Changing the World

Without loving kindness for ourselves it is difficult, if not impossible to genuinely feel it for others.

Pema Chodron

If we’re waiting for someone to come along with all the answers and ‘fix’ everyone and everything in the world today, we will likely spend the rest of our lives wishing for things to change.

I believe we all have the power within us to contribute to making changes in the world, we’ve just been too busy looking on the outside for that power. We think if others would change their behavior (those people), or believe what we believe that the world would be a better place.

So…where do we start? What can we do?

What if we took responsibility for what we put out into the world?

That, my friends, starts with LOVE of ourselves. ‘How does that grab you?’, as my dad would say. I always hated when he said that because it was always about something I needed to hear but didn’t want to hear. We are critical of others and judge them because of the feelings we have toward ourselves. We project those feelings out onto others and our outer world then mirrors our inner world.

When we truly love ourselves, our lives reflect that. When we love ourselves, we can respond to others in a loving way. What we have inside ripples out into the world.

I know from experience that this self-love stuff is not easy, it is a process, a daily practice. We can start by talking to ourselves with the loving kindness that we give to our best friend or a toddler that needs comforting. Ask yourself this: ‘Would I let other people talk to me the way I talk to myself?’

Be inspired to notice what your inner voice says about you.

In the coming weeks, I’m going to be talking more about self-love and what we can do to uncover our self-worth, so we remember our value. When we remember our value, we will know that it is innate, and our thoughts created the illusion of being unworthy of love. And that we have the power to choose to believe in and be that love.

Remember that when we go against something we disapprove of, we are sending out the same energy of what we’re against. How about instead of engaging with others about what we’re against, we talk about what we are for? That brings the energy of connection instead of division. We can disagree AND be loving.

When we change the world changes.