Outrage content has kind of taken over the internet more and more in recent years. And I’d be willing to bet that a lot of times, you don’t even realized you’ve been baited by outrage content to have a reaction to what you’re viewing. Today we’re unpacking why it happens, what it all means, and some solutions to creating the change we want to see in the world.
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I have a whole page of notes over here that we're not going to use because I think this is important to share that before we hit record on any episode, we pray, whether it's a guest or it's a you and me. And by the way, I had an awesome guest lined up for Friday who canceled. And they're still going to come on.
We just had to reschedule. So that is why once again, we're coming out with a later in episode. Yes. And so another solo, but also later in the day. And you know what? It's just like summer kids are at home. You just do the best you can. And so here we are, but also we. And this morning I was like, I have the perfect topic.
This is what we're going to do. I had Neil read this article that I've kind of been like chewing on for the last several days and I had all these points written down of like, yeah, we need to talk about this. We need to talk about that. We need to correct the misconception on this. And, and I had a whole list of things that we were going to talk about, about an article that caused outrage for me.
And we, we sat down, we started praying, I started saying the prayer before we hit record for this episode, and immediately the spirit was like, don't do that episode, that is not the right episode. And I was like, dang it. I just spent all this time. Not only did I spend all this time preparing, but I asked you to prepare on the same topic too.
You read the whole article. I did. We had a whole outline. And then the spirit said, nope. above all else in literally every aspect of our life. We're not perfect at it, but we really try to let the spirit lead. And so here we are. With a new topic, which I actually think is more important and the topic is outrage content So if you've ever been scrolling Instagram reels sometimes I'll show you all these reels and a lot of times they're just funny like there are Creators out there who I like mad props to them that they have the patience for this But there are moms who are like today my two year old wanted to color with crayons So I decided to make homemade organic crayons first.
I started by Melting the wax outside in the Sun and then I shaved the wax into the homemade dye that I made from blueberries to make the color blue and then like there are these Article or not article. Sorry, there are These content creators who will make these pieces that are so outrageous, it's funny, but people also just get so lit up over the silliest things, and I'm like, do people know?
that the literally the whole point of this is outrage. Do they understand that? Or are they, and I think some are so blatantly outrageous that people, most people understand that it's, it's to be funny. That's the point. But sometimes there's just enough of like, okay, here's another example is I saw this the other day and I was like, that is genius.
There's a guy I met at the Amazon, um, creator event. Remember that Amazon thing that I went to down in San Diego? And his Amazon, his account name is something like Sal's finds. And I noticed this as I was watching some of his reels, he mispronounces things on purpose, and it is so funny. He'll say, like, he was talking about this thing, this tech gadget, for like either a computer or a tablet, and he was like, it's swivels.
And I'm trying to think of what else he has said, um, Like he said something like, Oh, he said something about like diesel instead of diesel. Like he says these words on purpose, the wrong way, like in a really extreme way so that people will get mad in the comments and it will create, I mean, I'm guessing that's why he does it, but it's just subtle enough that I had to watch several of them and be like, does he not know how to pronounce swivel or was that on purpose?
And then I looked at how he spelled it and he spelled it s w y. V, he, I think he like put a Z in there, S W Y Z V E L or something, where it was like he is for sure doing this. just to like bait people. But I think sometimes people don't even realize it and they get really mad. They get really heated. And that's what gets clicks.
That's what gets shares. That's the whole point is to outrage people and then cause them to share with their friends or to leave a comment. And then it just builds and builds and builds. And it actually also creates this like dopamine hit. And I think people also don't realize that either that when you're outraged about something, there's like.
An upswing in your dopamine. So dopamine doesn't just have to be like, eat some chocolate or do something that's pleasurable. It can also be like an uptick in, I don't know the science of it. Fight or flight response. Yes. Yeah. Make you want to fight? Yeah. Be outraged? Now that I've deeply explained outrage content on the internet, what are your initial thoughts now?
I think it's kind of, I remember in high, in, in college taking a few media, like news writing classes as I was a communication major. And I took the classes and, and took one of the classes was from somebody who was in, Like an active, actively in one of the media outlets in Utah. It was a great class, super interesting, but I did learn a lot about how media works and the whole thing was like, what's the hook, where's the story?
What's going to hook people? Like, that's how that was the thing. And I'm like, okay, like I get it, you know, but I think that's kind of like a lot of times the gold standard is like, how are we going to get the most out of Engagement from this, like, how can we do it? What emotions can we play off of? Like, what angle can we, can we come with that's going to invoke the most amount of outrage, response, engagement.
So I, I, I do get it. I think it just, I think there are a lot of times where it gets taken too far and it gets like abusive. And that's the part where I'm like, okay, I don't like, I don't like that. That's not. That's not cool. Yeah. I think that you and I used to fight about this because I was a broadcast journalism major and at first I would be like, no, the news isn't like that.
That's not the point of the news. It's not all, everybody's not all out to get us. It was, yeah. It's usually like, they're not out to get you, Neil. Come on. You know, and how I would react that way sometimes. But as time has gone on, I'm like, dang, it really has become that way where a lot of news, not all. But a lot of the news has become, how can we create outrage?
How can we spin this so that it will really entice people to react? Not necessarily to act, but to have a big reaction. And so here's another reason why this is top of mind for me is because last week when we turned on the Paris Olympics opening ceremony, there was an extremely controversial part of that opening ceremony where there were.
A group of individuals who acted out the Last Supper, we, I actually didn't even see it because we started to see some kind of like, I don't even know how you would describe it. Actually, I, I was making crepes for our kids, but you were like, Oh, I've got my, I mean, just to paint a picture, we're sitting in front of the TV with my kids.
I've got my, You know, a little 18 month old walking around. I've got my four year old watching. I've got my, you know, six year old watching and my nine and 11 or, you know, 12 year old watching, we're all watching and, you know, we've had conversations about, you know, different things about sexuality even, but with our older ones.
And, but even then I think it's like, we're still trying to, you know, create the right level of understanding and then all of a sudden we start seeing like, you know, kind of interactions between two, you know, two men or like, you know, two women or, you know, It's very like sexualized in nature. And lemme just say this too, because I can, I can already hear someone being like, oh, so you discriminate.
Listen, even, and we said this in the moment when you told me what happened, and I was like, oh. And I fast forwarded it, even if it was a heterosexual couple. Like we don't sit and watch sexual content with our younger kids either like, or with our Yeah, it would've been the same reaction. We try not to. You and me would've.
Yeah, we would've, but it would've been, it would've been the same either way. So. The point is we missed the whole Last Supper scene because we fast forwarded through that just going like, Oh, this is not appropriate content for little kids or even our bigger or even us, like, honestly, we, we fast forward through movie scenes all the time where we're like, Oh, it's a little more sexual than like you and I want to sit and watch.
So it just kind of had that feeling. We were like, Oh, and we fast forwarded it. And then after I heard that so many Christians were absolutely outraged over this. Let me just say right away that I don't disagree with being outraged over something that is Blasphemous toward the Savior Jesus Christ, like I completely understand the outrage there And I think there's a few different sides to this.
Okay, so number one I think that my initial reaction was like, Oh, this is so sad for all of these Olympians who have worked their butts off for four years, at least, or more since their last chance of being an Olympian, um, to now have people who were so excited to cheer them on to say, I'm banning the Olympics this year.
I'm not watching the Olympics because of something that the International Olympic Committee or the, uh, The France, you know, Parisian Olympic committee decided to do an opening ceremonies that has absolutely nothing to do with someone like Simone Biles. She had nothing. I guarantee you I'd bet my life on it that she had nothing to do with what happened in the opening ceremonies.
So personally for me, does it feel right to ban the Olympics? No, because, and, and I see people saying this about like Disney and Disney plus, like Ban Disney. Like, I'm, you know, I am against LGBTQ content, and I see that Disney is putting that out, so I'm banning Disney. And I'm like, okay, I, I can get with that.
I understand why, and I understand why you feel like that's the right thing for your family. Also, are you looking into the kind of content that's being created on Amazon Prime and on Netflix and on these other networks that you're watching? Because almost every one of them has probably content that you feel very much not aligned with.
So just maybe, you know, zoom out. I think that sometimes that like bandwagon outrage movement kind of thing gets people going and they feel like they're making a difference. And I'm. I just kind of disagree with, like, is that really going to make a difference? Like, and, in the way that you intend it to make a difference.
Another angle of this is, I thought this was very, very well said from Jillian Michaels. She said on, Ex, formerly Twitter, whatever you call it now, she said, Dear fellow gays, we demand tolerance and respect, but then make a mockery of something sacred for over 2 billion Christians. This type of hypocrisy and lack of understanding is a bad look.
We get outraged when the extreme right bashes us, but then we do this. What kind of reaction do you think they will have towards the LGBTQ plus community after this? This is not how we break down barriers. It's how you build them. And I appreciated that she said that because it is so common. I feel like for all groups, all angles to feel like outraged over something.
And yet she's like, guys, why are you creating outrage content to get something done? When like, You get so outraged over other people. It's, it's hypocrisy. And so I think that there's a lot to be learned from just the, the zooming out and seeing like, are we achieving what we want to achieve by creating outrage content or by trying to outrage others?
And so I loved what Jillian said because I. I very much agree with what she said, like, let's build bridges, not burn them. Let's create something where sure, like let's create inclusivity, but let's not do it by mocking others. How does that make sense? How are we really achieving things that we want to achieve by making fun of others?
And I, I have, I think we've talked about this on the podcast, but I have. always regretted it when I've created and I don't create very much of this, but I've had like a couple of moments in my 11 years of being an, you know, influencer or Instagram or whatever you want to call me, blogger, where I've observed something.
I thought it was funny. I made a mockery of it. And then I instantly regretted it. And that's happened a few times and trying to make amends for that. And. Come around with that has been easier in some instances than others and some more and it's never been with the intent to hurt other people's feelings, but absolutely with every one of those examples, um, one of them was when I was like making fun of neighbors who were super over the top with their Halloween.
Decor. Now, ironically, we own this, like, 20 foot skeleton, so who's laughing now? But at the time, we didn't have any, like, front porch Halloween decor, and so I made some funny Instagram post about it, and it really upset our neighbors. And then I had to ask them for their forgiveness. But at the time, when I made the funny joke about, like, sorry kids, this is your house, like, these are your decorations, and they were these, like, very pretty, neutral, um, fall decorations.
A bunch of people, like, backed me in, like, laughing at that and, you know, making comments and it got a ton of engagement at first until I realized that I had offended my neighbors literally three houses down. And then I had to like make amends, you know, reach out to them, try to smooth things over. And so it's a, it's a like quick and dirty way.
To get people on your side to create that like kind of hit of dopamine or whatever you want to call it, does it really in the end achieve what you want it to achieve? Yeah, it's like the short term gain that has negative long consequences a lot of times, you know, you think of just like throwing gas on something and I've totally I've absolutely done that before and and you know, I think it's it's It's so crazy now because we have phones where you can instantly do that and you can instantly share something and people instantly get it and you get an instant reaction and then that just creates this wave that goes through, you know, hundreds, thousands of people, millions of people, something goes viral, um, and a lot of times there can maybe be a lot of fallout from that, or you're totally demeaning or belittling somebody or, uh, somebody's faith or religion or sexual orientation or whatever.
And maybe, you know, maybe that's not what you were intending with it. Or, you know, maybe it was, and it's like, Hey, you know, let's take a look at this. Yeah. And last night at dinner, our five year old brought up to us like, mom, can two guys get married? And I was like, Oh, let's talk about this. And I was like, it depends on what state you live in.
Some states allow that stuff, some states don't. And then I was like, why did, you know, Why do you ask that question? Where does that come from? And so she talked about, you know, how she saw something like that on the TV and I was like, let's talk about it Let's talk about you know What you saw and what we believe and so we had a really great family discussion about how it is So deeply important in our family values to love all people to accept all people that Jesus would teach us to love everyone and that You know, I was like, you are probably going to meet other families that look different than, than our family.
And absolutely, if Jesus was sitting at our kitchen table tonight, he would tell you that the most important thing is to love all people. And you know, in our family, we have a mom and dad who love each other, who created this family, but not every family looks like this. And it's the most important thing for us to teach you is a, that Jesus loves all people That if you ever came, well, you actually, I think she had already gotten off and gotten up and walked away at this point, but at toward the end of that conversation, you were telling our older kids, the other most important thing for you to know is that if you ever came to us and said, like, this is who I am, it would not change how we feel about you or how we treat you at all.
And I looked at them in the eyes and said, do you believe me? Cause it's really important that you believe me. And they said, yeah. And so I hope that we can continue to have those conversations. But to me, like there's, I, and you and I talked about this after the, I think a lot of Christians get this wrong where they feel like the most important piece is to teach their kids right from wrong and whether you believe that like, you know, a gay union is right or wrong is up to you and your family, but I absolutely, without Any hesitation can tell you that if Jesus was there with you teaching your children, he would have part of that conversation.
If not like the central piece of that conversation, be something about, you need to love all people and you're not better than someone else because your family looks different than their family. And I think that the outrage of like, I can't believe that someone would show my kids, like I would not have chosen it that way.
For it to pop up in front of our five year old, I probably would have picked a different way, but At the same time, having an outrage piece, like be a negative way to teach our kids is not how we were going to deal with that. Yeah, no, and it's, it's such an interesting, I don't know, situation to be placed into and it was one that was like, man, I had We had to be kind of like quick on our feet because it just came up right then.
But that was the moment, like, that's the moment for, for us to have a teaching moment, have a conversation and be ready and really think about it. And so I do, I think of, you know, those scenarios and, and a lot of people that, that we know or friends or family of people in the LGBTQ community. And I like I've had in having conversations with some of, you know, these friends, I'm like, I just really get to just have, my heart goes out to them in so many different ways and just the challenges and things that they have to face and deal with.
And I, it, it, once you understand that for me, I'll just speak for me, like once I understood that on a deeper level to somebody that I know and love and really understand, I'm like, man, I, I get it. And then translating that to our kids. I'm like, I would never want my kids to feel like I'm not going to love or accept them.
But as, as far as what I believe in, um, religiously and in our belief system, um, you know, that's, that's clearly stated in, in a statement called the proclamation to a fam, the family proclamation on the family that our church came out with in 1995, where it just kind of lays out those basic, those basic doctrines.
And so, yeah, I do subscribe to that. Um, but in subscribing to that, we absolutely have love, kindness, compassion, and understanding for anyone who is making, you know, lives otherwise. And not just tolerance, not just like, Oh, yeah, like I kind of, I'll, I'll tolerate you. It's like, no, love. Right. Compassion.
Right. Right. And. I think that sometimes, I mean, as we talked about bringing up some of these topics, Neil is kind of like, Oh, like, I don't know. You got to say that like the perfect way or you're going to upset people. And I reminded him of this experience. I know I've shared this once on the podcast, but it was a couple of years ago.
So it's worth sharing again that I think about this all the time. I met this person at this podcasting conference a couple of years ago. I will just say this too, just to emphasize how big of a deal this moment was, I was 25 feet from Lance Bass, who is a member of NSYNC and I had the opportunity to shake his hand and meet him and take a picture with him.
However, Lance had spoken on a panel of podcasters and on that panel, there was a person who was a, uh, transgender individual and they had shared on stage. They said something like. You know what I sleep well at night knowing that I don't filter myself anymore, and I'm exactly who I am And that's really when my podcast started to take off was when I stopped filtering everything and being so afraid of saying something wrong And I just started to be exactly who I am and so I had to choose between like waiting to Give that person a compliment about how much their comments meant to me and how I was going to be committed to being exactly who I am.
Even more after hearing them speak or meeting Lance Bass. And I chose to forego meeting Lance Bass and taking a picture with him who like, since I like just laughing on side , like the 13-year-old girl in me died a little, when I watched him watch Lance Baths walk away. And I knew that I had. made the choice to give up that opportunity.
But I, it was so important for me to be able to shake the hand and look in the eyes of this person who said that quote about, I sleep well at night, knowing that I'm exactly who I am. It was just really important to me to make, to have an interaction with them and say, what you said to me made such a difference.
And I think about it all the time when we have conversations like this, where it's like, Oh, but we might upset somebody, but we might say something not perfectly right. And. You can't be so afraid the opposite of kind of that outrage content is to be like so afraid to take a stance or so Afraid to be who you are so afraid to have any standards are so afraid to believe in something that you just walk around in fear and you're filtered and you just are like a placating individual that just wants everybody else to accept you and the truth is You We're all going to say things wrong.
We're all going to disagree at one point or another on, you know, different things. But it's the way that we disagree, it's the way that we interact, it's the way we teach our children to understand the world around them and how we, we're going to believe different things. And in the political climate that we're currently in, in this country, it's more important than ever.
To teach our kids about love and kindness and acceptance and not just tolerance, but to truly love other human beings and to see them as equals instead of seeing. I think that that outrage fuels the, the pride of like, I am better than you. I know better than you. And so it felt important to me today to talk about all of these issues that keep kind of bringing us back to this topic of how do we deal with controversy.
How do we teach our kids about it? How do you and I have private conversations about it? Because it really, really matters how you take these issues and how you process them and how you choose to then either react, which is the point of media, social media, all of those things. All of it is spun to create a reaction.
or how you choose to act. And so to me, like the, the choice of either acting or reacting is really where the rubber meets the road. That really is where your character shows, like, are you going to just be reactive or are you going to take pause and then act? And you had some really good thoughts around that with, um, a book.
What book was it? Yeah. How to Win Friends and Influence People. Well, I mean, and he talks about some of the different ways, like avoid your first reaction Nine times out of 10, when it's a situation like that, when it's a, you know, outrage type piece that that initial anger reaction, or, or that's going to be kind of lead you not in the right.
Path it to, to just totally have an emotional response on something. And so I think for me, that's something that I've had to look at is okay. Avoid that initial reaction is like, don't take the bait on it. And funny enough, like with our personalities, cause I'm more of just like a, say it how it is pretty upfront.
And sometimes people have accused me of being overbearing kind of a personality between the two of us. I've, who do you think is more affected by like, Outrage reaction. I don't know. Are you looking at me? You're looking at me. Come on. Be honest. Yeah. No, I totally am. Well, you, cause you have to usually talk to me and I do, I do get, I do get like heated or have that reaction.
It works. It works. And that's why I say it. And. And so I think I have to step back and be like, okay. And then one thing I think that recovery has taught me is like, okay, is there any truth to what is being said? And a lot of times there is something true about it, or it's got some truth in there. And I really have to stretch to be like, let me look at their side of it and just try and learn and try and understand.
And even if I just flat out blatantly disagree with something, um, and, and a lot of times I can figure that out and maybe that changes something, maybe it doesn't, but I think that that's an important side of it. Um, and I don't necessarily have to agree with it. Um, so those are a couple of things that.
That I look at. What were those two, you, you shared with me though, two really good principles out of that book. The, he talks about, so avoid your first reaction, and then the only way to get the best of an argument is by avoiding it. The only way to win an argument is by avoiding it. Um, which I think so, because I think it's just, Sheer emotions and you, you know, that exchange doesn't really do anything for you.
And we talked about the example of, so I was a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints up in Canada. And you're just going to run into this. Like you run into people who know who you are, they know what you're trying to do. And give, give the context of exactly where you were in Canada.
Um, with the, um, Oh, yeah, well, there was one, there was a certain organization, religious organization that had a lot of similarities. They would, you know, were pretty, they would go out and knock doors and, and try and share their message. And they were pretty consistent with it. And it was like, this was the headquarters, like literally the headquarters.
So we have a headquarters in Salt Lake City. Imagine if you were, you know, I don't know, like, uh, some type of another faith that was different than our church trying to, like, talk to people in that region. Right, but also for context, that, that, the home base that you were transplanted into, those people are taught that, like, to contend is to, like, To contend the word or something is to like defend Jesus, like that, that's part of being a Christian.
A lot of them that would talk, it just didn't, that was kind of a general characteristic of several of the ones that would, that would confront us would, would have, it was like, no, Christ said, contend for the word, you know, and, and they would have kind of that attitude with us or the approach more, more or less.
Um, but I, I think what I learned to find, and I, and a lot of them, I saw a lot of missionaries go through this, that I worked with, like initially. You don't avoid that first reaction and you're like, all right, well, like, let's go, like, let me pull out my Bible and let me like, let's, let's share some scriptures back and forth.
And let me tell you, let me tell you how it is. Um, and what I found is that it, it never Had a positive outcome. It was either like you shared something and it just made them more mad, or they're like took it back to somebody else at their church or whatever. And then they came back later and then they, it just, it never led to anything good and I figured out, I'm like, this is just a trap.
Like, this is a trap to get me distracted from talking to somebody who would actually want to listen or want to make a change in their life, or that I would find it helpful to listen to the message that I have to share. And, and I'm not going to convince this person by just debating with them. I'm not going to debate them into believing in what I believe in.
Right. Um, so yeah. Well, we've, we talked about too, how do you get things done? Because I think that there's kind of a feeling sometimes of like, well, that's how you get things done is you get outraged and I can see where that has worked at times in history, but I think if you really, really peel back the layers, it's not from reactive outrage.
It's from like. And action taken in, uh, in a smart way, like, I think that the, the real lasting change happens not just from some like. emotional overhaul of a reaction. So here's an example from a couple of years ago. I had Sharon says so from Instagram on our podcast, and we talked just kind of about politics in general on how to get news from unbiased sources and things like that.
And after the interview was over and we stopped recording, I said, Hey, Sharon, I just have a question for you. And the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City had just come out. It was like a brand new season. And they were saying a lot of things that were completely untrue about our church or just spinning them in the wrong way, or just making us look really, really bad by taking like a sliver of truth and then highlighting it in a way that was so.
skewed and imbalanced. And I said, what do you suggest I do to try to like unravel some of that? And she said, instead of, and she was like, this is what I do instead of saying this is wrong. And here's why she was like, you just teach truth. You just present the facts. And I loved that because so for the next like year or so I would watch those episodes.
And instead of being like, Hey, they said this, that's not true. Here's the actual truth and being kind of contentious about it. I would watch it, take some mental notes, and then purposely try to bring up those same topics, but show in a positive way. Oh, actually, this is how we do things in our family. This is what we believe.
This is what it really looks like to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. And so I think that is one way that you really can get things done is to not lead in reactive outrage, but lead by example. But just show people like present the facts, tell the truth, show, actually, this is what it's like. I think that's one way.
I think another way is to, for us, look at Jesus and look at his example and see that as the Prince of Peace, or as someone who taught and preached and was a perfect example of peace, he didn't lead very often by anger. It was almost always, 98 percent of the time, he led with love and with Mercy and kindness and, and in a gentle way.
You know, he was gentle like a lamb and not like he didn't come in roaring like a lion to very many situations. And so I think that looking at that, it's kind of a lot of times too, if you look at an argument or a contention, a lot of times the person who says the least makes the biggest impact. And by being more, Emotionally regulated, I think in some of those highly emotional situations, you can actually make a way bigger impact.
I'm not, I'm not like great at this, but I observe other people who are and I aspire to be like that to be more emotionally regulated to be more. Soft spoken or to just take a pause and to think and act instead of react. Yeah. I think you have to step away sometimes like if it is like a really highly charged situation that's like overcharged, I think you do have to kind of give it a minute if you can and step away or not be to give you time to kind of like just mellow out those emotions and and get the rational brain thinking because I think Well, I think we do, we get, I think it works really well.
A lot of this content, it works. It does exactly what it's designed to do. And it's done in a subtle enough way to where it's not blatantly obvious. Sometimes it is, but I think the even More challenging ones are the ones that are more subtle in nature. Totally. To where it's like truths, truths, and then woven in there are some things that are like controversy, controversy, like, or opinion or whatever.
And it's very subtly intermixed and intermingled or even like cloaked with like friendliness or I remember going back to that mission example, we did meet with somebody who was super nice. He was like, Hey man, like, I just have a few questions about your church. Like, can you, can you just come over to my house?
I just, I just got a few questions, you know, and I'm like, all right, cool. Yeah. That's what we do all day. Sweet. And so, you know, we go over there, we sit down with them, start talking, and then like these subtle questions start coming to like, well, what about this? What about this? And then, you know, it's clear about 10 minutes into it.
And then, you know, they kind of go on a rant about. And, you know, all the, how we're, we're wrong and all this stuff. Um, and it's like, okay, I get what this is. And then, you know, we're looking on the behind him and his books and videos. And it's like all kind of like against our church, it's like how to, you know, come against the, the church and all this stuff.
So in that situation, I think. It took a minute to figure it out, but I think it, it really takes a discerning eye and like paying attention to the way that you feel about something and, and really understanding, like, okay, is this bringing, you know, I love the, the You know, in the Bible, it talks about like whatsoever things are virtuous or praiseworthy or good report.
And we have, you know, we're seeking, we seek after these things. Like, do I have those feelings when I read this article? Like, do I feel awesome or do I feel like, yeah, great. Or do I have more compassion or understanding or enlightenment or do I have the opposite? Do I feel angry and rage and like, I want to, you know, do bad things or whatever.
And, and I think that in and of itself is a telltale sign of what type of a article am I reading and what is the design of it. Yeah, I think speaking about solution, you know, and how can you make change? How can you get things done? I was thinking about this talk that the leader of our church gave called the power of spiritual momentum in April of 2022.
And I think this is very, very relevant right now, again, with all the political things going on in our world. He said, none of us can control nations or the actions of others, or even members of our own families, but we can control ourselves. My call today is to end conflicts that are raging in your heart, your home, and your life.
Bury any inclinations to hurt others, whether those inclinations be a temper, a sharp tongue, Or a resentment for someone who has hurt you. The savior commanded us to turn the other cheek, to love our enemies and to pray for those who despitefully use us. And when I think about that, what I love about that is.
It's my thing that I always feel drawn back to is teaching people about codependency and, and my personal mission of teaching about Coda Free, which is the freedom from codependency where it can feel out like an outrage to see things that you feel like are unjust in the world to see people acting in a way that you don't agree with or see things that you wish you could make different, but you actually can't control it.
The way to deal with that is, I don't know, I, in my opinion, just like our leader said here, is not to use harsh words or to act in like a really, you know, angry tone, but to respond with love and peace and compassion. And show by example what you want instead of what you being outraged by what you don't want.
I think that going back to Jillian Michaels, what she said about this was like, guys, let's, let's build bridges. Let's show, let's be a good example of what we want. Let's not like create things that are going to outrage other people. Let's not like, you know, use anger to try to create change. That's not what we want here.
And I think that even when we see injustice, like two wrongs don't make a right, you know, more anger doesn't begat like More peace like more anger is just going to create more anger, which is more contention Which is more of satan controlling all of us and so I think for me when I can zoom out and see something for exactly what it is and even when I Strongly disagree with it If I can try to turn myself toward peace and being a light and sharing that light with others, for me, that's where I've seen a lot more success.
And that's where I think you can get a lot more done.
📍 Thanks so much for listening to Mint Aero Messages. We're so grateful that you spent time with us today. Make sure you go follow us at Corinne Stokoe or at Mint Aero Messages on Instagram. And then if you have a second and you love the show, I would love it so much if you'd leave a rating or a review on Apple Podcasts.
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