Once upon a time, the story says, there once was a girl named Pandora.

On her wedding day, the mighty God Zeus gave her a beautiful box as a gift. The box came with a note, which said: “DO NOT OPEN.” Attached to the note was the key to the box.

“Why would Zeus give me the key to a box he did not want me to open?” wondered Pandora. All she could think about was the contents of the box. What wonderful, mysterious thing had Zeus given to her? Jewels? Gold? Wanting to know what was inside consumed Pandora.

Well, as you can guess, curiosity got the better of her and she opened the box. When she lifted the lid, out came every evil things in the world today – envy, sickness, hate, disease. Pandora tried to stop it – she slammed the lid shut, but it was too late.

Pandora began to weep. What had she done? Why did she open the box? She wished she could go back and undo her terrible mistake.

Then Pandora heard a voice, soft and quiet and gentle. It was begging Pandora to let it out.

Pandora opened the lid once more.

There was something small at the very bottom of the box that Pandora had not yet released – hope. Pandora let hope out, releasing it into the world. And, as the story says, everywhere the evil things went, hope went too. All that was touched by evil – so too was touched by hope.

And hope made all the difference in the world.

Ok, there is a moral for us in this story.

What I love about this piece of mythology is how beautifully it illustrates this concept: emotions are most powerful when they work in pairs. The moment when hope is released from the box always gives me chills – but I doubt the story would have had the same effect if hope was the only thing in the box. Introducing hope at the end of the story is made all the more powerful in contrast to envy, sickness, hate and disease – which Pandora had already released.

I hope that by now, you have heard this message: in order to inspire giving – we need to use emotions in our communications with others. Emotions are incredibly powerful. Emotions are one of the best tools we all have. If you aren’t triggering emotions and making your family, friends or even ur frenemies feel something, you might be in the wrong dimension.

We all made and still make mistakes. It’s just left to us to correct them. You can’t be perfect but you can be unique. Everything was put in place to ensure life had a spicy, sweet, oily and chunky taste like that jalee be from India, or the French fry or more or less, my favorite jollof rice and chicken 😋. It’s just communication, one way or the other. Some people create ruckuses for no reason. Just communicate, whether it’s your compassion 😌or the anger👹 you let out. Just make others feel something, make yourself feel something but positively😻.

True, we all have our good and bad sides but we just have to make others feel something in doing so. When I say something, I mean the positive. We all make mistakes, you must have being someone’s Pandora, by letting out that anger and anguish or even giving someone the love that overflows in their heart. Or maybe, someone was your Pandora, by doing the unforgivable but like you already know we are just human. They are just human so couple that unforgiving spirit with love, compassion and forgiveness. It’s a ripple effect – someone may just do the same for you.

The lesson from Pandora’s story is this: emotional triggers are even more powerful when they are contrasted and paired together. Like a good mixed drink, emotions are strongest when you combine different ones together. Tom Ahern* calls this the “emotional twins set” – when you put together two powerful emotional triggers: one negative: fear, anger, disgust – and one positive: hope, optimism, compassion.

Like the sadness you feel when seeing a child in need, and the hope you have when you realise you can make a difference (then – the happiness you feel for helping, and the sadness of knowing more children still need help).

So – are you contrasting the light and the dark? The good, and the bad? The love, or betrayal ? Joy, or dismay ? We need to use all the tools at our disposal to solve the problems of the world that were released from Pandora’s box.

Your Lil’ angel,

Kantierbee 😋❣️