How to Handle Your Feelings About a Mass Shooting

Note: I originally wrote this post following the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. Tragically, that was not nearly the end of mass shootings in our country, so I have updated this post in 2018 with more resources.

You can use the spiritual tools here whenever you feel overwhelmed by grief and horror, whether because of a mass tragedy such as a school shooting or a more personal tragedy.

How can you possibly expect to handle the news that 26 people were shot in an elementary school and 20 of them were small children?

Managing our feelings in situations like this can be confusing and overwhelming. How do we find any power when we’re powerless? How do we go on with our day-to-day lives when such a tragedy is unfolding so close to home? How do we act normally without fear of going to the movies or the mall or dropping off our kids at school?

There is no right or wrong way to feel when it comes to tragedy. But there are tools that can greatly guide you through your emotions and help you find power in a powerless situation.

I’ve outlined three steps for you to begin practicing now. It’s important that our nation come together and open up to new ways of heightening our consciousness. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and deeply emotional about a mass shooting, begin using the tools in this video immediately.

3 ways to move through your feelings after a mass shooting

Honor your feelings and be conscious of them

The first thing I want to make sure of is that we don’t avoid our feelings in the wake of a tragedy. Because when we run, ignore what’s happened or push away our feelings, we aren’t allowing what has to come forward.

But then there’s the opposite end of the spectrum, where we can become extremely emotional and deeply depressed because there’s such a low-level energy around such a horrifying situation. We have to do our part to make sure that we don’t soak up that negativity, because when we do we just create more of it.

You may be on one side of the spectrum where you don’t want to deal, or you may be on the other side of the spectrum, where you’re taking on all the pain.

My Kundalini teacher, Gurmukh, teaches that we need to make sure we don’t make ourselves the victim in a situation like this. If we go to that place of becoming the victim in these types of situations, we begin to take on the negative energy and bring more negativity to the world. That doesn’t help the people around us or support the energy of the planet.

We need to recognize that this is a time to honor our experience and our feelings, but also to see it as an opportunity to bring more light to our own lives and to light up the lives of others.

Practice a healing Kundalini chant

The mantra for this chant is: Guru Guru, Wahe Guru, Guru Ram Das Guru.

You can follow along with Snatam Kaur’s chanting in the video below or listen to this version by Jai-Jagdeesh. (There’s also more music below in a Spotify playlist.)

Sit with your palms up and chant along with the music, even if the words feel strange to you. Let the vibration of those words take over. This mantra can help you shift your energy and your experience.

You can also practice this Kundalini chant with spiritual running buddies, sitting together in a circle with your palms up and your fingertips touching each other’s.

Remember that we need to be the lighthouse

The brighter we shine in our homes, the brighter we shine in our communities, the brighter we shine in our offices, the brighter we shine in the street, the more we can heal others with our brightness. The more we can bring positive energy, the more we can stop people in their tracks from their chaotic behavior. We can stop people from going into the darkness just by being that presence of light. You don’t have to do anything but heighten your own energetic vibration.

Take that very seriously. Maybe you dedicate the next month to sitting in this mantra and allowing the mantra to take over. Maybe you just practice being kinder to others. Practice loving your loved ones even more and loving yourself even more. We must rise to the occasion right now and balance out the negativity in the world. We must be the lighthouse for everyone around us. Let’s work together to raise the energy.

Music to meditate and pray to when moving through your feelings

You can meditate and pray to this music.

Raise your energy with EFT tapping

There are many EFT practices you can use to handle your feelings in the wake of a tragedy such as a mass shooting. Here’s one video from Brad Yates where you can tap for world peace…

Find support from a spiritual community

In the video above, I mention gathering with an online spiritual community. I have a beautiful community called the Miracle Membership where you can connect with other spiritual people in a private Facebook group.

You also get exclusive new content from me every month to support you on your spiritual path — guided meditations, podcast episodes with take-home lessons, inspiring archived talks and more. This is a really beautiful and supportive community, and if you’re looking for guidance on your spiritual path then I encourage you to check it out.