 Take me through your eyes. Three, two, one. I belong, I belong to you. Hi guys, Raif Darazi here. Today I want to talk about what's been going on recent events in Afghanistan and just processing that as I'm sure a lot of people are. I'm sure a lot of people aren't. I'm sure it's, you know, for a lot of people it's just a headline and it's terrible and then we kind of continue on about our day. I'm not the kind of person who can just kind of look at headlines about things that are, you know, that in your face, that, you know, once in a generation, once in a lifetime occurrences and brush it off and just continue about my day. And I'm sure that part of that has to do with the fact that I expose myself to news on a daily basis, on a regular basis. I, when I'm driving I tend to listen to NPR and, you know, I'm hearing the personal accounts, the stories, the reports, the talking with politicians and things like that. So I'm always kind of have some feelers into current events for many reasons, but one of those reasons is that I can stay grounded in what is happening on this tiny little planet that we're living on, not just because it may affect me directly or affect our country directly in a very tangible way, but also just for my own psyche and my own perspective of the world so that I'm not, you know, lost in a bubble as it were, which is easy to do, especially here in the US, especially here in California, especially here in Los Angeles. So I was driving home from work today and I was listening to NPR and there was this Afghan woman who was recording herself over the past several days and just sharing intimately her emotions with what she was experiencing with the fall of all these different cities of not knowing what was gonna happen from moment to moment, not being able to sleep, not wanting to sleep for fear of missing something terrible or extreme happening and checking with friends and family and not just that immediate reality for her, but also the implications of what was happening of the Taliban retaking control of her entire way of life for the last 20 years as it had been built to be free in ways that she never had experienced before and I'm focusing on this woman because I feel like she is probably a very good example of how a lot of women, especially young women, are feeling in Afghanistan, having had this dream of being a free woman who can navigate her life freely as she sees fit in this country for 20 years, 20 years being as long as the US was there since its invasion in 2001, post September 11th and how suddenly, essentially overnight, all of that is disappearing, all those dreams, her way of life, the culture. Regardless of where you stand politically, how you think this was handled diplomatically, militarily, all of that stuff aside, the people who are affected by this the most, the people who have the least say in it are the Afghan people, the everyday people. That's who I immediately focus on and the humanity behind this crisis just really gut wrenched me as I was listening to this story and as I've been listening to the stories and watching news accounts and videos and reading stories and articles, et cetera. Ad nauseam, as anyone of us could do for 24 seven for I don't know how long, because there's will be so much that is out there that's put out there by media, by personal accounts, by social media. And so I asked myself, how does someone like me who is naturally fairly empathic not get completely bogged down and weighed down by this news coverage by all these accounts that are gonna be rolling in and then just feel this sense of despair for humanity and the cynicism, negativity, loss of hope, which oftentimes for someone like me ends up getting reflected on my own life and my own psyche and my own sense of wellbeing. And I find that in these times, I always come back to one thing and that one thing is gratitude. Gratitude is the most impactful way to change my perspective without diminishing or invalidating what's happening, right? So me being grateful for my life and the things that I have and the freedoms that I have and the privilege that I have doesn't invalidate, negate, diminish what is happening in Afghanistan into those people. I saw these images on the news of storefronts where there used to be women who were not fully covered as advertisements, as commercials, normal at that time, normal nowadays, and they were painted over because they knew that the Taliban were coming and that's just an omen for how life is changing and has changed. And it made me think of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. I've never read the novel. I have seen the show. I'm totally caught up on it. And I think that's probably, for most of us here in the US, the most accessible way for us to try to relate to what it might feel like, to live your life accustomed to certain freedoms and then to have those freedoms taken away violently and to be living in a literal hellscape, a nightmare land and to see other Western countries around you standing by not doing anything, not helping you and you just wondering why isn't anyone helping us? Why is anyone stopping these atrocities from happening? These countries that purport to support freedom are leaders in the world not doing anything and just how maddening that might feel and then to have to go to your about your daily life kind of living in this oppressed state when inside you're so used to a certain level of freedom. And I mean, that show for me is horrific. Just to try to even like fathom what that might be like is beyond anything I can or mentally will allow myself to feel. If you haven't seen the show, definitely watch it. It's a great show. It's powerful. But I think it's prescient and I think it relates to a lot of things that are going on in our world today and God forbid something like that doesn't ever happen here in the US. I think a lot of us take freedom for granted and we take the life that we live here in the US for granted and then, oh, it can't change. Oh, we're too powerful. Oh, but I think that that kind of tyranny oppression is always just a couple of knocks away and we always have to be cognizant of that. And I think that aids in our ability to be grateful for what we do have. And then on top of having all these rights taken away and your way of living, there's this insidious thing that happens in countries of oppression. It's called brain drain. It's been happening already in Afghanistan, but this takes it to a whole other level and brain drain is just a term for when the young, highly skilled, highly educated, more prosperous segments of society leave and flee to other countries where, you know, they can live happier lives. And what's left in the populace of these countries just makes any hope for future prosperity so much harder. It's an uphill battle at that point and it's hard to stop that cycle once it happens. Once people start fleeing for other countries, it has devastating effects. And the final note that I wanna touch on is the sheer number of people who, when the US was there, were working for the US, for the military, who were serving as interpreters, journalists, you know, putting their lives on the line, trusting that they were investing in their country's future or in a way out for themselves. And, you know, a lot of these people, their names are out there, their faces are out there. They and their families are in real danger. And the fact that so many of them have been left there to their own devices to try to figure out what the heck they're gonna do. And also they're not to mention their families. And I'm just like, I can't believe that we have just left them there. These people are in real danger for their lives. Not just the people that, you know, worked with the US forces, but then there are people who are on social media, who are activists, who are educators, who are politicians who don't align with the beliefs and the tenets of what the Taliban have set forth and are therefore also in danger. I just keep coming back to how do I stay grounded with all of this? How do I not turn into a finger pointing, shouting, angry, rhetoric spewing person or how do I not shut down, close off, become depressed, cynical, negative and just, you know, lose faith in humanity. And again and again and again, I'm just reminded to come back to gratitude, gratitude, gratitude, gratitude. Looking around in my office at work, all the women, at least in the office, working at my job, you know, going about living their lives, me going about living my life. I'm a gay man with HIV and I rarely seldomly worry about my physical safety. You know, being able to live where I wanna live, being able to do what I wanna do. Getting to create videos like this and share them online with you and create these communities where I don't have to fear for my life. I can't imagine that, you know. I have my gratitude journal and I've been struggling with mental health lately and I need to get back to this. So it's important in times like this, for those of you who are like me, to be able to take every on-front-facing value negative event that happens in life and to how do I turn that into a positive for me? How do I turn that into something that's gonna help me grow, evolve, become better? And so for me, oftentimes the answer to that is gratitude. If I'm grateful, I am happier, I'm centered, I'm more in the present and I'm able to do what I've been put here to do and it gives me that purpose too in that drive. Like why am I doing what I'm doing? Why is it important? It's so easy to get caught up into the routine and the rhythm of life and then get blinders on. You only see what's, you know, right in front of you. What's in your life and to create this, I overthink, so I create this like atmosphere and this world inside my head with my self-talk and oftentimes the reality objectively as other people often will see it is not what I'm experiencing in my head. So to be able to get out of that and like start fresh and kind of see things clearly and then reframe the narrative in my head. You know, like how do I talk to myself? What, how do I feel about myself? What are the things that I tell myself and say to myself constantly on a daily basis? What's that track inside my head saying is it helping me or is it hurting me? Gratitude helps me to have that grounding. My heart goes out to the Afghan people, those of you who live there, who used to live there, who have family or friends from there and for the rest of us, it's important to be aware of what's happening in the world. It's important to be informed and it's important to remember the humanity behind these stories and behind these headlines and to take a moment to allow ourselves to feel that, to feel that connection between other people around the world and not just some factoid that we read on paper or here in the news and then to be able to take that and then to do something productive with it, not just sweep it aside and continue on about our lives. That's my two cents on that. I wanted to share that maybe somewhere in the middle of all that rambling, there is something of use. Maybe you can relate to some of that, to experiencing some of that. I feel like a larger proportion of my followers, my viewers probably are a little bit more empathic than the general population as I am and that's why you resonate with my content and with me. Oh, I do want to say a thank you to Peppermint for this lovely LED light here, Praying Hands. It's kind of an inside joke because I'm always wearing this blue hat. I might have worn it in some of these videos with Praying Hands on it and I often will send Praying Hands emojis and I just like it if I vibe with it. It's the gratitude thing, right? So Peppermint kind of is like, what's going on with this Praying Hands thing? Why are you always Praying Hands? I don't get it. And I just kind of explained it to her a little bit and I told her that I wanted to get like a neon looking LED sign and she's like, I'll get it for you. And she sent it to me and I just got it. So I haven't put it up yet, but it's there. It's leaning and I love it. So thank you Peppermint and thank you for always supporting me in what I do and believing in me and the things that I'm passionate about and that means a lot. I realized that I forgot to do comment of the day lately. I'm gonna revisit that because I wanna start that again. So in the next video, I will end with a comment from one of you and I will react to it, talk about it on the video. In the meantime, please like this video if you liked it. Subscribe if you haven't already. Please share this channel with friends, family, loved ones who you feel might benefit from the content, might relate, might be empathic like us and I will see you next time.