Recently,  I met someone who told me that the political turmoil of today is okay according to the angels. They say it’s just cleaning out the bad stuff. She also said that angels don’t work on our timeline, so we can’t predict what will happen. We should trust the angels. I found this fascinating from a Relational Neuroscience perspective, of course.

It was easy to recognize this was her way of making uncertainty feel tolerable by placing control and meaning outside of human systems. It removes the need to recognize cause and effect in real time. That can feel stabilizing in the moment because it replaces unpredictability with a fixed narrative.

But it also bypasses observable reality. Political turmoil has direct, material effects on people’s safety, access to resources, and exposure to harm. When those are framed as part of a distant or unknowable plan, it interrupts the process of accurately registering what is happening. That means it’s impossible to respond appropriately or effectively.

From a nervous system standpoint, regulation depends on pattern recognition that is grounded in what can be seen, tracked, and acted on. Predictability comes from being able to say: this is happening, this is who is affected, this is what increases or reduces risk. If that layer is replaced with “trust the angels” and “we can’t know the timeline,” then there is no stable feedback loop. There is no way to orient, prepare, or adjust behavior based on conditions.

The angel idea also shifts responsibility. If harm is reframed as “cleaning out the bad,” then the focus moves away from the people and systems producing that harm. That weakens collective response. It reduces pressure on institutions and actors who make decisions that affect others.

We can see the difference in how each viewpoint organizes behavior. One approach leads to observation, documentation, boundary setting, and coordinated action with others who see the same patterns. The other leads to waiting, deferring, and tolerating conditions without intervening.

I choose to stay anchored in what is observable and what changes outcomes. That keeps my orientation tied to reality rather than to a system that asks me to suspend it. This focus gives me options for choices that support human well-being instead of blinding me to them and leading me into complacency or helplessness.