You Are The Change

There are so many “problems” in the world. Where should we look in order to solve these “issues”? Issues here are anything from hunger and poverty, to treating our fellow humans with less than kindness. With this being said, where do we start?

Focusing on the external will always treat the symptoms. There is nothing outside of yourself that can change or fix the world. Our external world is simply a reflection of what is inside. As soon as there is something outside to fix, then that is fixing the effect. Society has been formed and molded into a habit of fixing effects. Placing a band-aid on the result, instead of stopping the problem either before, or close to when it starts.

Life is a series of causes and effects. Each of these causes and effects can be tied back to the self. Humans initiate all of their own actions. What is at the base of these actions? These actions arise from the internal world. Our internal dialogue and state of awareness are what dictate our actions. This stage is set by the history of our experiences. This however, is fatalistic viewpoint. Just because one experiences horrific events, does not condemn them to being a terrible person.

Humans have an amount of free will that can be exerted. This derives from the root of the self, known as consciousness. The greater the level of consciousness, the greater the awareness around the effects of the decisions one makes. By increasing this level of awareness, one can be more cognizant of how their choices will affect others.

We each have a sphere of influence. It may seem small. We must be aware of phenomena such as the butterfly effect. This is the case where one small and seemingly isolated event creates a chain reaction and sets off a series of widespread and significant events. To keep things simple we could claim our spheres of influence are small. They behave much like the surface of a pond when you throw a stone in. There is an initial splash with concentric rings that travel outward. These rings are known as ripples. They travel out affecting the waters shape as they go. This is much like how your behavior travels through the universe. Your decisions and actions become much like the ripples of the universe.

Your decisions and philosophies are known to affect your friends, your friends friends, and the friends of your friends friends. So already, a seemingly small decision or character trait effects three rings of people. You are constantly affecting people that you have never met! This is just as far out as science has been able to prove. It is unknown if it continues on further then this. If you decide to start putting yourself out there and meeting new people then these sets of rings start to spread.

Be cautious, as each interaction that you have with another person, you imprint a small part of yourself on them. You then get carried on by them. Every person you meet and have an interaction with, you become a little piece of that person and have an impact on their life. This process carries on until the day you die. The only thing that changes on this day is that the formation of new thoughts and interactions with you in them ceases. Every single interaction and impact that you have had on everyone lives on.

With this knowledge, it can be seen that it is extremely important to be cognizant of what you are doing and why you are doing it. Every single action and decision that you make has an impact. If you lose your temper, then that relationship could potentially be irreparably changed. Not to mention the relationship is broken and the ripple effect plays out. What if now that you lost your temper on a person, that person lost their temper on one of their subordinates? That subordinate now had a fight with a spouse. This is the ripple effect.

What is one to do in order to ensure their actions are kept in accordance with the way of the things? The first step is mindfulness. Be aware of your thoughts. Be aware of the mind chatter. Realize that this is not you. This is the ego. It is attached to the way it thinks things should be. Why should they be this way? What makes you think that? The ego also focuses on all of the negatives. Take some time to practice gratitude. There are endless things to be grateful for. Focus on those. The next step of mindfulness as a formalized meditation. This is very focused, single minded attention. This is the watching of the mind chatter as the observer. This make us more aware of our actions when we are not meditating.

Being more aware of our actions, the next thing to do is to act from a place of abundance. If you act from a place of lack, then that is what you will get. The most important thing is to give. Trust life. Give what it is that you need most. Realize that the ego is the basis of the fear. The ego can readily recognize what it is that it will lose. It is easy for the brain to quantify a loss, it is almost impossible for it to quantify what it will gain. There is also a mysterious way about the universe. It is known that if you give, you get back. You not only get back, but it comes back ten fold. You cannot look for it to come back on the same channel. Give out $5 and you cannot expect $20 to comeback. You cannot expect the universe to return the favor in a particular form. At the very least, when you give, you get a good feeling about yourself.

With this all being said, what is it that we need to do in order to change the world? We need to be the change that we want to see in the world. We need to each fight our own internal fight.

“Life is a fight for territory, and once you stop fighting for what you want, what you don’t want will automatically take over.” - Les Brown

We need to confront what it is that lurks in the shadows of our mind. This is uncomfortable. It is the toughest thing to do. It is also the most valiant thing to do. The shadows can seem like demons or dragons. Hiding from them does nothing aside from feed them. One must sit with them, not resist them, see them and shine light upon them. This will be uncomfortable. This will be tough. It is the most important thing for the human race to do. This will create many small spheres of influence that will have effects far beyond what we can imagine. This will become a chain reaction. This will become the cause and effect that shifts the mental space of the human race. Each one of us is a catalyst. We must all push in order to get toward a critical mass. In the end there is nothing else here that matters beside our fellow humans. Let’s act like they are the most important things around.