Going High.

In her speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in support of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, former First Lady Michelle Obama famously said:

“When someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level. No, our motto is: ‘When they go low, we go high’.”

Going High is about being strategic. If your aim is to change, you’ve got to consider if your approach is going to allow change to happen. It means you are thinking of a broader point outside of your own anger, hurt or pain. This is passion matured into purpose. One has to mature one’s passion,

In The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times, Michelle sheds more light on the meaning of “going high”, She writes:

I first publicly uttered the words “When they go low, we go high” while speaking at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Hillary Clinton was running for president, as was Donald Trump. My job was to rally Democratic voters, reminding everyone to stay involved and do the work it would take to get their candidate elected, including voting on Election Day. As I often do, I talked about how the issues of the day mattered to me as a parent to my two daughters, how the choices Barack and I made were always guided by the principles we wanted our kids to recognize as valuable.

Going High is about taking an abstract and usually upsetting feeling and working to convert it into some sort of actionable plan, to move through the raw stuff and in the direction of a larger solution.

Truthfully, I had no idea that the phrase “we go high” would attach itself to me for years to come, becoming almost synonymous with my name. All I was doing, really, was sharing a simple motto that my family tried to live by, a convenient bit of shorthand Barack and I used to remind ourselves to hang on to our integrity when we saw others losing theirs. “Going high” was a way to describe a choice we were trying to make to always try harder and think more. It was a simplification of our ideals, a soup pot full of ingredients, everything we’d gleaned from our upbringings that had been simmered into us over time:

Tell the truth, do your best by others, keep perspective, stay tough. That’s been our recipe for getting by.

Going high is like drawing a line in the sand, a boundary we can make visible and then take a moment to consider. Which side of this do I want to be on? It’s a reminder to pause and be thoughtful, a call to respond with both your heart and your head. Going high is always a test, as I see it.

“We need to keep trying to go high. We must commit and recommit ourselves to the idea. Operating with integrity matters. It will matter forever. It is a tool.”

Going High in a world where we rarely listen or pay attention to each other can be very tough. There will always be people who do not vibe with your spirit; they make you doubt your greatness and expect you to dim your light. Doubters will always question, and the naysayers have the loudest opinions on your goals. The key to going high is always to remember who you are and not forget why you started in the first place. Don’t give your power away to anyone, as it is not worth it. I try to remember the following words from the Optimist Creed “To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.”

To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble

Meditations

Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt -Endings

Life gives us training to end unhealthy relationships. Our culture encourages the idea that friendships are lifelong and that we must endure rough patches. Relationships only have value if they last forever, and sometimes, a troubled relationship can be revived with attention and care. But other times, we need to honour their ending. Some relationships can become unhealthy for us. It doesn’t usually feel great to break up with someone, but the short-term discomfort of ending a relationship

may carry less anguish than allowing things to continue. As we navigate life, we want to respect other people, but foremost, we must honour ourselves and our pursuit of happiness and growth.