This week’s guidance from the Ascended Masters, Galactics, Earth Elementals, Faery Elders, Angels, and Archangels known as the Collective:

COR: My friends, I am wondering what is the best way to deal with the heaviness of life at the moment. 

Many feel that life in the US, for example, has sunk into various forms of chaos—hate groups have proliferated. 

Individual rights seem to be slipping away, as prisons are overflowing, with heavier sentences (and more arrests) for those of color. 

Schoolchildren are being subjected to police state behavior from administrators. 

Refugees are jailed for months, sent back to war-torn regions, or turned away at the border. 

Refugee children are jailed in detention centers without proper records kept on who and where their parents are. Human trafficking is at an all-time high.

How do we deal with all of this, and stay on keel—stay centered and at Peace, even at painful news reaches us? 

If we’re here to be joyful, how can we do that in the face of our own and others’ suffering?

Someone asked recently that I ask all of you, “How do we laugh more often? Take laughter classes? The idea of a funny movie doesn’t appeal, as they are often quite crude . . . Why do people like me resist forced laughing? Is that ego, perhaps?”

I feel these two seemingly separate questions are related. Can you address both, please?

THE COLLECTIVE: Greetings, friends! We are pleased to have this moment to speak with you today.

It is so that these two observations and areas of interest are powerfully related. 

In asking to understand how to process information that carries the frequency of darkness or shadow, you also silently ask how to maintain your original intent in coming to Earth in the face of any opposition—and that includes maintaining your decision to be joyful, including enjoying warmth, humor, and a positive outlook on life.

We would say, that though the one issue appears to cancel out the other, they do not. They very nearly rely upon one another.

That may sound strange and unlikely. 

Yet you and billions of others who have spent time on the Earth have designed it this way, though that process, along with all other aspects of Earth life, is quickly evolving.

When a higher Love is at the heart of all things, it is possible to “stay within one’s own energies” and to send Light to those who are suffering.

Keep in mind that you too have suffered as they are now, and that they have experienced the same or similar situations in other Earth lives.

None of this is new, yet much of it is orchestrated—chosen to be among their or your experiences, before you and they incarnated.

So that though it may seem appropriate to feel sad and to go into energetic alignment with those who are seemingly being victimized, out of compassion and a desire to end their suffering, it is a premature and mainly unnecessary reaction.

It is of course natural to be shocked or unhappy at news or social media images of someone suffering in war, or in refugee status, homelessness, hunger, or many other conditions found on this planet.

But we ask that you not remain in that initial moment of shock or sadness, for you send no Light to those experiencing these challenges while you align only with their burden and not with the power of their souls. 

In time, your sadness also lowers your own vibration.

It is far more efficacious to send a ray of Light and Love from your heart to theirs, and to inwardly remind them, “Your soul is more powerful than this. You shall prevail. You have before, and you will again. Even now, in this moment, I see the beauty and power of your Light.”

That thought—that energy-send, which is what thoughts are—is far more liberating, empowering, and freeing to those in painful situations than any number of thoughts of “How unjust!” or “Look how they’re suffering! I’ll sit down and cry with them.”

Although those thoughts and reactions are understandable, and come from a place of compassion, what is actually happening is that you are relating to the suffering, and taking it on as if it were your own.

You may feel it is already your own, and this is why you mourn for others—because their path reminds you of your own, either in this or some other life you’ve lived.

Let us leave that topic for a moment, and look at laughter.

We wish you to know (or rather, to remember) that every ounce of your energy is a powerful influencing presence in a very great sea of energy.

It is impossible that you have would have a thought or a feeling that did not beam out from you and influence thousands, even millions of other living beings. 

Yes, you are that powerful.

And so, when you laugh or cry, you send out the news to all around you—in a sense, the world at large—what Reality is, and how one ought to feel about it.

The thing about laughter (though there are darker variations of it, such as when someone is being mocked in a hurtful way) is that it is for the most part a declaration of sanity in the world.

As you see the irony, the foolishness, or the inane fun of what someone is doing or saying, whether on a screen, in a book, or in real life, you laugh not only because your mind is saying, “That’s illogical, in a really fun way!” 

You laugh because laughter is one of the greatest healing balms on the planet.

You have heard of people who have healed themselves of illnesses by watching Marx Brothers movies, or smiling at themselves in the mirror, which in a short time makes them laugh, as it begins to feel very foolish, rather quickly.

That smile is an affirmation of Love—that you are OK; that all beings are OK. 

And that all is well, and shall be most well, and that that experience, and not the supposedly “bottom line” nature of the news report or a difficult life circumstance, is the deeper Truth and reality.

We would say, that though some comedy films, shows or books are crude in their humor, not all are, and that one might make it one’s mission to set out looking for high quality humor in places known for such.

There is a book titled A Year in Provence, for example, in which the author, Peter Mayle chronicles his and his wife’s first year living in the Provence region of France. 

He details many adventures from that time of adjustment, made all the more humorous not simply for their outer content, but for the author’s views and descriptions, which are considered at many points to be utterly priceless.

There are also standup comedians who are known for light-hearted, “clean” humor, such as Jim Gaffigan and Ellen DeGeneres, who recently returned to standup.

Many people have animals at home or volunteer to work with them, because they love to laugh at the antics of cats, dogs, birds and other furry or feathered beings who have their own personality, preferences, and frolics that human beings find delightful.

Be aware that when you laugh joyfully, just as when you sing, dance, play music, connect with Nature or talk to children, asking about their day or their interests, you engage in heart-lightening and heart-healing activity that is one of the more positive moments you can engage in in life.

In those moments, the Light beaming out from you connects easily to all those whom you have sent Light to previously. 

It reminds them, in quiet yet certain ways (even if a bit unconsciously), that the Light shall prevail, and that they shall walk free again, as their path unfolds.

They are no more alone in life than you are. 

Knowing this and declaring it on their behalf is a far more strengthening and powerful helpful to them than a thousand tears shed over time for what appear to be hopeless situations.

Do not second guess another’s path—why they are on it, and what it means!

You would not want that judgment (or pity) for your own path, only that others send supportive Light to you. And that is what we would encourage you to do for others.

It is your job to find what makes you Joyful, and to do that! For this you came.

And yes, you are fully capable. Set your intent, and let it unfold.

Namaste, dear ones! You are never alone.