Watch this short but incredible video of a young man Karim trusting enough in the goodness of others to allow himself to be highly vulnerable on the streets of New York.
Then, scroll down and join me in an insightful exploration of why this video represents something that is so vitally important to our inner peace, and thus achieving world peace. I share some truly helpful tips below the video as well.
Please do your best to be aware of what you’re feeling inside your body and emotions as you watch this video.
In watching this video most people sense a wave of inner peace come over them. Many also first experience a release of emotions. There are some reasons why we might experience such things. Some are scientific, others are related to our inherent nature as human beings. We’ll be looking at the latter today.
We are innately designed to trust others and to connect with them in our hearts. In the early days of our evolution our tribe had to be trusted no matter what. We couldn’t survive on our own without them.
In that day and age “other” tribes were, however, seen to pose a possible threat. Therefore, the innate trust we were able to experience often only went as far as the members of our own tribe.
This lack of trust between tribes is still very much present in our world today, even though much of the world lives a modern civilized existence very much different than what our ancestral tribes experienced.
We have reached a point in our evolution as a species where it is imperative that we learn to extend our trust to the members of all tribes, nations, races, cultures and groups. Our survival as a race depends upon our success in this endeavor.
In order to do this we need to recognize and emphasize our commonalities while honoring our differences. The difference of the other must be seen as a learning opportunity and richness versus something that breeds fear and mistrust.
In the brief video above Karim clearly and simply demonstrates how a willingness to open one’s heart in trust to others, and to be vulnerable in order to take this step and be an example, can produce truly remarkable results.
We can all do the same, each in our own way, right within the flow of our daily lives. We need not stand on a busy street holding a sign blindfolded like Karim. All that we need do is to have the courage required to be open and vulnerable by trusting others.
We can do this with others that are different than us and whom we know little or nothing about, and we can also do it with the others that are in our lives on a quite regular basis.
With others we don’t know, we need to become aware of what thoughts and feelings we may automatically have arise about them that will tend to close our hearts in distrust causing an initial sense of division. This may be dramatic, or subtle. Never discount such things because they are subtle. Subtle expressions of this sort are like seeds that will grow into much larger plants.
For people that we know and who are in our lives regularly but that we may have difficulty fully trusting and connecting with, we need to become aware of the preconceived thoughts and feelings we have about them. They may have a pattern you’ve witnessed over time and for the sake of convenience you’ve adopted a pattern of your own that dictates how you interact with their pattern.
It’ vitally important to make a distinction here between patterns and persons. This is similar to making a distinction between an illness or condition and a person. They are not that illness or condition, they are simply dealing with it. Once you make this distinction you are then able to see, trust and connect with the person and help them step out of their pattern. This can, of course, only occur if you step out of your pattern first!
This is what Karim does in this brief but amazingly beautiful video. He steps out of his pattern in an authentic gesture acknowledging his deepest fears for all to see. He then extends his trust openly and invites others to join him if they will. It is beautiful and inspiring beyond words. Thank you Karim!
Were you inspired by this video?
What did you feel in your body and emotions as you watched it?
Do you see ways you can implement what Karim demonstrated and what I’m speaking about in your life to bring more peace and happiness into your world?
Please share in the comments below, we’d love to hear and learn from you!