Helping Ourselves & Humanity in a World of Uncertainty
- Traci Moreno, PsyD
- Sep 18
- 5 min read
Let’s face it, regardless of our beliefs and circumstances, we are living in a world of uncertainty. Our natural human instinct, when faced with fear, is to try to influence or control our circumstances and the beliefs of others to align with ours.
Why do we do this?
It's an instinctual response from the ego. The ego's primary function is survival. When the ego feels threatened in any way our defense mechanisms are triggered in order to protect us. These days, there are less physical threats and more emotional threats. This could be judgment from others, differences in opinion, feeling offended or having opposing beliefs. When these core structures that make up our personality or identity are challenged, it can cause us physical and emotional distress. This can feel like being backed into a corner.
When you feel backed into a corner,
how do you react?
The ego must respond to this distress to relieve the discomfort and neutralize the threat. This distress can cause us to leave the situation, shut down or fight back. Common tactics for fighting back could be to become defensive, intimidating, threatening, controlling or manipulative. We see a lot of this on social media. Leaving and shutting down doesn't make news headlines but fighting back does.
Experiencing this fear-based, inappropriate behavior by being directly involved or even witnessing it, leaves us to believe that we are currently living in a world filled with hate and violence. It seems like most people fear for their safety now more than they did when dinosaurs roamed the planet. But the fear only creates more fear. The reality is most of us are good people with good hearts. Even the ones fighting believe they are fighting for what's right. The problem is, what's right for one, may not be right for another.
It can be a very helpless feeling to watch what's happening in this world... to desperately want change but feel powerless and hopeless to change it. But there is something we can do!
If we choose to hate one another or be scared of one another we are feeding into the fear and magnifying the negativity in the world. We cannot change hate with more hate. Only love can change hate. It's easy to show respect and compassion to someone who shows it to us but the true test of our character is to be able to show it to those that activate our ego and defense mechanisms and challenge us.
Now, of course, this can be easier said than done because when the ego is triggered we instinctually react instead of methodically responding. This change requires us to overcome the ego... to overcome those fear-based, negative thoughts in our mind... overcome the perception of ourselves. So I'd like to offer a different way of perceiving this.
When we fight back with anger and negativity, this is actually an indication of a weak ego and low emotional intelligence. This reaction means we allowed someone else to control us because we are reacting to them. The ego has a way of convincing us that there is power in this maladaptive reaction. Yet, in reality, we just gave our power away... willingly, voluntarily.
A strong ego is tolerant, steadfast and resilient. It will not falter when being challenged or threatened. This is where our true power lies. This is where we maintain control... real control, not the illusion of control that the ego will have us believe. Control is within ourselves, not in controlling anything outside of ourselves including other people and situations.
And don't get it twisted! This certainly doesn't mean we don't stick up for ourselves. When the ego is threatened and puts us on the defense or in attack mode, we can use it to our advantage. The ego always wants to feel strong, dominant so use reverse psychology with it. Remember the differences between a weak ego and a strong one. Remind yourself of these points:
It doesn't take strength to yell, curse, argue, intimidate or threaten others. This is weakness.
It is weakness to allow others to control our emotions and reactions and take us out of our character.
Reacting negatively and inappropriately indicates we are the ones who are threatened, intimidated and fearful and our reaction is actually a way of overcompensating for this.
What does it look like to speak up for ourselves with a strong sense of ego and high emotional intelligence?
Being appropriate and respectful
Being open minded
Listening for the purpose of understanding without judgment
Sharing ideas, thoughts, emotions, opinions and perceptions
For resources to understand more about the ego and emotional intelligence:
Online Course- Managing Intrusive Thoughts
(includes differentiating between the ego and our intuition)
Insight Timer App
YouTube
Online Course- Improving Emotional Intelligence
(includes a screening tool to assess your own EQ)
Insight Timer App
YouTube
It's All about Energy! ✨
We are all energetic beings.
Energy is the life force of all humans and animals. It powers the heart to beat, makes way for flowers to bloom, air to circulate, and the Earth to revolve around the sun. We all function together off of that same energy. This is often referred to as the Collective Consciousness, the Universal Consciousness or Oneness. It means we can only be as happy and as healthy as the most unhappy and unhealthy person on this planet. We are more united and more alike than most of us would like to acknowledge. This is because we literally share energy.
Hate and fear radiate low vibrational energy that emits that frequency to others causing them to feel and ultimately act negatively. Conversely, Love and Joy radiate high vibrational energy that can cause us to act positively, from the heart and with good intentions. Dr. David R. Hawkins suggested that one person vibrating at a high level of love, joy, or peace can “counterbalance” thousands of people in lower states like anger or fear. Very simply put:
Negativity breeds more negativity. Positivity breeds more positivity.
For information on research done on this topic please visit the HeartMath Institute:
This is the path to our Freedom!
One person can have a significant impact on the vibrational frequency of the planet which can ultimately influence our happiness and quality of life. When we look at others and judge them we are, in essence, judging ourselves. When we feel compassion towards others, even when we don't like or agree with them, we show compassion towards ourselves.
We must heal and grow individually in order for humanity to heal and grow. We have more control and responsibility for the state of the world than we think. And whether you want it or not or choose to accept... you have it! We must all take responsibility for our own emotions, thoughts, actions and vibrational energy. It does us no good to complain and judge one another. If you truly want change in this world, let it begin with you. This is not a new concept. This truth has been known since the early 1900s or possibly earlier.
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
-Mahatma Gandhi, recorded in 1913
"Fear will destroy us. Only love can save us."
-Dr. Traci Spriggs Moreno, PsyD, recorded in 2025
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