Californians are buying up potassium iodide tablets. The Chinese are hoarding iodized salt. Russians are stocking up on dosimeters (instruments that measure how much ionizing radiation you've absorbed), seaweed, face masks and vodka. Europeans who were exposed to fallout from Chernobyl are suffering with double their normal level of anxiety. Facebook is filled with recipes for detoxing radiation.
It seems that the only thing that spreads further than radiation from a nuclear disaster is the panic it produces around the world.
As the Japanese fire fighters and military struggle valiantly to prevent a meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, and as hundreds of thousands of evacuees sit patiently in chilly shelters with minimal supplies of food and water, the rest of the world watches with baited breath the direction of the winds that blow the plume away from Japan. The Japanese people who are most at risk for any real problems from radiation seem remarkably calmer than those who are thousands of miles away.
Nuclear experts say the risk to China, Russia, Hawaii or the West Coast of the U.S. is minimal, and explain the amount of radiation that is necessary to cause any toxic health effects. But fear has displaced rational thought, and fear itself has consequences. Fear makes us vulnerable. Fear throws us off balance. Fear can make us take irrational risks. Most importantly, living in a state of fear can actually draw sickness to us, as the stress and anxiety wreak havoc with our immune system.
Are you feeling panicky about potential exposure to radiation? Are you checking the news multiple times a day to see if the wind is blowing in your direction? Are you thinking of rushing out to buy iodine pills?
Here are five tips for releasing the fear you're feeling before it escalates:
And listen to the wisdom of the Hopi elders in their message to us all: "In this time of change, we ask all the people of the world to return to a more balanced way of life ... a return to connecting our heart with the heart of the path to the future."
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Myself I find that if overwhelmed with a huge fear, it is a deep breathing that helps me. And then questioning myself and my attitude. While listening to the HayHouse radio, I’ve heard the authors reading heartbreaking stories of the simple people in Japan, who continued staying there in spite of the life threatening conditions. And how they managed to cope mentally? By living in the vibration, in the state of the total surrendering, of the gratitude, thankfulness for the most simple things they could notice: like the stars on the sky, silence in the city that suddenly slowed down the pace to a point of no-motion, mutual help and care for each other while sharing shelter, water and food... Their stories were impregnated by the warmest feeling of love imaginable, with respect and humility, they were full of...LIFE.
Tears rolled down my cheeks.
They were perceiving life intensely, vibrating and dancing magically on their fingertips, they could feel it pulsating, they reached to the rest of us thanking us for the support with the most kind words ever spoken...
And so I have sent them from my heart a little of my love, as little (or as much) as I could scratch from the surface after relativizing my problems, worries and fears...
http://www.incatrailtour.com/
i look forward to reading many more articles by you.
thanks for your response.
Jesus tap dancing Christ. From the time I was born until I was a senior in high school (1946-1963), thousands of nuclear weapons both fission and fusion were detonated in the atmosphere. Some of them were detonated in Nevada, only a couple of hundred miles from where I lived for a few years as a kid.
People are freaking out because they think they're at risk from a nuclear accident more than 4,000 miles away? Somebody needs to teach these people something about radiation.
Auldphart - repaired X-ray machines in the Air Force more than 40 years ago
Is the meltdown a disaster? Of course it is. However, this fear and trembling in the US really makes rational discussion of nuclear power almost impossible. This why we get very poor policies on all the environmental issues because the policy is based on visceral and gut reactions not based on good scientific information.
Good post, all in all. Fear when properly channelled, which it usually isn't, might motivate people to get angry and demand proper oversight, better assessment of risk/gain scenarios and a demand for accountability. None of which exists.
If you live in California be afraid of San Onofre and San Dimas both are near faults, have poor safety records and San Dimas has no earthquake plan as they are required by law. San Onofre is exposed to the Pacific Ocean with no breakwater or tsunami plan.
Paranoia is fear of non-existent danger. Don't kid yourself about the danger major metropolitan areas are in in regard to these power plants. To err is human. When a group of people err and they are the overseers of a potential public nightmare to err is a crime.