Most humans are fundamentally kind. Most humans want other humans to feel safe and happy. Most humans’ wants are ultimately pretty simple: to live in freedom and joy, to walk the Earth unarmored, and to love.

In 2025, global conflict intensified. An internet search will list the countries involved in conflict, and the numbers of victims. Yet the numbers quickly become noise, and the words are all too easily glossed over. The suffering of each individual is lost in the saturating fog of data; lost to the distraction of the next moment. And if we think of it at all, we continue on in the all-too-human comfort that at least it’s not happening to us. 

Every victim, whether in Sudan or your next-door neighbor, woke up, went about their morning with some semblance of a plan for the day, then experienced their own sometimes terrifying armageddon.

In previous articles, I’ve addressed how our attention is hijacked, how information is curated, and how no one seems to be sure about what’s true or untrue. Simultaneously, we are often all too certain that what we know is true, and the current hill upon which we are prepared to die. Our information tells us that we’re on the right side of history—whatever that may mean to you. We live in narrative-driven echo chambers, comfortable in a spoon-fed information café that doesn’t trigger our cognitive dissonance. 

The global tinderbox sits amid a sea of turbulent sparks that threatening to ignite, even while much of the population pleads with global leaders to put their firelighters away. At the street level, social hornets’ nests of innumerable “isms” continue to be poked, and populations teeter on the precipice of implosion as skewed information is spewed on social media, fueling misplaced, inflated self-righteousness. Ideological adversaries blindly duel in the cesspit between the gleaming glass towers of our societal puppet masters, who work to keep the people busy and distracted. The Romans’ sought to “divide and conquer” and “give them bread and circuses.” Pizza and Netflix, anyone?

Is this really the world in which we want to live?

Arguably, 2025 was not really so different from most other years of disillusionment and discontent, although it definitely had its own flavor. If history should remind us of anything, it’s that empires rise and fall. Ironically, the fall is often at their own unwitting hand. There’s an idiom: “Give them enough rope to hang themselves,” which has been the case for many an arrogant and complacent tyrant.

We’re not there yet though—wherever that is.

At both the macro and micro levels, many people—certainly those I’ve spoken with—feel as if they are inhabiting a liminal space: life feels somehow different than it used to, yet they have little idea where we may be headed.

This is hardly surprising. 

At the macro level, extraordinary and exciting things are taking place—which are not necessarily inherently good or bad. They are merely outside of what feels ordinary. We have all of the aforementioned unrest and suffering, coupled with incredibly interesting advances in areas such as understanding the human mind, brain-hacking, and functional foods. Grassroots ecologically aware life skills are becoming increasingly popular, with a convergence of people, standing together in the face of suffering, some sacrificing their own freedom for a greater good. 

Armchair experts flood our information channels with PhD-level ideas and hands-on researched mind-expansion. Exponential leaps in technology have the ability to wreak havoc on the environment, creative thinking, and privacy, while simultaneously saving lives and decoding hitherto impenetrable mysteries. 

On the micro level, the air hangs thick with the feeling of imminent change. Many of us feel—and are—on the brink of “something.” We are unsure what, but it feels like a new chapter. 

Again, we’re not there yet.

What do we do when we are privileged enough to feel liminal? Information from armchair experts can be as damaging as it is informative. Malleable minds and emotional vulnerability are often ripe for manipulation by hate-mongers as much as they are by new-age life coaches who haven’t done their own shadow work. But to have the luxury to consider the big questions, to muse on where life may be taking us next as we sip our tea, is a privilege indeed. Even when it feels stressful.

We breathe.

We tell our nervous system that we are safe with three slow deep breaths. Even when we don’t really feel safe, it’s a bio-hack that creates enough room for clarity to stand a chance.

Change is the nature of our experience. We are always riding the wave’s crest of now, to be where we are now. But that crest is only one wave amid the ocean’s relentless movement. This world we share feels smaller than ever, yet we’ve fractured it again because we’re told not to trust others; because others abuse the trust we’ve given them; because we have a somatic understanding that we’re being manipulated by institutions; because of that feeling of going over the highest point on the rollercoaster’s track.

We’re not quite there yet, but we know it’s coming.

As we ride the rollercoaster higher toward the tipping point, we will feel an adrenaline dump as the wind races into our face and the G-forces mount, and we scream in exhilaration or terror.

But we’re still not quite there yet—will we remember to breathe?

We’re in the bardo—the state between states. It’s an opportunity to strengthen the mind. This does not mean building walls. It means remaining mindful of adding “maybe” to all the “facts” that inundate our consciousness. It means having compassion without drowning. It means being open to the unfolding without panic.

It means tonglen practice. 

We breathe in the suffering and uncertainty, embody the crucible, and alchemize it. We breathe out love. We hold the pained in our arms, salve their wounds and embody kindness. Breathe in the noxious, foul-colored fumes of despair and dread, and breathe out the clean, pure colors of grace. 

Recall the bodhisattva vow to awaken for the benefit of all beings.

Psychologist William James said: “I will act as if what I do makes a difference.”

Be the boon.

Related features from BDG

The Only Thing Left Is Magic
“Probably Lesbians Will Get Enlightened First”
A Buddhist Response to Global Unrest

More from Silk Alchemy by Nachaya Campbell-Allen