Buddhist thoughts.

I've recently started re-reading a book by the Dalai Llama - Ancient Wisdom, Modern World. I've always been really fascinated and indeed 'enlightened' by Buddhism as a belief system. I'm particularly enjoying the chapter on the 'Individual and Ethics' especially so, because it discusses negative emotions and how they can be harmful to us.
Indeed most of us, during times in our life experience negative emotion. In Tibetan, negativity and emotional events are known as 'nyong mong' meaning 'that which afflicts from within'; afflictive emotion.

"All those thoughts, emotions and mental events which reflect a negative state of mind, inevitably undermine our experience of inner peace.. All negative thoughts and emotions such as hatred, anger, pride, lust, greed, envy and so on - are considered to be afflictions in this sense....we may find that these afflictive emotions are so strong that, if we do nothing to counter them, they can lead us to a point of desperation...indeed negative thoughts and emotions are what obstruct our most basic aspiration - to be happy and avoid suffering."

In times of chaos and destruction it's sometimes worth thinking about this. In many ways, when I feel negative, angry or lash out at others or myself, I'm actually causing more damage and suffering to myself in the long run.
Therefore, although difficult at times, it can be refreshing to stop and think about ourselves and how precious and delicate we all are as people; we need to step back and remind ourselves that it's not easy living in these times of hatred, war, violence and oppression but we can help ourselves by not being too hard on ourselves or others. The inner source of all of us, will then have more clarity and peace of mind.
We also need to remember, that there is a lot of love out there in this world too, and indeed as humans, we all deserve to be nurtured like a flower and loved, if we're not nurtured, then the delicate flower will slowly wilt and die rather than blossom.