Is it just me… or does it feel like there’s SO much insanity happening in the world right now?!

Vegas… Puerto Rico… Mexico… North Korea… the list seems to never stop.

The moment we think things can’t get any worse – BAM!!! – breaking news tells us of the next catastrophe. The world can feel like a very scary place to live in these days.

So let me be extra clear about what I’m about to say:

THE WORLD IS SAFE… AND AWESOME… AND IT’S THE BEST TIME EVER TO BE ALIVE RIGHT NOW!!!

That isn’t positive-thinking, youthful optimism, or denial based naivety. Those grandiose statements come from hard data…

I recently found out that Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, and Barak Obama were all big fans of a historian named Yuval Noah Harari. So I decided to dive into his latest book, Homo Deus, and I learned some fascinating statistics.

Check it…

Did you know that more people die from SUICIDE than all war, crime, and terrorism combined?!!!

SUICIDE!

Did you know that SUGAR kills more people than all war, crime, and terrorism combined?!!!

WAAAAAAAAY MORE.

You don’t need to be Scared of ISIS. You need to be scared of ice-cream!

Do you know the biggest terrorist organization on the planet?

It’s not Al-Qaeda… It’s the mainstream media, constantly traumatizing us with stories about how dangerous the world is.

Listen… Fear is addictive. And news outlets know if they keep us scared, they’ll keep our attention. And the more attention they get, the more money they make.

Eyeballs = Dollars.

Yes. Tragedies happen. And yes, shit is fucked up. And yes, people are hurting.

And yes, there is more work for us to do to spread equality, prevent injustices, and respond effectively when bad stuff happens.

That said……… our living conditions are better than ever.

For the last 100,000+ years, human’s have battled the uncontrollable forces of famine (starvation), plague (disease), and war. In the last few decades, these issues have gone from incomprehensible and uncontrollable to now “manageable”.

In 2017, our crisis is an existential one. Our struggle is for our intellectual and emotional freedom. Our war is to take full ownership of our life and not blame anyone else.

You have so much power. And freedom. And opportunity.

And I just don’t wanna see you lose this amazing gift of life by falling into to a trance of fear intentionally created by soulless corporations.

Now to take back your life, you need to take back your awareness. And you can do that immediately by turning off the news. And unfollowing fear spreading social media accounts.

People will say “that’s a very uninformed way to live”. But not all information is worth knowing. And most people who consume news don’t take any constructive action as a result.

If you are going to follow the news (John Oliver is hilarious), then DO SOMETHING about the things you see and don’t like.

And on that note, I want to thank everyone who helped with our fundraiser for hurricane relief last month. You guys came up big and we donated nearly $1,200!!

That’s all from me today. Life is good – even when it feels crazy.

Big love from Brooklyn,
Jacob