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Getting Unstuck: From Fear to Love in a World Gone Sideways

Sometimes, we wake up to find the world changed overnight. At least, it feels that way. In reality, shifts like the ones we’ve been living through don’t happen in an instant—they build over years, quietly at first, until one day it’s undeniable. We find ourselves staring at headlines that make us feel like we’ve stepped into an alternate reality, and the shock is so great we don’t even know how to respond.

That’s where this episode of Language of the Soul began: with the feeling of paralysis. Dominick called it out plainly—this chaos is not accidental. It’s part of a strategy as old as authoritarianism itself: overwhelm the public so thoroughly that the shock itself prevents action. When the headlines are one absurdity after another, people shut down. That’s when it becomes easiest to normalize what should never be normalized.

I think most of us have felt that paralysis at some point over the past weeks. Whether you lean left, right, or somewhere in between, fear and exhaustion wear on you. And fear has a way of calling up every buried trauma, every memory of feeling unsafe. That’s where this conversation hit me the hardest.

Dominick shared openly about his own past—the unpredictability of growing up in an alcoholic home, the survival strategy of becoming invisible, the loss of material security later in life, and the deep resonance of feeling erased when the world itself seems to be saying you don’t matter. His honesty reminded me that when we feel unsafe now, it’s rarely just about politics. It’s personal, too. It’s old wounds meeting new realities.

So, what do we do with that? How do we move from paralysis to action?

The answer wasn’t in a five-step plan or some perfect solution. Instead, it came back to something deceptively simple: love. Not the soft, sentimental kind, but the grounded, clear-eyed kind that takes courage to choose when fear is screaming at us to hide. Marianne Williamson says a miracle is a shift from fear to love. Dominick added, “against all odds.”

That resonates. Because right now, choosing love is against all odds. It’s easy to vent on social media, to find ourselves doomscrolling late into the night, to believe the worst in each other. But what happens when we pause? When we step back from the chaos and ask: What can I do from love? Sometimes, that might mean marching or calling our representatives. Sometimes, it might mean simply caring for our mental health, or creating art, or finding humor as a way to cope.

Here’s the thing: what we focus on grows. If all we focus on is fear, that’s what takes root. If we focus on connection, compassion, and personal responsibility, those things grow too. It’s not about ignoring reality or sugarcoating what’s happening. It’s about choosing not to let fear be the only voice in the room.

For me, this episode was a reminder that getting unstuck doesn’t mean flipping a switch and suddenly being “fine.” It means taking one small step toward the light, one conscious choice to see through the eyes of love, even when it feels impossible. It means remembering that the micro reflects the macro: when we choose love in our individual lives, it ripples outward.

We ended the episode with a truth worth holding on to: fear may build walls, but love builds bridges. And right now, we need all the bridges we can get.

🎧 Listen to the full episode here: Language of the Soul Podcast

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