How Do I Be the Change?!
By user_dd
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A couple weeks ago, I was researching global warming…and became terrified and angry that it was way more urgent than I had imagined. I went through a dead feeling that day, looking around me and seeing how so many people are still stuck in the idea that they can disrespect nature without any repercussions.

Contempt arose for those who keep the people in ignorance, and for people like Donald Trump who still don’t believe global warming is even real, let alone a priority. Of course, it wasn’t just global warming I was thinking about. It was a lament for all of the ways we are blind and manipulated.

With the help of wise words and reflection, I came to a deep realization later that day, one which infiltrated my core and renewed me. This epiphany was that IT DOES NOT MATTER what happens, if we are aligned with our true nature and act from that alignment. Alignment itself is the real goal.

I used to be so inspired, and yet so frustrated, with Mohatma Gandhi’s axiom of “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” I wasn’t sure how to implement it. Not genuinely. Not in a way that felt right.

But something clicked this time. Synchronistically, I was also reading a book and taking a class that touched on how to contact our deeper nature and release our potential. All of the emotion, knowledge, and support I was receiving collided.

I began feeling my latent qualities and allowing them to organically emerge. The mythologist Joseph Campbell once said “A vitalized person vitalizes.” By living your vision, you energize and inspire others. I noticed the shifts around me as I found more and more alignment within myself.

The change you wish to see represents YOUR greater potential wanting to express itself. If you want to experience a compassionate world, there’s a part of you that is compassionate. It just yearns to be freed through you. And this is a never-ending process, an action recreated in each moment.

You can start to access this potential with a few steps:

RELAX

Get comfortable and get into a meditative state. Breath slowly and deeply, close your eyes, and let yourself melt.

FEEL

Get mindful of your body and the energy behind it. Try to feel the blood pumping through you, and the air moving in your lungs. Then imagine the essence of who you are–just as a feeling, subtle at first.

ENVISION

Keep the feeling in mind and heart. Now, ask your essence to reveal your ideal self. Focus on this as a strong intention. Then ease, and be open to what comes. Stay relaxed. See if you can naturally picture what this ideal self looks and acts like.

ENHANCE

Zero in on the feeling underneath any images or experiences that arise. This is the feeling of your ideal self and greater potential. As you inhale, let the feeling expand through you. Immerse yourself in it!

You can learn to experience this anywhere. Eventually, you can just jump straight to the feeling and not necessarily go through the whole series. It helps at first, though.

Try to focus on this feeling several times throughout the day, in short bursts. Then act on the inspiration that comes from this feeling (of course, be wise about your actions while also not tripping yourself up). You may start to see others becoming interested in your changes and seeking to do new things with their lives! We’re really more interconnected than it seems–a change in one place tends to elicit a change in another.

No politician or corporate leader can take away our power to co-create the society we want. Each of us is a building block. But regardless of what happens out there, the truly important work begins inside.
Good luck on your journeys!

Let us know

What do you feel describes the essence of who you are? What does your ideal society look like?