we brought to experience the shadow.

We do what is ours to do, make peace with the results, and then do everything we can to work with the results to again do what is ours to do to evolve individually and collectively.

In this way, we don’t have to hold out any candidate themselves as evil, even as we might see that they represent our shadow or darker side. We move toward the light, but also embrace the shadow when it appears, knowing it is there to serve in greater healing and evolution.

The invitation this day is to come to center, act in the highest, and make peace with all possible outcomes. Remember, we are all one. There is nothing we see on the outer that doesn’t represent some part of us.

Enjoy the journey.

Gregory Toole offers spiritual coaching to individuals and groups who want to create and live extraordinary lives. For more information, go to gregorytoole.com.