You Can Choose Compassion Over Panic And Still Create Change | Recover Your Soul

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Many of us are feeling it — the intensity, the fear, the sense that everything is changing all at once.

In this episode, I share a grounded, heart-centered reflection on how to stay connected to peace when the world feels unstable. Not by disconnecting or pretending things aren’t happening, but by learning how to witness the experience without losing yourself in it.

Through the Recover Your Soul lens, I talk about fear, control, collective energy, and what it means to live from your spiritual center in times of uncertainty.

You don’t have to be consumed by fear to care deeply.
You can choose compassion, presence, and peace and still be part of meaningful change.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, sensitive, or unsure how to stay grounded right now I hope this episode brings you some peace in remembering your soul's journey and spiritual strength.

Book Launch April 13th on Amazon - I can't wait to share the book with you!!! 

Join the Launch Events -Virtual April 14th and In-Person April 17th.

Join Rev Rachel for a weekend Retreat in Colorado of healing and transformation April 18th and 19th. 

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not allied or representative of any organizations or religions, but is based on the opinions and experience of Rev. Rachel Harrison or guests. The host claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein. Take what you need and leave the rest.

Transcript

Choosing Love Over Fear

Rev Rachel Harrison 1:16

Just turn on the news, listen to the radio, or open your social media, and you will see images and stories of very real, complicated, and difficult things happening in our world and in our country today. Mostly I'm speaking about our families and about what's immediately affecting us, but there are larger things affecting us. And I want to talk today in our episode around how the same principles of choosing love over fear, recognizing the power that you hold within you to come at every action step that you take from a space of spiritual strength that knows that you are connected to something even greater still. Gandhi was such a beautiful demonstration of how to make change while choosing nonviolence and love. We are in times that are like no other, where your holding your light, your resonance, your energy will impact in ways that we cannot understand or see today. And we have so much more strength than we give ourselves credit for. And I want us to come together as a community and remember that the light that you shine, the love that you share, the compassion that you have for all of humanity will elicit change. Enjoy the episode. Welcome to the Recover Your Soul Podcasting Community, a spiritual path to a happy and healthy life. My name is Reverend Rachel Harrison. I started Recover Your Soul after having profound changes in my life from my recovery of alcoholism, codependency, people pleasing, and control addiction. I was guided to share the tools and principles of spirituality and the recovery soul process to help others transform their lives as mine is transformed. For us to overcome external circumstances, we need to turn the attention to ourselves, focusing on our interchange and healing. Positive results in our lives will follow. Welcome to the Recover Your Soul Podcast. I'm Rev Rachel. I wanted to jump right in today and talk about what's happening in the world because my heart has been really heavy. I have been literally feeling the energy of so much that feels like it's really complicated right now. I really want to come at this from a recover your soul angle and lens. And to help you who are in this community, who are already on this journey with me, where we're talking about how to be okay when the people around us aren't okay. How can we actually step into our most pure, whole spiritual center when it is true that there is a lot of big energy, a lot of big situations happening around us that feel out of control? And so that's where we're gonna lean today. And as I'm recording this, it is January 30th, 2026, as was predicted by the um channels and by the astrologers that I listen to and I watch. We have started 2026 on a tear, on a tear is the word I'm trying to say, on a tear that is intense. Time is really starting to compress down into it. Almost feels like what used to be weeks now happens in days. I was feeling so heavy this past weekend on Sunday. I actually woke up. It almost felt like there was an elephant on my chest. And interestingly enough, I've been feeling the inability to breathe fully deeply into my lungs, which is a new feeling. And I thought, well, maybe it was because Rich was sick and I was fighting off something, but I don't think that's what it is. I actually think that it's a physical part of my body that is feeling this energy. So I woke up Sunday morning with this heaviness of everything that's happening in the world. And it brought in a dark cloud. And I know that you're feeling this in your own life too. It brought in this dark cloud. It was very interesting. It brought in a cloud around how much there is to do, how much it feels like we want to make change, or we want it to shift, or we want to step more into a spiritual light. And the energy that came to me was, who do you think you are that can do anything? It was very oppressive. And I woke up in this, in this mood, in this energy. Bodhi was in town this past weekend and Rich was there. And and they were both like, Are you okay? Like, what's going on with you? Are you all right? And I and I couldn't even verbalize what I was feeling. All I could verbalize was a part was some critic, some heaviness is on me, and I'm curious about it, and I just need some time to try to um process what's going on because when you're an empath, like most of us are, it can be very difficult to discern the difference between the collective energy and consciousness and the collective fear. Fear has very intense, intense energy around it and what is ours. And what happens actually is that when you are being affected by energy, whether it's somebody in your family or this country's energy or the global energy that we're feeling right now, it will bring up what it resonates with within you. So this not enoughness, this um uncontrollable, not in the way that we talk about letting go of control, but like the weakness powerless, the powerlessness that feels fearful versus the powerless that we talk about in recover your soul, which is around freedom and letting go, recognizing we're powerless over everything, can also bring up feelings of instability, not feeling like you have sovereign state over yourself, feeling like things are impermanent, feeling like there might be um the rug pulled out from under you. There's a lot going on right now in this energy. And what's very fascinating is um I listened to an astrologer named Pam Gregory on YouTube. I love her so much. And she has been really beautiful at talking about how literally what's happening in the world right now, in terms of the astrological energies, is like nothing that has ever existed before. I mean, literally the way that everything is shaking out has, you know, there's certain places where it's like, oh, this is what was happening when this revolution happened, or this is what happened when this war happened, and here we are coming back into it. But even bigger than that, that the that the way that it's all, the whole system is a unique and different place than it's ever been. And it has a lot of big energy around shifting and change. Well, none of us like change. None of us like change. There was some movie, I remember one of my favorite lines was her with, you know, big teary eyes saying, I I I don't like to change. And I've thought of that so often. I mean, I have this song that's like seasons come and force a change, but not me. I stay the same. That desire for us to have certainty is what is fueling what feels like two different sides. What I love about bringing spirituality in is that we can do the same thing that we've been working on and recover your soul within our families, which is to learn how to rise above just enough to be a witness in the experience and not to be completely consumed in the experience. I know a lot of people, people that I'm working with personally, of my friends, all you got to do is open up social media and there is fear and fear and fear and fear and fear. Fear perpetuates fear. When you move into a fear state, it is gonna bring up everything within you that is around uncertainty and that place of how do I control, right? This is where control comes in. Even if you know intellectually that you're powerless over everything outside of yourself, when you're in that fight or flight state, all the work that you've done can go by the wayside because you go to old habitual patterns of survival. And right now, I feel like a lot of people are in survival. Now, the thing about spirituality that I think is so interesting is that it's shifting away from being a yogi, living in a cave, just meditate, you know, have your awakening, have enlightenment, and pretend like the world doesn't exist. And you hear me talk about this all the time, which is there is an important element around us really tuning into our experience here now. All there is is this particular moment here now. And we have memory around everything that's happened, not only in our own life, but how we've taken in the memory of the history of what's happened prior to now. And we've made judgments and we've made um attachments to what those things are. And so much of what we attach to has a fear element to it, because we're trying to have self-preservation. We're trying to make sure that we're safe. I mean, ultimately, it is our most basic brain function, which is around self-preservation. And that's okay, right? Like you need to be able to know that if you need to run, you need to run. But we're often ready to run far before it's time to run. It's like we're in that hyper-activated state, and that hyper-activated state erodes your um your system, it erodes your your nervous system, it erodes your ability to be present in this moment. It brings you to your most fight or flight or freeze place, which brings us to our most elemental emotions, fear. Fear is really happening. Again, I don't want to get into politics because this isn't about saying that somebody's right or somebody's wrong. And it can be very, very, very difficult to really step into a spiritual place because it seems like you should be able to look at something or someone and say, this is happening and this is bad, and this is wrong. And it's okay to be hurt, it's okay to be scared, it's okay to be upset, it's okay to have a preference around something, it's okay and important to feel the feelings that you feel. But last week's episode was around blame and how we give our power away when it is tied. Our well-being is hooked and tied to other people, other uh institutions, our government, our our the entire way that the structure is of something that we are literally powerless over. And so that blame, that larger spectrum of blame, that larger judgment of what is the right way, what is the wrong way. I mean, we're all looking at each other right now and saying, how can you possibly think this? I could fall victim to that. I could fall into the place where I look at somebody and I say, How could you possibly think that this is the right thing? And then I use the just like me tool, which I think is one of the greatest tools. It's worked for me in so many ways. Just like me, they want to be safe. Just like me, they want to have the best for their families. Just like me, they're trying to understand what is the most safe, most true way of seeing and being. And it all filters through our own belief systems and judgments and protective mechanisms and criticisms and factors that are play out much bigger than just some, this is right, this is wrong. And what we're being invited to right now is to recognize that there's so much more than just this black or white. And even though it feels like, and we are experiencing very complicated and difficult situations, this is our history as human beings, this is what we do. And we have been doing this for a long, long, forever time. And if we look back in history, I was listening to something recently that said, you know, we're better than we were in the Middle Ages. Think of the way that the neighboring villages treated the other villages and the horrific, horrible, awful things that they did to each other. This isn't new, it's just different. And it all comes down to being fearful and wanting control and power and certainty because that's what our egos do. So right now I'm reading A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle as part of my local community called Soul Journey Collective that I do with one of my dearest friends, uh Reverend Crystal Jukowski. And on the first Saturday of every month, we've been having a group that gets together and does a sacred circle. And now we're expanding the sacred circle into spiritual book study after the sacred circle because part of the healing that we can do, part of what you do have control of, is to create communities, no matter how small. Jesus said where two or more are gathered, where two or more are gathered, where two or more are gathered. And the more that we come into a space where we're gathering people who want to speak more about love and peace, than want to have outrage and fear, that want to fight each other, the more people who are curious, the more people who are open, the more people who want to let go of being told by anyone what to think. And so the idea of this particular book study that we're doing is for the sacred circle, Chris Roll and I are teachers. And in the book study, no one is the teacher. We let go of all that doctrine of who's the teacher. So the book for this month is A New Earth by Eckhartoli. And if you haven't read this book, highly recommend so many great things in this book. And so you know that I'm an audio learner, so I listen to 99% of the materials that I take in. He's really talking about how, and I just thought it was so beautiful because I wanted to talk about this today, and it's basically what I was listening to this morning, and it applies again to attachment, attachment to our pain body, attachment to our ego self, attachment to our demanding and wanting to be right and to know what is happening. And the more that you are in your pain body, and I'm not going to have this episode be about pain bodies, but I probably should do one about pain bodies, because it's the vibration, the energy of fear, and it feeds on more fear. And so if you really think about what happened in our society at the beginning of the cable news, cable news is really where fear became out there in the public as a way to sell airtime. Doesn't matter which side that you get on, everything is selling fear to grab your attention because fear will grab your attention. It's the same thing in terms of our families. And if you have a family member who's constantly complaining, constantly talking about the terrible things that are happening, you will lean towards paying attention to that person much more than the person who's sitting in the other side of the room who is calm and quiet. They might be sending energy that is helping offset. Oftentimes, we get hooked into the fear cycle. And ultimately, what we're doing is we're staying out of this present moment. All we're doing is attaching to the past and trying to control and know what's in the future. So when recover your soul, what one of the main elements of this is spiritual path to a happy and healthy life. A spiritual path to a happy and healthy life. And the spirit part is one of the most essential pieces. Because if you're connected to a higher self, if you're connected to the truth of who you are, knowing that regardless of what's happening, and I and I mean this in regardless of what's happening, that your soul is eternal, your soul is pure, your soul is safe, your soul is in this body having this wild ride of an experience. It does not diminish the experience, it doesn't take away from the fact that there is physical pain, that there is physical hardship, that there is emotional pain and hardship. But when we switch those into challenge and we switch them into curiosity, which I'm always inviting you to just rise up enough to be a witness. This is what Eckhart Tolle is famous for, is helping us to be able to be a witness to our thoughts instead of being consumed with our thoughts. And yet your feelings are telling you something. Having compassion for people and wanting to make change is essential. That's how change happens. Gandhi is one of the beautiful examples of somebody who used peace and nonviolence and staying in his heart as he marched forth and created change. It isn't about sitting down, it's about not using rage and fear, not being consumed with rage and fear and upset and grievance and judgment. When you have clear boundaries, whether it's on a global scale or whether it's in your family, the greatest clear boundaries that you can have are around when this happens, when you do this, this is what I'm going to do. It's not an ultimatum, it's not a threat. It's standing in your strength and being able to make decisions for yourself, knowing that in the end you're powerless over what happens on the outside, but you're not powerless over how you choose it or how you show up on the inside. And some of the greatest people who've elicited change we just had Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, right? Some of those people elicited change were fiery. Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, another example of someone who was fiery in their desire to show up. But underneath, they weren't consumed with fear and hatred and resentment. Because it doesn't matter how much you're expending energy to make change. If underneath you too are in fear, you're actually vibrating at the same space that's creating more fear. When we're in a state like we are right now, you have so, I mean, we talk about taking our power back all the time. But what I want to share with you is that you have, as a soul that is connected to the collective. Tesla said everything is energy. Madame Curie said everything is energy. When you look at the science, they're saying everything's energy. When you look at the spiritual teachers, everything is energy. Frequency is energy. And the frequency in which you choose to be inhabited in your body and the way that you choose to take things in matters. And we're being invited in the Great Awakening to change our frequency. That's why they say there's so much discord and so much interrupt is because the frequencies are so vibrating against each other that it's all of this upset to upheaval. But as things are breaking apart, what if we see them as breaking apart to be able to make better change, that more people are awakened? Instead of this being asleep, it's so small, it's so safe. If we all just are good and quiet and small, we can live in our little houses and we can have our little families where nothing's ever wrong with us. That that is Safe. But that is not how it has worked for humanity the entire time. That's not what souls do on earth. But souls are in a place right now where we've been on this loop that has been very asleep. And so what they're talking about is they're talking about that many souls have come from different places to come and remind us, to remember our wholeness. This is a foundational piece of recover your soul. To remember your wholeness. And that means that you break out of the part of us that wants to be compliant and small and afraid and just live a little life. A peaceful life is not small. You can have a grand big life that includes includes wanting to be part of change, but has love at its foundation. Love is the only thing that's real. Everything else is the constructs in which we have created that are part of the contrast. There's yin and yang. There is light, there is dark. In the spiritual world, there is not judgment that one is right and one is wrong, and one is good, one is bad. You cannot have an awareness of the beauty of love unless you have had heartbreak. You can't understand what it means to be free if you haven't been a slave. And it is not that long that we have come out of slavery. And it is true that there are still people who are enslaved today in ways that are not what it looked like before, but look like they do now. So when we look at this larger picture, instead of feeling overwhelmed and consumed with like, it's too much, and how are we going to get through it? And just wanting everything to go back small, what if you wake up and you say, I want to be part of moving towards a new earth? I want to be part of moving towards a new way of being that chooses love over fear. And that means that even in those moments where you're watching things happen that feel big and feel overwhelming, and you see people having very real situations that are affecting them in ways that you know are painful and hard and hurtful. But we don't get caught up in the, oh no, this is terrible. We get caught up in being curious and we say, interesting. I want to be part of a belief system that sees that we are moving towards remembering that we are more alike than different, that we are more whole than we are broken, that there is nothing wrong with us. We have just forgotten the essential essence of who we are. For us to be one with spirit, for us to recognize that there is more than we can possibly understand, and our eyes are just being opened, just enough. And the power of your thought, the power of your belief, the choosing to not be overwhelmed, but the choosing of compassion for everyone, just like me. They want happiness. One of the greatest things that I'm grateful for is I quit watching the news years ago. It's probably been 10 years since I've really watched the new the national news that much. And then Rich and I used to watch the local news every night at 10 o'clock before we fell asleep, and we quit doing that too. Does that mean that I'm not apprised of what's happening? Absolutely not. I am very aware of what's happening. Do I know every single part of the gameplay? No, I don't. You know why? Because I don't need to, I don't want to. It isn't good for my soul, it isn't good for my spiritual growth. Before we had this technology where you knew everything instantly, right? We're watching for who has everybody in their family on their locations on their phone. We watch everything, we watch every movement that everyone makes. If someone doesn't text you back immediately, you're already starting to fall into fear. Why aren't they getting back to me? What's happening? We have become consumed with having immediate information. And back not that long ago, you lived in your house. And unless somebody came and physically gave you information, which was through their reporting of that information, or you received a letter, that by the time you receive the letter, it's already old information. When my mom went to India when I was eight years old, she sent a telegram. And I think she sent a couple postcards and a couple letters in the three months that she was gone. And when she really missed me and wanted us to know that she was okay, she sent a telegram that she had to pay by the word that said something along the lines of, I love you, I'm fine. Something very simple. So we were responsible for our own well-being within our own environments. And you might have had a household where people were miserable because that was the environment in which they created. But there were places where there was peace and joy and love and happiness, and they were creating a life for themselves that was the environment, the sovereign state in which they created for themselves. And if somebody came in and gives you a piece of bad news or gives you some information about somebody, maybe that would shake them up for a minute, but they would have an opportunity to decide, is this going to be how I'm going to be? Well, because of the way of our technology now, and because we have everything bombarding us all the time, if you are not being careful about how much information you are allowing into your space, it is almost impossible to stay regulated because we're being bombarded with all of the information and fear sells. On a larger spiritual super woo, and again, always take what you like from me and leave the rest. We have been controlled by fear as a way to keep us small for as long as we have been humans. But it's changing. This is the great awakening. This is the opportunity for us to actually begin to recognize reality is only what you think and feel that it is. Now, again, in some of the conversations, people get caught up in the illusion. And what is the illusion and what is the dream? And it isn't about trying to grasp it to have a like a for sure, because that's the place we get stuck. We want certainty. So in instead of demanding certainty, open, open, open, open, open, open, open. I think it makes me emotional because we've been clamping our heart down for so long. We've been living in fear for so long. We've been controlled by other people and their words and their actions for so long. But the soul's journey says that we can witness those experiences in a way where you are in the experience, but you are not the experience. Jesus said to be in the world, but not of the world. When you really start looking at spirituality, you see that the masters, the Bible, the all the teachings that we've been receiving for so long, if you look at it from a mystical place, the answers have been revealed to us over and over and over again. The kingdom of heaven is within you. You are one with your father. We are one with the energy. Shine your light. Shine your light. Healing is available to you if you will just accept it. So if we are actually going to step into this time, this great awakening moment. It's always interesting. My nose itches a lot when I feel like the energy is coming through really intensely in these sessions. If we will step into our most healed, whole spiritual being in this moment, every thought that we think that is surrounded around love and compassion for everyone, even those that we consider them. And we let go of the them. The Course of Miracles says when you see somebody harming, it's really a call for help. It's really them in fear. But we don't have to fall into the fear. We can actually step into this knowing that the thoughts that you think have power because they resonate. They are a vibration, they are part of the incredible shift that's happening where we are raising the vibration and the resonance of all of our energies. And that there is this part of us that is offering a movement to a timeline, to a new earth, to whatever you want to call it, that is about more compassion, more love. That's why this soul journey collective that we're doing locally, or when you just get together with a couple of friends and instead of commiserating and going on and on and on about what a how the world's going to hell in a handbasket, you acknowledge how you feel. And then when you do something, you do something out of love and compassion and not out of anger. I called my senators. That we may remember the wholeness that's within all of us, that we may align and attune to a compassionate state. And it isn't about bringing everybody on the bus. We don't have to convince anyone. You do not have to convince anyone of your beliefs. It's about you being sovereign in your environment so that when you are in every situation, you're bringing peace. You're the one on the side of the room who is holding space and allowing love to permeate through your every being, and in that it changes everything. They say that one person who is awake counterbalances the energy. There's different numbers, but anything from 60 to 100,000. Each of you that's holding energy not to change, not to control, not to make it be different. This year's theme is acceptance as a path to peace. And acceptance means that nothing is unacceptable. Nothing is unacceptable. But it doesn't mean that you don't have an action. It means that the action that you take is founded in love and compassion and not anger and aggression. Because that is the truth of who we are. And in that, we step back into the place where we connect with spirit. And we feel the safety and the trust of knowing, hey, this too shall pass. This is part of something greater than what I can understand. I am going to be present in myself in this moment in my body. I'm not going to be consumed with fear. And I am going to choose love and I'm going to radiate love. In Buddhism, there's a couple practices. One of them is meta practice. And it is the ability to open your heart to compassion. It's often called the loving kindness prayer. So I pulled it up so that I could get it just right. May all beings be happy. May all beings be free of pain and suffering. May all beings live with ease and well-being. And may all beings be free. The more that we hold this truth, this knowing within ourselves that this is the movement that we're making. And you look at history and you say, Well, there's a lot of things happening right now that feel like a repent, repeat, that feel like they're not that great, that feel like we haven't come that far. That's not true. Two steps forward, one step back, ten steps forward, three steps back, ten steps forward, ten steps back. Ultimately, we were moving in a direction. And what I often tell people in your own lives, what feels like two steps forward, one step back, is an opportunity to go deeper into the healing that needs to happen. And there's a lot happening energetically right now that is beyond what we can see here, and it is around removing and shifting patterns that have been for generations. And you get to make a decision that you will not be controlled by others' fear. It isn't easy, but is it a decision that you get to make? And it's an important and powerful part of your soul's journey here. And if you're listening to me and you've gotten this far in this video and it is resonating with you, you know in the depth of your being that you are remembering your wholeness. And as you remember your wholeness, you are helping others to remember theirs. I want to trust, and I do trust, and I do hold faith that 10 years from now, when we look back on what feels like very heavy times, we will remember that we were part of an elevated consciousness that helped move us that one step closer to change. And all of the astrology, all the spiritual teachers that I listened to, were talking about how this is a very powerful year. It's a year of the one, new beginnings, growth. It's the fire horse, it's this intense energy of moving forward. So take that into yourself, take your sovereign state. Do not let anyone else, regardless of what is out there, determine your well-being. But use that strength to take the actions that you feel are important for you to take, but let the foundation of them be compassion and love, because that's what creates and makes change that is the direction that you want to go. Feel your feelings. Don't dismiss what's happening within you because it's valid and important too. And only spend your time and energy listening to and watching things that align with the truth of who you are and the bringing in of love in a better world. Do not spend your time watching or listening to things that are perpetuating and selling fear. All of it's happening. You do not need to witness every single thing. Lastly, I just want to say that I've been watching these monks that originated in Texas who have been walking across the country. They're walking to Washington, D.C. for peace. And to witness, I encourage you to follow them on Instagram. They're these beautiful Buddhist monks. And everywhere they go, they're touching the hearts of people in areas and in parts of the country where maybe they never saw a Buddhist. Maybe they never saw a person in saffron robes before. For me, it's incredibly comforting because it's exactly what I grew up with. But the love and the heart that you see in the crowds of the people that are showing up and the energy in which it is happening, and the people who are sitting in meditations who have never put that into their lives, the energy and the love that's happening is real. And that is where we need to be putting our time and energy. Do more of that. Watch more of that. Embody more of that. Until next time, Namaste. Thank you so much for spending this time with me and being part of the RecoverYour Soul community. If today's episode spoke to you and you'd like to connect with the community even more, I invite you to join us on the first Monday of every month for the free online support group on Zoom. It's from 6 to 7 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, where I share a little bit more on the Recover Your Soul journey and then we break into small groups. You can register at recoveryoursoul.net, and if you've registered in the past, be on the lookout in your promotions folder for the reminder email and link. I'd also love to invite you to listen to the Recover Your Soul Bonus Podcast every Friday, either as an affiliate podcast subscriber or as a Patreon member. On Patreon, you can become a free member and have access to new episodes for the first week, or you can support this community with the tier that you choose. You can also follow me on social media, Instagram, Facebook, and join the private Facebook group for more connection with this amazing community. I hope you visit the website recoveryous.net and you can sign up for emails so that you can be up to date with everything that's going on and maybe even join me for a retreat someday. Lastly, I thank you for sharing this podcasting community with anyone that you think might enjoy or learn from it. I also thank you for giving me five stars on any platform that you listen to and writing a review so that others can find the Recover Your Soul community too. Until next time, Namaste.