Do you ever feel boggled by current events or the news of the day? Does it seem like things are more bizarre than ever? What does it take to maintain your optimism in this day and age?

Chances are good that you’re reading this on a little handheld electronic device. And that device is probably loaded with any number of apps, be they social media, news, or simply browsers.

So you are probably aware of a new term that has unfortunately entered our vernacular, and that is the phenomenon of “doomscrolling”. The algorithms know that fear and anger keep you glued to the screen, so they’re happy to provide you with a bottomless pit, all in service to the gods of advertising.

(Of course fans of the Fediverse enjoy a higher quality of discourse on the social web free of ads or algorithms, but moving the masses to Mastodon may take a while.)

But while doom and drama are gripping, nuance and positivity are all-too-easily drowned out. I bring this up today to highlight a couple of factors that seem to be lacking from the disaster-of-the-day news cycle.

We humans do a couple of things really well, otherwise, we wouldn’t be here today after untold millennia of evolution. We are hardwired to adapt, and we are brilliant at innovating.

Without those capabilities, we would’ve never made it through the ice age, and at that point our technology consisted of flint-napped spearheads and fresh meat over a fire. Forget the wheel, that came eons later.

As a collection of peoples responsible for the great works of culture, we’ve got an amazing collective body of work to be proud of.  As a species saddled with stewardship of a planet, we’ve still got some work to do.

The universe could throw us a curve ball at any moment, it’s not like the dinosaurs were expecting anything when a giant asteroid hit 66 million years ago and wiped them out.

In the meantime, our best approach is to roll with the punches, go with the flow, and keep striving to innovate in our own lives and upshift our collective consciousness, for the good of each other and the planet.

We won’t know what innovations or adaptations we humans are capable of until they appear in the future like a rabbit out of a hat. And who knows, you or your offspring may prove to be the magician! Until then, stay present, keep dancing, and contribute your best 😉

Much love till next Monday!

Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine