As a nation we are once again witnesses to senseless mass murders.
The brutal slayings in Lafayette, the murder of the Marines in Chattanooga, the bombings at the Boston Marathon, the shootings in Aurora, Columbine, Sandy Hook, the terror attack of 9/11 are just a few of the horrific acts of violence inflicted by deranged minds driven by hatred, violence, mental illness and fanaticism.
Sadly, this is the world within which we reside.
These events may open up your own wounds caused by the loss of your loved ones. On some level you may feel connected to the families of the victims of these murders. If so, you very well may be experiencing “Mourning Sickness.”
Mourning Sickness is part of what is known as “Mass Grief.” This happens when thousands if not millions of people experience grief in reaction to the death of someone they do not personally know.
Throughout history the deaths of famous people always elicited a major response. For example, the assassination of Julius Caesar plunged the Roman World into grief, chaos and eventually civil war. The death of President Abraham Lincoln shocked the world as the last casualty of the U.S. Civil War.
In the modern era, the advent of television, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy brought Mass Grief to a whole new level. The entire world saw not only his death but made people everywhere feel somehow connected to it.
As our telecommunications technology has rapidly expanded, we are now privy to the pain and suffering of our fellow humans on an unprecedented scale.
We see the phenomenon of Mourning Sickness frequently with the deaths of celebrities like Whitney Houston or Robin Williams. These are people who have been part of our lives even though we didn’t personally know these individuals.
Mourning Sickness is a reaction to the pain and suffering of others whom you don’t know personally yet somehow feel akin to during this time of pain.
However, these feeling of grief are really driven home when the people slaughtered and suffering are everyday people like you and I. The victims in Lafayette were merely out for a night at the movies. It was supposed to be a fun time. Then terror struck!
It happened in a mainstream USA town—a place where people are supposed to feel safe.
Such brutality leaves us wondering why? It also causes us to struggle with our own feelings—and some of these feelings go beyond shock and sadness.
ANGER!
RAGE!
REVENGE!
These are natural impulses, yet committing acts out of anger and a sense of revenge leads to destructive and nonproductive behaviors.
My advice as an attorney and as a psychic medium that helps people cope with loss, is to let the professionals handle the situation. This means law enforcement and the criminal justice system. As much as we may want to take the law into our own hands, it is important to resist that impulse. We have the rule of law and a legal system for a reason. If we did not, would we be any better than the savages who committed these atrocities?
Mourning Sickness is also a double edged sword. On one hand,it brings so much pain to us, and on the other it shows how the vast majority of people actually do care about their fellow humans.
We are all the children of God and to feel empathy for our fellow brothers and sisters of all races, creeds, ethnicity and backgrounds is truly compassionate—it is also healing. It forces us to confront our own feelings of grief and to work through them.
While anger and rage are normal, we must not let them dominate our thoughts and become our actions. Instead, our focus should be on taking the emotional high road and extend compassion, sympathy and love for the families of the victims.
What can we do in the wake of Mass Grief and Mourning Sickness?
- Provide assistance. Give to those who’ve been directly affected. Only do this through legitimate charities which have been set up to collect contributions for the victims.
- Prayer and solidarity. These show the victims’ families that they are not alone in coping with their loss. Losing a loved one is terribly painful and going through the grieving process alone compounds the pain and sadness. This does not mean intruding upon the privacy of the bereaved—but showing them that you care.
- Practice compassion. It is easy to always look for someone to blame instead of accepting the reality that something terrible has happened. Blame leads to anger and hatred.
- Allow yourself time to grieve. This is especially difficult for men. In times of grief one can be overwhelmed by shock and disbelief (Lafayette, Chattanooga and Sandy Hook is evidence of that).
- Have a good cry! Recent medical studies have found that tears of grief actually contain stress hormones and other toxins which cause grief. Crying not only purges these chemicals from your body it also stimulates production of endorphins which are the “feel good” hormones in our body. Crying doesn’t make one weak, it can actually strengthen you emotionally and physically. So, if you feel the urge to shed tears of grief for a deceased loved one–do it! It will make you feel better.
- Above all do not suppress your feelings. When we suppress our feelings, we slow the recovery process. It is okay to express your feelings and it is okay to cry. As I describe in detail in Evidence of Eternity, “Grief leads to crime which leads to grief.”
Forgiveness is the most difficult of all virtues. It may seem impossible to forgive those who have inflicted so much death, destruction and pain upon the innocent. Forgiving someone does not mean that person should not be held responsible for what he or she has done.
Rather forgiveness is a means of alleviating the burden of anger, bitterness and resentment you carry within yourself. Forgiveness may be a life time journey and I’ve found that if you cannot forgive someone, then ask God to forgive that person. It is a positive first step.
Please keep the victims and their families in your thoughts and prayers. God understands our prayers even when we can’t find the words to say them. www.EvidenceOfEternity.com
Just as the soft rains fill the streams, pour into the rivers, and join together in the oceans, so may the power of every moment of your goodness flow forth to awaken and heal all beings — those here now, those gone before, those yet to come. — A Buddhist Prayer for Healing
Mark Anthony the Psychic Lawyer ®