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Have you ever had someone disagree with something you felt very strongly about?

How did you react to that? Did you decide you just can’t be friends any longer and block them, ghost them, or ridicule them? Or did you consider that maybe there were things about their point of view that were valid, and you were curious about why they felt the way they did?

In this world, we are so quick to judge, criticize, even hate someone simply because they don’t think the way we do, or believe the way we believe, or act the way we think everyone should act.

Wouldn’t it be nice if instead of jumping to conclusions about someone, we all took the time to listen, feel, understand, and connect? To see life from someone else’s perspective. To work together and find common ground.

Where did this extremely opinionated world come from? Why do so many feel like, “It’s my way, or the highway?” Were your parents like that? How about a teacher or a coworker?

What happens when we are led by people who think their opinion is the only opinion, and everyone else is wrong? What happens politically is Russia forcing themselves on Ukraine, Hitler on the Jews, and many other wars and takeovers that have happened, simply because someone said my way is the only way.

If you’re a parent and you command your children this way, your child becomes combative, uncooperative, aggressive, or the opposite and becomes a people pleaser. Your child will start feeling like everything they do is wrong; they second-guess themselves and grow up without confidence or self-worth, and the list goes on and on. When children feel undervalued, disrespected, and belittled, they grow up to hate themselves, not their parents.

When do we break those generational cycles of dysfunction and abuse and start saying, “This ends with me?”

If we, as humans, don’t start learning to listen to each other, start welcoming different points of views, and start taking personal responsibility for the way we act and react to any given situation and to each other, there will always be chaos and never peace.

Although we don’t have control over what may happen, we always have control over how we respond.

Chaos breeds chaos and creates more stress. Calm, in turn, breeds more calm.

This leads me to my decision to take personal responsibility and help others do the same. Not just talking the talk but taking action to make it happen for as many people as possible.

So, I created a day: The International Day of Calm, when on April 5th, humans around the world can make a change. When we don’t just encourage each other to be calm, but we also learn and practice from people who have agreed to teach us how. Free classes and live workshops, full of strategies and methods, that will destress the areas of your life that contribute to your personal chaos and prevent you from moving forward, so you can enjoy your day in a calm, happy, peaceful way.

That’s what this day is about: finding your own calm. It’s different for everyone. What areas of your life cause you stress? Is it your family, your career, your environment, your health? What is it?

We can’t possibly be a calm person if we are constantly stressing about things in our life that we need help with. Yes, we can tell you to be calm on April 5th, but even better, we can teach you.

Like the proverb says,

“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”

The idea for the International Day of Calm is based on this proverb: Don’t just tell people to be calm; teach them what they need to make it happen.

The time has come, the day is here, it’s our turn to speak up, show up, and be intentional about becoming a calm person and calming this world. Let’s make it the next pandemic; let’s spread calm like a virus. It starts with just one person: you.

On this day, April 5th, take the pledge to start listening, feeling, learning, connecting, and loving.

Martin Luther King Jr. spoke these wise words,

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

Be the light, and bring on the love. Pledge this day, share it with a friend, attend a free class or workshop. Let’s calm this world together. If not now, when? If not us, then who?

I believe that one day of calm can really change the world.

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